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Characters Interacting with Real Authors in Novels
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.All the book recommendations on this include real-life authors, from Agatha Christie to Nora Roberts, as part of their plot. Whether the author is the main character or just a major life influence, we hope you enjoy the way reality blends into the fictional worlds found in these books.
Best Novels That Incorporate Real Authors
Scandalous Women
Book Summary
In 1965, Nancy is thrilled to follow her dreams working for a publishing house in New York City. But even as a young woman in the 1960s, she is shocked by the degree of sexism she encounters.
She’s assigned to work on Jacqueline Susann’s 1966 release, Valley of the Dolls. Jacqueline needs her steamy page-turner to become a hit so it can provide for her financially. Jackie Collins has just released an equally steamy novel in London, and Nancy hopes she can secure the right to publish it in the US.
When Nancy introduces Jackie to Jacqueline, will they clash as competitors or join together to succeed in the very male-dominated publishing industry?
The Book Girls Say…
While this book is well-researched and accurate when it comes to the publishing industry in the 1960s and the books Susann & Collins published, the author did invent the relationship between them.
Finding Dorothy
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through the eyes of Maud, the wife of author L. Frank Baum. The book follows two storylines: the first tells the story of Maud’s youth as the rebellious daughter of a leading suffragette and the early years of the Baums’ marriage on the prairie.
The second storyline takes place in 1930s Hollywood when Maud learns that MGM is adapting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into a movie. Then 77, Maud finagles her way onto the set in hopes of ensuring the producers stay true to the spirit of the book. She meets Judy Garland and recognizes in the young woman the yearning that defined her own life story.
The Book Girls Say…
We loved learning more about both L. Frank Baum and his incredible wife, Maud, through this novel. It’s definitely Maud’s story first and foremost as she had already lost Frank before the 1930s storyline.
The Murder of Patience Brooke
Book Summary
In the 1840s, Charles Dickens played a significant role in the establishment of Urania Cottage as a sanctuary home for “fallen women”. He’s shocked when a visit reveals the murder of the matron’s assistant, Patience Brooke.
He can’t allow a scandal to ruin the name of the Home, so he takes the investigation into his own hands. This leads him deep into the slums of Victorian England alongside his good friend, Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street. Can the duo find the killer before they strike again?
The Book Girls Say…
Much of the historical detail covered in this book is factual, including Charles Dickens establishing the Urania House for ‘fallen women’. This book includes tough descriptions of the living conditions of the poor in London at this time, and those are also based on Dickens’ own difficult childhood.
If you enjoy this historical mystery, there are ten additional books in the series!
Hamnet
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the 1580s, William Shakespeare married a woman named Anne (Agnes) Hathway. Together, the couple settled in Stratford and had three children: a daughter named Susanna and twins named Hamnet and Judith. Sadly, Hamnet died at the age of only eleven. Several years later, Shakespeare wrote one of his most famous plays – Hamlet.
Agnes, rather than William, is the star of this story (in fact, William himself is never mentioned by name in the book, so as not to pull focus). This novel is a stunning portrayal of grief and its potential influence on one of the most famous plays in history.
Nora Roberts Land
Book Summary
Meredith is a divorced third-generation journalist. Her ex-husband blames their breakup on the unrealistic expectations he believes Meredith takes away from all the Nora Roberts books she reads.
When she has to go to her hometown of Dare Valley, Colorado, to help her family’s newspaper, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to prove that true love still exists. She plans to find a Nora Roberts-worthy man and write about her experience to prove her ex wrong.
Her ex fears that Meredith’s writing will paint him in a bad light, so he blackmails an employee, War correspondent Tanner, to make Meredith fall in love with him and then break her heart. However, when they meet, sparks instantly fly. Could he really be her Nora Roberts hero?
The Book Girls Say…
As with most real Nora Roberts books, there is a suspenseful mystery woven into the romance between Meredith and Tanner.
While this pick doesn’t feature Nora Roberts herself, she is still a major part of the story and the main character’s life. Many real Nora Roberts books (and even some of her popular characters) are mentioned throughout this clever romance.
Finding Margaret Fuller
Book Summary
This historical fiction novel is based on the real life of Margaret Fuller, an extremely intelligent, well-read, hard-working writer. She was one of the first feminist icons in the United States.
As a young woman, Margaret is invited to the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson to meet his coterie of enlightened friends who are shaping a nation. These connections fuel her passion for education and inspire her to host the first women-only literary salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
She never takes no for an answer, and her days include everything from sparring with Edgar Allan Poe to reporting on the writings of Frederick Douglass. Her work earns her a job for newspaperman Horace Greeley, where she makes history yet again by being the first female foreign news correspondent.
The Book Girls Say…
While this wasn’t a fast-paced read, Melissa really enjoyed learning about Margaret Fuller, the other American Transcendentalist authors, and life in America during this period. It’s a book rich in history that causes you to put it down temporarily so you can read more about the different events and people that intrigue you.
Reading also left her wanting to visit Concord, Massachusetts, and all of the locations mentioned in the book. While this is a very character-driven read, the settings are richly described, and you’ll feel like you’re in 1830s Massachusetts with the characters. Some readers are opposed to Margaret having crushes on men along the way of her career, but Melissa would argue this humanizes her and is a more accurate representation of real life.
Harlem Rhapsody
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
While much of the country was experiencing social unrest in 1919, Harlem felt different. This corner of New York was filled with Black pride, as evidenced in the music, theater, fashion, and arts. Positioned right in the heart of this renaissance is a literary editor for a preeminent Negro magazine named Jessie Redmon Fauset.
The founder and editor of the magazine, W.E.B. Du Bois, tasked Jessie with discovering promising young writers whose words could change the world. Jessie wastes no time finding 16-year-old Countee Cullen and 17-year-old Langston Hughes. She also discovers Nella Larson, who becomes one of Jessie’s best friends.
Subscriptions soar for the already notable magazine, and every Black writer in the country is vying for the opportunity to be published in The Crisis. Jessie’s career is taking off, but her relationship with her married boss, W.E.B., threatens to jeopardize it all. At a time when she faces both overwhelming sexism and racism, Jessie will have to find a way to balance her drive and her desires if she hopes to preserve her legacy and achieve her ambitious dreams.
The Book Girls Say…
Victoria Christopher Murray has co-authored two of our favorite books from recent years, The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies, so Melissa couldn’t wait to dig into Harlem Rhapsody. Similar to Finding Margaret Fuller noted above, Melissa didn’t initially walk away from this one at the top of her list because it felt a bit longer than necessary. However, when thinking back on the books she’s most glad she picked up in the first half of the year, this one easily makes the list because she learned so much about many important literary figures.
This historical fiction novel is based on the real life of Jessie Redmon Fauset. Those interested in digging deeper into the true stories and literary works behind this novel will be excited to learn that every edition of The Crisis is available online. Whether you want to simply browse the covers or read the pieces referenced in the novel, you
Arthur & George
Arthur Conan Doyle
Book Summary
The beginning of this Man Booker shortlisted novel alternates between the separate lives of two men in late-Victorian Britain. George is a young solicitor in Birmingham and the son of an Indian father (a parish vicar) and a Scottish mother. He’s just starting his career when he begins receiving threatening letters.
Arthur is a ‘real-life famous detective’ married to a woman suffering from a debilitating illness, while he simultaneously has a beloved female friend. The lives of these two men became unexpectedly intertwined when George was falsely accused of a crime, and Arthur jumped in to help.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel is based on the real George Edalji case in 1906 England, in which Edalji was wrongly accused and imprisoned for mutilating farm animals, largely based on his race. The involvement of Arthur Conan Doyle in the case is also based on reality. We recommend waiting to read more about the case until after reading this novel, as knowing what happens in real life will be a spoiler for the book.
This is a slow-paced read, rich with descriptive language.
The Correspondent
Book Summary
Sybil Van Antwerp is a 72-year-old grandmother, wife, and distinguished lawyer. Almost every day at 10:30, she sits down to write letters. And she sends most of them – whether to her brother, her best friend, or authors like Ann Patchett and Larry McMurtry. But for one common recipient, the letters are never sent.
She expects the rest of her life to continue as normal before receiving letters from someone who was part of one of the most painful periods of her life. Is it time to finally share the unsent letters she has been writing over all these years?
The Book Girls Say…
This epistolary gem highlights the many kinds of relationships formed throughout a lifetime through the words of a witty, spunky, book-loving woman who has endured grief yet retains hope.
Over the course of the novel, Sybil writes to at least four different well-known authors. We’ve also discovered that author Virginia Evans has corresponded via letters with Ann Patchett in real life after sending her a fan letter about Patchett’s novel Commonwealth. That relationship turned into Patchett’s cover quote on this book!
Romancing Miss Brontë
Book Summary
Charlotte spent two years away from home studying in Brussels, where she discovered travel, literature, and art before returning home to the Yorkshire moors. Despite being obligated to care for her blind father and alcoholic brother at home, she refuses to give up on her dream of a better life.
Along with her sisters, Emily and Anne, she decides that her childhood imagination could be used to publish stories as an income source. In 1847, she penned her masterpiece, Jane Eyre.
After Jane Eyre makes her an overnight success, she finds comfort in the arms of her young publisher, George Smith. But when she has to return home from London because of a tragedy, she worries she’s had to abandon love for good. However, she’s unaware that another suitor has been secretly pining for her.
The Book Girls Say…
Readers say this is a well-researched account of Charlotte’s life story, with the author using fiction to fill in the details. Despite the romance noted on the cover, it’s more of a comprehensive look at the family’s life.
Goodnight June
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
When overworked and overstressed June inherits her aunt’s Seattle bookstore, she intends to sell it. However, spending time in the shop reminds her of her childhood and a different way of life. However, the store is close to foreclosure. As she looks through documents, she’s surprised to find a 1946 letter between her aunt and Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight, Moon.
The letter is only the first link in what becomes a literary scavenger hunt, and you’ll spend part of the book in the 1940s, living through the letters between Margaret and June’s aunt, Ruby.
The Book Girls Say…
This book is a wonderful mix of suspense and romance set within a charming children’s bookstore. Critics say the storyline can be a bit too convenient at times, while others feel it’s the perfect read for when you need something light and enjoyable.
The Queens of Crime
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1930, five of the greatest female crime writers of the era came together to form a secret society. Tired of being treated as second-class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club, these women call themselves the Queens of Crime, and they are determined to solve an actual murder reminiscent of the locked-room murders they are famous for writing about.
Led by Dorothy L. Sayers (whose husband is a member of the Detection Club), the Queen of Crime also includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy.
May Daniels, an English nurse, was visiting France with her friend when she seemingly vanished from a train station. Her body was discovered in the nearby woods months later. The police believe she was strangled, but how did the killer manage to sneak her body out of the crowded station without anyone noticing, and why was there so much blood at the crime scene?
The Queens of Crime take it upon themselves to solve this highly publicized murder, but it seems that the killer is targeting Sayers and threatening to expose a dark secret from her past.
The Book Girls Say…
While the Queens of Crime secret society is fictional, this book, featuring well-known real-life authors, was inspired by a true story in the life of Dorothy Sayers.
Marie Benedict has co-authored two of our favorite books from recent years (The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies), as well as many other highly-rated books about fascinating real women in history.
The House of Doors
Book Summary
Lawyer Lesley and her husband Robert, a veteran, live at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang, Malaysia. When Robert’s old friend, writer “Willie” Somerset Maugham, arrives for a visit, it threatens to upend all of their lives.
Novelist Maugham is exhausted by his marriage of convenience that helps conceal his homosexuality. Additionally, he’s lost his savings, his career is in a slump, and his health is failing. He hopes his time at Cassowary House will inspire his next book. He soon discovers that the lives of Lesley and Robert are much more complicated than they look from the outside. From connections to a Chinese revolutionary to the trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder, Maugham now has plenty to write about.
The Book Girls Say…
This literary historical fiction read was longlisted for the Booker Prize. It is based on a true story and features famed novelist Somerset Maugham in an important role, but keep in mind that the story is more about Lesley & Robert.
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
On a frigid night in December of 1926, mystery writer Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days. A more extensive search was launched after investigators found her car, which only contained her fur coat, near a pond. The only clues were some tire tracks nearby. Both her husband and daughter were questioned in the disappearance, but claimed not to know her whereabouts.
In this historical fiction novel, Benedict imagines what may have occurred in a story filled with twists fitting of a Christie mystery.
The Book Girls Say…
The questions about where Agatha Christie went and what she was doing have persisted for nearly a century. Author Nina de Gramont also wrote an alternative fictionalized account of this same time period titled The Christie Affair.
Jane and the Final Mystery
Series: Jane Austen Mysteries
Book Summary
Jane’s health has been declining to the point that her latest manuscript is at risk. However, she can’t sit on the sidelines when someone is murdered at her nephew’s former school. The victim had a note from young William Heathcote, the son of Jane’s dear friend Elizabeth in his pocket, making him the prime suspect.
Can she stay healthy enough to clear his name?
The Book Girls Say…
This is the final book in the Jane Austen Mysteries cozy series, but reviewers who picked it up without reading the prior installments said they enjoyed it and it read well as a standalone. However, if you prefer, you could start with book #1, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, which was initially published in 1996.
Once Upon a Wardrobe
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Promising physics student Megs is attending Oxford in 1950 and prefers facts to creativity. However, her beloved but critically ill 8-year-old brother is obsessed with a world created in a book – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When he asks her to find out where Narnia came from, she can’t refuse his plea.
When she tracks down the Lewis brothers, who are also at Oxford, they graciously invite her for tea. While they fill her with stories she can pass along to her brother, she doesn’t understand why he won’t answer her most important question about the origin of Narnia.
The Book Girls Say…
While there are sad moments, this book is also described as filled with hope and warmth.
Hemingway’s Girl
Book Summary
Mariella is the daughter of an American fisherman and a Cuban woman in Depression-Era Key West. She knows what it’s like to be hungry. In an effort to feed her family after her father’s death, she bet on a risky boxing match in a bordello bar. At the bar, she catches the attention of Ernest Hemingway and Gavin Murray, who is a WW2 veteran working on the Overseas Highway.
Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline, hires Mariella as a maid, instantly changing her life. Now she’s surrounded by lavish dinner parties filled with celebrities. However, the house is also filled with tension and temptation. With a massive hurricane heading to Key West, Mariella faces the possibility of losing everything.
The Book Girls Say…
The Paris Wife
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This work of historical fiction paints a vivid portrait of the 1920s and the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley. Hadley lived in Chicago and had all but given up on love when she met Hemingway, who would change her life forever.
Together, they set sail for Paris, where they became the golden couple living among such famed friends as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, the couple was not prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of the Jazz Age in Paris. Eventually leading to challenges for each individual, and ultimately to a marriage in crisis.
The Book Girls Say…
Angela read this book years ago and was captivated by the atmosphere of post-war Jazz Age Paris. Having previously only experienced Hemingway as required reading in college, The Paris Wife provided color and context to appreciate his writings in a new light.
Keep in mind that Hemingway isn’t always likable, so if you have a romanticized view of him, this may not be as enjoyable as you hope.
Tru & Nelle
Book Summary
In 1936, seven-year-old Truman Capote went to his cousin’s house in Monroeville, Alabama, while his dad worked on a riverboat. Two weeks into the summer, he was getting bored as he had yet to meet any friends. Then he spotted Nelle, aka Harper Lee, in a tree. They couldn’t have been more different, with Nelle being a tomboy and Truman dressed in his all-white Sunday best.
Over the summer, the duo explores town together, discussing books, pretending to be Sherlock and Watson, and even getting into some trouble.
The Book Girls Say…
We’ve always been fascinated by the real childhood friendship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote, so we were excited to find this 336-page middle-grade read about their youth together during the Great Depression.
If you enjoy this novel, don’t miss the holiday sequel, Tru & Nelle: A Christmas Tale.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Regarded as the first flapper, this novel recounts the life of Zelda (Sayer) Fitzgerald from the time she met F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in Alabama in 1918. She was a 17-year-old Southern belle, and he was a young army lieutenant. Scott was not wealthy or prominent, nor was he a Southerner – all of which left Zelda’s father deeply unimpressed with him. But Zelda fell for him nonetheless.
A couple of years after their initial meeting, Scott sold his first novel, This Side of Paradise, Zelda boarded a train north and married him at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. What unfolds is the story of a complex and fascinating woman.
The Book Girls Say…
This biographical fiction is based on the author’s extensive research into the life of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and it was her goal to stay as close to the facts as possible. She acknowledges that much of what is known about these two figures has come from unreliable sources and popular culture myths, and it was her mission to set the record straight.
A fun fact that we learned in the process of researching this novel for our book list – F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is most well-known as the author of The Great Gatsby, was named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author/composer of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Mrs. Poe
Book Summary
Frances was trying her best to make it as a writer in 1845 New York, which is a tall order for a woman, especially a mother with two children. As she tries to sell her work, she finds a surprising barrier. All the publishers only want to buy poetry in the style of the new sensation, Edgar Allen Poe and his incredible work, The Raven.
When she runs into Poe at a literary party, they have an instant connection. He even introduces Frances to his wife. Mrs. Poe acts like an innocent child, but there is much more to her than Frances initially believes.
The Book Girls Say…
Reviewers are split on whether this novel stretches the relationship between Frances and Poe too far past its reality, so don’t take everything in this work of fiction as factual. However, one reviewer says, “If you enjoy gothic tales of fascination, creativity, and suspense, you will love Mrs. Poe.”
The Paris Bookseller
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Just before 1920, American Sylvia Beach opened an English-language bookstore called Shakespeare and Company on a quiet street in Paris. Soon, that bookstore became a second home to prominent writers like Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce.
When Joyce’s controversial novel, Ulysses, is banned, Beach decides to take a huge risk and publish it under the name of her bookstore in 1922. The book became one of the most infamous and influential books of the century, but that success ultimately threatened the future of Shakespeare and Company.
This book is based on the true story of the publishing of Ulysses. It contains many interesting historical details, including comparisons between life in Paris and the US during the 1920s and into the 1930s.
The Book Girls Say…
Reviewers describe this book as a slow-moving but absorbing biographical novel that’s perfect for book lovers who enjoy reading about books.
Another important aspect of the book is Sylvia’s loving partnership with French bookseller Adrienne Monnier during a time period when same-sex relationships were far less accepted, even in progressive Paris.
The Woman on the Orient Express
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
86% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This historical fiction turns the tables on Agatha Christie’s popular Murder on the Orient Express and places Agatha as the main character aboard the train. In the book, she boards the train in disguise using the name Mary Miller after her marriage ends in 1928.
Two other women aboard are also trying to make fresh starts, including Agatha’s cabinmate, archeologist Katharine Woolley. Her first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit. Meanwhile, Nancy is trying to conceal a pregnancy as a newly married woman carrying another man’s child.
Each of the three women is guarding their own secrets, but as they journey toward the Middle East, their lives intersect with lasting repercussions.
The Book Girls Say…
Agatha Christie did travel on the Orient Express herself, including meeting the real Katharine Wolley. However, the character of Nancy and the majority of the story is fiction. Readers say that those familiar with Murder on the Orient Express will see some connections to Pierot’s journey, but that you don’t have to be familiar with that book to enjoy this fast-paced mystery. The book also includes elements of romance.
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