I don’t often take part in year-long reading challenges as I prefer to just join in with shorter reading events these days. However, there’s still one that I like to participate in every year – and that is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader & Baker. Although it’s not really very challenging for me as I read a lot of historical fiction anyway, I do enjoy linking my reviews to the monthly challenge posts, seeing what other participants are reading and discovering new historical fiction novels and bloggers. Marg has also been posting monthly statistics so we can see which books and authors are proving particularly popular.
Before I post the details of the 2025 challenge, I want to look back at what I achieved in 2024.
I had signed up at the ‘Prehistoric’ level, which meant reading 50+ historical fiction novels during the year. I managed to read 57 (six more than last year’s 51) and here they are, with links to my reviews where available:
1. Silence by Shūsaku Endō
2. The Beholders by Hester Musson
3. The Spendthrift and the Swallow by Ambrose Parry
4. Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
5. The Bone Hunters by Joanne Burn
6. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
7. Clairmont by Lesley McDowell
8. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
9. The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
10. The Tower by Flora Carr
11. The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy
12. The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola
13. The Reckoning by Sharon Penman
14. The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small by Neil Jordan
15. The Fraud by Zadie Smith
16. The Household by Stacey Halls
17. A Plague of Serpents by KJ Maitland
18. Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein
19. Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis
20. The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron
21. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
22. The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
23. The Nightingale’s Castle by Sonia Velton
24. The Meiji Guillotine Murders by Futaro Yamada
25. The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews
26. Babylonia by Costanza Casati
27. A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk
28. The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite
29. The Trouble with Mrs Montgomery Hurst by Katie Lumsden
30. A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith
31. The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
32. House of Shades by Lianne Dillsworth
33. The King’s Witches by Kate Foster
34. The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
35. In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
36. A Court of Betrayal by Anne O’Brien
37. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson
38. The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley
39. Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead
40. A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike
41. The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley
42. Precipice by Robert Harris
43. Mary I: Queen of Sorrows by Alison Weir
44. Midnight in Vienna by Jane Thynne
45. God is an Englishman by RF Delderfield
46. The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
47. The Bells of Westminster by Leonora Nattrass
48. The Lost Queen by Carol McGrath
49. Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
50. City of Silk by Glennis Virgo
51. Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield
52. The Royal Rebel by Elizabeth Chadwick
53. Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
54. The Ghost of Madison Avenue by Nancy Bilyeau
55. What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley
56. The Voyage Home by Pat Barker
57. Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain
Now, here are the rules for the 2025 challenge, taken from Marg’s blog:
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
You can sign up for the challenge here. I will be aiming for Prehistoric again in 2025.
Let me know if you’re planning to take part too!
She Reads Novels 
Wow, that’s a lot of historical fiction! According to Storygraph, 28 of my reads this year have been historical fiction though I haven’t checked to see if that’s accurate. Sounds about right though.
28 is a good number as well and would put you at the Ancient History level! I’ve always read a lot of historical fiction, so this is the perfect challenge for me.
This is definitely your challenge! You reach that prehistoric level every time. I’d be more in the Renaissance to Medieval level if I joined up. Which maybe I will. It’d help me read more historical fiction next year. Hmm…. I’ll have to think about that one.
It’s a good challenge because you can choose your own level to suit your reading, so there’s not too much pressure.
Amazing work! Is the definition of “historical fiction” the Scott one (bulk of the action set 60+ years before the time of the novel’s publication)?
Marg leaves it up to us to decide how we define historical fiction, but I always use the Scott definition as a guideline!
I always send in my historical novels but I can’t participate more directly because for some reason her site doesn’t resolve in any of my browsers. I can’t figure it out. It means I can’t submit any books. But Margaret has been posting them for me from the Facebook page. I didn’t count them, though. You did a good job this year!
Thanks! I’m sure you must have read a lot of historical novels this year as well. It’s annoying that you can’t submit them yourself.
Yes, but Margaret is very nice about it. I’m going to do an end-of-year report this year for the first time, and then I’ll find out how many I read.
Hello Helen and Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you too, Paula.
Amazing! Keep up the great work and enjoy your historical fiction books.
Thank you!
Hi Helen, as you usual, your reading is so impressive! I also took part in this challenge, completing 10 books, double what I hoped to read, and 3 of which are the same as you: The King’s Messenger, Mary I and A Court of Betrayal. I do plan to take part again in 2025, but still need to get my post together.
Blessings, Jessica 💌
Well done for reading double what you had hoped – that’s a great result! I’m glad you’re going to take part again next year 🙂
Congratulations on completing your goal! It sounds like a fun challenge which I think I will take part in this year. 😊📚
Thank you! I think this is a good challenge because you can choose how many books you want to read, so it doesn’t have to be a big commitment.