01
If you loved the midwifery
The Midwife of Hope River
Patricia Harman
Why Matchbook recommends it: A Depression-era Appalachian midwife delivers babies and faces hardship with quiet courage — rich in the practical detail you loved.
What to read next
Books Like The Frozen River
The Frozen River is inspired by Martha Ballard, an 18th-century Maine midwife whose diary recorded births, deaths and a rape trial that exposed how little a woman's word counted. Readers looking for books like The Frozen River want historical fiction grounded in real women, a courtroom or mystery thread, and a heroine whose practical competence lets her stand up to a society stacked against her.
Our picks
02
If you loved a woman's knowledge of healing
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
Why Matchbook recommends it: Agnes, a herbalist and healer, loses her son to plague — a lyrical portrait of a woman history nearly erased.
03
If you loved women facing an unjust legal system
The Exiles
Christina Baker Kline
Why Matchbook recommends it: Women convicted in 19th-century London are transported to Tasmania, surviving a system built to erase them.
04
If you want more of Lawhon's real-life heroines
Code Name Hélène
Ariel Lawhon
Why Matchbook recommends it: Nancy Wake's extraordinary life as a WWII resistance leader, told with the same sharp eye for a real woman's courage.
05
If you loved a midwife defending women's knowledge
The Birth House
Ami McKay
Why Matchbook recommends it: A young midwife in a Nova Scotia village clashes with a new doctor who dismisses everything she knows about women's bodies.
06
If you loved a woman's testimony on trial
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
Why Matchbook recommends it: A real 1840s murder case and the woman convicted of it — whether she's believed is the whole question.
07
If you loved a hard winter and a woman's word on trial
Burial Rites
Hannah Kent
Why Matchbook recommends it: Based on a real case: a woman condemned for murder in 1820s Iceland spends her last winter on a remote farm, and the truth of what happened slowly surfaces.
What did you love about The Frozen River?
The romance? The characters? The setting? The twists? Tell Matchbook what worked for you — and what didn't — and we'll find your next read.