Fresh Historical Fiction Books Hitting Shelves This September
September brings with it the quiet shift of seasons—the perfect time to cozy up with a new book. And what better way to welcome autumn than with fresh historical fiction releases that promise to transport us across time and place?
1. The Spoon and the Sea by Rachel Caplin
Release Date: September 2, 2025
Ashi has always lived between worlds: the Arab island of Zanzibar where he was raised by his father, and the Jewish heritage of his British mother, Rose, who left when he was a child. Now, as Rose slips into the haze of dementia, she and Ashi begin an emotional journey to trace the fragments of a life lived apart.
From the leafy streets of Golders Green to the battle-scarred streets of British Mandate Palestine, through the spice markets of Zanzibar and into the soul of Jerusalem, The Spoon and the Sea is a sweeping, intimate novel about the fragile threads that bind us across generations, time and distance.
Inspired by true events and named a finalist for The Australian Vogel Literary Award, this novel explores the ache of separation, the power of storytelling, and the possibility of healing before time runs out.
2. The Girl in the Green Dress by Mariah Fredericks
Release Date: September 2, 2025
New York, 1920.
Zelda Fitzgerald is bored, bored, bored. Although she’s newly married to the hottest writer in America, and one half of the literary scene’s "it" couple, Zelda is at loose ends while Scott works on his next novel, The Beautiful and the Damned.
Meanwhile, Atlanta journalist Morris Markey has arrived in New York and is lost in every way possible. Recently returned from the war and without connections, he hovers at the edge of the city’s revels, unable to hear the secrets that might give him his first big story.
When notorious man-about-town Joseph Elwell is found shot through the head in his swanky townhouse, the fortunes the two southerners collide when they realize they were both among the last to see him alive. Zelda encountered Elwell at the scandalous Midnight Frolic revue on the night of his death, and Markey saw him just hours before with a ravishing mystery woman dressed in green. Markey has his story. Zelda has her next adventure.
As they investigate which of Elwell’s many lovers—or possibly an enraged husband—would have wanted the dapper society man dead, Zelda sweeps Markey into her New York, the heady, gaudy Jazz Age of excess and abandon, as the lost generation takes its first giddy steps into a decade-long spree. Everyone has come to do something, the more scandalous the better; Zelda is hungry for love and sensation, Markey desperate for success and recognition. As they each follow these ultimately dangerous desires, the pair close in on what really happened that night—and hunt for the elusive girl in the green dress who may hold the truth.
Based on the real story of the unsolved deaths of Joseph Elwell and New Yorker writer Morris Markey, Mariah Fredericks’s new novel is a glittering homage to the dawn of the Jazz Age, as well as a deft and searing portrait of the dark side of fame.
3. At Last by Marisa Silver
Release Date: September 2, 2025
Helene Simonauer and Evelyn Turner are two formidable women whose paths cross when their children marry. Both women are sharp, cunning, and unwavering in their conflicting beliefs about marriage, responsibility, and family and, most pressingly, their efforts to vie for the love of their shared granddaughter.
At Last paints a vivid portrait of the American Midwest, capturing the essence of a time and place where societal norms and personal aspirations often clashed. Marisa Silver’s narrative weaves together the lives of Helene and Evelyn, from their vastly different childhoods through the pivotal events that define them. Both intimate and expansive, and capturing the complexities of ambition and love with humor and insight, At Last is a testament to what happens when an unintended, even unwanted relationship turns out to be a central one that defines a life.
4. Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely? by Sarah McCoy
Release Date: September 2, 2025
In 1969, twenty-three-year-old starlet Lori Lovely, the apple of Hollywood’s eye, shocks the world by ditching a promising film career to take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a Benedictine nun. Gossip columnists and scandal sheets can’t get enough of the story. Why would such a beautiful girl take the veil? Was she hiding from someone? Did it have anything to do with the tragic death of her costar, heartthrob singer Lucas Wesley?
In 1990, Lu Tibbott is under the gun to complete her senior thesis in modern American history. Instead of spending weeks in dusty archives, Lu decides to dig into a true twentieth-century mystery and write about her aunt Lori, now the Mother Abbess at a cloistered convent in rural New England. Biographers, bloggers, and media types have long speculated about her aunt Lori’s sudden departure from Hollywood. Mother Lori, however, has refused all requests for interviews—until Lu arrives at the abbey with a tape recorder in hand. To her delight, Mother Lori announces she’s finally ready to talk...but only if Lu is truly ready to listen.
Lu is shocked to discover that the story of Lori Lovely’s rise in Hollywood was far more tumultuous than she’d ever expected, a fairy tale twisting with ambition, unforeseen alliances, forbidden love, and secrets. What began as a history thesis now threatens to upend all their lives with its unexpected truths, especially as the media gets wind of Lu’s project and begins to ask…
Whatever happened to Lori Lovely?
5. Circle of Days by Ken Follett
Release Date: September 23, 2025
A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers within their herder community.
A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE
Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.
A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION
Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders—and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare.
Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.
6. The Guest in Room 120 by Sara Ackerman
Release Date: September 23, 2025
1905 As the mother of a university and a woman with an iron will, Jane Stanford has made her share of enemies. After a scare at her mansion in San Francisco and on the advice of her doctor, she flees to Honolulu and the fashionable new Moana hotel. But as fate would have it, the island is not as safe as it seems.
2005 Zoe Finch is a bestselling author who desperately needs a jump start on her next novel, and she makes a split decision to attend a writers' conference at the Moana under an assumed name. As a storm brews offshore, she begins having nightmares that feel hauntingly real. Terrified, Zoe enlists the help of mystery writer Dylan Winters and, over the course of the week, races to uncover the shocking truth of what happened in the hotel one hundred years ago almost to the day.
1905 ‘Iliahi Baldwin’s life changes the moment she lands a job at the Moana. Newly hired and reeling from a tragic loss, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the formidable Jane Stanford upon her arrival, which leaves young ‘Ili devastated when the unthinkable happens. ‘Ili knows things, but there are powerful people who need the truth to remain hidden, and to cross them could prove disastrous.
Inspired by the incredible true story of one of America’s most mysterious deaths, this is an unforgettable tale of betrayal and secrets that still echoes through the years.
7. A Dark and Deadly Journey by Julia Kelly
Release Date: September 23, 2025
Evelyne Redfern returns in A Dark and Deadly Journey, the next book in international bestselling author Julia Kelly’s captivating historical mystery series.
After being sidelined for a pesky gunshot wound, typist-turned-field agent Evelyne Redfern is ready for her next assignment with Britain’s secretive Special Investigations Unit. When a British Intelligence informant in Portugal mysteriously disappears just after hinting that he has vital information about German plans that could tip the balance of World War Two, Evelyne and her dashingly irksome partner, David Poole, are sent headed to Lisbon to find him.
Once they land, Evelyne and David aren't even able to leave the airport, before she discovers one of their fellow aeroplane passengers murdered and uncovers a diary with a clear link between the victim and their missing informant. With their mission in jeopardy before it can truly begin, Evelyne and David fight to keep their cover intact as they descend deeper into the shadows that surround Lisbon’s glittering collection of wealthy expats and dangerous spies. This case will test Evelyne and David’s training, charm, and wit—and their growing attraction for one another.
8. The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes by Chanel Cleeton
Release Date: September 30, 2025
London, 2024: American expat Margo Reynolds is renowned for her talent at sourcing rare antiques for her clients, but she’s never had a request quite like this one. She’s been hired to find a mysterious book published over a century ago. With a single copy left in existence, it has a storied past shrouded in secrecy—and her client isn’t the only person determined to procure it at any cost.
Havana, 1966: Librarian Pilar Castillo has devoted her life to books, and in the chaotic days following her husband’s unjust imprisonment by Fidel Castro, reading is her only source of solace. So when a neighbor fleeing Cuba asks her to return a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar will risk everything to protect the literary work entrusted to her care. It’s a dangerous mission that reveals to her the power of one book to change a life.
Boston, 1900: For Cuban school teacher and aspiring author Eva Fuentes, traveling from Havana to Harvard to study for the summer is the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a whirlwind adventure that leaves her little time to write, but a moonlit encounter with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. The story that pours out of her is one of forbidden love, secrets, and lies… and though Eva cannot yet see it, the book will be a danger and salvation for the lives it touches.
9. Everyone A Stranger by Kevin O'Brien
Release Date: September 30, 2025
Washington D.C., 1943: Virginia Abrams believed the war had taken all it could from her when her husband was killed at Guadalcanal. One year later, she’s in a dark, unexpected quandary—pregnant and on the run to avoid a ruthless political family that wants to erase all connections between her and the man who assaulted her.
Changing her name, Virginia moves to Seattle to start over. Against her better instincts, she’s pulled into the lives of her new neighbors in an apartment complex—especially Tim, a young boy whose mother dies suddenly in a fall. Virginia fears that her whereabouts have been discovered, and she was the intended target . . .
But there are secrets between the residents too—stormy affairs, mysterious visitors, whispers and rumors. Tim is convinced there are saboteurs among them, hiding in plain sight. Virginia wants to discount his teenage imagination and her own rising paranoia, yet there’s something menacing here.
Torn between wanting to help the boy and safeguarding her anonymity, Virginia tentatively begins piecing the puzzle together with the help of some of her neighbors. But now others are dying in an escalating series of “accidents.” No one is entirely who they seem to be. No one can be trusted. And though she doesn’t know it yet, her own life is hanging by the thinnest thread . . .
10. The Mad Wife by Meagan Church
Release Date: September 30, 2025
They called it hysteria. She called it survival.
Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel.
When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew—and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?
In the vein of The Bell Jar and The Hours, The Mad Wife weaves domestic drama with psychological suspense, so poignant and immersive, you won't want to put it down.
These novels are perfect for readers who appreciate emotional depth, compelling characters, and stories of personal transformation. Whether you’re revisiting the past or discovering a new journey, these September releases promise to offer an escape that lingers long after the final page. Don’t miss out—mark your calendars and get ready for some unforgettable reads!
Bonus for Historical Fiction Lovers:
For those who enjoy immersive historical fiction with emotional depth and complex family dynamics, keep an eye out for the fourth book in my Hotel Hamilton series, Whispers of Her Worth, releasing Fall 2025. Set against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in history, this novel explores the lives of resilient women navigating a world that often overlooks them. If you’re a fan of stories filled with everyday courage, family ties, and women coming into their own, be sure to add it to your reading list!
Happy reading!
Tanya
Avid reader I Tea drinker I Day dreamer