August Reading Challenge: Best Historical Fiction Titles

Teach the Torches to Burn by Christina Dodd 

A wedding is about to get chaotic when a dramatic prophecy predicts marriage, treasure, and murder. Sure enough, bodies start piling up before the vows do. Now our bride-to-be turns detective, racing to catch a poisoner before another guest becomes a victim. (As for the historical part, our bride-to-be? Her parents are none other than Romeo and Juliet.)

The Mad Wife by Meagan Church 

A 1950s housewife has perfected the art of appearing fine. But after her second child arrives, the cracks start showing, and a mysterious new neighbor pulls her toward truths she isn’t ready for. Now everyone around her is questioning her sanity, and so is she. 

All in Her Hands by Audrey Blake 

In 1849, London’s only female surgeon is already fighting an uphill battle for respect. Then a brutal cholera epidemic hits the city hardest among the working class, and she’s determined to help on the front lines. As colleagues turn on her and the disease closes in, she’s got to stay strong enough to keep her promise to save lives.

Wayward Girls written and read by Susan Wiggs 

In 1968 Buffalo, six teenage girls end up locked away in a secretive Catholic reform school, sent there for things like being gay, pregnant, or just “difficult.” Inside, they face forced labor and cruelty hidden behind convent walls. Together they find the courage to survive, bond, and eventually fight for justice.

Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory and read by Gemma Whelan 

Jane Boleyn helped bring down two queens and kept the kingdom’s darkest secrets, but her own story stayed buried. Now her hidden past finally comes to light. Get ready for a gripping tale of betrayal, survival, and one woman’s fight to stay alive amid the chaos she helped create. Set in the Tudor court of King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1542. 

The Undertaker’s Assistant by Amanda Skenandore and read by Allyson Johnson 

Effie Jones, a former enslaved child turned freedwoman, builds a quiet life in post-Civil War New Orleans as a skilled embalmer, keeping her painful past buried. But new connections pull her into a world of activism and ambition, pushing her to finally search for the family she lost. Along the way, she faces betrayal and heartbreak, but also the chance to belong.

Hitomi Vol. 1 by HS Tak and illustrated by Isabella Mazzanti 

In feudal Japan, a drifter with nothing to lose starts training secretly under a disgraced legendary warrior. She’s determined to become a samurai in a world that says women can’t. Expect sweeping historical drama mixed with intense action as she fights her way toward a title no one will hand her.

The Daughters of Salem: How We Sent Our Children to their Deaths by Thomas Gilbert 

In early 1690s colonial Massachusetts, a young Puritan girl sneaks off to dance with a young man from the Abenaki tribe instead of accepting a suitor’s gift. That one choice sets off a chain reaction of fear, gossip, and accusations. This fresh take on the Salem Witch Trials shows how prejudice, religion, and one man’s guilty secret spiraled into tragedy. 

Farewell My Odin: Vol. 1 written and illustrated by Chihiro Yoshioka 

In 11th century England, a boy raised by wolves finds humanity again through a kind priest, only to have it ripped away by a brutal Viking attack. Fueled by loss, he transforms into a feared warrior known as the War-Wolf. It’s a bloody, emotional journey of survival, vengeance, and finding out just how far one man will go.