Let’s be real: 2025 is probably going to be the year where we need a whole lot of escapism. For some readers that means immersing themselves in the rich imaginative worlds of fantasy, for others, the guaranteed happy endings of romance. (Or a mix of both.) But for those who like to indulge in books that are grounded in real-world figures and history, the historical fiction genre is here with a positively sweeping array of exciting new titles headed our way this year.
From Ancient Rome to Victorian era England and World War II to Gilded Age New York, get ready for books that run the gamut in terms of both time period and subject matter.
Here are the historical fiction books we’re most looking forward to in 2025.
Mother of Rome by Lauren J.A. Bear
Release Date: January 7 from Ace
Why We’re Excited: This fiercely feminist retelling of the founding of Rome, is centered on Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, and her cousin Antho. A story of sisterhood, motherhood, and sacrifice, it’s a welcome attempt to let a little-known female mythological figure step out of the shadows.
Publisher’s Description: The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children.
But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story.
Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir.
Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.
Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land.
To save her sons and reclaim their birthright, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force – a mother’s love – and fight.
All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia.
The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neale Hurston
Release Date: January 7 from Amistad
Why We’re Excited: A long-lost manuscript from the great Zora Neale Hurston that’s finally being published sixty years after her death, The Life of Herod the Great is, it should be noted, very obviously unpolished and incomplete. (A fire destroyed a chunk of the text, including its final chapters). But her enthusiasm for her subject matter and the passion with which she imagines Herod is palpable, and there’s no way any of us are turning down the chance to read more of Hurston’s words, in whatever format they come.
Publisher’s Description: In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.
From the peaks of triumph to the depths of human misery, the historical Herod “appears to have been singled out and especially endowed to attract the lightning of fate,” Hurston writes. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new.
Babylonia by Costanza Casati
Release Date: January 14 from Sourcebooks Landmark
Why We’re Excited: The latest historical reimagining from the author of the excellent Clytemnestra, Babylonia brings the little-known story of the Assyrian Empire’s only female ruler, Semiramis, a queen who held the throne in her own right while she waited for her son to come of age. Fierce and ruthless she challenges norms in a time known for its stark brutality.
Publisher’s Description: Babylonia across the centuries has become the embodiment of lust, excess, and dissolute power that ruled Ancient Assyria. In this world you had to kill to be king. Or, in the case of Semiramis, an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire:
Queen.
Nothing about Semiramis’s upbringing could have foretold her legacy. But when she meets a young representative of the new Assyrian king, a prophecy unfolds before her, one that puts her in the center of a brutal world and in the hearts of two men – one who happens to be king.
Now a risen lady in a court of vipers, Semiramis becomes caught in the politics and viciousness of ancient Assyria. Instead of bartering with fate, Semiramis trains in war and diplomacy. And with each move, she rises in rank, embroiled in a game of power, desire, love, and betrayal, until she can ascend to the only position that will ever keep her safe.
The Queen’s Spade by Sarah Raughley
Release Date: January 14 from Harper Collins
Why We’re Excited: In a story loosely inspired by Queen Victoria’s adopted goddaughter Sally Forbes Bonetta, a Yoruba princess whose family was killed in Africa. Given as a present to the queen, the real Sally grew up as a member of Victoria’s extended family, marrying a captain and Lagos philanthropist. In Raughley’s version of her story, Sally becomes more like Arya Stark, tired of being used as propaganda for the Empire, she seeks revenge on those involved in her kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment. This historical thriller is a satisfying blend of murder, political intrigue, and social critique.
Publisher’s Description: The year is 1862 and murderous desires are simmering in England. Nineteen-year-old Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), once a princess of the Egbado Clan, desires one thing above all else: revenge against the British Crown and its system of colonial “humanitarianism,” which stole her dignity and transformed her into royal property. From military men to political leaders, she’s vowed to ruin all who’ve had a hand in her afflictions. The top of her list? Her godmother, Britain’s mighty monarch, Queen Victoria herself.
Taking down the Crown means entering into a twisted game of court politics and manipulating the Queen’s inner circle—even if that means aligning with a dangerous yet alluring crime lord in London’s underworld and exploiting the affections of Queen Victoria’s own son, Prince Albert, as a means to an end. But when Queen Victoria begins to suspect Sally’s true intentions, she plays the only card in Victorian society that could possibly cage Sally once again: marriage. Because if there’s one thing Sally desires more than revenge, it’s her freedom. With time running out and her wedding day looming, Sally’s vengeful game of cat and mouse turns deadly as she’s faced with the striking revelation that the price for vengeance isn’t just paid in blood. It means sacrificing your heart.
Boudica by P.C. Cast
Release Date: January 21 from William Morrow
Why We’re Excited: A romantasy-tinged historical fiction retelling of the life of the legendary warrior queen Boudica who led an uprising against the occupying Romans, Boudica has Celtic goddesses, Druid magic, and strong worldbuilding throughout. (It’s also probably a great time to read a story about a courageous and defiant woman from history, just saying.)
Publisher’s Description: In Roman-occupied Britain, the Iceni tribe crowns an extraordinary new queen. Tall and flame-haired, Boudicca is devoted to Andraste, the Iceni’s patron goddess, known for her raven familiar, her fierceness and her swirling blue tattoos. Boudicca and her two young daughters will carry the tribe forward in dangerous times.
Roman tax collector Catus Decianus, expecting weakness in a female ruler, launches a devastating attack on the tribe’s stronghold. Boudicca and her family barely survive—but they refuse to bend the knee. She calls a war council, bringing together her most trustworthy allies, including her childhood friend Rhan, now a powerful Druid seer, and the horse master Maldwyn, whose devotion to Boudicca runs deeper than a warrior to a queen.
Surprising the Romans, Boudicca’s armies sack the wealthy cities of Camulodunum, Londinium and Veralamium. As the snow falls, the Celts retreat to a hidden valley to plot their assault on the remaining Roman legions, determined to force the invaders from Britan.
But in the jagged ice of winter the Druid Rhan foresees a tragic end to Boudicca’s rebellion. Although the defeat of the Iceni is spelled out in signs sent by the gods, Rhan swears she will alter the future and save her queen. Now the battle-hardened Boudicca must put her trust in the powers of the otherworld to save her from both the traitors in her midst and from Rome’s mighty legions.
The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn
Release Date: January 28 from Sourcebooks Landmark
Why We’re Excited: The Girls of the Glimmer Factory tells the story of Theresienstadt, the little-known “model camp” established by the Nazis to create films meant to illustrate the alleged positives of Jewish containment and how well those in concentration camps were being treated. A harrowing story of propaganda, it follows two former childhood friends who are now on opposite sides of the war, one a prisoner at Theresienstadt, the other a Nazi true believer trying to advance her status in Hilter’s Reich.
Publisher’s Description: Hannah longs for the days when she used to be free, but now, she is a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt, a model ghetto where the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in the camps. But Hannah will do anything to show the world the truth. Along with other young resistance members, they vow to disrupt the filming and derail the increasingly frequent deportations to death camps in the east.
Hilde is a true believer in the Nazi cause, working in the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Though they’re losing the war, Hilde hasn’t lost faith. She can’t stop the Allied bombings, but she can help the party create a documentary that will renew confidence in Hitler’s plans for Jewish containment. When the filming of Hitler Gives a City to the Jews faces production problems due to resistance, Hilde finds herself in a position to finally make a name for herself. And when she recognizes Hannah, an old childhood friend, she knows she can use their friendship to get the film back on track.
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith
Release Date: February 4 from Bloomsbury
Why We’re Excited: A delightful Gilded Age historical fiction romp about marriage ambition, and building a life outside of traditional expectations, Mutual Interests follows the story of a businessman who enters into a lavender marriage with an ambitious woman to hide their respective sexual preferences and then falls in love with his eccentric business rival. The trio’s attempt to build a business empire on their own terms is fascinating and all three characters are sharply (and entertainingly) drawn.
Publisher’s Description: At the turn of the 20th century, Vivian Lesperance is determined to flee her origins in Utica, New York, and avoid repeating her parents’ dull, limited life. When she meets Oscar Schmidt, a middle manager at a soap company, Vivian finds a partner she can guide to build the life she wants – not least because, more interested in men himself, Oscar will leave Vivian to tend to her own romances with women.
But Vivian’s plans require capital, so the two pair up with Squire Clancey, scion of an old American fortune. Together they found Clancey & Schmidt, a preeminent manufacturer of soap, perfume, and candles. When Oscar and Squire fall in love, the trio form a new kind of partnership.
Vivian reaches the pinnacle of her power building Clancey & Schmidt into an empire of personal care products while operating behind the image of both men. But exposure threatens, and all three partners are made aware of how much they have to lose.
Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray
Release Date: February 4 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Why We’re Excited: The first book in five years from Libba Bray, author of books like The Diviners and A Great and Terrible Beauty, Under the Same Stars is a historical mystery spread across three different decades and timelines, from 1940s Germany to 1980s West Berlin and Brooklyn in 2020. The story explores hope, resistance, and messages passed through decades.
Publisher’s Description: It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last.
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom’s Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too―but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.
In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.
In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are in the first weeks of COVID lockdown and hating Zoom school, when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.
Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher
Release Date: February 4 from Blackstone Publishing
Why We’re Excited: This multigenerational saga inspired by Fancher’s own family follows the story of an enslaved Black family and their white owners from the end of the Civil War through Reconstruction and Jim Crow in Red Clay, Alabama. Told across dual timelines, Red Clay features a firmly realized sense of place, complicated characters, and an unflinching honesty about both the joys and horrors they all experience. Your book club will definitely read this.
Publisher’s Description: In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave–on the morning following his funeral–his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words “… a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Adelaide Parker has a story to tell–one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption–that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker.
But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she’s come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full. In an epic saga that takes us from Red Clay to Paris, to the Côte d’Azur and New Orleans, human frailties are pushed to their limits as secrets are exposed and the line between good and evil becomes ever more difficult to discern. Red Clay is a tale that deftly lays bare the ugliness of slavery, the uncertainty of the final months of the Civil War, the optimism of Reconstruction, and the pain and frustration of Jim Crow.
Isola by Allegra Goodman
Release Date: February 4 from The Dial Press
Why We’re Excited: Based on the true story of a young woman who sails from France to the New World and is marooned on a deserted island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as punishment by her volatile older husband, Isola is a tale of struggle, strength, and survival that’s both timely and timeless.
Publisher’s Description: Heir to a chateau with its own village and lands, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval—an enigmatic and volatile older man Marguerite has never met—becomes her guardian, controlling her future. He sells her property to pay his debts, leaving her destitute, and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends Roberval’s servant and the two begin meeting secretly aboard the ship, drawn together by an intense attraction. But when Roberval discovers Marguerite’s deception, his rage is all-consuming. As punishment, he maroons her and her lover on a small island, condemning them to certain death.
Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite is now at the mercy of the elements. Without food or shelter, she must learn to hunt and live in a cave. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, survival becomes nearly impossible. Marguerite despairs; has everyone and everything she once held dear abandoned her?
Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein
Release Date: February 25 from Doubleday
Why We’re Excited: Allison Epstein’s vivid historical fiction retelling of Oliver Twist gives the villainous Fagin the thrilling, heartwrenching origin story the character has long deserved, and shines some necessary light on the dark corners that the original Charles Dickens’ tale was all too content to ignore
Publisher’s Description: Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob’s whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream.
Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London’s highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. Along the way, Jacob’s found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protégé, the Artful Dodger. But as Bill’s ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for—and what a life is worth.
One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter
Release Date: March 4 from Pamela Dorman Books
Why We’re Excited: This new World War II-set novel from the author of We Were the Lucky Ones follows the story of a young Jewish woman forced to flee through war-torn Italy when Germany invades.
Publisher’s Description: 1940, Emilia Romagna. Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara; when Esti’s son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. There is a war being fought across borders, and in Italy, Mussolini’s Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an ‘inferior’ Jewish race, but life somehow goes on—until Germany invades northern Italy, and the friends find themselves in occupied territory.
Esti, older and fiercely self-assured, convinces Lili to flee first to a villa in the countryside to help hide a group of young war orphans, then to a convent in Florence, where they pose as nuns and forge false identification papers for the Underground. When disaster strikes at the convent, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: To go on the run with Theo. Protect him while Esti can’t.
Terrified to travel on her own, Lili sets out on an epic journey south toward Allied territory, through Nazi-occupied villages and bombed-out cities, doing everything she can to keep Theo safe.
The Filling Station by Vanessa Miller
Release Date: March 11 from Thomas Nelson
Why We’re Excited: The latest historical fiction novel from the author of The American Queen, The Filling Station brings the devastating story of the Tulsa Race riots and its aftermath to life through the story of two sisters who find shelter and healing at a gas station on what would one day become Route 66.
Publisher’s Description: Sisters Margaret and Evelyn Justice have grown up in the prosperous Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma–also known as Black Wall Street. In Greenwood, the Justice sisters had it all–movie theaters and entertainment venues, beauty shops and clothing stores, high-profile businesses like law offices, medical clinics, and banks. While Evelyn aspires to head off to the East Coast to study fashion design, recent college grad Margaret plans to settle in Greenwood, teaching at the local high school and eventually raising a family.
Then the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre upends everything they know and brings them unspeakable loss. Left with nothing but each other, the sisters flee along what would eventually become iconic Route 66 and stumble upon the Threatt Filling Station, a safe haven and the only place where they can find a shred of hope in oppressive Jim Crow America. At the filling station, they are able to process their pain, fill up their souls, and find strength as they wrestle with a faith in God that has left them feeling abandoned.
But they eventually realize that they can’t hide out at the filling station when Greenwood needs to be rebuilt. The search for their father and their former life may not give them easy answers, but it can propel them–and their community–to a place where their voices are stronger . . . strong enough to build a future that honors the legacy of those who were lost.
The Californians by Brian Castleberry
Release Date: March 11 from Mariner Books
Why We’re Excited: A sprawling, epic exploration of one family’s rise and fall over the course of a century that’s also a story about art, capitalism, technology, and more.
Publishers’ Description: It’s 2024, and Tobey Harlan—college dropout, temporary waiter, recently dumped—steals from the wall of his father’s house three paintings by the venerated and controversial artist Di Stiegl. Tobey’s just lost everything he owns to a Northern California wildfire, and if he can sell the paintings (albeit in a shady way to a notorious tech bro) he can start life anew in a place no one will ever find him, perhaps even Oregon.
A hundred years before, Klaus Aaronsohn—German-Jewish immigrant, resident of the Lower East Side—inveigles his way into a film studio in Astoria, Queens. In love with silent cinema, Klaus will restyle himself Klaus von Stiegl, a mysterious aristocratic German film director. In true Hollywood fashion, he will court fame, fortune, romance, and betrayal, and end his career directing Brackett: a radical, notorious 60s-era detective show.
Weaving between Tobey and Klaus is the story of Diane “Di” Stiegl: Klaus’s granddaughter, raised in Palm Springs, who claws out a career as an artist in gritty 1980s NYC. As America yields the presidency to a Hollywood cowboy, as Diane’s grifter father and free-spirited mother circle in and out of her life, Diane will reflect America’s most urgent and hypocritical years back to itself, uneasily finding critical adoration as well as great fame and wealth.
The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley
Release Date: March 18 from Bloomsbury
Why We’re Excited: Natasha Pulley is generally known for her futuristic, genre-bending fiction that has everything from alternate histories to near-future dystopias. She made our Best Novels of 2024 list with The Mars House, a fascinating blend of science fiction and romance that deftly explored themes of connection and humanity. This year, she goes in a completely new direction with The Hymn to Dionysus, a bittersweet and magical historical fiction reimagining of the story of the Greek God of ecstasy and madness that feels as much like a fantasy as it does a strict mythological retelling. Thoroughly captivating in every way.
Publisher’s Description: Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to follow his commander’s orders at all costs. But when Phaidros rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes’s palace, his commander’s orders cease to make sense: Phaidros is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple, and to keep the baby’s existence a total secret.
Years later, struggling with panic attacks and flashbacks, Phaidros is enlisted by the Queen to find her son, Thebes’ young crown prince, who has vanished to escape an arranged marriage. The search leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus, whose guidance is as wise as the events that surround him are strange. In Dionysus’s company, Phaidros witnesses sudden outbursts of riots and unrest, and everywhere Dionysus goes, rumors follow about a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire.
The Pretender by Jo Harkin
Release Date: April 22 from Knopf
Why We’re Excited: The Pretender is based on the little-known story of Lambert Simnel, a peasant boy raised in obscurity that many claimed was the lost Edward VI, one of the infamous Princes in the Tower said to have been murdered by King Richard III. The real Simnel became the figurehead of a Yorkist rebellion in 1487 before being captured and forced to work in King Henry VII’s household, and virtually nothing is known about his later life.
Harkin’s take on the boy is highly fictionalized but deeply enjoyable, an exploration of everything from identity and belonging to happiness and greed that asks what it means to know yourself.
Publisher’s Description: In 1480 John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on his way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life forever: John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan but the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, and has been hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown—and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews. Removed from his humble origins, sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, John is put into play by his masters, learning the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available her—marry or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: he will either become king or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.
The Famine Orphans by Patricia Falvey
Release Date: May 27 from Kensington
Why We’re Excited: The Famine Orphans spotlights the story of the women impacted by the Earl Grey scheme, a program that transported Irish orphan girls impacted by the Great Famine to Australia between 1848 and 1850. It was meant to address the gender imbalance in the Australian colony and relieve the crowded workhouses in Ireland. Falvey’s historical fiction novel follows the story of Kate Gilvarry, a young woman who aims to start over in Sydney and must face many challenges on her way to making herself a new home.
Publisher’s Description: 1848: The girls, 4,000 in all, come from every part of Ireland—from the shores of Galway to the Glens of Ulster and Belfast’s teeming streets—to board ships bound for Australia. All were chosen from Ireland’s crowded workhouses. Most are orphans. The Earl Grey Scheme was presented as an opportunity for young women to gain employment as domestic servants in the Colony. But there is another, unstated purpose—the girls are to “civilize” the many men sent there as convicts, so that settlements can be built.
Kate Gilvarry has spent six months in a Newry workhouse, subsisting on a diet of watery porridge. She knows there’s no future for her either within its walls or outside, in a ravaged, starving land. But once Kate’s ship completes the harrowing voyage, she and her companions find their reception in Sydney dismayingly unwelcoming, as anti-Irish sentiment grows. Homesick, and disillusioned by love following a shipboard crush, Kate strives to fit in, first as the servant of a demanding English woman, then as a farmer’s bride in the Outback.
When heat and drought force her husband to leave for long periods to work on a sheep ranch, Kate is left alone to fend off wild animals, drifters, and her aching loneliness. She longs to return to Ireland. But first, this beautiful, unforgiving country will teach her about resilience and survival, and the limitless possibilities that come with courage and love.
The Cardinal by Allison Weir
Release Date: May 27 from Ballantine Books
Why We’re Excited: Having completed her series on King Henry VIII and his six wives, Allison Weir turns her attention to another important figure from Tudor history: Cardinal Thomas Woseley. A man who rose from humble beginnings to become the Archbishop of York, he was one of Henry’s most beloved — and then most hated — advisors.
Publisher’s Description: Cardinal Thomas Wolsey enjoyed one of the most meteoric careers in history. His rise from humble beginnings coincided with Henry VIII’s ascension to the throne in 1509, when the king appointed him to his privy council. The two grew to be cherished friends, and by 1515 Wolsey, now a cardinal, had become the controlling figure in all matters of church and state, in spite of the jealous criticisms of the nobles, who resented him for usurping what they saw as their role as the king’s natural advisors. These were dangerous enemies to have.
Wolsey operated on an international stage and worked hard to broker universal peace. All was going dazzlingly until Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn—the woman whom Wolsey would one day call “the night crow”—and sought to end his marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Swept up in the maelstrom of “the Divorce,” Wolsey, who had successfully striven to give his master everything he wanted, found himself in an impossible situation as he drew the ire of the queen, with his world crumbling around him.
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
Release Date: August 5 from Henry Holt and Co.
Why We’re Excited: This feminist, distinctly modern story about dangerous teenage girls tells the story of a village that, in the wake of the Salem witch trials, becomes obsessed with the idea that a group of disliked sisters are turning into dogs. The Hounding plays its secrets close to the vest in a way that will keep readers curious about what’s actually happening. (Plus, if you’re not hooked immediately by the comp that describes the story as a cross between The Crucible and The Virgin Suicides then I don’t know what to tell you)
Publisher’s Description: Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbank to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before.
The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls―a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps―they’ve always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.
Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory
Release Date: October 27 from William Morrow
Why We’re Excited: Philippa Gregory’s ongoing Tudor series continues, and this time she’s set to tackle one of the family’s most infamous members: Jane Parker. Married to Anne’s brother George, she played a key role in bringing about the downfall of not one but two Tudor queens.
Publisher’s Description: Sister. Pawn. Liar. Traitor.
Her words sent two queens to the scaffold.
Her secrets shaped a kingdom.
But her true story was hidden.
Until now.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB
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