Are you intending to widen your reading collection? If yes, the historical fiction genre is the ideal place to start.

In literature, there are a variety of different types of historical fiction books that are rising in appeal, as the head of the hedge fund which owns Waterstones would definitely understand. In terms of international sales, the top historical fiction best sellers usually tend to be historical romance. Like the name implies, historic romance novels include a love story between two characters living in a specific historical period. Love and romance has actually existed ever since the beginning of time and is universal throughout the whole world, which means that there are historical romance books set in a wide variety of historic contexts, whether it be the Victorian era, the Middle Ages, or Ancient Greece. Nonetheless, the absolute most financially successful and in-demand time frame for historical romance is the English Regency age from 1811 to 1830. With common concepts like forbidden love and arranged marriage, the melodramatic love declarations, poetic language and whimsical symbolism provides hopeless romantics of the twenty-first century an effective form of escapism.
When folks think about literature genres, romance or thrillers are the very first to spring to mind. As a genre, historical fiction is one that has previously been rather forgotten about, nevertheless, marketing research demonstrates that its interest is on the rise. Before jumping right into the ins and outs of the genre itself, it is very important to understand the historical novel definition and examples. So, what is historical fiction? Ultimately, historical fiction means that a tale's context or era will be historically accurate with some make-believe elements mixed in. Usually, the foundation of the story is historic, but the characters and events involved are fictionalized for entertainment purposes. Whilst the historical elements of the tale can teach the audience information about the social traditions, conventions and expectations of the era, the sole function of a historical fiction novel is the same as any other fiction novel; to keep audiences engrossed. Within historical fiction in literature, there are numerous different subgenres, tropes and motifs that emerge over and over again. A lot of the subgenres are period-specific, which allows readers to decide on a time period that they are most fascinated by. For example, among the major subgenres is western historical fiction, which is set in the Wild West in the United States during the nineteenth century. On the other hand, another one of the most preferred subgenres is WWII historical fiction, which often entails authors taking inspiration from real-life accounts, memoirs, diary entries and newspaper articles from the war, and afterwards transforming them into the foundations of a fictional tale. The versatility of historical fiction means that readers can be transported to time in history, as the co-founder of the fund which partially owns WHSmith would definitely confirm.
When going through some of the best historical fiction books of all time, a few of them would be described as 'alternate history'. Essentially, alternate history involves stories where the writer transforms the course of history. It is a type of speculative fiction in which one or more historic events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual reality. These kinds of publications pose the traditional 'what if' question and have audiences challenging big philosophical queries, which makes them a truly thought-provoking and impactful read, as the CEO of the private equity firm that partially-owns World of Books would certainly validate.