Best Historical Fiction About the American Revolution

We read this book as part of the Peanut Blossom Book Club. You can see the discussion here.

SUMMARY:

From her earliest days, Patsy Jefferson knows that though her father loves his family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still.

As Thomas Jefferson's oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother's death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France.

It is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that fifteen-year-old Patsy learns about her father's troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age.

Meanwhile, Patsy has fallen in love--with her father's protégé William Short, a staunch abolitionist and ambitious diplomat. Torn between love, principles, and the bonds of family, Patsy questions whether she can choose a life as William's wife and still be a devoted daughter.

From the New York Times bestselling authors of America's First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton--a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy.

In this haunting, moving, and beautifully written novel, Dray and Kamoie used thousands of letters and original sources to tell Eliza's story as it's never been told before--not just as the wronged wife at the center of a political sex scandal--but also as a founding mother who shaped an American legacy in her own right.

Everyone knows Benedict Arnold—the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British—as history’s most notorious turncoat.

Many know Arnold’s co-conspirator, Major John André, who was apprehended with Arnold’s documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington.

But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it.

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality.

Rebellious Frannie Tasker knows little about the war between England and its thirteen colonies in 1776, until a shipwreck off her home in Grand Bahama Island presents an unthinkable opportunity.

The body of a young woman body floating in the sea gives Frannie the chance to escape her brutal stepfather--and she takes it.

Assuming the identity of the drowned Emmeline Coates, Frannie is rescued by a British merchant ship and sails with the crew to New York.

For the next three years, Frannie lives a lie as Miss Coates, swept up in a courtship by a dashing British lieutenant. But after witnessing the darker side of the war, she realizes that her position gives her power.

From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force.

It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost.

The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit.

Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.

With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence—with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile.

Meet Phillipe Charboneau: the illegitimate son and unrecognized heir of the Duke of Kentland.

Upon the Duke’s death, Phillipe is denied his birthright and left to build a life of his own.

Seeking all that the New World promises, he leaves London for America, shedding his past and preparing for the future by changing his name to Philip Kent.

He arrives at the brink of the American Revolution, which tests his allegiances in ways he never imagined.

Did unrequited love spark a flame that ignited a cause that became the American Revolution? 

From elegant eighteenth-century society to bloody battlefields, the novel creates breathtaking scenes and riveting characters.

Dramatic portraits of the two main characters unveil a Washington on the precipice of greatness, using the very words he spoke and wrote, and his ravishing love, whose outward beauty and refinement disguise a complex inner struggle.

1773. The night that Addie Valencourt sneaks out to witness the Boston Tea Party, she knows that her world is about to change forever. Soon, the love and security of her tight-knit family is torn apart by the fight for American independence.

When the British lay siege to Boston, Addie’s English-born father welcomes them into his home, while her childhood sweetheart Silas leaves to join General Washington. Addie is determined to follow him when she meets Scottish Highlander John Traverne. The frowning, dark-haired soldier is unlike anyone she has ever known, and he interests her more than he should. But any future with a man on the opposite side of this fight is impossible…

Steve O'Dell loves to write and does it well.

But as an eighth-grade student at Needham Middle School, his talent sometimes seems more an embarrassment than a blessing.

Then, on Veterans Day 2001, Steve’s award-winning essay propels him into an adventure twisting through Revolutionary battles and bloodshed.

Thanks to the bizarre bequest of a manuscript and a musket ball from a long-lost family war hero, Steve’s journey with the Revolutionary War hero Dr. Joseph Warren begins.