The best subversive historical fiction books

Diana Gabaldon does not write romance novels. It’s her fault I write the kinds of novels I do. When she started the story of Claire and Jamie Frasier, I don’t think even she knew that she was writing a story about a marriage—a real marriage. Its ups, its downs, its smiles, its frowns, to borrow from My Fair Lady. I never reread books, but these? These I reread every single time she puts out a new one because the story of a marriage undergoing what all marriages do is riveting, believable, and unbelievable at the same time, and worth every single moment of your reading time and mine. 

Skye O’Malley is one of the first heroines I encountered who lived by her own code, a startling development in a romance. In addition, Bertrice Small was the first to bridge romance and steamy; our Skye is definitely that. She’s delightful, delicious, de-lovely, and I really admire her outré behavior with England’s capricious Elizabeth Regina. She ends up the head of a clan of brothers and a worldwide sea-faring enterprise as well as a lover, a mother, and a remarkable human being. In addition, there are six more about her next generation, Skye’s Legacy. Small’s research into the Far East is exemplary given a time long, long before Google.

Sarah Brandt is, in a squirmy twist for her upper-crust Knickerbocker New York City parents, a turn-of-the-century midwife, widowed and curious about everything. Women of her ilk don’t work. She meets Metropolitan Police Force detective Frank Malone and is his answer to prayer as well as his personal torment. The two meet each other uncannily all over town in this series from the Battery to the Bowery to the Bronx and back again; she, ever helpful, he, ever cynical, until their lives collide in a magically different, far more intimate way. The situations are always intriguing and built around impeccable Gilded Age research.

Sixteenth-century Italy. A much-sought-after courtesan, Fiammetta Bianchini, and her confidante, foil, and pimp Bucino, a dwarf, resettle in Venice after the sack of Rome and establish her prowess in and amongst the glitterati of the time. Over time, the two outcasts grow apart. Their connection frays, almost to irreparable. Dunant’s research brings Venice’s glitz and its grunge alive. There are four others, not really in a series per se, but alike enough because they share the Renaissance that they group loosely together. A courtesan was one of the few women of the time who owned herself. For me, an absolute necessity in subversive heroines. Those nice girls who follow the rules of the time or the place are meh-meh-meh.

Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. A finishing school? Um, ye-ees. For spies. Spies? Uh-huh. On a dirigible. A—what? In a culture where vampires and werewolves are part of society. Wrapped in a huge steampunk bow. Etiquette and espionage. Curtsies and conspiracies. Waistcoats and weaponry. Manners and mutiny. What could possibly go wrong? (What can’t?) Gail Carriger’s Parasolverse is their entirely diabolically magical setting. Her writing is laugh-out-loud clever, witty as Noel Coward, deeply principled, and there are tons more. I started with the Alexia Tarabotti seven and read every single one. I’d do it again, too. Her heroines make my heart go pitter-pat. With glee.