 Hello, hello everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel, Laura's Little Library, and welcome to today's video that I'm finally doing. It is my historical fiction, like, favorites, recommendations, books that I've read, video. I had this idea a while back that I was going to do like historical fiction recommendations video or like just a historical fiction video because I was getting back into reading historical fiction. I wanted to talk about it. I just really wanted to get back into it. But when I look back on my channel, I realized all that I really created was a TBR for historical fiction, like a bunch of historical fiction books that I'd gotten that I'd wanted to read or to finish. And I haven't made a historical fiction video since. So I was like, I need to rectify that. I need to just start from scratch. Here are some of the historical fictions that I have read, have loved, and reading, etc. and so forth. So I've got a decent stack next to me to talk about that are all historical fiction. Let's start with some of the recent historical fiction that I've read and loved. So let's start off with the Fountains of Science by Rudy Sopetes. I am talking about this a little bit recently. So this book takes place during the Spanish Civil War and it takes place in Spain. And you are following two POVs. One is of a young woman living in Spain, who is just trying to keep her family afloat, keep them under the radar, especially since their parents were taken because of their views. And the other POV is of a man from the states whose mother is Spanish. So they decide to go to Spain for like a vacation of sorts. But he is an aspiring photographer and wants to capture real Spain. And these two have an unlikely meeting and there is a very slow burn romance that happens with them. And you know, there is a big time jump in this book. But you know, it was really sweet. It really, it was, I don't want to say that it was just low key, but it also kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Like I was just like waiting to see what was going to happen next. And so it was just a very good one to read. Like Rudy Sopetes does a great job of writing from different POVs in different parts of history. So this is actually my first book by Rudy Sopetes, who is very known as a great historical fiction writer in this day and age. So I've been wanting to pick up a bunch of her books, but I haven't until now. And so I cannot wait to pick up more. There's a book set in Romania that I am excited to read. And the salt of the sea has been on my radar for quite a while, is one to pick up by her. So she is definitely one that I will be getting into a lot more in the future. Similarly, I read The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. I say similarly because Kristen Hannah is another really good historical fiction author that has a couple other books out, not quite as many as Rudy Sopetes. But I keep going back and forth if I want to read like the great expectations or four wins just because this book made me awe. It's so emotional and it's just heart wrenching. Again, you have two POVs in this one. You are following these two sisters in France during World War II. And one sister is very rebellious, very rambunctious, and she becomes The Nightingale. She does what she can to fight against the Nazis that are occupying France at the time. And then her other sister is much more the stay at home mom kind of has settled down. Her husband gets enlisted to fight against Germany. And then German soldiers actually end up occupying her home with her her and her daughter. And so you read about her experience and that was the timeline or not timeline, but the POV that really hit me good was that one. That was definitely my favorite of the two. But you definitely get a good and very interesting mix in this book. So I don't know if I want to read the other ones. I think I need to read them very spaced out because I just can't take the emotional trauma behind them. They're so good. The writing is so good. So we'll say this is definitely a staple in historical fiction in my opinion. Some other books that I've read I have another World War II historical fiction that I've read and that is The Prisoner's Wife and this is by Maggie Brooks. It's inspired by a true story of a she's like a Czech farm girl. He is a soldier that's put into a camp. They end up meeting, running off, getting married, and then they get caught and put into those camps as well. But she they pretend that the Czech farm girl is actually a man so that they don't get separated. And so you read about their experience in the concentration camps and how they do or don't pull off hiding her as a woman and pretending that she's the man. So again it's a very like romantic heartfelt World War II kind of novel. You know it's if that is what you enjoy then you're gonna love this. And I hadn't read a lot of World War II historical fiction at this point because I hadn't read a lot of historical fiction. This is definitely one that stuck with me so yeah. I knew I had to have it on my shelf. Now the next few and some pretty much most of the rest of these books are on my list are not World War II because as I am getting into historical fiction a lot more I don't want everything I read to be World War II books. There are a lot of them out there and a lot of them do interest me so I will be reading them but I do also want to try and break out of that and read non World War II historical fiction. So I read The Witches of St. Petersburg by Imogen Edward Jones and this takes place in like Victorian Russia where these two sister witches cast a spell and they basically create Rasputin. And you see what he does where he grows kind of the where he comes from in terms of these women's magic to how he gets to fancying the queen and just everything and it just everything when you look at the ending it's like wow that's so blown out of proportion how in the world did we get there and then you like read through the book and you're like how is this happening how did we get here style book and it was just very fun very interesting very different take it's a good witchy historical fiction that isn't necessarily witches of Salem but it's still that vibe. Then I have a an Italian Shakespearean historical fiction this book actually has two timelines kind of and that is Juliet and this is by Anne Fortier and you're following one character in modern day in Italy and she's kind of going through and learning about the truth of what actually happened in Romeo and Juliet as in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and so the other timeline we're following is Juliet and she so our modern day main character said to be the great great great etc and so forth granddaughter of Juliet Tolome. Yeah it was a very interesting take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet you know they make some changes of like oh this is actually how it was even though it Shakespeare says this but that's not actually how it was these people were real this is their actual story and so you're you're uncovering it both in the past and in the present so it's half and half but there are some really fascinating parallels and kind of like almost like a reliving in modern day elements as well as there is other relatives coming in and causing a fuss so if you're a fan of Shakespeare and you haven't read this you should consider giving this one a read. Now I've got some gothic historical fiction I think one thing that I really want to get into and have been getting into um are historical fictions that are more than just historical fiction or historical romance and that's like historical gothic or gothic romance or historical thriller those I'm finding to be quite fun so I've got some books here that I've enjoyed for example Mexican gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia this is like 1850s Mexico like Mexico City so it's historical and it's fiction but there's also this like eerie gothic element to it so I just want to have give these books their place in the historical fiction genre in this video so you are following our main character who gets a letter from her cousin who just married this like rich white American man and you know everyone was kind of like about the wedding in the first place but uh so she gets this disturbing letter from her cousin she's like okay I need to go and make sure she's okay and see what's up so she goes to the house where they're staying at in this big mansion and she needs like the brother of the guy and she's like and her cousin's like no I'm fine I'm sorry I shouldn't have sent the letter everything's totally fine you can go back to Mexico City I mean unless you want to visit but you know it's all okay um but our main character is not quite convinced about that and so she starts to uncover the dark and disturbing secrets of this gothic romance relationship so this had a great twist at the end I love this and I like Sylvia Moreno-Garcia's writing in this one um so I cannot wait to see what other historical gothics she comes up with she did have another one the daughter of Dr. Moreau um but I think I still think this one was better in my opinion so the other two books in this kind of gothic romance historical fiction are a duology and that is anatomy a love story by Danish Wars and immortality a love story by Danish Wars so this is the first book you do need to read this book because this is the sequel that just came out and uh aren't these covers amazing when I have more space in my shelves I would really love to like display these especially around spooky season like the heart and the brain just uh anyway so this is like old time Scotland our main character wants to go to medical school to like be a doctor but because she is a woman she can't do so so initially in this book she dresses up as her brother and the professor tells her if you can pass my exam you can take my class um and so she enlists the help of a grave dicker to help her dig up dead bodies to examine them and learn from them to pass the exam and she's just a strong willed feminist sciency it was so good and there are elements of kind of like sci-fi fantasy in here it's not super strong in the first one but it does come back into play in the second one which I'm mentioning because that was really my only disappointment in the first one is that it introduced this concept and then kind of strayed away from it to focus more on the romance and the like just biological study side of things but it does come back in this one and I loved reading about it I thought it was fascinating so these are some historical fictions that I have left plus it's in Scotland I adore Scotland so so those are all the books that I have finished reading I am currently reading a historical fiction book one that I saw at Goodwill and was like yeah just based off the title and the cover alone that's good enough for me uh that is The Dutch Wife by Ellen Keith uh so this is actually not what I expected so I am not quite halfway through but it is World War II and you are actually following three different POVs you are following The Dutch Wife and she has actually been placed in a concentration camp but in a brothel of it so just look up trigger warnings and this book does get quite explicit around those topics so just be aware of that um but yeah so it follows her in this brothel and she just wants to find her husband and get back to her old life of baking cakes working in a bakery and I was like Dutch bakery hi hi I'm a Dutch person who works in a German bakery so that really is what captured my attention but we are also following the point of view of this higher ranking Nazi soldier who comes and visits The Dutch Wife um and I'm really intrigued to see where this relationship is going because it's clear that he's getting attached to her and she has a complicated feeling towards him because she does not like him as a Nazi she doesn't agree with the Nazi party she does not like condone any of it she is disgusted by what this man has done but you know there is a certain intimacy that is happening between them by force um and so she can't help but feel a certain amount of like comfort with him as they're forming a bit of a relationship unlike what she has with her other visitors um so I am cautiously interested in this because yeah I just really want her to get her husband back and you know live happily ever after um and then we also have another point of view in Argentina about um a a man who is taken by the government as un desaparecido so if you're unfamiliar with what has happened in Argentina um basically people children babies have just been disappearing and nobody's happy about that like everyone is freaking out you know your child gets taken like and becomes a deseparecido and all you can do is put up fires of them being missing but like when the government allegedly is taking these children like oh it's just so terrible um but this main character might also be gay so there's an interesting connection there especially with Argentina and Germany and the Nazis also um you know rounding up homosexual people and putting them through conversion camps and things like that so again lots of trigger warnings just be aware of that um but it is heart wrenching at every turn so yeah like I said I'm not quite halfway through but also the blurb of this is readers of the Nightingale will be rewarded by this original and unforgettable tale I literally talked about the Nightingale earlier in this video and I I agree I can see where there are crossover elements with like um how the wife here loses her husband to somewhere in the war and like doesn't know what happened to him if he's even alive or not but then her house gets occupied by a German soldier to get separated from her husband is taken and put in a brothel for German soldiers and actually people in the concentration camps she is their reward for good behavior which is interesting and not something I really heard about the Nazis doing but it's of course it's kind of a taboo topic so I understand why I haven't heard of it but I'm intrigued anyway so this is this is my current read and so that is where I'm at with historical fiction obviously I have other historical fiction on my shelves as I have a historical fiction section that leads into my classics on the shelf so if you would like to hear more about what these books are uh if you want to know more about yeah the historical fiction up here that I've read because I've read all the other historical fiction on my shelves uh I would be very happy to make another video I think I this is a video that I would like to continue with as a series of as I read more historical fiction I can do your recommendations I can do a roundup that is specifically historical fiction so if you're interested in that let me know comment that down below also give this video a like if you're interested in that I'm interested so I'm probably just gonna do it but it's nice to know that uh there are people out there who relate or want to chat with me about it in the comments so feel free otherwise uh also hit the subscribe button and hit the bell to be notified I post videos every week during the month of during the months of summer um otherwise I also have bookish social media down below that you can follow me more specifically on my reading adventures but yeah that is everything so until I see you all in the next video I wish you happy reading