Where to Find Historical Fiction Worth Your Time

I don't write history to tell people what to think. I teach them how to find the truth for themselves.

That's the whole job, as far as I'm concerned. Not handing you a conclusion — handing you the tools to go dig one up on your own. So when people ask me where to find good historical fiction, what they're usually really asking is: how do I know this book actually did the work? How do I know the author sat with the records before they sat down to write the story?

That's the question worth answering. Not "which app has the biggest library."

Start With the Author, Not the Platform

Before you worry about Kindle versus Audible versus your library's app, worry about who wrote the thing. Historical fiction lives or dies on the research behind it, not the delivery method. A few things I look for:

• Author's notes and bibliographies. If a writer did the work, they want you to know it. They'll tell you what's documented, what's their own reconstruction, and where the line is between the two. If a book has no notes at all, that's a flag — not a dealbreaker, but a flag.

• Where the story sits relative to the record. Good historical fiction fills the gaps the archives leave — the conversations nobody transcribed, the private moments nobody recorded — without contradicting what's actually known. Bad historical fiction bends the record to fit the plot.

• Whether the author can point to their sources. Ask them. Most of us love talking about it.

Once you trust the author, then the format is just a convenience question.

Then Pick How You Want to Read It

• Library apps (Libby, Hoopla) — free, and honestly underrated. Most people don't know their library card gets them thousands of titles on their phone.

• Kindle / Apple Books — fine for straightforward reading, and they sync your spot across devices if you bounce between phone and tablet.

• Audible / Scribd — good for the drive, the barn, the chores. I know plenty of readers who "read" three books a month this way and never crack a spine.

• An author's own website or newsletter — this is the one people skip, and it's often where the real stuff lives. Deleted scenes, background on the research, sometimes early chapters before they're anywhere else. I post pieces like that myself.

None of these platforms make a book good. They just decide how it gets to you.

A Few Recent Reads Worth Knowing About

If you want a starting point:

• The Nightingale — Kristin Hannah, two sisters, occupied France.

• The Book Thief — Markus Zusak, WWII Germany, narrated by Death.

• The Tattooist of Auschwitz — Heather Morris, drawn from a real survivor's account.

• The Paris Library — Janet Skeslien Charles, the librarians who resisted the occupation.

• The Henna Artist — Alka Joshi, 1950s India, one woman's fight for independence.

Different wars, different centuries, same thread — writers who went and found the truth first, then built a story that could carry it.

The Real Test

Here's the test I'd give you, and it's the same one I hold my own books to: does the story survive contact with the record? Cross-reference it. Look up the event, the place, the year. If the fiction still holds up once you know what actually happened — that's a book that did its homework.

That's what I'm after every time I sit down to write, and it's what I'd tell you to look for every time you sit down to read.

True stories. Real history. Lasting impact.