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Books Set in Western Europe

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Whether you found this post searching for Books Set in Western Europe, or are participating in our Book Voyage reading challenge, we hope you find the perfect books on our list below. We worked hard to include plenty of variety, so you can discover somewhere/something new to you!

The Countries of Western Europe

Depending on the context – geographical, cultural, or historical – you’ll find various answers as to which countries are classified as “Western Europe.”

For purposes of this reading challenge, we’ve included the following: England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.

What Kind of Books are Included On This List?

We’ve compiled a great list of novels set in Europe’s western countries, as well as some YA historical fiction, memoirs, and non-fiction reads. We focused on finding book recommendations that will transport you to the country of your choice as you read.

If you love historical fiction, there are countless excellent books set in Europe throughout both WWI and WWII. If you’re looking for European historical fiction set during WWI or WWII, you’ll find additional books on these lists: Best WW1 Historical Fiction Novels, WW2 Novels Featuring Resistance Workers & Other Helpers, Books Set in the 1910s, Books Set in the 1940s, and Books Like the Nightingale.

The Best Books Set in Western European Countries

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.

Throughout the list, we noted those books currently available as part of the Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Additional Recommendations

You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.

Members of our email list and Facebook group, Read with the Book Girls can log ratings for their monthly challenge reads. The logs provide us with data for the “BGG Reader Ratings” that are added to descriptions for future years. We’d love you to contribute your rating after you’ve finished your read this month.

Join the Book Voyage Reading Challenge

Photo of the book voyage reading challenge printable with text about how to join the challenge. Clicking the image takes you to the reading challenge home page with text instructions.

Can you send me a printable list with the book titles but not descriptions?

This was a big request last year that we weren’t able to add to our plates in 2022. New for 2023, readers who support Book Girls Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee membership site will receive special monthly printable journal pages as a thank you bonus. The voluntary members (we call them our BFFs) help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone.

We’re so excited to be able to offer this fun perk this year!

The new pages will be pre-filled with every book title for the month, and include space for you to mark your interest level, make notes about whether you’ve requested the book from the library (or any other notes you’d like), and then fill in your rating. We’ll also include blank lines in case you have other books on your TBR (to be read) list that meet the prompt.

That said, you’ll always find the most updated version of our recommendations with descriptions each month at no cost on our website. We do update the list and descriptions regularly based on reader feedback. But, we know some of you wanted to print the list to take to the library or bookstore, and we hope this helps.

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Children’s Books Set In Europe - Book Girls' Guide

Monday 10th of October 2022

[…] you want to read a book about Europe along with your child, check out our lists of Books Set in Western Europe for Adults and Books Set in Eastern Europe for […]

Maryanne Orta

Saturday 4th of June 2022

I read What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon. Definite 5 star book! I would classify it as historical fiction, actually time travel but the historical characters and events true to life. It was a page turner.

Mary Faye Carr

Saturday 19th of February 2022

Read Star Crossed Sisters of Tuscany. It was easy to read and very enjoyable in going from present to past in telling the different stories. Ending was satisfying and I would recommend it to friends. 5 stars

Tori Christensen

Friday 28th of January 2022

I'm interested that much of the historical fiction revolves around WWII--for an area with such a long history, I would have expected a wider representation.

Another theme I see is American comes to Europe to find out deep secrets.

Fascinating.

Melissa George

Friday 28th of January 2022

Hi Tori, that's an interesting perspective. We worked hard to give a wide range of books from 1900-present spanning Western Europe. 74% of the books have no relation to the WW2 era at all, and only 2 are entirely about WW2 (one fiction, one non-fiction). Another handful do have storylines that overlap somehow with WW2, all from different perspectives. The overall goal of the Book Voyage Challenge is to show a more contemporary viewpoint, so you are correct that none of the books cover the vast and important history of Europe before 1900.

If you're interested in reading more historical fiction from other time periods, we'd recommend checking out our Decades Challenge. And you're always welcome to read any book you'd like for the challenge, they don't have to come from our curated lists.

Jerri Patton

Thursday 20th of January 2022

I've read eight of these books, my favorite is 'The Splendid and the Vile'.