Realistic American Historical Fiction
Explore the best realistic American historical fiction books. Immerse yourself in authentic stories set in pivotal moments of U.S. history, from colonial times to the 20th century.
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Candle in the Darkness
by Lynn N. Austin
A gripping Civil War novel told from the unique perspective of a plantation owner's daughter who joins the Abolitionists.
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Christy
by Catherine Marshall
In the year 1912, nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston leaves home to teach school in the Smoky Mountains -- and comes to know and love the resilient people of the region, with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, and their yearning for beauty and truth. But her faith will be severely challenged by trial and tragedy, by the needs and unique strengths of two remarkable young men, and by a heart torn between true love and unwavering devotion. And don't miss another heart-soaring bestseller from Catherine Marshall: Julie
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North and South
by John Jakes
Part one of the #1 New York Times bestselling North and South Trilogy—the Civil War saga that inspired the classic television miniseries North and South—with over five million copies sold! “An entertaining…authentic dramatization of American history.”—The New York Times From master storyteller John Jakes comes the epic story of two families—the Hazards and the Mains. Separated by vastly different ways of life, joined by the unbreakable bonds of true friendship, and torn asunder by a country on the brink of a bloody conflict that will irrevocably change them all…
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Hudson
by Helen Lee Poole
Abby Brewster, a brave New Englander, falls in love with Edward Fournet, a French adventurer, after Abby's family is killed during an Indian raid
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Centennial
by James A. Michener
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A. Michener’s magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America’s past, the story of Colorado—the Centennial State—is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe. In Centennial, trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters are brought together in the dramatic conflicts that shape the destiny of the legendary West—and the entire country. Praise for Centennial “A hell of a book . . . While he fascinates and engrosses, Michener also educates.”—Los Angeles Times “An engrossing book . . . imaginative and intricate . . . teeming with people and giving a marvelous sense of the land.”—The Plain Dealer “Michener is America’s best writer, and he proves it once again in Centennial. . . . If you’re a Michener fan, this book is a must. And if you’re not a Michener fan, Centennial will make you one.”—The Pittsburgh Press “An absorbing work . . . Michener is a superb storyteller.”—BusinessWeek
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True Women
by Janice Woods Windle
Alive and pulsating with the events of our history, TRUE WOMEN tells the story of two dynastic family lines in Texas, the Kings and the Woodses. Euphemia Texas Ashby King could ride and shoot like any man, and she was there when Sam Houston's rag-tag army routed Santa Anna at San Jacinto . . . . Though she risked her plantation running the Yankee cotton blockade during the Civil War, Georgia Virginia Lawshe Woods still had to defend her family from a corrupt Yankee officer . . . . Bettie Moss King survived wolves, storms, and the Ku Klux Klan to steer her family through the turbulent birth of modern times. Inspired by the author's own Texas roots, here is an unforgettable saga of the grit, determination, and courage of TRUE WOMEN. ""Heartfelt . . . The hardships and adventures faced by [this] family are so movingly described that I was in tears." -- The New York Times Book Review
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Lake in the Clouds
by Sara Donati
In her extraordinary novels Into the Wilderness and Dawn on a Distant Shore, award-winning writer Sara Donati deftly captured the vast, untamed wilderness of late-eighteenth-century New York and the trials and triumphs of the Bonner family. Now Donati takes on a new and often overlooked chapter in our nation’s past—and in the life of the spirited Bonners—as their oldest daughter, the brave and beautiful Hannah, comes of age with a challenge that will change her forever. Masterfully told, this passionate story is a moving tribute to a resilient, adventurous family and a people poised at the brink of a new century. It is the spring of 1802, and the village of Paradise is still reeling from the typhoid epidemic of the previous summer. Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner have lost their two-year-old son, Hannah’s half brother Robbie, but they struggle on as always: the men in the forests, the twins Lily and Daniel in Elizabeth’s school, and Hannah as a doctor in training, apprenticed to Richard Todd. Hannah is descended from healers on both sides—one Scots grandmother and one Mohawk—and her reputation as a skilled healer in her own right is growing. After a long night spent attending to a birth, Elizabeth and Hannah encounter an escaped slave hiding on the mountain. She calls herself Selah Voyager, and she is looking for Curiosity Freeman—a former slave herself, one of the village’s wisest women and Elizabeth’s closest friend. The Bonners take Selah, desperately ill, to Lake in the Clouds to care for her, and with that simple act they are drawn into the secret life that Curiosity and Galileo Freeman and their grown children have been leading for almost ten years. The Bonners will do what they must to protect the Freemans, just as Hannah will protect her patient, who presents more than one kind of challenge. For a bounty hunter is afoot—Hannah’s childhood friend and first love, Liam Kirby. While Elizabeth and Nathaniel undertake a treacherous journey through the endless forests to bring Selah to safety in the north, Hannah embarks on a very different journey to New-York City, with two goals: to learn the secrets of vaccination against smallpox, a disease that threatens Paradise, and to find out what she can about Liam’s immediate past and what caused him to change so drastically from the boy she once loved. The obstacles she faces as a woman and a Mohawk make her confront questions long avoided about her place in the world. Those questions follow her back to Paradise, where she finds that the medical miracle she brings with her will not cure prejudice or superstition, nor can it solve the problem of slavery. No sooner have the Bonners begun to rebound from their losses—old and new—than they find themselves confronted by more than one old enemy in a battle that will test the strength of their love for one another. Hannah faces the decision she has always dreaded: will she make a life for herself in a white world, or among her mother’s people?
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Sacred Ground
by Barbara Wood
Two thousand years ago, there was a great bay and a peaceful land filled with sage, citrus trees, and pine. And there was a tribe called the Topaa. Marimi, a healer in her tribe, is unprepared for what fate holds in store for her. Without her knowledge, her actions place her under the watchful, suspicious gaze of a rival...and Marimi's family is placed under a curse that impacts how their legacy unfolds. From prehistoric California to the days of Spanish explorers, from the time of California colonialism to the swashbuckling cowboy days of early Los Angeles and right up to the present day, Scared Ground tells the story of the female descendants of Marimi. It tells of their loves, their betrayals, their loses, their families, and their ruthless ambitions that would forge a new country.
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From where the Sun Now Stands
by Will Henry
This Spur Award-winning novel tells of the 113 days in the summer of 1877 when Chief Joseph reluctantly led his people in a rear-guard action from the Nez Perce reservation in Oregon to Montana, across more than 1,000 miles of trackless country. Here is the saga of loyalty and treachery, tragedy and triumph.
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Fearless
by Lucia St. Clair Robson
A novel on Sarah Bowman, the six-foot heroine of the 1840s Mexican War. She signs on as laundress and cook with General Zachary Taylor's army, proving herself fearless in battle and tender in love. By the author of Mary's Land.
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Shadow Patriots
by Lucia St. Clair Robson
In July of 1776, the American colonies are ablaze with passion as the people of the new nation choose between their king and an uncertain future. Kate Darby, a once timid Quaker joins her brother as a spy for the patriots.
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Mary's Land
by Lucia St. Clair Robson
A historical novel on the colonization of Maryland in the 17th Century. It follows the fortunes of immigrants, among them a wealthy noblewoman fleeing the persecution of Catholics in England, and a girl pickpocket who is being deported for sale as a servant. Filled with details on everyday life, the story describes New World conflicts between Virginians and Marylanders, Catholics and Protestants.