I've always been a believer that fiction can represent history in a much more true-to-life way than what's learned from textbooks, but I've only recently turned to the kind of historical fiction that explores the "what-if's" of real people who are only peripherally mentioned in the official record. The mistresses of important historical figures, for example.

Because of the clandestine nature of these women's relationship to history, their stories are half-formed at best. Each novel on this list works to fill in those gaps—via historical fact and a whole lot of imagination. Full of drama, passion, deception and fact-filled tidbits, these tales make it oh-so-satisfying to experience life as the mistress—if only for the time it takes to get to the end of the audiobook. Enjoy! (I won't tell if you don't tell.) —Tricia, Audible Editor




Product List
    • By: Karen Mack, Jennifer Kaufman
    • Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
    • Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
    • Release date: 07-09-13
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
    • Sisters and Husband
    • Victorian-era Vienna—and the fascination with the new science of psychoanalysis and a drug-fueled intellectualism—sets the backdrop to this scandalous family drama. While I’d prefer the mistress to be a little more critical of this particular lover, Minna Bernay nonetheless has her own take on the then-revolutionary ideas she so passionately explores with her brother-in-law, Sigmund Freud.
    • A Novel
    • By: Karen Harper
    • Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
    • Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
    • Release date: 02-05-09
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 30 ratings
    • 'Wife Not of His Hearth But of His Heart'
    • Spun from scarce, intriguing snippets in the historical record, this fictionalized autobiography of William Shakespeare’s first (and secret) wife reveals Anne Whately to be the bard’s true muse. From the time they were children in Stratford-upon-Avon, through more than half a century, Anne and Will Will (as he’s referred to in this book) again and again separate and come back together. They survive deaths of friends and family members, political witch hunts, fire and plague, despair, and phenomenal success.
    • A Novel
    • By: Marie Benedict
    • Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
    • Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
    • Release date: 01-16-18
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 4,118 ratings
    • Love and Generosity In Turn-of-the-Century Pittsburgh
    • Is it possible that a poor Irish immigrant doing domestic work for an American dynasty was the true inspiration that sparked the philanthropic works of Andrew Carnegie? Clara Kelley is a resourceful young woman who becomes a priceless part of the household. But just how far did her influence go?
    • By: Naomi Wood
    • Narrated by: Kate Reading
    • Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
    • Release date: 05-27-14
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 371 ratings
    • Paramour Becomes Wife X Four
    • Okay. So what if he put a ring on it? Hemingway's four wives were all secondary to his writing. Still, they did have good times in glamorous places like Paris, Key West, Cuba, and Idaho (yes, Idaho has its allure!) Whatever you think of this man's writing and behavior, it's certainly eye-opening to look at his life and work through the perspective of each of these four women.
    • A Novel
    • By: Michelle Gable
    • Narrated by: Ilyana Kadushin
    • Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
    • Release date: 05-29-18
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 88 ratings
    • Falling Under that Kennedy Spell
    • Just when you thought you’d heard everything there was to hear about the Kennedys: meet Alicia Corning Clark. While so much of her relationship with JFK has remained secret, this book takes what little is known and blows it up into a fascinating tale of a young Polish immigrant who eventually moves on to live a life full of excitement, but will forever long for that lovely young man she first met in Hyannisport, Massachussets.
    • A Novel
    • By: Amy Bloom
    • Narrated by: Tonya Cornelisse
    • Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
    • Release date: 02-13-18
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 456 ratings
    • First Lady and First Friend
    • No one was closer to Eleanor Roosevelt than Lorena "Hick" Hickok. Their relationship was clearly built from a long-standing respect and love for each other—and while it was something of an open secret, surprisingly, no one really gossiped about this unconventional (for the time) pairing.
    • Mistress to a King
    • By: Charles Beauclerk
    • Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
    • Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
    • Release date: 04-28-14
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
    • How to Woo a King
    • Author Charles Beauclerk is a direct descendent of Charles II and one of history's most famous mistresses, Nell Gwyn. Charles was king and Nell started out as a child of the streets and daughter of a madam. This is the story of their 17-year affair colored by all of the cultural changes going on during the period of England’s great Restoration.
    • The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels
    • By: Philippa Gregory
    • Narrated by: Vanessa Kirby
    • Series: The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, Book 9
    • Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
    • Release date: 01-29-19
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 1,737 ratings
    • Henry VIII Was the Worst
    • Mary Boleyn is a bit of a mystery—making her perfectly cast as the center figure in this epic endeavor of historical fiction. Philippa Gregory is the master of the genre. She takes the facts and brings this slippier-than-a-soap opera sisterly drama to life!