A tangible connection to the land and the seasons. Historical lives were intimately tied to agriculture, weather, and geography in a way most of us can’t comprehend. The plot should feel the turn of the seasons—planting, harvest, the lean winter months. Journeys should be arduous and shaped by the landscape. Time should be measured in natural cycles, not just clock hours. When the environment is an active character, not just scenery, it grounds the story in a profound, earthy reality that feels ancient and true.
Letting characters be unlikable by modern standards. A truly historical mindset can be jarringly racist, sexist, cruel, or indifferent to suffering we find abhorrent. While you might not want to spend a whole book with a monster, flattening all characters to be palatable to modern sensibilities is a disservice. They can be complex and sympathetic while still holding beliefs that make us cringe. That friction is part of the historical experience—understanding people who are both relatable and profoundly different from us.
A sense of constraints. Modern characters often have an anachronistic freedom of movement and choice. An authentic historical setting imposes real, tangible limits based on gender, class, technology, and knowledge. A noblewoman can’t just ride off alone; a peasant can’t read; travel is measured in weeks, not hours. The plot should arise from navigating these constraints, not magically overcoming them with a modern sensibility. When characters’ options feel legitimately limited by their era, their victories and compromises carry so much more weight.
The handling of chance and fortune. Modern stories often emphasize agency and choice. In many historical periods, life was seen as being largely in the hands of fate, God, or luck. Characters might be more passive or accepting of sudden turns of fortune. Plots driven by coincidence or divine intervention, if done in a way that reflects the period’s worldview, can feel more authentic than a hyper-competent protagonist engineering every outcome. It reflects a different understanding of how the world works.
2026-07-22 00:38:28
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a really good book for you. I hope you like it becuase it tells you a good story. Please read it.
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?
"Custom demanded that Prince Urban get a love mark tattooed to the side of his left eye as an infant, just like the rest of his people, but to him, the stupid things have only brought on the scorn of his father, the misery of his siblings, and caused his entire kingdom to go broke from fighting so many wars over the irritating ink stains.
When Urban’s sister must travel to Donnelly, the kingdom within the sand, for her arranged marriage to align two realms, he goes with her. But he no sooner steps foot inside their castle than his mark starts itching like a son of a bitch, telling him his one true love is near.
It just figures, though, that the woman meant for him is completely forbidden. Now he must decide if he should ignore the persistent mark, telling him she's the one, in order to avoid a possible war between kingdoms, or if he should discover whether she's worth risking everything for so they can be together. Either way, his life gets sucked into chaos with threats of beheadings, dark magic lurking, castle traitors scheming, and sword fights eminent.
Who knew one little tattoo could cause so much trouble?
(ONE TRUE LOVE is the author’s first attempt at a fantasy romance. Please forgive her; she might’ve read an overabundance of Cassandra Gannon, Sarah J. Maas, and Eve Langlais books, then gone off to watch too many episodes of Supernatural, Game of Thrones, and Outlander, because this was the outcome.)"
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.
Her name was Cathedra. Leave her last name blank, if you will.
Where normal people would read, "And they lived happily ever after," at the end of every fairy tale story, she could see something else. Three different things.
Three words: Lies, lies, lies.
A picture that moves.
And a plea: Please tell them the truth.
All her life she dedicated herself to becoming a writer and telling the world what was being shown in that moving picture. To expose the lies in the fairy tales everyone in the world has come to know.
No one believed her. No one ever did.
She was branded as a liar, a freak with too much imagination, and an orphan who only told tall tales to get attention. She was shunned away by society. Loveless. Friendless.
As she wrote "The End" to her novels that contained all she knew about the truth inside the fairy tale novels she wrote, she also decided to end her pathetic life and be free from all the burdens she had to bear alone.
Instead of dying, she found herself blessed with a second life inside the fairy tale novels she wrote, and living the life she wished she had with the characters she considered as the only friends she had in the world she left behind.
Cathedra was happy until she realized that an ominous presence lurks within her stories. One that wanted to kill her to silence the only one who knew the truth.
We love reading novels, fall in love with the characters, sometimes envy the main girl for getting the perfect male lead... but what happens when you get inside your own novel and get to meet your perfect main lead and bonus...get treated like the female lead?! As the clock struck 12, Arielle Taylor is pulled inside her own novel. This cinderella is over the moon as her Prince Charming showers her with his attention but what would happen when she finds herself falling for her fairy godmother instead?
Please read my interview with Goodnovel at: https://tinyurl.com/y5zb3tug
Cover pic: pixabay
Secondary characters are the secret weapon. If only the protagonist feels period-appropriate, the whole world feels fake. It's the butcher who gossips about the king, the priest with dubious theology, the neighbor who holds a generations-old grudge—these background figures, with their own period-appropriate concerns, create the ecosystem the main character inhabits.
Their collective presence validates the protagonist's reality. We believe in the protagonist's world because everyone else in it also behaves as if it's real, with their own complex motivations rooted in the same historical soil. The authenticity of the setting is woven from all these minor, convincing threads.
Authentic historical settings in books are all about the details. I love when authors dive deep into the era they're writing about, capturing the little things like how people talked, what they wore, and even what they ate. For example, in 'Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follett, the descriptions of medieval architecture and daily life make you feel like you're right there. It's not just about big events but the everyday struggles and joys. The best historical books make you forget you're reading fiction because they weave real customs, social norms, and even slang into the story. Research is key, and when it's done well, it transports you completely.
Historical fiction has this magical way of making the past feel alive, and the best books in the genre? They don’t just recount events—they immerse you. Take 'The Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follett, for example. It’s not just about cathedral-building; it’s about the sweat, the politics, the love stories, and the betrayals that intertwine with every stone laid. The details—like how a mason’s hands ache after a day’s work or how a noblewoman schemes in candlelit chambers—make the 12th century palpable.
What really hooks me, though, is when authors balance accuracy with creativity. Too much rigid history, and it reads like a textbook; too much invention, and it loses credibility. The sweet spot? When I finish a book and immediately Google whether a side character was real because they felt so vivid. That’s the mark of stellar historical fiction—it blurs the line so beautifully, you’re left questioning where fact ends and fiction begins.