A Holiday Book List for the Historical Fiction Fan: Timeless Tales for a Cozy Season

The holiday season is the perfect time to curl up with a story that transports you across continents, centuries, and unforgettable moments in history. Whether you love epic sagas, intimate character-driven journeys, or richly detailed worlds grounded in real events, historical fiction delivers a kind of magic all its own.

This year, we’ve curated a special list of five must-read historical fiction titles from Sunbury Press, perfect for gifting to the history lover in your life or for treating yourself to a little literary escape.

Settle in, pour something warm, and take a trip through time with these incredible reads.

..........

1. Summer of Meteors by Kris Schaale

Don’t miss this must read…
As the nation teeters on the edge of civil war, three women converge at the elegant Bedford Springs Hotel in Pennsylvania. Harriet Lane, strongminded and vivacious niece to President James Buchanan and the nation’s “Democratic Queen,” begins to question the cost of loyalty as her uncle’s stance on slavery casts a long shadow. Anne McCoy, a quiet Quaker widow, carries the scars of loss, and dangerous secrets. Juba, an enslaved nursemaid to a presidential guest, dreams of freedom and the family torn from her.

When a chance encounter with local agents of the Underground Railroad sparks a daring escape plan, loyalties are tested, and lives are forever changed. Meanwhile as scandal brews and radical abolitionist John Brown plots revolution nearby, these women must decide what they’re willing to risk for justice and each other.

Set against the backdrop of a divided America, Summer of Meteors is a powerful tale of courage, sacrifice, and the bonds forged in the fight for freedom. A forgotten summer where history burned across the sky and nothing, not even the stars, would ever look the same.

 

2. The Whispers of War by Sarah Peachey

For readers who love character-rich, emotional journeys…
An anti-war military child who longs for freedom. A career-Army father who can’t imagine being anything else. A long war bound to change them. 

Fourteen-year-old Annaliese Pechman has always been a military child, but no one knows how she resents the frequent relocation or the long separations from her beloved father. After moving to Fort Drum, New York, she purchases a leather-bound journal to record her hopes and dreams under the watchful eye of her idol, Emily Dickinson. But Anna’s life changes on September 11, 2001, rinsing away her naivete and exposing the world’s harsh realities.

Anna’s father, Robert, deploys in October 2001 as part of the first conventional forces in Afghanistan, while Anna struggles to find her place in the constant change. But one thing rises above the noise: Anna’s disapproval of war and her father’s role in it. Two months before Robert deploys yet again, Anna basks in the success of her first anti-war protest, but Robert disapproves for reasons Anna can’t understand. When Robert suffers a grave injury, Anna places her future on hold, but more than physical recovery is at stake. Anna must decide whether family bonds are enough to heal the wounds of war, or if it’s time to walk away alone. 

3. The Indigo Scarf by P.J. Piccirillo

A story that blends fact, fiction, and unforgettable storytelling…
Based on the true story of two slaves who fled their owners with white women into the wilderness of north-central Pennsylvania, The Indigo Scarf interprets the little known legacy of slavery persisting in the north during the nineteenth century. Meticulously researched, the author’s work is informed by scholars in early American slave laws and northern black codes, by experts in post-colonial folkways, and by descendants who live to this day in the fugitive settlement their forbears established. While The Indigo Scarf relates the covert workings of sympathetic Quakers, the ruthlessness of a slave catcher, and the irony of a Revolutionary War veteran forced to face his daughter’s love for the slave Jedediah James, it treats the deeper theme of the spirit-breaking impact slavery has had across generations since abolition. 

Though shadowed in whiskey-making and timber-pirating, The Indigo Scarf is a paean to devotion, testing the lengths a woman will go to save her man from a burning vengeance as he confronts the privations of a wild frontier while his former owner schemes his return. On a broader scale, the story is a testament to the perseverance and vision of pioneer women who devoted themselves to planting in their offspring the seeds of hope for liberty which may only be realized by descendants they would never know. 

Woven between scenes spanning a forbidden, historically based slave marriage on a plantation in Virginia’s tidewater region to a tragic liquor operation on the Susquehanna’s un-peopled and feral West Branch during the frontier decades after Pennsylvania’s last Indian purchase, the narrator’s own sub-tale culminates in her realization of how a pioneer-woman ancestor had destined her to break the generational chain of bondage.

4. The Journey of the Snake by Adam Smith

An emotional, gripping story…
As a ten-year-old in Charleston, Charlotte Savatier was traumatized when she watched her Wacataw Indian mother and French father hang for a crime they didn’t commit. That day, her Wacataw uncle whisked her off to Quebec City. A decade later, during the American Revolution, Charlotte’s husband, an attorney in the British army, is sent to Charleston to investigate the murder of a prominent French prisoner of war. Charlotte and her uncle seize the opportunity for revenge. They’ve known all along who framed and murdered her wealthy parents. 

When Charlotte’s husband dies unexpectedly, the Charleston Board of Police wants her to take over his investigation. Years of assisting her husband taught her the pitfalls of getting men to cooperate with a female investigator, so she’s reluctant to accept the position—until she learns the royalist officer she must report to is her parents’ murderer. Dedicated to completing her husband’s investigation and getting revenge for her parents, Charlotte seeks an ally in a ruthless young Brit named Heathcliff. But as more murders complicate her investigation, she finds controlling Heathcliff’s greed an even bigger challenge that could cost her her life.  

5. Sowing Dragon Teeth by Dana Dillon

Perfect for fans of action-packed, immersive historical worlds…
A Novel of the Battle of Lexington and Concord

In Colonial Massachusetts at the dawning of the American Revolution, an enslaved African American and a reluctant Patriot must battle the British regulars to stop their raid to destroy American arms. Quock grew up enslaved on a farm in Lexington but joins Lexington’s militia to resist the British regulars. Jason Green, fought for his king during the last war, but he shares his countrymen’s anger at parliament’s intolerable acts.  Llewellyn Caradoc, a veteran line officer in the British Army and his friend and patron Lord Robert Dandridge are ordered to lead a perilous mission to destroy rebel arms in Concord.

When Jason hears of the British raid he is forced to choose between king and country. As his corps marches to Concord Llewellyn learns that the Yankee militia were alerted, and thousands of minutemen are already descending on Concord. Robert uncovers a rebel spy, but she knows Robert’s secret and blackmails him to silence. Quock finds that even as he fights with an Army that rose to defend its rights, those rights may not extend to Black Americans.

..........

Why Historical Fiction Makes the Perfect Holiday Read

Great historical fiction doesn’t just retell events- it brings them to life. These stories connect us with the past in ways that feel personal, emotional, and deeply human. During a season built around reflection, connection, and storytelling, historical fiction is the ideal companion.

Whether you’re gifting to a fellow book lover or building your own holiday reading stack, we hope this curated list helps you discover a new favorite.

Explore More From Sunbury Press

Our shelves are filled with stories that illuminate the past, inspire the present, and spark conversation long after the last page.

Browse more historical fiction and holiday gift picks on our website!