Calendar Girls: Best Historical Fiction Novel

Happy Monday lovelies! It’s that time again!

Calendar Girls Post time!

What is Calendar Girls?

Calendar Girls is a monthly book group, formed by Flavia and Melanie, inspired by the song Calendar Girl by Neil Sedaka. This lovely group votes on a monthly theme to center a blog post around (first Monday of the month) and then discusses these posts on Twitter about two weeks later (third Sunday of the month). If this sounds interesting to you, please give Melanie and Flavia a visit and let them know you would like to join!

For the month of August our theme is Best Historical Fiction Novel. This means that our post today is about our own personal favorites as far as Historical Fiction goes. We will be discussing our choices on Twitter at 8 p.m. est. on Sunday, August 20 with the hash tag #CGBChat.

We will also be having a read along together for a Historical Fiction Novel called My Lady Janeby Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows! This will be hosted by Flavia on on her blog.

Schedule

August 1, 2017 : Start reading!
August 9, 2017 : Chap 1 – 8
August 16, 2017 : Chap 9 – 15
August 23, 2017 : Chap 16 – 23
August 30, 2017 : Chap 24 – 30

Click here to read the announcement and sign-up post! If you will be joining, please be sure to sign up (using the image saying “sing up” which will lead you to a Google Forms sign-up page). Your information will not be shared with anyone, but is mainly for me to keep track of who’s participating, and also who is who regarding blogs, email, and Twitter.

P.s. Just because it’s called Calendar ‘Girls’ doesn’t mean only girls can join! 

Best Historical Fiction Novel Contenders:

I’ve decided to try to mention a few contenders each time I do a Calendar Girls Post. The contenders for the August theme are as follows:

Jackaby by William Ritter is a recent read and it was hilariously entertaining. Though it is categorized as a Historical Fiction Novel, it was more supernatural than historical, so it is a contender, but not my first choice.

The Mists of Avalon will always be one of my favorite books. It has an original twist on the story of King Arthur and Lady Morgaine. Though it is a Historical Fiction contender, again, it feels more fiction than historical, as there are still doubts if King Arthur ever existed.

Alex and Eliza was such a cute love story! It is definitely a contender for top Historical Fiction because it is about an actual relationship built during the American Revolution. I adored this book and thought the story was both historically accurate and real feeling.

Saved the best contender for last. Stalking Jack The Ripper is in VERY close second with my top choice. Kerri did an exceptional job with researching the time period and the serial killer and adding as many historical details as possible to the book. The only reason this one is not my top choice is because my top choice has just a bit more historical accuracy to it.

Best Historical Fiction Novel:

And, without further ado, my choice for Best Historical Fiction Novel is…

Good Reads Synopsis: London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman is a spectacular fantasy/supernatural/historical fiction book! You can find my full review here. The reason for my choice is that Alison spent a tremendous amount of time researching the time period and historical events, and used such elegant prose to portray the imagery of the fashion of the time period. From page one I felt like I was in London of 1812, and even with the fantasy aspects of the story, it felt real! This one had just the right amount of “historical” and “make-believe” to satisfy the reader in me!

My Instagram book group and I (The Literary Piratesses) actually decided to form our group when we agreed to read this book together. It was so good that we immediately jumped in to book 2 and have plans to read book 3 as soon as it is released! We are all lovers of Victorian and Regency London and all agree that the historical aspects of this series far surpass anything we have read before!

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Darque Dreamer

Blogger/ Punk Rocker / Quirky Housewife

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