Survivors and Single Decisions: From Cannae to the Titanic to the Pacific, This Week's Free Historical Fiction

by Alessandro Catorcini

Titus Labonius survives Cannae, the worst day in Roman military history, and spends the next fourteen years in exile in Sicily wondering if he lay among the dead a moment too long. That question carries him all the way toward Zama. It's sitting at 4.61 with 36 ratings, and one reader said they expected a standard Second Punic War novel and got something more reflective. If you like your ancient Rome with guilt and aftermath instead of just battle scenes, start here.

“I picked up The Shield Left Behind thinking I was going to read a historical novel about ancient Rome and the Second Punic War. I definitely got that, but somewhere along the way it became much more personal than I expected. What stayed with me most was Titus. He is the kind of character I slowly be”

by Laura McCrum

This is Book 1 of the Titanic Tales of Love and Loss series, and it mixes real passengers with invented ones across class lines in 1912. Titanic fiction is a crowded field, so I'm glad to see it landing at 4.46 with 39 ratings. Reviewers keep calling it beautifully written and emotional, so keep tissues nearby. A good pick if you want the ship's story told through the people, not the iceberg.

“Beautiful Thank you to NetGalley and LMC Publications for an Advanced Reader Copy of Titanic: Tales of Love and Loss— Cracks Beneath the Surface by Laura McCrum in exchange for an honest review. I’ve always been fascinated by the Titanic, but this is the first novel I’ve actually read about it, so...”

by Hollie Bell-Schinzing

Okay, this one is a bit different. It's a short read about why bikers hang bells on their motorcycles, tracing the tradition back to WWII pilots. It has a 4.65 from 20 readers, though nobody has written a review yet, so I'm going on the blurb alone. Fair warning, it reads more like folklore than a novel, but at the price of free, a curious motorcyclist could have a lot of fun with it.

by Georgia Lovett

A single decision in the jungles of Papua New Guinea echoes across generations and ends up in the Himalayas, with a family facing love, loss, faith, and forgiveness along the way. It's inspired by true events, and the setting alone makes it stand out from the usual European war shelf. It holds a 4.48 from 21 readers. Pick this up if you like multigenerational family sagas where old secrets come to light.

by James K Hawkins

This is Book 2 in the Broken Sky Saga, so you'll probably want to start with the first one. It follows Jeanne, Oliver, and Henry from occupied Paris to Washington and Berlin, and one death and a single gunshot set everything moving. It has the lowest rating on the list at 4.19 with 26 ratings, which is still perfectly solid. It's best for readers who like WWII stories full of resistance and deception, with real historical figures mixed in.