August is the hottest part of the year where I live, but reading inside can provide some small reprieve. At least, as long as the AC is working and the shades are down. The heat is on for many of the characters in these new historical fiction releases coming out this month, too. With stories set in Vietnam, New Orleans, and Costa Rica, the heat and humidity that many of us are feeling are very much present for the characters in these books. The heat is on in other ways, too, with characters plotting murder or surviving behind enemy lines. There’s certainly no shortage of danger and drama to distract you from the weather outside. Stay safe and enjoy these new historical fiction books for August.
The Song of the Lotus Flower by Lelita Baldock
Release date: August 3, 2026
When Jude Murphy’s editor refuses to let her cover the war in Vietnam, she books a flight to Saigon herself, determined to report the truth rather than the sanitized version her editor and country want from her. Once on the ground, she faces more resistance from military officers who refuse to let women engage in frontline reporting. But when she’s captured behind enemy lines, she’s torn between reporting the brutal reality of the war she’s seen firsthand and protecting the people who saved her.
Meet Me in the Garden by Nina LaCour
Release date: August 4, 2026
The bestselling author of Yerba Buena pens a historical tale inspired by her own family history. In 1944 New Orleans, the Honore sisters are admired and respected in their community. But unlike her older sisters, Odette isn’t content to live out life as a wife and a mother. It’s only in the hidden garden she discovered with her cousin Delphine that she can be truly honest: she’s in love with another woman. Delphine, in love with a white man, seems to understand. But years later, their lives have turned out entirely different from what they’d envisioned in that garden. Odette is a widowed mother. Delphine is passing as white. The two have grown apart, but when Delphine begins to spiral out of control, Odette goes to life-altering lengths to keep the family together.
Hocus Pocus by Brinda Charry
Release date: August 11, 2026
It is 1816, the Year Without a Summer, when Samuel Thomas, a young magician of uncertain parentage, arrives in Boston. He’s determined to make himself a success. As proprietor of the failing New Boston Museum, Nathaniel is also determined to succeed and sees this young foreigner as his ticket out of bankruptcy. Becoming the museum’s first living exhibit could save the museum and also help Samuel gain the acclaim he’s been hoping for. But is following his ambition really worth the price of giving up his freedom to this other man?
The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller
Release date: August 11, 2026
Mary Church Terrell, Anna J. Cooper, and Ida Gibbs are accustomed to standing out in a crowd. They learned the art of debate at Oberlin College, where they first had to fight for their right to attend the school as Black women in the 19th century. Now, they’re fighting for civil rights and women’s suffrage even as they struggle to be recognized as full U.S. citizens because of their sex and the color of their skin. Their differences as much as their similarities have brought them here, ready to fight for their rights and freedom.
Past Tense
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Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias
Release date: August 25, 2026
Brothers. Betrayal. One murderous plan for revenge. Seth Oreamundo is living in exile in the United States. Once, he was a powerful politician in Costa Rica, but his brother, Osario, betrayed him, and now he must pay. Split between the present, as Oreamundo returns to Costa Rica with plans to throw his brother into an infamously crocodile-filled river, and memories of their childhood growing up in a corrupt political dynasty on a coffee estate, Crocodilopolis is a powerful meditation on power and masculinity from a rising star of Costa Rican fiction.
Don’t miss the historical fiction we were most excited about last month as well as these dual-timeline historical fiction reads.
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