Rachel is a writer from Arkansas, most at home surrounded by forests and animals much like a Disney Princess. She spends most of her time writing stories and playing around in imaginary worlds. You can follow her writing at rachelbrittain.com. Socials: @rachelsbrittain
Rachel is a writer from Arkansas, most at home surrounded by forests and animals much like a Disney Princess. She spends most of her time writing stories and playing around in imaginary worlds. You can follow her writing at rachelbrittain.com. Socials: @rachelsbrittain
How do you like your historical fiction, distant or within-living-memory close? These new historical fiction releases for December provide both, from thirteenth-century Bruges (modern-day Belgium) to New York in the 1980s. There are generational family sagas and haunting portraits of post-colonial life. If you’re still looking for a few more historical fiction books to read before the end of the year, then you’ll be happy you found your way here.
Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards
Release date: Dec 2, 2025
A sixteen-year-old in thirteenth-century Bruges runs away from an unwelcome marriage only to find a new home amongst a group of religious women. The Beguines are strong-willed, independent women who have sworn themselves, not to the Church, but to a life of religious devotion. But there are those who do not appreciate women practicing religion outside the strict confines of the Church, and as tension grows between the Beguines and a bishop, Aleys and the women around her will have to plumb the depths of what it means to sacrifice for love.
All access members continue below for more of this month’s best historical fiction releases.
The Dream of the Jaguar by Miguel Bonnefoy and Ruth Diver
Release day: December 2, 2025
Bonnefoy’s novel traces the lineage of a remarkable family whose past is intrinsically linked to Venezuela, even as they move away from it. From an orphaned baby rescued from the steps of a church to the brilliant doctor he would eventually marry and their daughter who set her sights on a city oceans away, The Dream of the Jaguar tells a tale both enduring and personal, drawn on the history of the author’s own family.
Three Stories of Forgetting by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, translated by Alison Entrekin
Release date: December 9, 2025
Three men intricately wrapped up in the horrors of colonialism and slavery in the Portuguese empire reckon with their liminal place in the world, neither where they were nor where they hoped to be. An old trader of enslaved people searching for solitude, a man asking his daughter for forgiveness after fighting on the side of the colonizers in the Portuguese Colonial War, and an elderly enslaved person introducing a writer who will one day be famous to the world of French literature all face the torment of a past they can neither abide nor forget.
Between Good and Evil by Rochelle Alers
Release date: Dec 16, 2025
In 1960s New York City, three boys grow into young men on the Upper West Side, making the life choices that will set them down the paths of their future. Kenny dives into civil rights activism, Frankie works to expand his grandfather’s underground business into drugs, and Ray dreams of becoming a doctor. But as the change of the sixties and seventies gives way to the eighties, all three friends will have to reckon with the choices they’ve made, the people they’re becoming, and the men they really want to be.
Just Enough to Start Over by Sara Gothelf Bloom
Release date: Dec 25, 2025
As the threat of the Nazi party grows stronger in Germany, the Dubrovsky sisters leave behind their once-comfortable life to flee to China. They live as refugees, first in Shanghai, then London and Toronto, before finally landing in New York. Reflecting the story of the sisters are their three stolen paintings, transported across wartime Europe and crossing the paths of influential historical figures of the day.
Song of Ancient Lovers by Laura Restrepo, translated by Caro de Robertis
Release date: Dec 30, 2025
Past and present collide to remarkable effect in this novel about a writer who’s been obsessed with the Queen of Sheba since his youth, the midwife who agrees to show him around northern Africa, and the women he meets in refugee camps, whose courage and determination reminds him of that indomitable queen. It’s the story of how we’re connected across time and place.
Don’t forget about the historical fiction from November and October just because December’s new releases look so good!
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