5 Historical Fiction Recs for Women's History Month

And a poem...

Mar 01, 2025

As a reader of historical fiction, these past few weeks have had me looking back at the complex history of my country. I’ve never written a poem in my life, but last night my finger flew over the keys as my emotions lodged in my throat.

The combination of keystrokes created a mess of emotions jumbled into words. I’ve gone back and forth about sharing it with you, but I’m embracing my own advice to share from a place of vulnerability.

First, I leave you with 5 historical fiction books for Women’s History Month… then my poem to follow.

Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side and understood more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis and revolutionize modern communication...if anyone would listen to her.

A powerful book based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece that celebrates the many women in science that history has overlooked.

Check it out HERE.

The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII—in and out of uniform—for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come.

From daring spies to audacious pilots, from innovative scientists to indomitable resistance fighters, these extraordinary women stepped out of line and into history, forever altering the world's landscape. This page-turning narrative, crafted with meticulous historical accuracy by retired U.S. Army Major General Mari K. Eder, provides a fresh perspective on the integral roles that women played during WWII.

Liane B. Russell fled Austria with nothing and later became a renowned U.S. scientist whose research on the effects of radiation on embryos made a difference to thousands of lives.
Gena Turgel was a prisoner who worked in the hospital at Bergen-Belsen and cared for the young Anne Frank, who was dying of typhus. Gena survived and went on to write a memoir and spent her life educating children about the Holocaust.
Ida and Louise Cook were British sisters who repeatedly smuggled out jewelry and furs and served as sponsors for refugees, and they also established temporary housing for immigrant families in London.

Whether you're a history enthusiast, a lover of powerful women's stories, or an avid reader of WWII nonfiction, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line is a must-read and a poignant testament to the forgotten women who stepped up when the world needed them most.

Check it out HERE.

Was Sarah Winchester a woman of mystery or simply a strong woman who lived her life on her own terms? It will take another strong woman to ensure her story is told.

1918 – Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune, has read and heard all the newspaper stories written about her. Snob. Crazy. Insane. Spiritualist. Ghosts. Séances. The list goes on and on. At the age of seventy-nine, she’s lived an incredible life, and her wealth has allowed her to live as she pleased. Sarah loves projects, and now she has one last project she wishes to complete. It’s time she compiled her life story so friends and family will know the truth once she’s gone. But with her crippling arthritis, she needs someone to help her. She hopes the young woman her lawyer, Frank Lieb, has sent to the house will fit in with her staff and work well as her typist. Sarah knows she doesn’t have many years left, and this is a project she is determined to finish.

1918 – Olivia Collins is a young single woman who has found herself in a precarious predicament. Through a mutual friend, lawyer Frank Lieb, she’s been offered a chance to work with the infamous Sarah Winchester. Olivia is nervous about meeting the elderly woman she has heard stories about all her life. But she desperately needs this job. Without it, Olivia has no idea what her future will hold.

Today – Morgan Connors is helping her mother go through her recently deceased grandmother’s possessions when she comes upon an old manuscript. The title states it is Sarah Winchester’s Autobiography. Morgan works as an acquisition editor at a publisher in San Francisco and knows that no such book has ever been published. When her mother explains that Morgan’s great-great-grandmother, Olivia Collins, once worked for Mrs. Winchester, she’s intrigued. Who was Olivia Collins, and why did she have a manuscript of Sarah Winchester’s life story?

Mrs. Winchester’s Biographer tells the captivating story of Sarah Winchester’s life and how she became one of the most talked-about women of her time despite her attempts to protect her privacy.

Check it out HERE.

The compelling, hidden story of Cathy Williams, a former slave and the only woman to ever serve with the legendary Buffalo Soldiers.

“Here’s the first thing you need to know about Miss Cathy Williams: I am the daughter of a daughter of a queen and my mama never let me forget it.”

Though born into bondage on a “miserable tobacco farm” in Little Dixie, Missouri, Cathy Williams was never allowed to consider herself a slave. According to her mother, she was a captive, destined by her noble warrior blood to escape the enemy. Her chance at freedom presents itself with the arrival of Union general Phillip Henry “Smash ‘em Up” Sheridan, the outcast of West Point who takes the rawboned, prideful young woman into service. At war’s end, having tasted freedom, Cathy refuses to return to servitude and makes the monumental decision to disguise herself as a man and join the Army’s legendary Buffalo Soldiers.

Alone now in the ultimate man’s world, Cathy must fight not only for her survival and freedom, but she also vows to never give up on finding her mother, her little sister, and the love of the only man strong enough to win her heart. Inspired by the stunning, true story of Private Williams, this American heroine comes to vivid life in a sweeping and magnificent tale about one woman’s fight for freedom, respect and independence.

Check it out HERE.

Based on an actual historical event but told through fictional diaries, this is the story of May Dodd—a remarkable woman who, in 1875, travels through the American West to marry the chief of the Cheyenne Nation.

One Thousand White Women begins with May Dodd’s journey into an unknown world. Having been committed to an insane asylum by her blue-blood family for the crime of loving a man beneath her station, May finds that her only hope for freedom and redemption is to participate in a secret government program whereby women from “civilized” society become the brides of Cheyenne warriors. What follows is a series of breathtaking adventures—May’s brief, passionate romance with the gallant young army captain John Bourke; her marriage to the great chief Little Wolf; and her conflict of being caught between loving two men and living two completely different lives.

Check it out HERE.

I hope these stories inspire you this month and always.