Explore the Lives of Incredible Women in April’s Historical Fiction
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There’s something about these new releases, and it’s not like they all come out in April that deserve a spot on your TBR. If you look at the covers, you’ll notice that almost all of them have women staring off into the distance. It wasn’t intentional – not even by me or the publishers – but it’s definitely a trend. Since March was Women’s History Month in America, it seemed somewhat appropriate — if a little belated — to put an emphasis on women’s stories throughout history, and these new releases do exactly that.
So let’s take a little more time this month to focus on the stories of women who challenge expectations and societal norms, who move forward, make mistakes and live in both fame and infamy. Real and imagined, that’s exactly what the women in these new April historical fiction novels do. Maybe take a page from their book.
honey in wound by jeong han
Release date: 7 April 2026
Young-ja’s gift for infusing food with emotion brings joy to everyone she meets. But when her family faced violent consequences for disobedience against the Japanese Empire in Korea, her joy turned to sadness. Joining a resistance movement in Manchuria, where she can put her gift to use once again, helps, but it is not until her young, Tokyo-born granddaughter begins to demonstrate magical abilities of her own that she truly begins to confront the pain of her past and begin to enjoy life again.
Elizabeth and Marilyn By Julie Owen Moylan
Release date: 7 April 2026
Inspired by the time film icons Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth II lived as neighbors in Windsor in the summer of the 1950s, writer Julie Owen Moylan imagined a possible garden encounter between two women who were exactly the same age and knew what it meant to live a life in the harsh public spotlight. It dives deep into what these two women had to do to succeed in male-dominated fields.
Continue below for All Access members’ picks for this month’s best historical fantasy novels.
Museum City by kate hilton
Release date: 14 April 2026
During a dig in Egypt in the early 20th century, a renowned papyrologist – and one of the only women at the dig site – discovered that her predecessor had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. One hundred years later, archivist Maddy Sloan gets a chance to work with a famous TV archaeologist investigating the origins of some artifacts from the ancient city of Calliopolis. Maddie has a connection to the site through her grandmother, who worked there. But when their research leads them to the discovery that two papyrologists disappeared without explanation, it brings up questions about the past and a murder that may have been hidden for over a century.
The lost book of Elizabeth Barton By Jennifer Ann Brown
Release date: 14 April 2026
Inspired by a real-life nun who was executed for prophesying against the marriage of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, The lost book of Elizabeth Barton Imagines a surprising discovery: a manuscript containing the nun’s infamous prophecies, which was thought to have been destroyed. But the discovery may also spell danger for the historian who unearthed it, as the consequences of past and present collide in an English manor house, right next to the crumbling priory where Elizabeth once lived.
girl in a box By Jean Gordon Cosienda
Release date: 21 April 2026
In this novel based on the life of poet Yosano Akiko, Jean Gordon Kosinda paints a portrait of a woman determined to live life on her own terms, no matter the cost. Akiko, familiar to every schoolchild in Japan because of her translations story of genji– widely considered the first novel – was a pioneering poet who fled her parents and the restrictive patriarchal society of 20th-century Japan to pursue her art. But her single-minded passion for art results in a daughter whose haunted childhood mirrors her own.
edmonia by Brian Baker
Release date: 28 April 2026
Orphaned at age 8, Edmonia Lewis shows extraordinary talent—a talent that her older half-brother Samuel wants to nurture. Raised in the home of a trusted benefactor, Edmonia thrives at an abolitionist preparatory school and earns a place at Oberlin College. But there, a devastating allegation threatens to derail her entire life, resulting in a trial and a violent attack by a white mob. It’s only when she makes her way into a group of expatriate women artists in Rome that she begins to feel her art flourish again, despite criticism, blatant racism, and her own withering self-doubt.
Here are more great historical fantasy novels that center on women:
Historical fiction about women fighting fascism
10 Feminist Historical Fiction Titles
(Mostly female) spies in historical fiction from 1860 to 1975