Hello my fellow bookworms. Today, I am taking part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! A weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, who each week assigns a new topic to inspires us to create a top ten list based on it. This week’s topic is:
Freebie
(This week you get to come up with your own TTT topic!)
So it is freebie time again and as soon as I read that I knew I wanted to do something historical-fiction related, because I haven’t shone the spotlight on this genre in a while. So without further ado, here are the last ten historical-fictions I have enjoyed:
1. Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen by Alison Weir – The moving tale of the life of Henry VIII’s third, quiet, often over-looked wife. While less dramatic than her predecessors: Katherine and Anne, I found myself gently enthralled.
2. The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale – An enchanting, twisting and turning, fairy tale for adults, with all the magic and sometimes terror that entails; set against the back-drop of WWI.
3. The Poison Bed by E. C. Fremantle – The scandalous tale of sex, politics, secrets and murder that rocked the Jacobean and saw James I’s favourite, Robert Carr and his wife, Frances Howard imprisoned in the Tower.
4. Her Kind by Niamh Boyce – A dark, atmospheric read which shines a light onto the women caught up in the terrifying Kilkenny Witch Trial, in Ireland, and the events that led up to it.
5. Council by Snorri Kristjansson – The second thrilling Viking mystery that follows Helga Finnsdottir, as she is caught up in a new string of murders surrounding an important meeting at the court of King Eirik.
6. Queen of the North by Anne O’Brien – A sumptuous, powerful and moving story of the feisty and contentious Elizabeth Mortimer, the wife of Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy, as she dangerously schemes during a tumultuous time.
7. The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory – A romantic story that straddles both sides of the Wars of the Roses as it shows us the life of Jacquetta Luxembourg, the mother of Elizabeth Woodville (The White Queen).
8. By Sword and Storm by Margaret Skea – The third book to follow the trials and tribulations of Adam Munro, his wife, Kate and their children, this time as they are forced to move to the glittering court of the French king, Henry IV.
9. The Tudor Crown by Joanna Hickson – This novel gives us a fascinating glimpse into the lost history of Henry Tudor’s exile; a complicated, dangerous and important character forming time.
10. Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley – With a lovely blend of history, war, romance and mystery, this dual-narrative tale swept me away to the Wilde House, in a small cove in Messaquamik Bay, Long Island.
Now over to you: What do you think of my choices? What historical-fictions have you read recently?
Also if you have taken part in this week’s TTT topic, too, then please leave a link for your post in the comments below, so I come check it out.
thebookwormchronicles.wordpress.com 
This is a genre I definitely need to read more of (since my go-to in historical fiction, for some reason, is WWII books lol). So I’ll be adding some of these books to my TBR, for sure. The Toymakers is already there, but that’s cheating, because as I said, I read a lot of WWII books. xD I’m especially interested in Her Kind! It sounds great.
Sammie, I hope you’re able to diversify out from WWII in your historical-fiction reading. I highly recommend both The Toymakers and Her Kind. I actually have the opposite problem to you: I hardly ever read WWII books and yet I love films and TV shows set in this period… Go figure?! 😃
I haven’t read any of these yet, so thank you for sharing them! I recently finished Paris Never Leaves You and really enjoyed it!
You’re very welcome, Dedra! 😁 I have not heard of Paris Never Leaves You, but pleased to hear you enjoyed it.
I love historical fiction, so thanks for this list. I always need more!
You’re welcome, Aj! 😁
I’ve heard good things about Alison Weir. and Her Kind sounds fascinating. Also Council sounds super interesting- a Viking mystery!
Greg, I highly recommend Council and the previous book, Kin if you love a good mystery with a Viking setting! Can also recommend Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series and Her Kind. 😃
I haven’t read any of these authors yet. I need to try a couple when I’m in the mood for historical fiction.
When your in the mood for some historical-fiction, I hope you will enjoy some of these, Deanna. 🙂
Interesting list! There was a period where I read Historical Fiction or Mystery (or best, a combo of the two!) almost exclusively. I’ve slacked off some and need to read more. I’ve only read one you have listed (the Philippa Gregory), but have some of the others on my wish list.
With your former love of historical-fiction and mystery, sounds like The Poison Bed by E. C. Fremantle and Council by Snorri Kristjansson would be up your street, Kelly. 🙂
Historical fiction is my favorite genre, and I haven’t heard of anything on your list, so I’m definitely going to look into some of them! Thanks for sharing!
Ooo excellent – Plenty for you to explore here then, Jana! 😁
Wow, Her Kind sounds good!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting, Astilbe 😊 and Her Kind was great – I hope you have chance to read it, too! 😃
I almost featured historical fiction this week, too, but changed my mind at the last minute. Love your list. Thanks for sharing.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2020/07/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-reasons-i-like.html
Hello Cheryl, thank you for stopping by and commenting. Always lovely to hear from a new face, especially a fellow historical-fiction fan. 😊
I love historical fiction, many thanks for the recommendations here! 😀 Here’s my TTT if you want to check it out https://readwithstefani.com/10-books-i-want-to-read-by-the-end-of-2020/ Have a great day ahead!
Hello Stefani, thank you for stopping by and commenting. Always nice to hear from a new face, especially a fellow historical-fiction fan! 😊I hope you are able to enjoy some of the books off of my list😃
I’ll admit I don’t read much Historical Fiction. I think the last one was the Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.
Here’s my TTT: https://www.myheartisbooked.com/top-ten-tuesday-enemies-to-lovers-books-you-probably-havent-read-yet/
Dani, I’m afraid I haven’t read Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, but maybe something on my list will tempt you to read some more historical-fiction? 😉
Nice idea. I also like historical novels.
My TTT is about debut novels.
Hey Marianne, thank you for stopping by and commenting. Always lovely to hear from a new face, especially a fellow historical-fiction fan! 😊
My sentiments exactly. I always grab a few of the links and visit their page. Happy that it was you this week. See you again soon.
Thanks for visiting my TTT earlier.
These look really good – I’m just starting to enjoy historical fiction so this is a very useful list! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Steph @ Stepping Out Of The Page
Hello Steph, thank you for stopping by and commenting. Always lovely to hear from a new face. 😊 Really pleased this list will be helpful for you reading more historical-fiction. 😃
I bet I haven’t read ten historical fiction books in my whole life. I need to read more. They are always so good.
I have a big author party going in Paris, after the pandemic, and I’d love to have you stop by and join in. All our favorite writers are there. Join us here!
Oh yes, definitely sounds like you need to read more historical-fictions, Deb! 😉 And I will go check out your plans for a author party, thank you. 😊
The Toymakers sounds really good!
My TTT .
Lydia, The Toymakers was great – Still one of my favourite reads of the year! 😁
Oh this is a wonderful list! I love historical fiction but I’ve been reading very little of it of late. That being said I have a few books by Snorri Kristjansson (unread) that I must bump up the list and I am glad to see your recommended Cousins’ War on here too 😀
Aw, thank you, Proxy! 😊 I definitely think you should bump Snorri Kristjansson up your TBR list! I hope you enjoy him and the Cousin’s War series when you have chance to read them. 🙂
Several on this list I haven’t read – so adding to my tbr pile… Very glad to have new recommendations at present as I have been struggling to finish the books I’ve started recently. (And thank you for including Sword and Storm, Jessica – so glad you enjoyed it.)
Margaret, I hope your reading picks up soon and that you’ll enjoy the books you’ve added to your TBR from my list. Also Sword and Storm is a well deserved addition to this list – Looking forward to reading Katharina now. 😃
Hi Jessica – thank you! The Katharina books are quite different – several ‘departures’ for me – 1) written in 1st present – I’d never tried that before – but I wanted it to be Katharina’s pov and 2) as close to biography as I could get while still fictionalising it. So I’ll be interested to hear your reaction!!
I enjoyed The Toymakers too, Jessica. You have a great list here!
Thank you, Sandra and pleased to hear you enjoyed The Toymakers too. 🙂
Great list! I didn’t love Her Kind as much as I wanted to, but I loved learning about a part of medieval Irish history I’d never heard of before. I want to read The Toymakers this year!
Thank you, Jess! 😃 Sorry to hear you didn’t love Her Kind as much as you wanted to – it was pretty dark – but good hear you learnt about a period history you hadn’t heard of before. I’d never heard or read about this event either before. I hope you will enjoy The Toymakers when you have chance to read it. 🙂