By Jennifer Marie Lin on Nov 5th, 2021 (Last Updated Nov 5th, 2021)
With a bunch of great historical fiction books in store for 2022, I thought it was time to do a roundup of the best of these titles. For me, I know I’ll be reading the new Kate Quinn novel, The Diamond Eye. Also, The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont and Woman on Fire (about Nazi-looted art) by Lisa Barr sounds really intriguing as well.
This is a list of the Best (New & Anticipated) Historical Fiction Books for 2022. The list has been compiled based on stuff I’ve read, other reviews, early buzz, etc., so I’ll be updating it as more titles are announced or released and more reviews are published!
Want more historical fiction? See the list of Best Historical Fiction for 2021.
The Diamond Eye
Kate QuinnWhat It’s About: In the snowbound city of Kiev, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son—but Hitler’s invasion of Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper—a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death…Publication Date: March 29, 2022
4.73 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 2022 releases giveaways
Her Hidden Genius
Marie BenedictWhat It’s About: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and The Only Woman in the Room.
Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider―brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments…
Publication Date: January 25, 2022
3.88 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 2022 releases historical
Violeta
Isabel AllendeWhat It’s About: This sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.
Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons…
Publication Date: January 25, 2022
4.24 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 releases 2022 giveaways
The House of Fortune (The Miniaturist #2)
Jessie BurtonWhat It’s About: The House of Fortune is the sequel to Jessie Burton’s million copy bestselling The Miniaturist. Set in the golden city of Amsterdam in 1705, it is a story of fate and ambition, secrets and dreams, and one young woman’s determination to rule her own destiny.
Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms…
Publication Date: Not Available
4.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
to buy wish list 2022 releases Woman on Fire
Lisa BarrWhat It’s About: From the author of the award-winning Fugitive Colors and The Unbreakables, a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece–forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth…Publication Date: March 1, 2022
5.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
giveaways books i own coming soon
The Christie Affair
Nina de GramontWhat It’s About: A stunning new novel that reimagines the unexplained 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie that captivated the world.
“A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. First comes rage, larger than any you’ve ever imagined. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche…
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
4.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
mystery 2022 releases giveaways
Yonder
Jabari AsimWhat It’s About: The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century.
They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors’ tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals all their own…
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
4.40 out of 5 on Goodreads
giveaways giveaway 2022 releases
The Hacienda
Isabel CañasWhat It’s About: Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches…
In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed…
Publication Date: May 10, 2022
4.73 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 releases 2022 historical fiction
A School for German Brides
Aimie K. RunyanWhat It’s About: In this intriguing historical novel, a young woman who is sent to a horrific “bride school” to be molded into the perfect Nazi wife finds her life forever intertwined with a young Jewish woman about to give birth.
Germany, 1939
As the war begins, Hanna Rombauer, a young German woman, is sent to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother’s death…
Publication Date: April 26, 2022
5.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 2022 releases ww2
Beautiful Little Fools
Jillian CantorWhat It’s About: USA Today bestselling author Jillian Cantor reimagines and expands on the literary classic The Great Gatsby in this atmospheric historical novel with echoes of Big Little Lies, told in three women’s alternating voices.
On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool…
Publication Date: January 4, 2022
4.40 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 releases historical giveaways
Black Cake
Charmaine WilkersonWhat It’s About: In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother’s death and her hidden past–a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake.
“At turns delightfully juicy and then stunningly wise, Black Cake is a winner…
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
4.43 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 releases arc historical fiction
The Magnolia Palace
Fiona DavisWhat It’s About: Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue, returns with a tantalizing novel about the secrets, betrayal, and murder within one of New York City’s most impressive Gilded Age mansions.
Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter’s life has completely fallen apart…
Publication Date: January 25, 2022
4.42 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 2022 releases historical The Next Ship Home: A Novel of Ellis Island
Heather WebbWhat It’s About: Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: “Give me your tired, your poor…”
Ellis Island, 1902. Francesca arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life than the one she left in Italy. That same day, aspiring linguist Alma reports to her first day of work at the immigrant processing center…
Publication Date: February 8, 2022
4.39 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 2022 releases own it
The Good Left Undone
Adriana TrigianiWhat It’s About: From Adriana Trigiani, “a master of visual and palpable detail” (The Washington Post), comes a lush, immersive novel about a hardworking family of Tuscan artisans with long-held secrets. Epic in scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns…Publication Date: April 26, 2022
4.67 out of 5 on Goodreads
giveaways 2022 italy
The Tobacco Wives
Adele MyersWhat It’s About: For the audience of Fiona Davis and Lisa Wingate, a vibrant historical debut set in 1946 North Carolina following a young female seamstress who uncovers dangerous truths about the Big Tobacco empire ruling the American South.
“Myers brilliantly seduces us with her setting—a North Carolina town of beautiful socialites, opulent dresses, and elegant soirees—before revealing a terrible secret that threatens the entire community…
Publication Date: March 1, 2022
4.31 out of 5 on Goodreads
giveaways historical 2022
Sister Stardust
Jane GreenWhat It’s About: Jane Green reimagines the life of troubled icon Talitha Getty in this transporting story from a forgotten chapter of the Swinging ’60s
Claire grew up in a small town, far from the glitz and glamour of London. On the cusp of adulthood, she yearns for the adventure and independence of a counterculture taking root across the world…Publication Date: April 5, 2022
4.42 out of 5 on Goodreads
giveaways historical fiction 2022
Book Woman’s Daughter (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek #2)
Kim Michele RichardsonWhat It’s About: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek!
Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free…
Publication Date: May 3, 2022
4.54 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 books about books adult The Last House on the Street
Diane ChamberlainWhat It’s About: From bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes an irresistible new novel that perfectly interweaves history, mystery, and social justice.
When Kayla Carter’s husband dies in an accident while building their dream house, she knows she has to stay strong for their four-year-old daughter. But the trophy home in Shadow Ridge Estates, a new development in sleepy Round Hill, North Carolina, will always hold tragic memories…
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
4.41 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction mystery arc
A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons
Kate KhavariWhat It’s About: Saffron Everleigh is in a race against time to free her wrongly accused professor before he goes behind bars forever. Perfect for fans of Deanna Raybourn and Anna Lee Huber, Kate Khavari’s debut historical mystery is a fast-paced, fearless adventure.
London, 1923. Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh attends a dinner party for the University College of London…
Publication Date: June 7, 2022
3.86 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction mystery arc
Three Sisters (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #3)
Heather MorrisWhat It’s About: A promise to stay together.
An unbreakable bond.
A fierce will to survive.
From international bestselling author Heather Morris comes the breathtaking conclusion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy.
When they are girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father – that they will stay together, no matter what…
Publication Date: October 5, 2021
4.41 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction wwii holocaust I Must Betray You
Ruta SepetysWhat It’s About: Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force.
Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer…
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
4.19 out of 5 on Goodreads
2022 releases young adult historical
Daughters of a Dead Empire
Carolyn Tara O’NeilWhat It’s About: From debut author Carolyn Tara O’Neil comes a thrilling alternate history set during the Russian Revolution.
Russia, 1918: With the execution of Tsar Nicholas, the empire crumbles and Russia is on the edge of civil war—the poor are devouring the rich. Anna, a bourgeois girl, narrowly escaped the massacre of her entire family in Yekaterinburg…
Publication Date: February 22, 2022
4.60 out of 5 on Goodreads
2021 releases young adult retellings
){kind=link}