If I were to pack a Christmas stocking to gift a special friend with my favorite historical fiction reads this last year, which would I choose? So many wonderful stories, narrowing the list down to just a few is very difficult. But, forced to make the decisions, I offer the following list of fascinating stories from different areas and eras that mesmerized me, and should delight any lucky historical fiction lover on your gift list (including yourself!)
One of the things I love about great historical fiction is its ability to transport you to another place and time, with world-building as complex and fascinating as that in any fantasy novel. I especially love books that illumine cultures different from my own, one of the reasons Lisa See is a favorite author. Her latest offering, LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN, is another stellar contribution, a fictional rendition of the life of a real Ming dynasty woman drawn from extensive research that includes accounts written by the lady herself. Though raised to be completely a woman of her time, a time when a high-born woman’s life was confined from birth to death to the inner courtyard of first her birth family, then her husband’s family home, Tan Yunxian is also influenced by her more liberal grandparents, who take her in after the death of her mother. Her grandmother is a rarity—a practicing physician who gradually teaches Yunxian all she knows about treating and healing women. Into her grandmother’s house also comes the midwife, whose daughter Meiling becomes Yunxian’s friend and confidante. The two girls vow to be friends forever, wherever life takes them, and the healing that fascinates them both requires working in tandem. Touching blood is considered unclean, so a physician never actually handles a patient, whereas the midwife’s job often exposes her to bodily fluids. In a society in which the extended family lives within a single compound and which values women for their ability to produce sons, the midwife is a vital and frequent visitor. But when Yunxian marries, her mother-in-law forbids her to see her friend or to use her own expertise to help the women of her new family. As Lady Tan struggles to fit into her new home, find a place within the hierarchy of the women of the Inner Courtyard, please her husband, and produce the essential son, she continues her study, hoping eventually to be able to use her skills and see her friend again. A compelling portrait of everyday life in a bygone era, See’s novel includes details of traditional Chinese medicine and remedies, some of which are still used today, some of which are taken from the case book kept by Lady Tan herself. Immersive and fascinating!
Another land and culture that have intrigued me since I first read THE FAR PAVILIONS is India. UNDER A CERULEAN SKY by Jane Cloverdale introduces us to another Westerner for whom India attracted like steel to a magnet. It’s 1911 as the story begins and Edwardian sisters Isobel and Violet, with their status and circumstances drastically reduced, are no longer prime candidates to make advantageous London marriages. Against the wishes of Violet, who hopes her beau will remain faithful despite her loss of dowry, forthright Isobel decides to travel to see an unexpected bequest–a tea plantation in India. Accompanied by their Aunt Bea, they journey to their new home. While Violet just wants to return to England as soon as possible, Isobel is beguiled and fascinated by everything about her, even as she is intrigued by her brooding neighbor, a widower who alternately pursues and ignores her. As Isobel gradually gets to know the workers and learns how to manage her inheritance, she becomes increasingly certain that India is her future. Stunning descriptions that make you feel you are walking in step with the characters enhance this tale of love, passion, and a woman finding her independence and her calling.
The next several books feature characters who adapt to the difficult circumstances of war. Another delight is discovering a world of workers about whom I’d previously known nothing, which was the case with CALL OF THE WRENS by Jenni L. Walsh. Although I don’t generally like dual-timeline novels, the story of female motorcycle dispatch riders was too intriguing to pass up, and I wasn’t disappointed!
The novel focuses upon women serving in the little-known Women’s Royal Naval Service, familiarly known as Wrens, both in World War I and World War II. Marion, brought up in an orphanage with no knowledge of her parents, has always yearned to belong. Mute by choice as a child during her transfers from orphanage to orphanage, she gifts her speech only to Eddie, the boy who befriends her at her last orphanage. With World War I breaking out as she turns 18 and “ages out” of the orphanage, with no family, job, or home to go to, she answers the call to become a Wren, first working as a typist but then, with her ability to ride the motorcycle she and Eddie built, as a dispatch rider. Unwilling to lose his best friend, Eddie runs away from the orphanage, lies about his age and joins the Army. But when Marion and the friend she makes in training, Sara, are transferred to France, riding their bikes to transport messenger pigeons from their lofts to the front lines, Eddie gets himself transferred as well to act as a dispatch rider. In her service with the Wrens, Marion has finally found a family where she belongs. But when the dangers of war make Eddie plead with her to leave the front, can she abandon her calling to safeguard their love? Interspersed with Marion’s story is that of Evelyn Fairchild, indulged only child of wealthy parents who cosset her and a mother who presses her to go to finishing school and become a conventional wife. But born with a club foot that has necessitated multiple surgeries, restricted her to home schooling, Evelyn yearns for more, to prove her worth and stand on her own. Initially finding fulfillment as a race car driver, when war breaks out, she defies her parents and with her childhood friend’s motorcycle, steals away to London to volunteer as a dispatch rider for the Wrens. As the German bombing offensive destroys English industries and cities, the work of the dispatch riders to warn vulnerable installations of imminent danger becomes ever more important. And with war raging again, Sara urges Marion to return to the Wrens and train a new generation for this important work, leading to the intersection of the lives of Marion and Evelyn in a way that will shock and challenge them both. Walsh vividly recreates the setting of World War I France and World War II Britain in this tribute to the important work of these brave, stalwart women.
Another World War I story about women in a more traditional occupation is THE SEA NURSES by Kate Eastham. Two women from very different backgrounds will bond over the trauma of nursing the wounded. Orphan Iris Purefoy was raised by an aunt before refusing the traditional path of marriage and training to be a nurse, after which her wanderlust led her to become a nurse-stewardess aboard a posh White Star transatlantic liner. Vivid description of life aboard a luxury liner makes the reader readily understand the mystique of the sea and the lure of the vagabond life. When World War I erupts, it seems only natural for Iris to continue her seagoing life when the liners are converted to hospital ships. During training, she meets Evie Munro, a feisty Scottish fisher girl who has earned her living gutting herring during the fishing season, a life the author describes with equally vivid and fascinating detail. Having served as the healing woman for her group of workers and with the fishing industry decimated after so many men leave for war, it’s an easy transition for Evie to follow her fascination with healing into nursing, not incidentally also leaving behind a recent tragedy and loss. She’s a probationer when she meets the initial disapproving Iris, but the two soon become close friends, sharing a love of the sea and healing. But not even hospital ships are safe in the troubled waters of war, and life has more drama and tragedy in store for both.
A World War II story featuring another occupation about which I’d never heard is THE HIGHLAND GIRLS AT WAR by Helen Yendall. Although much has been written (and filmed) about Land Girls, this was my introduction to the Women’s Timber Corps, a sister organization in which women were recruited to cut the timber essential to the war effort, replacing the lumberjacks gone to war. These “lumberjills” lived in primitive conditions using hand tools to perform the difficult and physically demanding work of cutting and hauling enormous trees from remote Scottish forests—to the initial disapproval of everyone from the locals to other lumberjacks who didn’t believe women were up to the job. Yendel introduces us to a mixed bag of recruits: Lady Persephone, “Seffie,” who signs up in a snit at being challenged by her brother to do some useful war work; tall, awkward, usually silent Grace who escapes her grim life on an isolated croft with only her disapproving mother for company; and married Irene, who needs exhausting work to distract her from her constant worry over the welfare of her Navy husband. Initially mocked for her upper-class accent and inflated expectations, after surviving the first month—her brother bet she’d not last that long—Seffie decides to stay, and her grit and determination eventually begin winning over her doubting lower-class compatriots. The arrival of a contingent of the Canadian army, who recruited lumberjacks to cross the pond and come to the aid of their British cousins, throws romance into the mix, though the two groups were officially forbidden to socialize except at the weekly dances in the tiny nearby town. One almost catches a whiff of forest air in the vivid descriptions of the wild Scottish landscape and becomes immediately entangled in the varied hopes and loves of our lumberjills. By turns fun, fascinating and heartbreaking!
Kate Thompson penned the next immersive World War II story, THE LITTLE WARTIME LIBRARY. Despite the disapproval of her mother and mother-in-law, who think she should have “retired” from work after her marriage, widowed librarian Clara Button is determined to stay at her job at the Bethnel Green library. It’s particularly important now that the bombed-out library has been moved underground into the unused Bethnel Green subway station. There, underground in a space that has been remade to house not only the library, but hundreds of bunkbeds, a theatre, a nursery and a cafe, she and her best mate, the glamorous Ruby Munroe, conduct story hours for children, make the rounds of factories to provide books to the women working there, and generally offer solace and distraction from the destruction above ground and the nightly terror of bombing raids. Fighting the disapproval of the head librarian, who would restrict the library’s contents to “proper” literature (rather than the racy romance novels beloved by the factory girls LOL) she and Ruby also struggle to manage their own lives. Clara finds herself drawn to a conscientious objector and ambulance driver, who though tarred as a “coward” for not joining the army, quietly risks his life nightly putting out fires and saving those trapped in bombed-out buildings. Ruby, who avoids heartache and pushes away her guilt over her sister’s tragic death by embracing a “love ’em and leave em” philosophy, can’t quite forget the dashing American with whom she spent a few unforgettable nights. Knowing the novel is based on the true story of the underground library at Bethnel Green added an extra attraction to this marvelous novel of survival, friendship, dedication and being true to yourself despite those who would belittle or obstruct. I cheered for both Clara and Ruby, for their pain, their doubts, and their eventual triumph at the end of the war. Highly recommended!
I’ll complete my gift bag with the often bleak, but ultimately uplifting WHEN WE HAD WINGS by Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner. The ability of people to endure the unendurable and find light and hope in the darkest of times forms the central theme of this story of three nurses caught in the occupation of the Phillipines by the Japanese Army in World War II. Wanting to put as much distance as she can between herself and a hopeless love, Eleanor Lindstrom joins the Navy Nurse Corps and accepts duty in the Philippines. A widow leaving behind a tragic past, Penny Franklin joins the Army Nurse Corps and is stationed in Manila, where she strikes up a friendship with Filipina nurse Lita Capel. The three become close friends, vowing to meet once a month at the Army-Navy club to compare notes. Those plans are swept away after the Philippines are conquered and then occupied. Through transfers to prison camps and detainment centers, the three struggle to maintain their bonds, hanging on to their friendship for each other and their calling as nurses to aid the sick and injured. For some, the terrible conditions of internment are brightened by the light of unexpected love; for all, weathering the loss of independence, the privations, cruelty and starvation of wartime occupation require every bit of their courage and stamina. Based on true stories of the “Angels of Bataan,” this novel is sometimes difficult to read but always inspiring.
So there you have it! A bonanza of books guaranteed to delight any of the historical fiction lovers on your list!
About Julia Justiss
Real, intense, passionate historical romance
Award-winning romance author Julia Justiss, who has written more than thirty historical novels and novellas set in the English Regency and the American West, just completed her first contemporary series set in the fictional Hill Country town of Whiskey River, Texas.
A voracious reader who began jotting down plot ideas for Nancy Drew novels in her third grade spiral, Julia has published poetry and worked as a business journalist.
She and her husband live in East Texas, where she continues to craft the stories she loves. Check her website for details about her books, chat with her on social media, and follow her on Bookbub and Amazon to receive notices about her latest releases.
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