Top Ten Tuesday: Voices of the Past Coming From the Future (Or, Top Ten Upcoming Historical Novels I'm Looking Forward to Reading)

The majority of the books I read are not set in the here and now, so today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is right up my alley: Top Ten Books Set in Another Time (can be historical, futuristic, alternate timelines, etc.). Since historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, I'm going to stick with that, but to jive a little more on the time theme, I'm going to focus on historical novels I'm looking forward to reading that are coming out in the (near) future. I'll try to highlight titles I haven't mentioned here before.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Upcoming Historical Novels I'm Looking Forward to Reading

1. The Artist of Blackberry Grange by Paulette Kennedy (coming May 1, 2025)—Set in 1925 in the Ozarks, this novel concerns Sadie Halloran, a grieving young woman in need of a new start. When she learns that her aunt—an artist who lives in a mansion on an Arkansas bluff—is in need of a live-in companion, she jumps at the opportunity. She's soon ensconced in an eerie, decaying house with her dementia-laden aunt who paints terrifying portraits and hints about dark family secrets. Is there any truth behind her aunt's mutterings? Sadie aims to find out...

2. Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong (coming May 20, 2025)—The Rip Through Time historical mystery series is one of my all-time favorites. It's about a homicide detective who is assaulted while visiting her dying grandmother in Edinburgh, Scotland. When Mallory awakens, she discovers she's still in the city, but it's now 1869 and she's inhabiting the body of a saucy young housemaid. Her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, is a physician who moonlights as a medical examiner. As Mallory tries to figure out how to get herself home, she can't help but try to help Dr. Gray solve the cases of violent death that show up in his morgue, even if it means blowing her cover. Eventually, she tells him the truth and is able to aid him more openly.

In Death at a Highland Wedding, the fourth book in the series, Mallory and Duncan travel to the Highlands to attend an acquaintance's nuptials. While exploring the grounds of the groom's ancestral castle, they come across a wildcat caught in one of the groom's traps. The animal's wounds don't match its apparent cause of death, however, which puzzles Mallory and Duncan. When a murder occurs at the wedding, they find themselves investigating a strange and mysterious case.

3. Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes (coming June 24, 2025)—Also set in the Scottish Highlands, this novel is about two mothers traveling the West Highland Way with their sons, 200+ years apart. When Keaka Denney starts having strange visions of a woman from the past who's in dire need of help, it leads to an odd, logic-defying encounter that just might save both women. 

4. Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs (coming July 15, 2025)—Based on a true story, Wiggs' newest concerns a group of young women who are inmates at a Catholic reform school in 1968. They've been brought there for various reasons—fighting, unwed pregnancy, same-sex attraction, protection, etc—and now must figure out how to survive their sentences without going mad. 

That's all the plot I can find for this one. The story sounds interesting but depressing, although the publisher's blurb promises that it's "life-affirming." I hope so! 

5. The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman (coming July 29, 2025)—I don't always love Wiseman's books, but this one sounds too intriguing to miss. It's set in 1930s rural Virginia, against the backdrop of the eugenics movement in the United States which led to the forced sterilization of thousands of people because of their race, lack of education, poverty, disability, etc. Lena Conti, an unwed mother with a 2-year-old daughter, is left alone at Ellis Island when the rest of her family is sent back to Germany. A relative of the family, a widower with young children, agrees to house Lena in exchange for housework and childminding. As she adjusts to her new life in the Blue Ridge Mountains, she realizes that people in this tight-knit community are deathly afraid of the government, which is trying to paint them all as too backward and ignorant to have children and land. When Lena's worst fears are realized and she finds herself torn away from her daughter, she resolves to do anything she has to to get her back. 

6. Last Light Over Galveston by Jennifer L. Wright (coming August 1, 2025)—When something terrible happens, shattering Kathleen McDaniel's hopes for a privileged, peaceful life in New York, she runs as far and as fast as she can. She finds a home on Galveston Island, Texas, where she works at an orphanage helping the nuns care for the children. When her past comes callling at the same time the infamous 1900 hurricane starts brewing, Kathleen must find some way to survive everyting that is coming for her.

7. The Moonshine Women by Michelle Collins Anderson (coming August 26, 2025)—Prohibition may be in full force, but in the Missouri Ozarks, the Strong family does what it always has—makes moonshine. With their father drowning his grief over their mother's death in his own product, it's up to the three Strong sisters to keep the business running. That's no easy task with Prohibition agents hiding in every holler. When tragedy strikes, the women will have to fight even harder to keep their business and their family together.

8. The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell (coming September 16, 2025)—Romance really isn't my genre, but this love story just sounds like fun. It's about two actors who are starring together in an adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. There are plenty of emotions zinging back and forth between them...just not the good kind. When an electrical accident transports the sniping co-stars back to the Regency Era, they have to work together to figure out how to get home, preferably without totally screwing up history. Can they do it?

9. The Night We Became Strangers by Lorena Hughes (coming September 30, 2025)—In 1949, eleven years after a radio station dramatization of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells convinced Americans that Martians were invading the planet, an Eucadorian station decided to broadcast their own version. Appalled listeners, terrified of impending alien gas raids, set fire to the radio station building, killing fifteen people. 

This novel tells this tragic true tale through the eyes of two journalists whose families were profoundly affected by what happened at the radio station. Although they don't trust each other, they decide to work together to find the answers both of them are desperately seeking. 

10. The Last Spirits of Manhattan by John A. McDermott (coming October 14, 2025)—Another novel that is based on a true story, this one takes place at a Manhattan house party thrown by Alfred Hitchcock in 1956. The famous movie director is delighted to announce to his celebrity guests that the venue he's chosen for his gala is known to be haunted. When ghostly happenings start occurring, Carolyn Banks (whose aunt owns the home) must confront some long-held family secrets. 

There you are, ten upcoming historical fiction titles that I can't wait to read. Are you a hist fic fan? Which are your favorites? If you're not into the genre, why not? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog. 

Happy TTT!