Fascinating New February Historical Fiction

Release date: February 10, 2026

If you keep up with any “most anticipated” lists, you’ve probably seen the buzz this book is already getting. I know I have. Sadeqa Johnson, author of Yellow Wife and The House of Eve, turns her eye toward the little-known plight of the mixed-race children born to German women and Black US soldiers in the wake of WWII. Told from the perspective of a soldier, a lost child growing up in the US, and the woman determined to save as many of these children as possible, Keeper of Lost Children is a moving portrait of a little-known aspect of post-WWII history.

Release date: February 10, 2026

A con artist calling herself a vampire slayer and an orphan blamed for the village curse team up to create a monster that could be their ticket to a better future for both of them. Unfortunately, their monster proves to be a little more alive than they expected. Now, they’ll have to do the impossible task they claimed to be undertaking from the beginning: ridding the world of monsters hell-bent on destroying them all.

Release date: February 24, 2026

In 1849 London, Dr. Nora Gibson is in a class of her own: the only female surgeon in all of England. She’s fought prejudice, institutional barriers, and all of society to get where she is today. Now, her fight to bring midwives into the field of medicine could end everything she’s ever worked for. Nora knows a thing or two about fighting for what she believes in, though. But when a deadly cholera epidemic sweeps across the city, she will have to find even more fortitude to stand alone in the face of a devastating disease.

Release date: February 24, 2026

The author of the epic fantasy series Faebound turns her attention to Cleopatra with this historical fiction epic. This isn’t exactly the story of Cleopatra you’ve been told before, though. This is this fantastical reimagining inspired by historical fact, legend, and the myth of a larger-than-life woman who changed the face of Egypt and history with her reign.

Release date: February 24, 2026

A Broadway and silent film star whose successful career has taken her all the way from London to New York hastens to return home when she gets word that her brother plans to enlist in the Great War. She books a ticket on the fastest luxury liner in the world: the RMS Lusitania. But the ship flies a British flag, and Germany has declared all British vessels fair game. Surely they wouldn’t attack a passenger ship with civilians, Americans even, whatever else they’ve said. As the ship approaches Liverpool, however, they’ll be proven terribly wrong.

Release date: February 24, 2026

Mediha, Zainab, and Ishtar are sisters, but they haven’t felt like family for some time. When an old painting of their father’s is uncovered, they, along with Zainab’s son, a war correspondent named Nizar, are reunited for the first time in many years. The discovery of their late father’s painting is just the push the family needed to finally face the traumas, betrayals, and heartbreak that pulled them apart in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.

Release date: February 24, 2026

Inspired by real-life choreographer Katherine Dunham’s trip to Jamaica to explore Caribbean dance, Where the False Gods Dwell tells not just the story of a legendary 1930s choreographer or a Caribbean adventure, but the sisterhood of the four women who come together to help each other when they need it most. Because even as they battle their own private struggles, a deadly hurricane is hurtling directly their way.