The best historical fiction books featuring women who aren’t queens

One thing I loved about The Four Winds is that it blended three important historical things about the 1930s—the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the struggles of farm laborers. A second thing I loved is that it made the environment/nature come alive in a way that few books do. 

The main character, Elsa Martinelli, struggles with issues that are common to women historically. Because of a sheltered early life, she must overcome numerous self-doubts to succeed and raise her two children despite almost insurmountable setbacks.

Hannah also captures the mood of the 1930s well and writes characters whom you’ll sympathize with and root for.

This book takes place in 1920s Mississippi, in a cypress swamp. I loved how it portrayed life in the rural South in the 1920s—hardscrabble, poor, and difficult. The specter of racism hangs over the story, always threatening Ada and Matilda with ruining their plans, because Ada is White while Matilda is Black.

The plot is that both girls must find a way to get away with murder. Kelly Mustian does a nice job of making this swamp world come alive, too.

The only drawback is that the book has the same plot as a ton of African American fiction—two characters, one white, one Black, whose lives intertwine. If you can get past the fact that you’ve seen this plot before, the book is quite good.

I loved the originality of The Impossible Girl. Cora Lee is a resurrectionist—she steals bodies from cemeteries for medical dissection in 1850s New York City. This isn’t really a sympathetic activity, however. Would you love a grave robber? So, to add flavor, bodies with unusual physical traits bring in extra money, and Cora specializes in stealing these.

But she’s got a unique malady of her own—she has two hearts. And people want to kill her to cash in on her body. Now we have a reason to cheer for her.

The story has many twists as Cora learns who she can (and can’t) trust. Add to that some romance, the vibrant setting of 1850s New York City, and some twisted characters, and this is a fun book.

Who doesn’t love a medieval murder mystery? Someone has been murdering children near Cambridge. Everyone blames the local Jews. King Henry II wants answers.

I enjoyed the diverse characters—the local prior, some rabble-rousing townspeople, a tax collector, a handful of knights, the prioress of a nunnery, and a woman from the fens. One is the killer.

Enter Adelia Aguilar, a Sicilian doctor sent to help Henry II unravel the mystery. But she puts herself and her companions in death’s way in the process. What I loved best was Adelia’s methods—she uses evidence and clues in a rather unconventional way. In the process, she defies many stereotypes about medieval women—she’s not submissive, sheltered, uneducated, or a saintly religious ascetic.

The setting of the book was a huge draw for me—1960s Mississippi. Celeste is a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and she goes to rural Mississippi in 1964 to take part in Freedom Summer, a major event of the Civil Rights Movement.

I enjoyed this because, for all its drama, heroism, and moral righteousness, the Civil Rights Movement doesn’t get a lot of attention in historical fiction. I feel like it should.

Readers will be drawn in by the all-encompassing scope of segregation in 1960s Mississippi. Add in some characters with secrets, some people who unexpectedly rise to the occasion, and the overall climate of fear that pervaded Mississippi at the time, and you’ll enjoy this book if you care about civil rights at all.