Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly top ten list hosted by Jana at Artsy Reader Girl.

This week, the theme is ❤ love ❤ . Since I’m doing a historical reading challenge this year, I thought it might be fun to share historical fiction I’ve read and loved in the past.

Here goes!

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1. The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton

I discovered Anya Seton’s excellent historical fiction last year and started with The Winthrop Woman. It features a strong female character in colonial America. I now want to read all her books.

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2. The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier

Featuring another strong female in a different era – the English civil war. Funny, I always think of du Maurier as one of my favorite authors and yet I’ve only read two of her books. This and Rebecca. Must remedy that.

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3. Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright

Set in rural Ontario, this one is about two sisters and their relationship, as well as their different choices during a time of cultural upheaval. Clara’s sister moves to NYC to become a radio star and something terrible changes Clara’s life. Just talked myself into re-reading it…

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4. The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Murder at an English boarding school. What could be better? I’ll tell you. The audiobook version being read by the talented Jayne Entwistle, that’s what.

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5. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Lesbian characters, 1920s London, murder, Sarah Waters’ incredible storytelling. Audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson. You can’t go wrong.

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6. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

More strong female characters, this time enslaved women of the antebellum South.

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7. Doc by Mary Doria Russell 

I freakin’ love Doc Holliday. And at the hands of Mary Doria Russell, he comes to life, as does the 19th-century American West.

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8. The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Starring the woman who is hired to be the chaperone of early film star Louise Brooks. I might re-read this one too, actually.

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9. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles 

If you enjoy tangled webs of tricky and codependent relationships played out to great drama in historic settings, you’ll probably like this as much as I did.

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10. Brief Gaudy Hour: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Margaret Campbell Barnes

One of my favorite English queens through the eyes of Margaret Campbell Barnes, a talented writer who probably doesn’t get remembered as she should. And isn’t that a great book title?

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I could go on, but this is a top ten. I just adore this genre. As you can tell, I lean toward women’s stories, though the books I’ve listed here are mostly focused on white women’s stories. I aim to read more diverse books this year.

That said, got any historical fiction recommendations for me? Bonus points if they feature minority women characters!