Books like 'Island of Ghosts'
Readers who enjoyed Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 74 ratingsFrom the author of the breathtaking bestsellers Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, the extraordinary saga continues.Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser... -
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 91 ratingsBarcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book classics -
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsAn alternate cover edition can be found here and hereA great modern classic and the prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure... -
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 83 ratingsAn alternate cover edition can be found here and hereA great modern classic and the prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure... -
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Dead Eagles by Phil Ward
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn this sequel to Those Who Dare, U.S.Major John Randal, Commander of Strategic Raiding Forces is back, leading a crew of British Commandos, Royal Marines and Royal Navy raiders on bigger and bolder missions to foil Hitler's Third Reich. Off the Gold Coast colony in Africa, the Germans are operating a naval intelligence ring that gathers information about British convoys in the southern sea-lane... -
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAt Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn The Winter King and Enemy of God Bernard Cornwell demonstrated his astonishing ability to make the oft-told legend of King Arthur fresh and new for our time. Now, in this riveting final volume of The Warlord Chronicles, Cornwell tells the unforgettable tale of Arthur's final struggles against the Saxons and his last attempts to triumph over a ruined marriage and ravaged dreams...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history arthurian audiobook -
Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe balance of King Arthur's unified kingdom is threatened by Merlin's quest for the last of Britain's 13 Treasures; by the conflict between the ancient religion and the new Christianity; and by Britain's war with the Saxons. A master storyteller continues his retelling of the Arthurian legend...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history arthurian audiobook -
Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThis is Simon de Montfort's story—and the story of King Henry III, as weak and changeable as Montfort was brash and unbending. It is a saga of two opposing wills that would later clash in a storm of violence and betrayal, a story straight from the pages of history that brings the world of the thirteenth century completely, provocatively, and magnificently alive... -
The Journeyer by Gary Jennings
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMarco Polo was nicknamed "Marco of the millions" because his Venetian countrymen took the grandiose stories of his travels to be exaggerated, if not outright lies. As he lay dying, his priest, family, and friends offered him a last chance to confess his mendacity, and Marco, it is said, replied "I have not told the half of what I saw and did... -
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe ruling Asharites of Al-Rassan have come from the desert sands, but over centuries, seduced by the sensuous pleasures of their new land, their stern piety has eroded. The Asharite empire has splintered into decadent city-states led by warring petty kings...Categorized as:
historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsFrom a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel—her first to be translated into English—about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution.From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult animals audiobook -
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult book british-isles classics -
The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeptember 1939.When Jimmy is evacuated to a small village in Wales, it couldn't be more different from London. Green, quiet and full of strangers, he instantly feels out of place.But then he finds a skull hidden in a tree, and suddenly the valley is more frightening than the war. Who can Jimmy trust? His brother is too little; his best friend has changed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure book british-isles bullying children -
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A Prince Without a Kingdom by Timothée de Fombelle
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis was the only treasure that Vango was after: the secret of his life.Vango has been in danger for as long as he can remember. He has spent his life running along rooftops, fleeing to mysterious islands, and abandoning those he loves in order to protect them from the demons of his past. But Vango will not run for much longer...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure book children coming-of-age -
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBased on the troubadour culture that rose in Provence during the High Middle Ages, this panoramic, absorbing novel beautifully creates an alternate version of the medieval world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Aztec by Gary Jennings
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAztec is the extraordinary story of the last and greatest native civilization of North America...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsFifth century Britain is a country of chaos and division after the Roman withdrawal. This is the world of young Merlin, the illegitimate child of a South Wales princess who will not reveal to her son his father's true identity. Yet Merlin is an extraordinary child, aware at the earliest age that he possesses a great natural gift - the Sight...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure arthurian audiobook book classics -
River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Wilbur Smith
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTanus is the fair-haired young lion of a warrior whom the gods have decreed will lead Egypt's army in a bold attempt to reunite the Kingdom's shattered halves...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult africa -
A Trail of Fire by Diana Gabaldon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFour extraordinary stories featuring characters from the bestselling OUTLANDER series. In Lord John and the Plague of Zombies Lord John Grey is posted to Jamaica to assist the Governor as he faces a most unusual kind of uprising among the colony's slave population...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook coming-of-age -
The Royal Succession by Maurice Druon
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHistorical series about 14th century France, the novels take place during the reigns of the last five Direct Capetian kings and the first two Valois kings, from Philip the Fair to John II. The plot revolves around the attempts of Robert of Artois to reclaim the county of Artois from his aunt Mahaut... -
The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsUther, the High King, has died, leaving the infant Mordred as his only heir. His uncle, the loyal and gifted warlord Arthur, now rules as caretaker for a country which has fallen into chaos - threats emerge from within the British kingdoms while vicious Saxon armies stand ready to invade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history arthurian audiobook book -
The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Ballad of the White Horse is one of the last great epic poems in the English language. On the one hand it describes King Alfred's battle against the Danes in 878. On the other hand it is a timeless allegory about the ongoing battle between Christianity and the forces of nihilistic heathenism...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult animals -
World at War, 1944 by Mary Pope Osborne
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first Magic Tree House(R) Super Edition--and Jack and Annie's most dangerous mission ever in the scariest time the world has ever known--World War II...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books -
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The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsBarcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book classics -
Triomf van de Verschroeide Aarde by Thea Beckman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMatthis is met z'n zestien jaar niet zo'n geweldig soldaat; maar als heraut en secretaris van de ongeletterde held van Bretagne, Bertrand du Guesclin, staat hij zijn mannetje. Veel durf, maar ook veel humor komt boven bij dit moedige verzet van de Bretons tegen de Engelse overheersing. Dan moet Matthis naar Parijs om geld te halen voor het verzet in Bretagne...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war fiction children-books historical young-adult action-adventure 20th-century -
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsA quest to recover a legendary lost weapon by bumbling young apprentice monk, mouse Matthias. Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice, is threatened by Cluny the Scourge savage bilge rat warlord and his battle-hardened horde. But the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends combine their courage and strength...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook book -
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn Berlin in 1941 during humanity's darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman. In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime...Categorized as:
historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age -
The She-Wolf by Maurice Druon
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings‘This was the original game of thrones’ George R.R. MartinCharles IV is now king of France and his sister is Edward II of England’s Queen. Having been imprisoned by Edward as leader of the rebellious English barons, Roger Mortimer escapes to France, where he joins the war against the English Aquitaine... -
A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe eagerly awaited English translation of award-winning author Zhang Ling’s epic and intimate novel about the devastation of war, forgiveness, redemption, and the enduring power of love.On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast—in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II—three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Legend by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsDruss, Captain of the Axe, was the stuff of legends. But even as the stories grew in the telling, Druss himself grew older. He turned his back on his own legend and retreated to a mountain lair to await his old enemy, death. Meanwhile, barbarian hordes were on the march. Nothing could stand in their way. Druss reluctantly agreed to come out of retirement... -
The King Beyond the Gate by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsA century has passed since the heroic defence of Dros Delnoch. But the people of the Drenai face a new terror: a mad emperor kept in power by two forces of unsurpassed evil. The Joinings are werebeasts of awesome power. The Dark Templars are warrior-priests whose fighting skills are without equal. Against them, the Drenai face certain defeat... -
The Deer and the Cauldron: The First Book by Jin Yong
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOn the Dragon Throne of China sits the young Manchu Emperor Kang Xi. Back in 1644, his great-uncle Dorgon broke through the Great Wall from Manchuria in the north-east and took the Imperial capital, Peking. Now twenty years later, the Manchus are quelling the last sparks of Chinese resistance, hounding down members of the underground movement known as the Triad Secret Society...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult ancient-china book -
The Poisoned Crown by Maurice Druon
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA crown is a poisonous thing...After having his first wife murdered and his mistress exiled, the weak and impotent King Louis X of France becomes besotted with the lovely and pious Princess Clemence of Hungary.Having made her his new queen, and believing the succession assured, Louis foolishly embarks upon an ill-fated war against Flanders.The kingdom needs an Iron King... -
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Harpist in the Wind by Patricia A. McKillip
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn the midst of conflict and unrest the Prince of Hed solves the puzzle of his future when he learns to harp the wind, discovers who the shape changers are, and understands his own relationship to Deth, harpist of the wizard Ohm... -
Winnie's Great War by Lindsay Mattick, Josh Greenhut
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA wartime adventure unfolds through the eyes of the world’s most beloved Bear. The story of the real bear that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh has been capturing readers’ imaginations since the publication of the Caldecott Medal award-winning picture book, Finding Winnie.But there was so much left to be told – not just about Winnie, but about the great world events she witnessed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook book -
Seven Summer Nights by Harper Fox
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt’s 1946, and the dust of World War Two has just begun to settle. When famous archaeologist Rufus Denby returns to London, his life and reputation are as devastated as the city around him.He’s used to the most glamorous of excavations, but can’t turn down the offer of a job in rural Sussex. It’s a refuge, and the only means left to him of scraping a living...Categorized as:
historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult amnesia angst -
The Midnight Guardians by Ross Montgomery
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Col's childhood imaginary friends come to life, he discovers a world where myths and legends are real. Accompanied by his guardians - a six-foot tiger, a badger in a waistcoat and a miniature knight - Col must race to Blitz-bombed London to save his sister.But there are darker forces at work, even than the Nazi bombings...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook book children -
Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsA poisoned bolt has struck down the Princess Anita on the day of her wedding to Prince Arutha of Krondor.To save his beloved, Arutha sets out in search of the mystic herb called Silverthorn that only grows in the dark and forbidding land of the Spellweavers... -
The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'Look out,' I screamed. The flying creature lashed out and I stared in horror at Rushton's bloodied arm. Maruman leapt between us in his tyger form. 'Let me go to him!' I screamed.'He is in a dream but the beast is not. It comes! Wake!'After a kidnapping, Elspeth Gordie and the Misfits are forced to join the rebellion against the oppressive Council, using their extraordinary mind powers... -
Day of War by Cliff Graham
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn ancient Israel, at the crossroads of the great trading routes, a man named Benaiah is searching for a fresh start in life. He has joined a band of soldiers led by a warlord named David, seeking to bury the past that refuses to leave him. Their ragged army is disgruntled and full of reckless men. Some are loyal to David, but others are only with him for the promise of captured wealth...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsHilary hates Jews. As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she's finally found a sense of belonging. But when she's critically injured in an accident, everything changes.Somehow, in her mind, she has become Chana, a Jewish girl fighting for her own life in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II...Categorized as:
historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century abuse action-adventure book children-books -
The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThe King is dead. Long live the King.Philip IV is dead and his great kingdom is in disarray. It seems the fatal curse of the Templars is plaguing the royal house of France.His son has been enthroned as Louis X; but with his disgraced wife Marguerite imprisoned in the Chateau Gaillard for her adultery, Louis can produce no heir with which to secure the succession... -
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsDuring the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the NightingaleJanuary 1918... -
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Max in the Land of Lies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMax Bretzfeld's dangerous mission begins when he returns home to Berlin as a British spy in the much-anticipated second book in Adam Gidwitz's duology that began with Max in the House of Spies.Max was on a mission. Well, two missions. One mission his British spymasters knew about: infiltrating the Funkhaus, the center of Nazi radio and propaganda. The other, they did not: finding his parents...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war middle-grade fantasy fiction action-adventure ww2 children-books -
The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWhat would you die for?That's the question suddenly thrust upon a small band of women and children in Bosnia at the close of World War II. When a group of bitter soldiers stumble upon their peaceful village, they suddenly face an insidious evil...and the ultimate test.It is then, in the midst of chaos and pain that the Martyr's Song is first heard...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsA masterful epic of magic, politics, war, and the power of love and hate — from the renowned author of The Fionavar Tapestry and Children of Earth and Sky.Tigana is the magical story of a beleaguered land struggling to be free. It is the tale of a people so cursed by the black sorcery of a cruel despotic king that even the name of their once-beautiful homeland cannot be spoken or remembered..Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book classics -
Weeping in the Wings by Terry Lynn Thomas
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSan Francisco, March 1943Sarah Bennett harbors two secrets: She sees ghosts, and she’s in love with a spy.When Sarah takes a job with occult expert Dr. Matthew Geisler, he promises to help her understand the sorrowful spirit that seems to have attached itself to her—a spirit whose incessant weeping only she can hear... -
The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA royal palace. A closed book. A betrayal that will echo through generations…Windsor, 1940: War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace.Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside... -
The Mind's Eye by K.C. Finn
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA girl with a telepathic gift finds a boy clinging to his last hope during the war-torn climate of Europe, 1940. At fifteen, Kit Cavendish is one the oldest evacuees to escape London at the start of the Second World War due to a long term illness that sees her stuck in a wheelchair most of the time...Categorized as:
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