Best New Historical Fiction - March 2026
Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: March 24, 2026
Synopsis:
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an extraordinary story of the woman who helped uncover Tutankhamun's tomb and the mystery behind Egypt’s first woman Pharaoh.
1920’s London was enthralled by the discovery of the treasure-filled tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Filled with priceless statues, jewels, and the gold-encased mummy of the boy Pharaoh himself, the burial site unleashed a fascination with the ancient world and revolutionized the world of archeology.
The discovery was made by Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle and his associate, famed archeologist Howard Carter. What no one knows is that without the pioneering spirit of Lady Evelyn Herbert, Carnarvon’s daughter, the tomb might never have been found. As a young woman, Evelyn was fascinated by the story of Hatshepsut, a woman who had to assume the guise of a man in order to rule Egypt. Although she brought peace and prosperity to Egypt, her male successors ruthlessly and thoroughly erased her name from history.
Lady Evelyn’s ambition to find the tomb of Egypt’s first woman ruler exposes her to life-threatening danger and pits her against archeologists who refuse to believe the tomb can be found―and certainly not by a woman. Refusing to give up, Evelyn is on the verge of success when she is suddenly forced to make an agonizing choice between loyalty to her beloved father and Carter and realizing the dream of a lifetime.
Why We Recommend It!
A richly layered tale of ambition and erasure, Daughter of Egypt illuminates the fierce determination of the women who challenged history itself, risking reputation and ruin to unearth a legacy buried beneath empire and time.
The Moonlight Runner by Karen Robards
Publisher: Park Row Books
Release Date: March 24, 2026
Synopsis:
In the wake of the Great War, a young woman joins the Irish rebellion and risks everything for her country in this sweeping story of love, bravery and the relentless pursuit of freedom.
Ireland, 1918. In a world brutalized by the Great War and devastated by the Spanish flu, twenty-two-year-old Rynn Carmichael is suddenly pulled into the war of independence when Donal O’Reilly, the boy she has loved for most of her life, takes up gunrunning in support of the rebellion.
Raised in a small Irish village on the shores of Donegal Bay, Rynn is working as a nurse in a convalescent home for soldiers wounded in the Great War when she overhears a British officer gloating over the trap that has been set for Irish gunrunners bringing a boat full of smuggled arms ashore. Knowing that Donal must be involved, she rushes out at midnight to warn the incoming boat, only to find herself caught up in a terrifying and tragic series of events that take her from the glittering ballrooms of London to the narrow back alleys of Dublin as she and those she loves fight for their lives and their country.
Why We Recommend It!
Set against the rising tide of rebellion, The Moonlight Runner is a sweeping story captures the perilous courage of a young woman torn between love and country, where every midnight decision carries the weight of freedom and sacrifice.
The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Release Date: March 17, 2026
Synopsis:
For readers of The Nightingale and In Memoriam, a sweeping novel of siblings, steeped in love, heart-rending loss, and sacrifice, the story of twins who meet shockingly different fates, but whose bond will last forever
Twins Tessa and Theo are roots of the same tree, in tune with one another’s every thought and desire. As World War II takes hold across Europe, both are eager to do their part. Theo is recruited by the RAF and disappears into the skies, while Tessa jumps at the chance to join the Special Operations Executive, devoted to spying and sabotage behind enemy lines. It will be dangerous, highly classified work, but Tessa, despite all she shares with Theo, is no stranger to secret-keeping.
Two years later, Theo comes home. Tessa does not.
Theo, wounded, broken by the loss of his fellows and his sister, is indefatigable, angry, driven, a clandestinely gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal—and he will pay a price for pursuing answers about Tessa’s fate.
Decades later, PhD candidate Edie is deep into her research on the Special Operations Executive during the war. When she finds Theo in London, they form an unlikely partnership, and together they finally uncover the truth about Theo’s beloved sister—a truth that stretches back to the summer Tessa spent in France before the war had even begun.
Stunningly and propulsively written, The Shock of the Light is a novel of bravery, the brutal human cost of war, a brother and sister bond that outlasts even death, and the redemptive love that grows in unexpected places.
Why We Recommend It!
A haunting and propulsive saga of wartime courage and enduring sibling devotion, The Shock of Light traces the devastating cost of secrecy and the redemptive power of truth across decades of loss and discovery.
A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: March 3, 2026
Synopsis:
Western Australia, 1958. A truck rumbles along a lonely outback road. A moment’s inattention, and in a few muddled seconds the lives of the MacBride family are shattered.
Instead of leaving them to heal, fate comes back for them in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child.
Set in the expanse of a vast and flat landscape, where the weather is a capricious god and a million-acre sheep station is barely a dot on the map, A Far-flung Life explores the hearts of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive.
Capturing a family, a community, A FAR-FLUNG LIFE tells of the many ways humans can do each other wrong and how we move on when things can’t be put right. With shimmering prose and a delicious wit, the mysteries of being human are laid bare in this hopeful meditation on time and resilience and the lengths we go to to protect what we love.
Why We Recommend It!
In the stark isolation of the Australian outback, A Far-Flung Life is a luminous family drama unravels a tragedy that tests loyalty, conscience, and the fragile bonds that hold communities—and hearts—together.
An Ocean of Stars by Imogen Martin
Publisher: Storm Publishing
Release Date: March 2, 2026
Synopsis:
Boston, 1879. Phoebe Van Bergen has poured everything into the Van Bergen Women’s Hospital—her inheritance, her defiance, her desperate need to be more than society’s gilded ornament. Within its cramped wards, she matters.
Here, she is not the obedient fiancée of a man whose charm masks something darker. Here, she can breathe.
Then Dr. Douglas McLennan arrives from Scotland—brilliant, abrasive, and haunted by a loss so devastating he’s vowed never to love again. He dismisses Phoebe as a privileged do-gooder. She thinks him insufferably arrogant. Neither expects their clashes to become the most honest conversations of their lives.
But Phoebe is keeping secrets that could destroy her. And when Douglas becomes the one person who knows the truth—the shame she carries, the violence she’s survived—she knows he’s seen her at her most broken, and she might lose him forever.
When Phoebe finally breaks free of her engagement and travels to Scotland for a medical symposium, she never expects Douglas to be on the same journey—or for a catastrophic disaster on the Tay Bridge to strip away everything but what matters most. Faced with death, they must finally confront the question they’ve been running Is the risk of heartbreak worth the chance at being truly known?
Why We Recommend It!
A stirring tale of resilience and forbidden love, An Ocean of Stars follows two wounded souls who must confront their deepest fears in the shadow of ambition, scandal, and catastrophe to discover whether vulnerability can become their greatest strength.
