Four Deep Dive Picks for Historical Fiction Fans

Based on the true story behind a landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision, K.D. Alden's debut is a rich and moving story of one woman's courage and determination to get her child back when all odds are stacked against her. All Ruth Ann Riley wants is a chance to have a family. But because she was poor and unwed when she became pregnant, she was sent to an institution and her child was given to another woman. Ruth Ann can't stand the thought of never seeing little Annabel's face again, never snuggling up to her warmth or watching her blue eyes crinkle with laughter. And now they want to take away her right to have any other babies? She is not going to let that happen.

A drama of fortunes, eugenics and women's reproductive rights framed by the sordid court battle between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother. This riveting story unfolds through the brilliant research of Audrey Clare Farley, who captures the interior lives of these women on the pages and poses questions that remain relevant today: What does it mean to be "unfit" for motherhood? In the battle for reproductive rights, can we forgive the women who side against us? And can we forgive our mothers if they are the ones who inflict the deepest wounds?

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Orphan comes an unforgettable historical novel about a secret collection of Dior gowns that ties back to the first female pilots of World War II and a heartbreaking story of love and sacrifice. When fashion conservator Kat Jourdan discovers a priceless collection of Dior gowns in her grandmother's vacant cottage she has endless questions about her beloved grandmother. As she delves into the mystery of their origin, Kat begins to doubt everything she thought she knew about her family and her own past.

This heart-wrenching novel about family and war unearths generations of secrets and sacrifices. When Aurelia Leclaire inherits an opulent Paris apartment, she is shocked to discover her grandmother’s hidden secrets—including a treasure trove of famous art and couture gowns. In Paris of 1942 Estelle Allard flourishes in a world separate from the hardships of war. Yet when the Nazis come for her friends, Estelle doesn’t hesitate to help those she holds dear, no matter the cost. Set seventy-five years apart, against a perilous and a prosperous Paris, both Estelle and Lia must summon hidden courage as they navigate the dangers of a changing world, altering history—and their family’s futures—forever.

In Les Parisiennes, New York Times bestselling author Anne Sebba explores a devastating period in Paris's history and tells the stories of how women survived―or didn’t―during the Nazi occupation. When the Nazis and the puppet Vichy regime began rounding up Jews to ship east to concentration camps, the full horror of the war was brought home and the choice between collaboration and resistance became unavoidable. Sebba focuses on the role of women, many of whom faced life and death decisions every day. After the war ended, there would be a fierce settling of accounts between those who made peace with or, worse, helped the occupiers and those who fought the Nazis in any way they could.

Virginia Hall left her Baltimore home in 1931 to enter the Foreign Service. But as Hitler was building toward the peak of his power in Europe, she went to work for the British Special Operations Executive. She was assigned to France, where she became the architect of the Resistance movement in central France, helping escaped prisoners of war, and American Allied paratroopers. This is her true story, and her ONLY biography to include actual information from those brave men who were a part of her spy circuit.

Three generations of women come together in this page-turning debut full of family secrets, heart-wrenching drama, and the promise of second chances. In 1942 Corfu, Greece, the Nazis are a distant danger to sixteen-year-old Sarah Batis—of far greater threat is the opposing needs of her heart and her people. Tradition demands that Sarah marry a Jewish man. Only Sarah has fallen in love with a fisherman outside their community.  In 2019 Florida, Joey is only days away from marrying the nice Jewish man her family adores when her first love comes back into life forcing her to re-examine everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. 

Seventy years after her grandmother helped hide a Jewish family on a Greek island during World War II, a woman sets out to track down their descendants—and discovers a new way to understand tragedy, forgiveness, and the power of kindness in “an engrossing peek into a little-known chapter of World War II, and one family’s harrowing tale of finding the lost pieces of its own history” (Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar Temptress Solider Spy).