10 Historical Fiction Books Perfect for Springtime

A reimagining of Little Women set in the spring of 1942, when the United States is suddenly embroiled in the Second World War, this story, told from each March sister’s point of view, is one of grief, love, and self-discovery.

In the spring of 1942, the United States was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor. While the US starts sending troops to the front, the March family of Concord, Massachusetts, grieves their own enormous loss: the death of their daughter, Beth.

Under the strain of their grief, Beth’s remaining sisters fracture, each going their own way with Jo nursing her wounds and building planes in Boston, Meg holding down the home front with Marmee, and Amy living a secret life as a Red Cross volunteer in London–the same city where one Mr. Theodore Laurence is stationed as an army pilot.

Each March sisters’ points of view is written by a separate author, three in prose and Beth’s in verse, still holding the family together from beyond the grave. Woven together, these threads tell a story of finding one’s way in a world undergoing catastrophic change.

They have so much in common…yet love is not allowed between the wealthy and the staff.

Marilla will sacrifice anything for her family, so when her sister’s doctor suggests daily sulphur spring baths, an amenity her family could never afford, Marilla takes a job at The Greenbrier resort bathhouse in order to give her sister the care she needs. When her sister befriends another girl staying at the resort with a similar health condition, Marilla finds herself crossing paths with the girl’s handsome, charming, older brother. And despite their growing attraction to each other, anything more than friendship with Wes must remain a dream. After all, resort staff cannot court guests, and Marilla will not risk her sister’s health for her own happiness.

Wealthy resort guest, Wes Bakersfield, has dreams for a future and plans to make his family’s business his own. And while he finds himself drawn to Marilla, despite their differing social classes, he can’t help but wonder if she’s really interested in him—or in his wealth.

Can the couple find the trust to help their love succeed, or will their differences pull them apart?

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. Arriving alone with nothing but a small suitcase, she is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, “Nell” sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family.

Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.

1907: A talented artist with a growing reputation for her ambitious work, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a triumph, but the gardens—and the people she meets—promise to change her life forever.

1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton, on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury House’s treasured gardens, these three very different women are drawn together by a secret that will last for decades.

A gripping and beautiful tale of love, loss, and secrets.

1963: When Clara Samuels buys Butterfly Cottage, she knows the scandal she’ll cause. A single woman buying property is not the ‘done thing’, especially not in a village like Carybrook. But Clara has been in love with Butterfly Cottage and its garden since she used to play there before the War. And when she reconnects with her childhood friend James, her decision feels serendipitous. But the true scandal is yet to come, because within six months, Clara will leave England under mysterious circumstances, and Butterfly Cottage will stand empty for more than 50 years.

2018: No one is more surprised than Meredith when she’s bequeathed a cottage by a great aunt she’d never heard of. She hopes, briefly, that the inheritance could be the answer to her financial problems. But when she arrives in Suffolk, she is shocked to discover a man is already living there. A young gardener, who claims he was also bequeathed half of Butterfly Cottage.

As the pair try to unravel their complicated situation, they unearth a decades-old mystery involving Clara, the garden, and a stack of letters left unread for over 50 years…

1917… It was inexplicable, impossible, but it had to be true—didn’t it? When two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley, England, claim to have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden, their parents are astonished. But when one of the great novelists of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes convinced of the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a national sensation, their discovery offering hope to those longing for something to believe in amid a world ravaged by war. Frances and Elsie will hide their secret for many decades. But Frances longs for the truth to be told.

One hundred years later… When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript in her late grandfather’s bookshop, she becomes fascinated by the story it tells of two young girls who mystified the world. But it is the discovery of an old photograph that leads her to realize how the fairy girls’ lives intertwine with hers, connecting past to present, and blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined. As she begins to understand why a nation once believed in fairies, can Olivia find a way to believe in herself?

A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.

I want to find out how they behave when they’re free

Len Howard was forty years old when she decided to leave her London life and loves behind, retire to the English countryside, and devote the rest of her days to her one true passion: birds.

Moving to a small cottage in Sussex, she wrote two bestselling books, astonishing the world with her observations on the tits, robins, sparrows, and other birds that lived nearby, flew freely in and out of her windows, and would even perch on her shoulder as she typed.

This moving novel imagines the story of this remarkable woman’s decision to defy society’s expectations, and the joy she drew from her extraordinary relationship with the natural world.

You are invited to attend the wedding of the century…

Sophie Duval of Grasse, France, is a pragmatic young woman and highly respected parfumeur, whom many of the rich and famous of the Riviera have entrusted with the job of creating the perfect scent for them. As the Cannes Film Festival kicks off its ninth year, Sophie prepares to spend the tourist season on the Riviera, where the wealthy will grace her shop with their presence, carrying their heavy purses along with them.

However, her summer plans change after one last, very familiar customer slips inside her Cannes boutique. With her blond hair tucked beneath a silk headscarf, the fine nose and large black sunglasses, the porcelain complexion, it’s impossible to not recognize her. It’s America’s darling, Grace Kelly. Miss Kelly, however, hasn’t come in for perfume, but to escape a photographer, hot on her trail. Just as Sophie hides Miss Kelly away in the back of the boutique, the photographer runs into the shop, camera tucked against his chest.

Struggling British press photographer, James Henderson, has arrived in Cannes to work the illustrious Film Festival. But in a twist of fate, he spots Grace Kelly strolling casually through a secluded arcade of shops. Seeing an opportunity to get the shot nobody else will have, James follows Miss Kelly into a small perfume boutique. But Grace Kelly is nowhere to be found, and the shop owner won’t give anything away.

In spite of a brief and fractious exchange, Sophie can’t forget about the handsome photographer, James can’t forget the lovely parfumeur, and Grace Kelly can’t forget about Sophie’s kindness. From that moment on, the fates of Sophie, James, and a Hollywood icon are linked together in a story that will span three decades, tragedy, and love.

1957: Three friends, Margot, Gina, and Charlotte, share an apartment above a bookstore in Paris.

Margot is a twenty-two-year-old Australian having the time of her life. Having been sent to the City of Light to be “finished” before her debut, Margot falls in love with Paris all over again. In her mind, all she needs to complete her transformation into “Une Parisienne” is a gown from the spectacular designer Monsieur Dior, particularly if she wants to catch the eye of Peter Mountbatten, a distant cousin of the Queen.

Gina is an American blueblood whose family has fallen on hard times. She’s run away to Paris and is now working in a bookstore while writing a novel at night. But then she receives an invitation to a high society ball at the American Embassy, where the man who once jilted her will also attend…with his new wife. Gina must have a knockout gown to wear.

French chef Charlotte is the lone girl in a family of boys and one of the very few women working in the stubbornly sexist restaurant business. She’s always thought herself homely compared with her conventionally pretty mother and is more interested in her work than fashion. But that is about to change…

One night, Margot proposes to share the cost and the gown with her two best friends and roommates. Each will put in some of her savings, and they’ll each get to wear the gown in turn.

Gorgeous, perfectly tailored, lustrous and luxurious, the Dior gown has the power to change lives—as these three remarkable women are about to discover…