Travel Back in Time With 2023’s Best New Historical Fiction Books

Think the Kardashians are the most dramatic, scandalous family you’ve seen? Meet the Mitfords, the real-life inspiration behind Marie Benedict’s “The Mitford Affair.” In the years leading up to World War II, the glamorous Mitford sisters are the talk of high society. Nancy Mitford, a novelist, soon becomes alarmed at the actions of two of her sisters: one divorces her rich and powerful husband to marry a leader of the British fascist movement, and another, infatuated with Hitler, travels to Germany to ingratiate herself into his inner circle. When Nancy learns the true extent of her sisters’ choices, she’s faced with a dangerous choice to either betray her family or betray her country.

Release date: Jan. 17

“The Davenports” by Krystal Marquis offers a little bit of everything: coming-of-age YA, romance, and a historical look at an underdiscussed part of American history. In the early 20th century, the Davenport family is among a handful of wealthy, elite Black families, having made a fortune in the carriage business. However, they still face prejudices, both big and small every day. Now it’s the younger generation’s turn to find their place, look for love, and deal with the conflicting expectations that society places upon them.

Release date: Jan. 31

In Pam Jenoff’s World War II novel “Code Name Sapphire,” the lives of four very different people intersect in occupied Belgium. Hannah, a cartoonist and satirist, is forced to go to her cousin in Brussels after narrowly escaping Germany but being turned away from America. Her cousin, Lily, is trying to keep her head down and avoid facing the terrors closing in around them. Desperate to escape, Hannah connects with resistance leader Micheline and her brother Matteo, who operate a clandestine network to rescue Allied troops and others. When one fateful mistake puts Lily and her whole family in deadly danger, Hannah will pay any price necessary to save her family, even if it means doing the unthinkable.

Release date: Feb. 7

In “The Porcelain Moon,” Janie Chang explores a lesser-known aspect of World War I in Europe: the tens of thousands of Chinese workers brought to Europe as laborers while European citizens were fighting the war. Pauline Deng runs away from her uncle’s home in Paris to escape an arranged marriage in Shanghai, and she seeks the help of her cousin, Theo, a translator working among Chinese laborers, in France. In need of a place to stay, she winds up staying with Camille, a French woman planning to escape from an abusive marriage and end a doomed affair. Soon, however, Pauline uncovers Camille’s deepest secret, and both women’s lives are sent down a dangerous path.

Release date: Feb. 21

Spanning eight decades and multiple generations of women, “The Last Russian Doll” by Kristen Loesch takes us from the spark of the Russian Revolution to the post-Soviet uncertainty of the 1990s. In 1910s Russia, Tonya, a noblewoman, is trapped in a miserable marriage to a wealthy factory owner, but she finds her eyes (and heart) opened by a young revolutionary. In the 1990s, Rosie struggles with traumatic childhood memories of the day she witnessed the murder of her whole family except her mother. She agrees to be an assistant for an elderly scholar in order to travel back to Russia, where she uncovers the truth about her family’s past and how it connects to Tonya’s story decades ago.

Release date: March 14

“The London Séance Society” by Sarah Penner offers an atmospheric, eerie trip to 1870s Paris and London. At a séance led by an acclaimed spiritualist, Vaudeline, a young woman named Lenna seeks answers about her sister’s mysterious death. The two women form an unexpected connection, then find themselves summoned to Paris to investigate a strange murder. Teaming up with the men of the “Séance Society,” the women soon begin to realize that the tendrils of this crime go much further than they thought.

Release date: March 7

Mother and daughter Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley both became feminist and literary legends, and it is their lost chance to know one another that forms the backbone of “Her Lost Words” by Stephanie Marie Thornton. Mary Wollstonecraft is a courageous and radical writer, penning “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” and daring to say what few will: that women should be equal to men. More than 20 years later, her daughter, Mary Shelley, is destined to be a groundbreaking writer in her own right, penning the Gothic novel “Frankenstein” and “inventing” the science-fiction genre. As she struggles with her own family and career, she tries to unravel what her mother left behind and find her own place in history.

Release date: March 28

In “Hotel of Secrets,” Diana Biller combines lush historical fiction with a touch of suspense and plenty of romance. In 1870s Vienna, Maria is determined to restore her family’s hotel to its former glory despite her family’s scandals, masked assassins attacking, and the presence of Eli, an American agent whose investigation of leaked secret codes has led him to the hotel. With secrets spanning generations and danger only growing, Maria and Eli must try to trust one another in order to unmask the would-be-deadly intrigues that lurk beneath the glittering facade of Vienna’s ballrooms.

Release date: March 28