Every year, we love looking back at the titles King County Library System patrons couldn’t stop checking out. And for two years running, readers have had a clear favorite.

“The Women,” by Bainbridge Island-based author Kristin Hannah, was KCLS’ most checked-out title in both 2024 and 2025. As we head toward the end of the year, when we’ll see whether “The Women” remains at the top, here are a few recommendations in the same vein as Hannah’s tour de force.

Set to be published next month, “Queen of Lombard Street” by Lisa Kleypas features protagonist Reina Martin, the illegitimate daughter of a dancer, growing up in 1870s Victorian England. Just like Hannah, Kleypas is a bestselling author of historical fiction who once called Washington home.

Though she’s best known for her romances, this latest book shifts to focus on unrecognized female trailblazers. And while “Queen of Lombard Street” still has elements of the romance readers can expect from a Kleypas book, Reina uses her intellect and determination to become one of the best economists of her age.

Eager to create more opportunities for women like her, Reina works with a longtime mentor to build a bank specifically for women — only to discover that John Pembroke, an undercover detective, has secretly infiltrated her household to monitor her every move.

“Queen of Lombard Street” is a sweeping story about a woman who refuses to let history erase her, even as the world around her insists she stays small.

“Big Lies in a Small Town” by Diane Chamberlain is a great pick for anyone who loves historical fiction as much for the real history as for the story itself. Both Chamberlain and Hannah have a gift for making readers want to dig deeper into the events behind their novels.

The book moves between two timelines. In 1940, artist Anna Dale wins a federal contest to paint a mural on the side of the Edenton, N.C., post office. Decades later, in 2018, incarcerated Morgan Christopher is offered the chance for early release if she agrees to restore the old mural. As Morgan slowly works to bring it back to life, she becomes curious about the artist who created it and will have to dig past painful, long-held secrets to uncover Anna’s fate.

This is wonderfully thought-provoking historical fiction about the very real federally commissioned post-office murals, with a hint of mystery at the center.

Author Krystal Quiles breathes fresh life into Julia Alvarez’s beloved 1990s novel “In the Time of the Butterflies” with a stunning new graphic novel adaptation that was released earlier this month.

“In the Time of the Butterflies” tells the inspired-by-a-true-story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionaries executed for their resistance against Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Quiles brings their story to vivid new life through color: each sister is rendered in her own distinct palette, guiding readers seamlessly between perspectives as the narrative shifts from voice to voice.

Like Frankie in Hannah’s “The Women,” the Mirabal sisters are ordinary women forced into extraordinary courage. Readers drawn to themes of sacrifice, sisterhood and defiance will find a powerful echo here.

Just as “The Women” exposes the invisible wounds carried by Vietnam-era nurses, Luis Alberto Urrea’s “Good Night, Irene” focuses on women who served on the front lines of World War II. The novel carries extra weight from its origins; Urrea based much of it on his own mother’s wartime experiences.

It’s 1943, and Irene Woodward enlists to escape an abusive relationship, only to land in a different kind of danger. Alongside her new friend Dorothy Dunford, she’s deployed as a Donut Dolly, following the front lines to bring soldiers coffee, doughnuts and morale. What Irene and Dorothy witness there will shape the rest of their lives, even after an accident tears them apart.

Tender, harrowing and unflinching, “Good Night, Irene” is a testament to what women endured and carried, even after the war ended.

While “The Women” follows nurses into combat, Alice McDermott’s “Absolution” stays behind the lines, in the drawing rooms of 1963 Saigon, where American wives wage their own quiet campaigns for influence.

Tricia arrives a timid newlywed, eager only to support her husband. Instead, she gets pulled in by Charlene, a bold, bossy woman who’s always running some new charity project. Sixty years later, Tricia corresponds with Charlene’s daughter, sifting through memory to make sense of who she became.

“Absolution” is slow-paced, but it’s a rich character study about how women find power when they don’t have any other option.