Historical Fictionistas discussion

I am looking for HF that women will like! Anyone?

Try Far Away Home by Susan Denning


Far Away Home

Well...I am in a bit on an avid reading slump. I enjoy Westward Expansion, Pioneers, Outlaws, Midwives, etc. But I like to have characters that I can relate too as well.

Do you like romances? Maggie Osborne wrote a bunch of great Westerns for women (she has now retired, alas). The romance element is there, but does not dominate.

Great! I will check.

I loved The Whip.

Keri wrote: "I am looking for HF that women will like! Anyone?"

I am not big on self-promotion, but I think my HF trilogy might be just what you are looking for! It's the story of Doc Holliday and his real-life sweetheart, the model for Melanie in "Gone With the Wind." The publisher is doing a Goodreads giveaway for book one, "Inheritance," from now until May 8th. Let me know how you liked it!

Keri wrote: "I am looking for HF that women will like! Anyone?"

I loved The Sisters Brothers. Not being a woman, I should say that we read it in my local book group, and the women there enjoyed it. Also I asked two women reviewers to write about it, and you'll see they're very enthusiastic (scroll down and there are some videos about the book too): http://historicalnovelsociety.org/wal...

But it is violent...

I have read a few westerns that I could recommend (and I am a woman ;)):

These Is My Words
Lonesome Dove
Ride the Wind
Redeeming Love - christian fiction but not preachy.

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is one of my faves, but also violent.

C.P. wrote: "Do you like romances? Maggie Osborne wrote a bunch of great Westerns for women (she has now retired, alas). The romance element is there, but does not dominate."

The Promise of Jenny Jones was great and Silver Lining is one of my all time favorites. I do, I do, I do is a fascinating story of the Alaskan gold rush. All Maggie Osborne books!

Holly wrote: "The Promise of Jenny Jones was great and Silver Lining is one of my all time favorites. I do, I do, I do is a fascinating story of the Alaskan gold rush. All Maggie Osborne books!"

Three of my favorites, too, Holly. Also The Wives of Bowie Stone and Foxfire Bride!

One of my favorites is The German Bride The German Bride: A Novel by Joanna Hershon. It's a very different take on the wild west--following a German Jewish woman who leaves Berlin to marry a Jewish merchant there. Very beautiful writing and the interplay between the rugged background of Santa Fe and the small, elite community of Germans who helped outfit its outbackers is fascinating.

Hi! I have a book you might be interested in. The main character of my western is a woman who goes travels to west Texas to search for her long-time fiance, and doesn't exactly get what she bargained for. There's plenty of action and romantic elements as well. Hope you take a look at it!

I don't read many westerns but I enjoyed

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner is excellent.

Soon up for me are two westerns - Calico Palace and Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow? I have not read these yet but have read others by her and liked them a lot.

I like Robert B. Parker's Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch series that starts with Appaloosa. This one was also a film. He wrote the first 4, the last published posthumously. However, the person that co-wrote the film script with him has put out a 5th, and it's pretty much in keeping with Parker's.

Jubilee Trail and Calico Palace are both superb - the former about a New York society girl who marries a California trader just pre-Gold Rush, and the latter about the Gold Rush itself with a girl who ends up working in a gambling palace in San Francisco.

Prairie

I enjoyed The Whip a bio novel about "Charlie" Parkhurst, a woman who went West and lived as a man. Good period atmosphere.