Dreamland Staff Picks: brought to you by Dreamland Books and Yarn

April 17, 2025 Jessica Bamford

I have always gravitated toward historical fiction, but I have to admit that my go-to genre has delivered some ‘meh’ reads for me in the past couple of years. Whether from lackluster writing, predictable plot beats, or the dominance of the same few historical topics, I had started to feel a bit of trepidation about picking up those classic covers of the genre, featuring a woman with her face turned away. 

But my enthusiasm for historical fiction was renewed recently when I read Isola by Allegra Goodman. Yes, this book cover shows a faceless woman, but her figure is dwarfed by an expanse of dramatic seascape – a fitting representation of the role the natural world plays in this epic tale of bravery and resilience.

This book incorporates the familiar elements of a fairy tale – orphaned heroine, irredeemable villain, and loyal love – and relates the true story of a woman who finds the courage to save herself against all odds. 

When Marguerite is forced to leave her estate in France to accompany her guardian on a voyage to the New World, she finds herself exiled to an uninhabited island off the coast of Canada. Her previously pampered life has done little to prepare her for what she will face when winter descends. 

Part love story and part survival story, this book touches on the devastation of loneliness, the beauty of the natural world, the strength of the human spirit, and the infuriating plight of women in 16th-century society, even women of privilege.