Customer 5 Star Favs

October 17, 2023

Here are some historical fiction novels that our customers loved! Each of these stories has a gorgeous historical backdrop that gives you a sense of what the time period was like and how the time period’s events affect the characters’ perspective on life.

Respectively, the setting of these books is 1849, 1897 and 1930 and each is set in the United States. While each of these reviews is written by a different subscriber, I can only imagine that reading these in chronological order of their setting would give one an amazing picture of the U.S.

Below is a short summary of each novel followed by a Recycle Read Repeat subscriber’s rating and feedback!

The Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende is set in San Francisco during the gold rush. The protagonist is a Chilean immigrant who sets off to find the man she loves and the father of the baby she is carrying who left to find his share of gold. As she looks for the unfindable Joaquin, she meets plenty of characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book was absolutely perfect. I loved how it began as what seemed to be a collection of short stories about each character but eventually they were all woven together in this incredible tale. I laughed and cried and didn’t want it to end

The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr is a standalone sequel to Carr’s The Alienist (also a wonderful book). The protagonist of both books is Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a forensic psychiatrist at the beginning of the field. In The Alienist, Kreizler and his team track down a serial killer (that word not yet coined) and in Angel of Darkness they do the same both taking place in New York City.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved the depth of this thriller/mystery and in such a unique time period

The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick is also set in California. After escaping a sanitarium, our protagonist, Adelaide Blake, tries to start over in Hollywood. Through her work in a tea shop she meets and falls in love with Jacob. Together they meet a conwoman whose death pulls them into a murky and deceitful world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a very well written mystery with a dash of romance. I also loved that it was historical fiction. The book length was under 375 pages and it had a good font size. Super choice!

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