I love blogging and writing and recommending books… but I know that I tend to get a little long-winded in my blog posts! FAST FIVE FRIDAY is a means for me to recognize some favorite books and round them up for recommendations without talking your ear off.
FAST FIVE FRIDAY | HISTORICAL FICTION WITH A TWIST
I’m currently reading HUNTING PRINCE DRACULA, the sequel to STALKING JACK THE RIPPER by Kerri Maniscalco and loving it! I’m not really a big historical fiction person but I have found that I’ve been loving historical fiction with a twist of its own. Whether it’s the addition of magic, a brand-new mystery, or an alternate timeline, historical fiction with a twist has really been grabbing me lately and I’m loving the intrigue of true life meets fiction!
What: Stalking Jack the Ripper
Who: Kerri Maniscalco
Why: Audrey Rose is all thorns and roses, feminine and yet tough, and she starts on the Jack the Ripper murders while apprenticing for her uncle as a forensics student.
Where: Goodreads | Review
What: The Crown’s Game
Who: Evelyn Skye
Why: Imperial Russia takes a twist with the introduction of a history of magic. A battle to the death arises as two enchanters fight to become the right-hand magician of the Tsar of Russia.
Where: Goodreads| Review
What: Born Wicked
Who: Jessica Spotswood
Why: Historical fiction meets magic again, this time with more witchy involvement in our past. An alt-history take on the Salem Witch Trials. Are these books good on audio? I desperately need to finish this series!
Where: Goodreads | Review
What: Grave Mercy
Who: Robin LaFevers
Why: Grave Mercy is some serious historical fiction complete with wars, tactics, and actual historical figures. There’s a lot of history in these books but I didn’t feel bogged down with facts and data. The story was fantastic, plus, assassin nuns. Nice mythology twist to bring a dark and mystical side.
Where: Goodreads | Review
What: Walk on Earth a Stranger
Who: Rae Carson
Why: I actually wasn’t the biggest fan of this book because for as much as it was advertised as historical fantasy, there wasn’t a whole lot of magic in this first book, BUT I did love that it focused on a time/place that isn’t often covered — the Gold Rush.
Where: Goodreads | Review
4 thoughts on “Fast Five Friday | Historical Fiction With a Twist”
The only one of these I haven’t read yet is Stalking Jack the Ripper, but I do plan to! Great List! I don’t read a lot of historical fiction either, unless like you it has a little something extra.
A couple that I really enjoy are the Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal (or at least the first two I’ve read so far) and the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. The first is an adult series set in Regency England but has magic, and the second is alternative WWI history with a little steampunk.
I haven’t read any of these, but they all sound fantastic!
I felt the same way about Walk On Earth A Stranger. I really liked Born Wicked and need to read Grave Mercy! I’m sure you’ve read Scarlet by AC Gaughen but that’s one I like a lot. Also Rook by Sharon Cameron is SO cool; it’s set in the future but a future that feels like the French Revolution so there is definitely some alternate history going on, and twists. It’s really really good! And this is an adult book but The Boleyn King by Laura Anderson is all about if Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn had a son who grew up to be king; I love the whole trilogy. And A Curse As Dark As Gold- it’s on the slower side but it’s hist fic with a slight magic/fairy tale twist, it’s a retelling of Rumplestiltskin.