Summer’s heating up and so is your TBR. This season’s historical fiction is equal parts lush, heart-wrenching, and unputdownable. These books bring the past to life with the kind of vivid characters and emotional depth that will have you annotating every page as you relax on the beach.

The Teacher of Auschwitz by Wendy Holden

In the darkest place imaginable, Fredy Hirsch created a sanctuary of light. A gay Jewish man imprisoned in Auschwitz, Fredy fought for the lives and spirits of the children around him, begging SS officers for better food and building a makeshift schoolroom where young prisoners could sing, draw, and dream of freedom. Wendy Holden brings to life a real historical hero who risked everything to shield innocence from brutality. Readers will be moved by this powerful testament to resistance, love, and the audacity of hope in a place built to crush it.

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The Great Mann by Kyra Davis Lurie

Did someone say The Great Gatsby retelling? Welcome to Sugar Hill, where the parties are legendary and the politics are lethal. When Charlie Trammell arrives in postwar Los Angeles, he’s lured into a whirlwind of Black excellence, glamour, and Reaper Mann, a dazzling socialite whose charm could power the entire city. But the more Charlie gets swept up in this seductive world, the more he’s forced to reckon with the price of Black wealth and white resentment. Kyra Davis Lurie crafts a lush, layered portrait of identity, ambition, and community.

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The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel

Jewelry thief by trade, heartbreaker by accident, and haunted sister forever. Colette Marceau has lived a life of high-stakes heists and even higher emotional walls. Decades after losing her sister and a priceless diamond bracelet in wartime Paris, a museum exhibit sends her spiraling back into the past. Kristin Harmel delivers a glittering, emotionally rich story of redemption, memory, and the unrelenting pull of family secrets.

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These Heathens by Mia McKenzie

Fleeing small-town Georgia to seek an abortion in 1960, Doris Steele finds herself surrounded by glamorous queers, civil rights heroes, and radical ideas in Atlanta that crack her worldview wide open. Mia McKenzie’s novel is sharp, funny, and unflinchingly honest about the crossroads of race, gender, sexuality, and power. Doris’s coming-of-age is bold, tender, and unforgettable. You’ll finish this one and immediately want to start a book club to talk about it.

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A Bookseller in Madrid by Mario Escobar

Madrid, 1934: Bárbara, a German émigré fleeing Nazi Germany, opens a cozy little bookstore and hopes to rebuild her life. But as the Spanish Civil War ignites, her sanctuary of words is threatened, and she must choose between safety and standing up for the freedom she cherishes. This is a stirring ode to the power of literature to withstand even the ugliest storms.

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When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin

Three women, an elegant matriarch, her idealistic daughter, and a faithful servant, are torn apart by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. Each is thrust into danger, each forced to survive on grit, wits, and hope. With exquisite prose and haunting intimacy, Emma Pei Yin delivers a story of female resistance, fractured family, and the power of reunion.

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The Master Jeweler by Weina Dai Randel

A Fabergé egg in the snow sets off a glittering chain of events for Anyu Zhang, a Chinese orphan with an unshakable drive to become a master jeweler. From icy Harbin to the bustling streets of 1920s Shanghai, this is a tale of craftsmanship, ambition, and danger. Weina Dai Randel crafts a gem of a novel with gangsters, high society, and the cutthroat world of collectors and thieves.

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The Secret Library of Hanna Reeves by Christine Nolfi

Claire Shelton thought she was just cataloging antiques. What she finds instead is a hidden library, family secrets, and a cranky yet captivating older woman with stories to tell. Told through dual pov The Secret Library of Hanna Reeves blends a love letter to books with a powerful meditation on legacy and connection. If you adore novels about unlikely friendships and dusty tomes with dangerous secrets, this one’s a must.

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Eliza and the Duke by Harper St. George

Heiress Eliza Dove just wants a taste of adventure and happens to find it in Whitechapel’s fiercest fighter, a man with secrets as bruised as his knuckles. Harper St. George delivers steamy tension, Regency-era grit, and a heroine who refuses to settle for less than the full sweep of life and love.

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The English Masterpiece by Katherine Reay

London, 1973. Picasso is dead, but Lily Barnes is just getting started. As she helps curate the artist’s final exhibit at the Tate, a mystery surrounding a missing masterpiece propels her into a tangled web of lies, glamor, and art-world intrigue. Katherine Reay’s twisty, fast-paced story brims with secrets and sophistication. It’s The Da Vinci Code meets The Crown with a dash of Ocean’s Eleven. You’ll never look at a gallery the same way again.

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