A lot of the buzzy 2020 historical fiction felt like it was chasing prestige awards to me. I gave up on 'Hamnet' after fifty pages—just too interior. What worked better was 'The City of Brass' by S.A. Chakraborty, though it's 2017, but the sequel was 2020? Anyway, it’s historical fantasy set in 18th-century Cairo, and it’s packed with politics and magic. More my speed.
Also, 'The Once and Future Witches' by Alix E. Harrow blends suffragette history with witchcraft in a way that’s clever and angry. I keep thinking about it. Maybe that’s the trend: using the past to talk about now, but with a twist. Not sure it’s 'best' in a traditional sense, but it stuck with me longer than some of the more hyped ones.
If you want something different from the usual European settings, try 'The Mountains Sing' by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. It's a Vietnamese family saga spanning decades of war, beautifully written and devastating. It made a lot of 'best of' lists for good reason. Another 2020 one I liked was 'The Pull of the Stars' by Emma Donoghue—a claustrophobic, nurse’s-eye view of the 1918 flu pandemic in Dublin, which felt eerily relevant. Both are tight, focused, and human-scale.
I'm a total history nerd and 2020 was surprisingly great for the genre if you knew where to look. 'Hamnet' by Maggie O'Farrell is stunning, a speculative deep-dive into Shakespeare's family life and grief, but it feels more like literary fiction with historical dressing. For pure, plot-driven historical sweep, I'd recommend 'The Evening and the Morning' by Ken Follett—it's a prequel to 'The Pillars of the Earth' and has that classic Follett epic construction saga vibe, which is comfort food.
On the quieter side, 'The Book of Longings' by Sue Monk Kidd gave me a new perspective, imagining a wife for Jesus, and the prose is beautiful even if the premise feels bold. I found 'The Mirror and the Light' a bit of a slog, honestly, but completists for Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy will want it. 2020's real gift was having time to sink into these big, transportive books.
2026-06-26 20:49:17
11
View All Answers
Scan code to download App
Related Books
His Queen,Their War
Carabella
10
3.0K
Alessia De Santis was born into a legacy, but bred for obedience.She had a dream of being a fashion designer but it was swept under the rug because she was promised since birth to the calm and perfect Marco Bellendi, her life was meant to be polished, controlled, and silent. But one wild night shattered everything, and her parents shipped her off to Italy to “straighten out.”
She expected lectures. She didn’t expect a secret marriage to the most feared mafia heir in the country,Lorenzo Vitale.
She never imagined her bodyguard would be her ex…her step uncle! Salvatore Vitale, Lorenzo’s cold, dominant elder brother… the man who once destroyed her family, and the only one who ever truly saw her.
As buried secrets ignite a deadly war, Alessia must choose: submit to the world she was born into, or burn it all down with the man who wants her body, her soul… and maybe her crown.
Two brothers. One obsession. A dream which she dreams to fufil.And a queen no one saw coming.
Torn between the man she loves, and the man who loves her....
Cordia Pike has always been strong-willed, but she knows her family expects her to accept the hand of her childhood friend, Jaris Adams, in marriage. As the conflict between the states continues to escalate, Cordia hopes it will last long enough for her to find a way to free herself without breaking her friend’s heart.
On the eve of war, as the men prepare to ride off to battle, Cordia meets a mysterious newcomer. There’s just something about Will Tucker that she finds both intriguing and dangerous. Under the guise of caring for his sister, she makes a plan to write to him. Perhaps by the time the war is over, Will’s feelings for Cordia will have blossomed into the love she is starting to feel for the Union soldier.
But war is evil and complex, and by the time it begins to wind its way through Southwest Missouri, one of these men will be dead, and Cordia will find herself betrothed to a man she loathes. Will she have the courage to follow her heart and stand up for what she believes in like so many others, or will she do as she is told and acquiesce to a loveless marriage to a heartless traitor?
Lila Carrington gets the most shocking news from her father at dinner one day, and all he said was a decree that she has to follow through with even though she has her own
reservations—she was supposed to tie the knot with Levi Beaumont. The Carrington and Beaumont families have been enemies for decades, and truthfully none of them know the real reason behind the fight because each person seems to have their own side to the story, so Lila did not understand the reason that her father, who taught her never to associate herself with the Beaumont family, was the same one pushing her into marriage with one of them.
Levi did not want the relationship either, but the families had to form an alliance so they could both remain in business. It had to be done. Driven with the passion to stay in business, Lila and Levi help their family out, but with the promise to their parents that it would only last a year and they would be done.
What happens when they begin to fall for each other?
Do the Carringtons and the Beaumonts reunite, or does a war happen?
Legacy of Love and War is a romance like you have never seen before.
Eliza Ward does not fall through time.
Time bends toward her.
Pulled from the present into Revolutionary America, Eliza becomes trapped in a landscape where history repeats unevenly, battles restart with variations, and memory functions as both anchor and weapon. She is not a chosen heroine, but a constant: a woman whose awareness destabilizes the moment itself.
She meets Mercy Hale, a midwife and witch who understands time as a negotiation rather than a force to command. Mercy aids Eliza’s survival while refusing the role of savior, having already learned the cost of standing too close to history’s center.
During a looping battle, Eliza saves Thomas Reed, a Continental soldier who does not shift when time does. Thomas is an anchor: steady, observant, unchanged across iterations. Their bond deepens in an almost-normal village where time briefly behaves.
Eliza’s intervention triggers time’s response. Rather than immediate destruction, time collects interest. Mercy bargains to spare Eliza and Thomas, sacrificing her own future to stabilize the present. Time extracts payment from Eliza as well, stripping away her voice, the very tool she uses to name and hold moments in place.
Silenced and unmoored, Eliza is violently displaced back into the original battle. Unable to anchor the moment, she watches Thomas die in the version of history that was always waiting beneath her defiance.
Told in rotating perspectives between Eliza, Thomas, and Mercy, The Hours That Refused to Behave is a lyrical time-travel novel about revolution, restraint, and consequence, asking not whether history can be changed, but who pays when it is.
Catherine has spent her life serving the royal family of Eldoria and hiding her feelings for Prince George, friend and the heir to the throne. But when a reckless night ends with him stumbling into her arms, everything changes.
Prince George doesn’t remember what happened, but Catherine does. But when the reality of what happened that night begins to grow inside her, she runs, not for herself, but to save him from the scandal that could destroy the crown.
But secrets have a way of resurfacing, especially in a kingdom full of spies, enemies in silk gowns, and a rival princess whose family is plotting to take the throne.
When a huge scandal and the truth threatens the monarchy, Prince George must decide: His duty to the crown or the woman who carries his heart, and his heir.
Lynn Austin's books are some of the most immersive I've ever read. Her ability to weave faith and history together is unparalleled. 'Hidden Places' is a standout for me, set during the Great Depression with a strong female lead who battles adversity with grit and grace. Another favorite is 'A Proper Pursuit,' which takes readers to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair—vivid, romantic, and full of period charm. For those who love biblical settings, 'Gods and Kings' offers a gripping retelling of Hezekiah's reign. Her attention to historical detail makes every page feel alive.