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Virginia Books: The Best Books Set in the Old Dominion State
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge or simply found your way to our website researching books set in Virginia, we’ve curated a diverse list of highly-rated titles about the Old Dominion State! If you’re looking for another state, check our comprehensive list of books set in every state.
Literary Themes in Virginia Books
From Colonial Williamsburg to Civil War battlefields to modern Arlington, Virginia embodies American history. The state’s literature explores themes of legacy, politics (given proximity to DC), Southern tradition, and historical memory. Shenandoah Valley’s beauty, Richmond’s complex past, and Virginia Beach’s coastal setting provide diverse backdrops. The state straddles Old and New South identities, making it an interesting book setting.
Highly-Rated Books Set in Virginia
The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Margaret, Viv, and Bitsy appear to have it all by the standards of the early 1960s, but “all” doesn’t feel like enough to them. They live in a brand-new “planned community” in Northern Virginia and feel guilty and confused that they aren’t satisfied with their supposedly idyllic housewife lives.
Things begin to change when the three women form a book club with their artsy new neighbor from Manhattan, Charlotte. Together they read Betty Friedan’s controversial new book, The Feminine Mystique. For the first time, each of these women realizes that they are not alone in their dissatisfaction or their longings.
Their lives are forever altered. The book may be the start of it all, but it’s their bond of sisterhood that helps them find the courage they each need to navigate the rapidly changing world and see themselves in a new light.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Sometimes in a book that follows four characters, we’re left feeling like none of them are as well-developed as we’d like, but here Marie Bostwick has created four fully-realized, unique characters. Each woman has her own struggles and dreams, and the development of their storylines, individually and together as neighbors and friends, feels realistic and relatable.
If you love books about books as much as we do, be sure to check out our list of Books About Book Clubs, as well as our complete Book Lover’s Reading Challenge for many more wonderful recommendations.
Good People
Book Summary
In the manicured suburbs of Northern Virginia, the Sharafs look like a model success story. Afghan refugees who fled war and rebuilt from nothing, they’ve earned the house, the reputation, and the quiet respect of neighbors and community alike. They are the very picture of the American dream. But a family this admired is also a family closely watched, and the people around them, both in the Afghan community and beyond it, each hold their own version of who the Sharafs really are.
Then the eldest daughter, Zorah, is dead, and a private tragedy becomes public property. Through a mosaic of voices including neighbors, acquaintances, eyewitnesses, newspaper articles, and police reports, the story of what happened is pieced together from the outside in, with the family’s own perspective conspicuously absent. As gossip hardens into narrative and assumption into judgment, the same set of facts bends toward wildly different conclusions, forcing the question of how well anyone can ever truly know the people next door.
What to Expect in This Book
This story is told in a true crime format, with all the POVs coming from outside the Sharaf household. The audiobook uses full-cast narration to fully immerse you in the different points of view.
From the subject matter to the unique ways the story unfolds, you’ll have plenty of talking points for your book club with this debut. The story does include some violence, so be sure to check trigger warnings if needed.
Another Book to Consider
Spilled Ink by Nadia Hashimi is another novel about an Afghan American family in Viriginia whose lives are upended by controversy.
The Women of Arlington Hall
Book Summary
In 1947, Radcliffe graduate Catherine “Cat” Killeen abandons the conventional future expected of her and accepts a secretive government position at Arlington Hall in Virigina. Trained in cryptoanalysis, Cat joins a team of brilliant women working to decode intercepted Soviet communications and identify spies operating within the United States.
The assignment offers intellectual excitement and a new sense of purpose, but it also demands secrecy, sacrifice, and constant vigilance. Cat’s family connection to the Communist Party places her under suspicion, while her growing relationship with an FBI agent complicates an already dangerous investigation. As the team follows fragments of coded intelligence, Cat must decide whom she can trust and how much she is willing to risk for her country and her own independence.
Historical Context
This novel is set in 1947 and follows female codebreakers working on the early post-WWII Venona Project to decipher encrypted Russian messages and uncover Soviet spies. It was a top-secret U.S. counterintelligence program that began in February of 1943 and continued for several decades, also providing vital intelligence on Soviet espionage throughout the early Cold War.
Another Title to Consider
If you are interested in another book about female code breakers, consider The Codebreaker’s Daughter by Amy Lynn Green, a Christian fiction novel that follows a mother who worked as a cryptanalyst during WWI and her daughter, who serves with the OSS during WWII. Much of the WWII storyline unfolds in neighboring Washington, D.C., and focuses on U.S.-based intelligence, propaganda, and the women’s contributions to the war effort.
Demon Copperhead
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This is a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. Like Copperfield, Copperhead examines institutional poverty, but in contemporary Appalachia.
Born to a teenage single mother, Damon (soon to be known as Demon) braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, opioid addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Angela was hesitant to read this 500-page book because it sounded quite depressing, but once she picked it up, she was immediately hooked. While it is heartbreaking throughout, it’s also an incredibly touching story that somehow feels both meandering and fast-paced at the same time, thanks to Kingsolver’s gorgeous writing.
Finlay Donovan is Killing It
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Struggling novelist and divorced mom of two, Finlay Donovan, is BARELY holding things together. Each day has new challenges, like her ex-husband firing the nanny with no warning right before she has an important meeting.
Money is running out, and her next novel is way behind schedule. While meeting with her agent and attempting to buy more time, she receives a mysterious envelope with an offer of quick cash in exchange for a job.
Desperation and intrigue lead her to follow up with the number on the note, and before she knows what’s happening, she’s kind of agreed to be a contract killer for a woman with a truly terrible husband. Whoops.
What to Expect in This Book
While the synopsis sounds pretty dramatic, this book is definitely witty and hilarious, rather than gory or scary. It’s filled with twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages and unable to put it down!
Keep in mind that this isn’t intended to be a realistic crime book, and you have to suspend your disbelief at points and just enjoy the ride.
This is the first book in the series, but can be read as a standalone with no cliffhangers. It’s perfect for fans of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.
About the Author & the Setting
Author Elle Cosimano grew up in the Virginia/Maryland/DC area. She spent years working as a real estate agent in NoVa before relocating to Central Virginia, which informed her decision to set her book series there. She told North Virginia Magazine that the town of South Riding, where Finlay lives, “so closely straddles the county line between Loudoun and Fairfax. And from a writer’s standpoint, that gives me a lot to play with in terms of crime and jurisdiction and mysteries and law enforcement — all of the different elements that sort of come into play in these books.”
A Calamity of Souls
Book Summary
Set in the volatile year of 1968 in southern Virginia, this novel centers on Jack Lee, a white lawyer in Freeman County, Virginia, and Desiree DuBose, a Black civil rights attorney from Chicago. Together, they defend Jerome Washington, a Black gardener wrongfully accused of murdering his wealthy white employers.
As Jack confronts his own biases and the town’s racism, he and Desiree forge a tense but determined partnership amid mounting threats, legal roadblocks, and personal tragedies, including attacks on their safety and Jack’s sister’s death.
Against a system rigged for conviction, they uncover deceit, corrupt motives, and surprising evidence that challenge the initial assumptions about the crime.
The Summer That Changed Everything
Book Summary
Fifteen years ago, Lucy watched her father be sentenced to life in prison for the murder of three people. She was only seventeen years old at the time, and she knew all three victims. The townspeople quickly turned against Lucy, and she hasn’t been back since.
But now, Lucy is back in Virginia, finally ready to talk to her. She can’t help but wonder if there was more to the story of what happened that night. Her old boyfriend, Ford, is also back in North Hampton Beach to prepare his family’s home for sale. He’s not excited to find Lucy digging into the past, but as they spend time together, he also starts to question the past.
Thoughts on This Book
While this cover looks more like a summer romance novel, readers say it’s more of a slow-burn beach mystery. Some readers find the first third of the book to be repetitive about how much the town dislikes Lucy. However, once the mystery starts unraveling, it’s almost universally enjoyed.
If you’d prefer a book about books set on the beach in Virginia, pick up Brenda Novak’s The Bookstore on the Beach, about a single mom who spends the summer working at her family’s bookstore in Sable Beach, Virginia.
Hidden Figures
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This remarkable non-fiction account of a group of Black female mathematicians, known as “human computers.” They enabled some of America’s most outstanding space achievements, like launching the first unmanned rockets, followed by astronauts.
While brilliant Black women were initially relegated to teaching math in segregated public schools, many of these women suddenly found new opportunities open to them when the aeronautics industry suffered labor shortages during WWII. As a result, NASA was in dire need of anyone who possessed high-level math skills. This book interweaves the stories of four African American women who answered the call over three decades. These women participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes from WWII through the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race.
Movie Adaptation
While we always proclaim “The Book is Better,” in this case, we highly recommend you watch the movie after reading Hidden Figures. While the film covers only the slice of time leading up to NASA’s Mercury 7 launch, it does an excellent job of portraying the challenges these brilliant women faced. They crossed gender and racial barriers in an era where their field was dominated by men and Jim Crow laws also enforced segregation and discrimination against African Americans.
Things We Never Got Over
Book Summary
Naomi Witt didn’t plan to get stranded in a small Virginia town with no money, no car, and a surprise 11-year-old niece she didn’t know existed, but life’s got a wicked sense of humor. Fleeing her wedding, she came to rescue her estranged twin sister, only to find herself duped and left holding the bag (and the kid).
Enter Knox Morgan, a grumpy local with a hero complex buried under a mile of beard and attitude. Knox wants nothing to do with Naomi’s chaos, but somehow keeps showing up to fix her messes, while insisting he doesn’t care.
Between small-town gossip, a meddling cast of neighbors, and one surly but irresistible handyman, Naomi just might find that the life she never planned could be exactly what she needs.
More About This Book
This was a Goodreads nominee for Readers’ Favorite Romance in 2022. It is the first in a three-book series set in the fictional town of Knockemout, Virginia.
Yellow Wife
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
As the light-skinned daughter of a plantation owner and a slave, Pheby escaped much of the brutality of slavery as a child. Her white father even promised her freedom for her 18th birthday. However, instead of freedom, she is sent to Devil’s Half-Acre by her father’s wife. This jail is where slaves are broken, tortured, and sold every day.
Within the jail, Pheby was groomed to be the personal mistress of slave trader Rubin Lapier. She becomes his sex slave, “wife,” and the mother of his children. Eventually, she faces the ultimate sacrifice to protect her heart as she fights for freedom.
Historical Context
Devil’s Half-Acre, also known as Lumpkin’s Jail, was a real place located only three blocks from the state capital in Richmond, Virginia. The character of Pheby is based on the true story of Mary Lumpkin, who was forced to “marry” the owner of the jail, Robert Lumpkin.
The Yellow Wife was a 2021 Goodreads Choice Nominee for Best Historical Fiction.
Georgie, All Along
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Georgie has been a personal assistant for a long time, which means everyone else’s needs have been prioritized over her own for years. However, when she has to leave LA and return to her hometown, she must confront the fact that she’s never actually been sure about her own needs or what she wants in life.
When she comes across a diary she wrote as a teenager, she discovers that the ideas within it can be used as a guidebook to create a new version of adult Georgie. But this plan hits a snag when she runs into an unexpected roommate. Levi was once the small town’s troublemaker, but now he’s a grouchy hermit. Grouchiness aside, he begins to help Georgie with her journey, and if the duo can get past their past, maybe Georgie’s true desire can be found right beside her.
Thoughts on This Book & Others by the Author
Reviewers say this one is emotional, witty, and steamy!
If you enjoy Kate Clayborn’s writing, you might also want to consider her Virginia-set romance trilogy, Chance of a Lifetime. The series follows three friends who buy a lottery ticket and how their unexpected windfall affects their lives.
The Jackal’s Mistress
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Libby’s husband has been gone so long that she fears he’s in a Union prison camp. She barely has time to worry about this during the day because she’s running a grain mill with her teenage niece, a hired hand, and his wife. The Confederate Army is requisitioning everything they produce. The Shenandoah Valley around them keeps changing hands from North to South and back again, and each day, she fears waking to a battle at her front door.
One day, she finds a gravely injured Union soldier at her neighbor’s house. While Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade should be her enemy, she’s aware that he’s also human. But is saving him worth the risk? She could be charged with treason. On the flip side, maybe she could trade him for her husband?
Inspiration For the Novel
A real-life friendship across enemy lines inspired this novel. The author first learned of this story way back in 2002 and wrote about it for Reader’s Digest before expanding it into this full-length novel in 2025.
Book Summary
English professor Scarlett Clark is an exceptional teacher, but she’s even better at getting away with murder.
Each year, she plots the demise of the individual that she judges to be the worst man at Gorman University. She is meticulous in her planning, which has allowed her to avoid drawing attention to herself, but with the campus body count growing, the school is finally starting to dig deeper.
She determines that the best way to avoid being implicated is to insert herself into the investigation. She charms the woman in charge, and things are going according to plan… until they are not. Scarlett is beginning to lose control of the plan for her latest victim and risks exposing her double life.
Meanwhile, Gorman freshman Carly Schiller is relieved to finally be free of her emotionally abusive father and plans to put her head down and focus on her studies. She forms a close friendship with her cool and confident roommate, Allison. When Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly’s plans change, and she becomes obsessed with turning her revenge fantasies into reality.
Genre Notes
This novel is said to reflect a modern, thriller-infused version of Dark Academia. The cloistered, ivy-draped academic setting and the dark, morally ambiguous tone tie closely to the roots of the subgenre, but the plot skews a bit more thriller than literary.
Book Summary
Paisley is a salvage expert and historian, which means she’s often visiting abandoned buildings. But she still didn’t expect to find a body as she crawled through an old store with an attached home.
The discovery sends her on an expedition through history that links this murder to the one that led the previous owners to abandon the building in the first place. But it’s clear someone doesn’t want her to solve this mystery.
About the Series
If you love old properties, you’ll enjoy this series, which follows Paisley’s work in a different building for each novel. From old homes to a barn and a church, she tries to salvage architectural prizes before they are lost.
If you prefer a foodie cozy mystery set in Virginia, check out the Domestic Diva Mystery series.
Counting Backwards
Book Summary
Carrie Buck came from a poor family in Virginia and was only 6 years old when she became a ward of the state. With no formal education and no family to support her, she spent her youth dreaming of a future different from the one she knew in her exploitative foster family. As a young woman in 1927, she finds herself at the center of an extraordinary legal battle at the forefront of the American eugenics conversation.
Nearly a century later, Jessa Gidney is trying to balance her high-powered legal career with her desire for a meaningful marriage and her dreams of having children. At a career turning point, Jessa leans into her family’s history of activism by taking on pro bono work at a nearby ICE detention center. There, she meets a young mother named Isobel fighting to stay with her daughter. An unsettling revelation about Isobel’s health leads Jessa to discover a disturbing pattern of medical malpractice within the detention facility that has shocking ties to her own family’s history.
The Book Girls Say…
If you enjoy books that tackle big issues, this might be a great pick. It deals with timely yet timeless issues such as reproductive rights, immigration, incarceration, and society’s expectations of women and mothers.
Hang the Moon
Book Summary
Sallie Kincaid’s father, Duke, was the biggest man in their small Virginia town at the turn of the 20th century – both literally and figuratively. Sallie was Daddy’s little girl. She has few memories of her mother, who died when she was young. By the time she is 8 years old, her father has remarried and has a new son, Eddie. But this shy, timid son is nothing like Duke. Sallie takes it upon herself to teach Eddie to be more like their outgoing, daredevil father. But an accident occurs, and Sallie is cast out.
Nine years later, Sallie has returned to her hometown to reclaim her place in the family. But the world is a very different place now that Prohibition is the law of the land. After confronting the secrets and scandals she left behind, she finds her own calling as a bootlegger.
About the Author
Author Jeanette Walls is well known for her memoir, The Glass Castle, and the tale of her incredible grandmother in Half Broke Horses.
Walls also authored another fiction title set in Virginia, The Silver Star, which is featured on our list of novels featuring child protagonists and our list of books set in the 1970s.
Razorblade Tears
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
81% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Randolph and Buddy Lee are both ex-cons, but have very different lives. Randolph left his past behind and started a successful lawn care business. He has a loving wife and owns a lovely small home. Buddy Lee is a barely functioning alcoholic living in a run-down trailer.
Besides both being ex-cons, the only thing they have in common is that their sons married each other, and both dads handled that poorly.
When both sons are brutally murdered, the men meet because of their shared goal – finding out what really happened to their boys.
Consider This Before Reading
Every chapter is easy to visualize in detail, but you won’t just see the characters. You’ll experience their emotions throughout the compelling story. Amid the page-turning tale, there are also great reminders about life and the importance of choosing to love your family while you can.
If you’re sensitive to violence or lots of rough language, consider skipping this one. The downside of being able to picture every scene is that the descriptive writing includes the violent scenes.
Promise of Tomorrow
Book Summary
Olympia returns to her small Virginia hometown after a year on the road, intending just a quick visit to settle her divorce and visit her late daughter’s grave. But her sister’s engagement throws everything off course and brings her face‑to‑face with her estranged husband, Spencer, who, like her, is still raw from their shared grief.
What was meant to be a brief stay turns into a journey of confronting pain, mending fractured relationships, and unearthing hidden family secrets. As Olympia and Spencer circle each other, the emotional weight of loss, aging parents, and unresolved guilt threatens to pull them apart—or draw them closer.
About the Author
Author Mary Ellen Taylor’s love for her home state of Virginia is evident in her writing. She has many other great books set in Virginia, including Spring House, which is featured on our list of Home Renovation Novels, and When the Rain Ends, which was a popular summer read published in 2023.
Book Summary
A former child star, Cilla has found a more satisfying career restoring homes. Her next project is restoring a dilapidated, famous house that used to belong to her grandmother, a legendary actress who died of an overdose there three decades ago.
As Cilla plunges into this new renovation, she barely has time to notice the charming neighbor, graphic novelist Ford Sawyer. She’s determined not to carry on the family tradition of ill-fated romances.
As she works on restoring the property, she uncovers family secrets, hidden mysteries, and even potential danger. After discovering a stack of unsigned letters in the attic that evidence a mysterious romance in her grandmother’s life, Cilla is violently assaulted. Now Cilla and Ford are trying to figure out who targeted Cilla and why.
America’s First Daughter
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Martha “Patsy” Jefferson was the oldest daughter of our founding father and eventual third president, Thomas Jefferson.
Patsy grew up knowing that her father loved her dearly, but sensing that he loved his country even more. After her mother died, Patsy became her father’s protector and constant companion, even traveling with him to Paris when he became the American minister to France. In Paris, during the early days of the Revolution, Patsy learns of her father’s liaison with a young enslaved girl named Sally Hemings, who is the same age as Patsy. Meanwhile, Patsy has fallen in love with her father’s protege and staunch abolitionist, William Short.
Torn between family loyalty, love, and her principles, can Patsy make a life as William’s wife while remaining a devoted daughter? The choices she makes will follow her back to Monticello in Virginia and even to the White House. Time and again, through scandals and tragedies, Pasty will be forced to decide how much she is willing to sacrifice to protect her father’s political legacy and that of the country he helped to found.
Historical Research
In writing this historical fiction novel, the author drew upon thousands of letters and original sources. This meticulous research brings to life the turbulent years after the Revolution in a way that we haven’t read before.
Meg Langslow Mysteries
Book Summary
In the first book of this highly recommended series, Blacksmith Meg Langslow is having a hectic summer as she is slated to be maid of honor at three weddings, and the three brides (her mother, her future sister-in-law, and her best friend) all expect a lot of help. She is also concerned that her father, who still loves his ex-wife, Meg’s mother, is spending a lot of time helping her mother get ready for the wedding.
As Meg’s quirky extended family and other wedding guests start arriving, a very unpleasant guest ends up dead. As Meg tries to plan the wedding, find peacocks, and schedule multiple dress fittings (which brings her in contact with Michael, the handsome son of the dress store owner), she is also trying to discover the murderer.
About the Series
Murder with Peacocks kicked off this successful book series in 1999 and won the Agatha, the Anthony, the Lefty, and the Barry book awards.
Readers love the gentle humor and the well-defined, quirky characters. Throughout the series, there are a lot of interesting details about blacksmithing, unusual animals, and technology. We do recommend reading the series in order as Meg’s life progresses throughout, and she finds love and has children along the way.
The House is On Fire
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the middle of the 1811 winter social season, Virginia’s planters and their families gathered at the capital for the General Assembly. Just after Christmas, six hundred people packed into the theater for a show.
Newly widowed Sally is in a third-floor box. Cecily is in the colored gallery, happy to briefly escape bad circumstances at home. Stagehand Jack is backstage, hoping to earn a permanent job. Blacksmith Gilbert is on the other side of town, trying to make enough money, first to buy his freedom and then to be able to take his wife to the theater.
In the middle of the performance, the theater catches fire. The decisions by Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert will impact their futures as well as the lives of countless others.
Based on the true story of a fire in Richmond, Virginia’s theater in 1811, this compelling novel moves from tragedy to redemption as the lives of four people instantly become forever intertwined.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
90% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
For years, Lara Jean has been writing letters to each of her secret crushes. After pouring her emotions onto the page, she sealed each letter and hid them away in a special box under her bed. They were never meant to be sent, but they somehow found their way into the mail. Now, she must face all of her past crushes who have read her innermost thoughts.
From her first kiss and a cute summer camp boy to her sister’s ex-boyfriend… can anything good come of this embarrassing mix-up?
About the Series
All three books in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy have been adapted into adorable movies on Netflix. There is also a Netflix spinoff series called XO, Kitty that follows Lara Jean’s younger sister when she follows love to a boarding school in South Korea.
The Girls in Navy Blue
Book Summary
In 1918, the US Navy allowed women to join as yeomanettes for the first time. Ten thousand women answered the call with various motivations.
Marjory, a German-American, was motivated by a desire to prove her patriotism toward the US. Blanche was a suffragette and wanted to prove that women are equal. But Viv, the shy preacher’s daughter, joined in an attempt to escape the police. The trio finds friendship and sisterhood as yeomanettes, but when Viv’s dark past catches up to her, they find themselves in chaos.
In 1968, Peggy inherits a beach cottage from her estranged aunt, Blanche. Shortly after, she receives mysterious postcards dating from 1918 during Blanche’s service. As Peggy digs into her aunt’s past, it begins to collide with the present.
Blue Ridge Library Mysteries Series
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Amy was a university librarian, but a relationship gone wrong sent her running to her aunt’s house in a historic Virginia mountain town. In the first book of this series, she finds a job managing the underfunded but charming library and wrangling the eccentric patrons.
When Richards inherits a farmhouse from his great-uncle, he’s also determined to get to the bottom of a 1925 murder connected to his family. He enlists Amy’s help in investigating the case. She’s skeptical about his theories until inexplicable new murders plunge the quiet town into chaos.
Lies We Tell Ourselves
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Sarah Dunbar, an honors student at her previous high school, is placed in remedial classes when she becomes one of the first Black students to attend the formerly all-white Jefferson High School in Virginia. She is spat on and tormented by not only classmates but also teachers.
Linda Hairston is the teenage daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She’s always been taught that the races should be separate but equal, but when she’s assigned to work on a school project with Sarah, she’ll have to confront this notion head-on.
Told through alternating perspectives, we see both girls confront deeply ingrained prejudices as they begin to question the societal norms they’ve been taught.
Historical Context
This historical fiction novel was inspired by real events, but the characters are all fictional. While Sarah Dunbar is not based on a specific individual, her experiences reflect the real struggles of students who participated in school integration during the Civil Rights Movement.
My Monticello
Book Summary
This collection of six short stories focuses on stories of race in Virginia, including Charlottesville and Alexandria. The title story is about a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. One of the neighbors is a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. The group seeks refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unraveling within the nation.
The Water Dancer
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
75% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel tells the story of Hiram Walker, who was born into bondage but possesses a mysterious power. He almost drowns when his carriage crashes into a river, but instead a blue light lifts him up and lands him a mile away. Following this brush with death further motivates Hiram’s rebellion against his enslavement.
Hiram embarks on an unexpected journey into the underground war on slavery. From the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s plantations to guerrilla cells in the wilderness, and from the deep South to the dangerous but utopic movements in the North.
Even as Hiram enlists in the underground war between slave owners and the enslaved, all Hiram wants is to return to the Walker Plantation to free the family he left behind. But before he can do so, he must first master his magical gift.
The Book Girls Say…
The Water Dancer, a debut novel with its magical elements, is a departure from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ prior non-fiction works. Some readers describe The Water Dancer as a superhero origin story, which is fitting since Coates also spent five years writing comic book series for Marvel’s Black Panther and Captain America.
Christmas Books Set in Virginia
Coming Home for Christmas
Book Summary
Allie is thrilled when she lands a job planning the Christmas gala festivities for the Ashford Estate, but dealing with the family is another matter.
Robert is cold and plans to sell the estate. His brother Kip won’t stop flirting with Allie. Their sister, Sloane, arrives home amid a divorce. And Grandma Pippa just grumbles at everyone from her mobility scooter. If it’s going to be the last holiday for the family at the Ashford Estate, Allie is determined to make it a happy one, no matter how hard they fight her on it.
Other Books by This Author
If you love Hallmark Christmas movie-style books, you’ll also want to consider Jenny Hale’s Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses.
Another great pick is Christmas in Chestnut Ridge by Nancy Nail, which is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Kiss the Girl
Book Summary
Grace Winters put her aerospace career on hold and returned home to Creekville to help with her dad’s hardware store while he undergoes chemotherapy. But she plans to leave town again as soon as she can. In the meantime, she’s keeping everyone at arm’s length, which means no dating small-town guys. Especially not Noah, the new high school coach… no matter how cute and charming he may be.
Noah knows that Creekville is just a detour for Grace, and he’s pretty much accepted that he’ll never leave the friend-zone. But he still can’t help but notice how funny and sexy she is. When the two of them are paired up to build a Christmas booth for a big holiday event, he sees an opportunity. He convinces Grace to pose as his girlfriend so that his boss will take him more seriously as he vies for a promotion.
Thoughts on This Book
This small-town Christmas rom-com is perfect for fans of the fake dating trope. Reviewers praise this book for its well-rounded and realistic characters.
Read Around the USA – Books Set in Other States
We hope you enjoyed this list of books about Virginia and found some great titles to add to your TBR. If you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, be sure to check out our alphabetical index of books set in each state.
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