My 2025 HF Reads

 Here's my ongoing list of completed Historical Fiction for 2025:

1. The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick
2. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
3. The Queen's Favourite by Laura Dowers

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

 I am a big sucker for reading challenges and since Historical Fiction is my favourite genre I'm going to join the Historical Fiction Challenge over at The Intrepid Reader and Baker. I'm still deciding which level I will be trying to reach!

Any sub-genre of historical fiction is accepted (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, History/Non-Fiction, etc.)

During the following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

20th Century Reader - 2 books
Victorian Reader - 5 books
Renaissance Reader - 10 books
Medieval - 15 books
Ancient History - 25 books
Prehistoric - 50+ books

My Favourite Authors Pt 2 Alison Weir

Second one my list of favourite authors is Alison Weir, who is a prolific writer of history, both fiction and non-fiction.  I took a few months in 2021 to read all of her books about the six wives of Henry VIII and I really enjoyed them.

Six Tudor Queens Series

Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen ✔

Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession ✔

Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen ✔

Anna of Kleve, The Princess in the Portrait ✔

Katheryn Howard, The Scandalous Queen ✔

Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife ✔

My Favourite Authors Pt 1 Philippa Gregory

 One of my favourite genres is historical fiction and I mean real historical fiction, not stories set in the 1900s, but earlier, say the 1600-1700s. I laughed out loud when I heard someone say that stories set in the 1990s are now being considered 'historical'! Ha! Philippa Gregory is one of my favourite writers of British royalty history. Philippa has written several series and of course, I'm trying to read all of them. Here's the list of how I'm doing with reading through her backlist.

The Fairmile Series

• Tidelands ✔
• Dark Tides ✔
• Dawnlands ✔

The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels

• The Lady of the Rivers ✔
• The White Queen ✔
• The Red Queen ✔
• The Kingmaker's Daughter ✔
• The White Princess
• The Constant Princess
• The King's Curse
• Three Sisters, Three Queens
• The Other Boleyn Girl ✔
• The Boleyn Inheritance
• The Taming of the Queen ✔
• The Queen's Fool
• The Virgin's Lover
• The Last Tudor ✔
• The Other Queen

Library Haul for Sat Dec 10/22

I must have been impatient while waiting for one of this week's library books because I broke down and bought the ebook set of books 1-6 of The Last Kingdom. Hubby and I are buddy reading it and having it as an ebook is great because we actually read at the same pace. 

Here is the list of what I have out from the library:

• The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
• Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
• The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory
• The Abbot's Tale by Conn Iggulden

2023's First Reading Challenge

I'm excited to begin my reading blog with a link to the first challenge that I will be participating in: 2023 Historical Fiction. Historical Fiction is probably my favourite genre to read and the category that I read the most. 

The challenge offers 6 levels of completion:

20th Century Reader - 2 books

Victorian Reader - 5 books

Renaissance Reader - 10 books

Medieval Reader - 15 books

Ancient History Reader - 25 books

Prehistoric Reader - 50+ books