Books like 'Circle of Friends'
Readers who enjoyed Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy, René Huigen & Frans Thomése also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction friendship drama coming-of-age realistic literary-fiction
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The Emerald Horizon by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBerlin, 1944. Ariella Bannon is being hunted. Someone is determined to betray her as a Jew, but she has survived against incredible odds, and the end is in sight. She will be reunited with her precious children, no matter what it takes.Meanwhile, Liesl and Erich have found a home in Ireland, away from the chaos of war-ravaged Europe... -
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAvailable in English for the first time, this best-selling Turkish classic of love and alienation in a changing world captures the vibrancy of interwar Berlin. A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin... -
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsLina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known... -
Sea of Memories by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen Kendra first visits her ailing grandmother, Ella has only one request: that Kendra write her story down, before she forgets…In 1937, seventeen-year-old Ella’s life changes forever when she is sent to spend the summer on the beautiful Île de Ré and meets the charismatic, creative Christophe... -
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Return to Robinswood by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsOne Irish house, two very different families, and a war that changed everything. Robinswood Estate, County Waterford, Ireland. 1946.Years of neglect and abandonment have left the family seat of the Keneficks almost derelict, but the new Lord Kenefick and his charming young wife Kate, are determined to breathe life into the old house once more...Categorized as:
epic family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century -
These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 34 ratings“Belongs on your must-read list. This novel is a gem.” —Omaha World-HeraldNancy E. Turner's unforgettable These Is My Words melds the sweeping adventures and dramatic landscapes of Lonesome Dove with the heartfelt emotional saga of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama epic family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction -
The Sky Beneath Us by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn inspiring, uplifting story of love and loss, courage and adventure, from the bestselling author of The Skylark’s Secret.1927. Violet Mackenzie-Grant is embarking on her dream of studying at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family friendship literary-fiction epic female-mc asia south-asia -
The Cypress Maze by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this haunting tale from the bestselling author of The Storyteller of Casablanca, Beatrice kept a wartime secret to protect the innocent. Now, could telling it set her free?Tuscany, 1943. Stranded in war-ravaged Italy, Beatrice’s dream of an escapist year teaching English is shattered... -
This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMinke is a young Javanese student of great intelligence and ambition. Living equally among the colonists and colonized of 19th-century Java, he battles against the confines of colonial strictures. It is his love for Annelies that enables him to find the strength to embrace his world...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
The Secrets We Left Behind by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsOccupied France, 1940. When the staff at a field hospital draw straws to find out who will join the evacuation from Dunkirk, Nurse Cate is left behind. But when the Nazis arrive to claim prisoners of war, she takes her chance and flees into the night, taking one patient with her.Fifty miles away, the surrendering soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment are shot dead by the advancing Germans...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAn aspiring photographer follows her dreams and faces her fears in a poignant novel about finding beauty, promise, and love amid the chaos of war-torn Kurdistan.It’s 1979. Olivia Murray, a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper, is determined to become a photojournalist and make a difference with her work... -
Eternal by Lisa Scottoline
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWhat war destroys, only love can heal.Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
The Queen of Beauty by Petra Durst-Benning, Edwin Miles
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPetra Durst-Benning’s captivating historical novel pays homage to the trailblazing women of the early twentieth century—like Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder—who shaped culture, shattered convention, and strived to make the world around them more beautiful... -
The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLoch Ewe, 1940. When gamekeeper’s daughter Flora’s remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird’s son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed...Categorized as:
drama epic family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century -
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Child of All Nations by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Child of All Nations, the reader is immediately swept up by a story that is profoundly feminist, devastatingly anticolonialist—and full of heartbreak, suspense, love, and fury. Pramoedya immerses the reader in a world that is astonishing in its vividness: the cultural whirlpool that was the Dutch East Indies of the 1890s...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs the world moves into the twentieth century, Minke, one of the few European-educated Javanese, optimistically starts a new life in a new town: Betawi. With his enrollment in medical school and the opportunity to meet new people, there is every reason to believe that he can leave behind the tragedies of the past...Categorized as:
classics drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Spitfire Girls by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThree skilled aviators determined to help win the war. Three brave women who know their place is not at home. At the height of World War II, the British Air Transport Auxiliary need help. A group of young women volunteer for action, but the perils of their new job don’t end on the tarmac. Things are tough in the air, but on the ground their abilities as pilots are constantly questioned...Categorized as:
epic family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Angry Tide by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Angry Tide is the seventh novel in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, the major TV series from Masterpiece on PBS.Cornwall, towards the end of the 18th century. Ross Poldark sits for the borough of Truro as Member of Parliament - his time divided between London and Cornwall, his heart divided about his wife, Demelza...Categorized as:
classics drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Promise by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA wonderfully heartwarming, touching and romantic story - Tammy Robinson Author of Differently Normal Two women from different generations brought together by another’s wrongdoing. When British backpacker, Isabel Stark happens across a car accident on a lonely stretch of road in the South Island of New Zealand her life changes forever...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction epic literary-fiction humor romance historical 20th-century -
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 87 ratingsA remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.“Treat yourself to this book, please - I can’t recommend it highly enough.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers... -
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThere on her forearm, next to a small brown birthmark, were six tattooed numbers. 'Do you remember me now?' he asked, trembling. She looked at him again, as if giving weight and bone to a ghost. 'Lenka, it's me,' he said. 'Josef. Your husband.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, falls in love with Josef...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOceans and decades apart, two women are inextricably bound by the secrets between them.Japan, 1957...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey 20th-century action-adventure -
Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction… As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer, Hetty Heinrich is keen to play her part in the glorious new Thousand Year Reich...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century -
Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo Captains is the most renowned novel of the Russian writer Veniamin Kaverin. The plot spans from 1912 to 1944. For more than half a century the book has been loved by children and adults alike. The novel has undergone more than 100 printings, including translations into other languages. Based on its story, plays have been staged and an opera has been written... -
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Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAnne's children were almost grown up, except for pretty, high-spirited Rilla. No one could resist her bright hazel eyes and dazzling smile. Rilla, almost fifteen, can't think any further ahead than going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from handsome Kenneth Ford...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction -
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAn unforgettable story of courage and romance. Will Valancy Stirling ever escape her strict family and find true love?Valancy Stirling is 29, unmarried, and has never been in love... -
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsRoya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.Then Mr...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Cherry Jones
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsLaura is teaching school, and it's terrifying! Most of the students are taller than she is, and she must sleep away from home for the first time. Laura is miserable, but the money is needed to keep Mary in a college for the blind. Every Friday—no matter what the weather—Almanzo Wilder arrives to take Laura home to her family for the weekend...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsCalling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship. Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
What Once Was True: An Irish WW2 Story by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsRobinswood, Co Waterford, 1939. The once grand Irish house is home to two very different families. Despite delusions of grandeur, Lord and Lady Kenefick and their adult children, live a life of decayed opulence as the money needed to keep such a large house and grounds ever dwindles...Categorized as:
epic family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Four Swans by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe sixth book in the legendary Poldark saga. Cornwall, 1795: Although Ross Poldark - now something of a war hero - seems secure in his hard-won prosperity, a new dilemma faces him in the sudden infatuation of a young naval officer for his wife Demelza. All four women - the four swans - whose lives touch Ross' face a crisis in these years...Categorized as:
classics drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsArtist's daughter Penelope Keeling can look back on a full and varied life: a Bohemian childhood in London and Cornwall, an unhappy wartime marriage, and the one man she truly loved. She has brought up three children - and learned to accept them as they are. Yet she is far too energetic and independent to settle sweetly into pensioned-off old-age... -
Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWhen Jerusha Abbott, an eighteen-year-old girl living in an orphan asylum, was told that a mysterious millionaire had agreed to pay for her education, it was like a dream come true. For the first time in her life, she had someone she could pretend was "family." But everything was not perfect, for he chose to remain anonymous and asked that she only write him concerning her progress in school...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama friendship historical-fiction humor literary-fiction realistic -
Demelza by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDemelza, the miner's daughter that Poldark rescued from a fairground rabble, is now his wife. Demelza's efforts to adapt to the ways of the gentry bring her confusion and heartache, despite the joy in the birth of their first child. Additionally the seeds of dispute with Warleggan are sown...Categorized as:
classics drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
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Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsAnne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises... -
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsMaia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Angels of Lovely Lane by Nadine Dorries
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is 1953 and five very different girls are arriving at the nurses' home in Lovely Lane, Liverpool, to start their training at St Angelus Hospital. Dana has escaped from her family farm on the west coast of Ireland. Victoria is running away from a debt-ridden aristocratic background. Beth is an army brat and throws in her lot with bitchy Celia Forsyth... -
A New York Secret by Ella Carey
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom top-ten bestseller Ella Carey comes a stunning Second World War novel. The glitter, glamor and danger of 1940s New York collide in this dazzling story about a young woman striving to survive in a world where everything is set against her.War forces her to choose a side…1942, New York... -
The Planter's Bride by Janet MacLeod Trotter
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1922: cousins and best friends, Sophie and Tilly, are looking for love and adventure. Sophie, orphaned at six, when her tea planter parents died suddenly of fever in India, has been brought up by a radical aunt in Edinburgh. Tilly meanwhile has lived a sheltered life in Newcastle... -
Be Still the Water by Karen Emilson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFinalist 2019 Canadian Book Club AwardsShortlisted for the 2017 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction2017 IPPY Silver Medal WinnerSet in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba, Be Still the Water brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson Family—immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family coming-of-age friendship female-mc fiction historical -
On the Wings of Hope by Ella Zeiss, Helen MacCormac
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAs World War II draws to a close, can two young people find love, hope—and freedom?February 1942: Terrifying reports of the Wehrmacht’s advance across the Soviet Union spread like wildfire, striking new fear into the already oppressed German families living there.Harri Pfeiffer, now sixteen, is summoned to the forced labour camp in Chelyabinsk...Categorized as:
drama epic family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century -
The Highland Girls at War by Helen Yendall
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCan the Highland girls prove everyone wrong? Don’t miss this poignant and heartwarming WW2 novel for fans of Rosie Clarke, Dilly Court and Rosie Archer, from the author of A Wartime Secret. Scotland, 1942. The Lumberjills, the newest recruits in the Women’s Timber Corps, arrive in the Scottish Highlands to a hostile reception from doubtful locals...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction female-mc family epic friendship europe british-isles -
A Girl Of The Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDeeply wounded by her embittered mother's lack of sympathy for her aspirations, Elnora finds comfort in the nearby Limberlost Swamp, whose beauty and rich abundance provide her with the means to better her life...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction -
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAnne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor. A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises... -
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The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhen the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on business, he leaves his only daughter Sophia with his sister, Elizabeth Rivenhall, in Berkeley Square. Newly arrived from her tour of the Continent, Sophy invites herself into the circle of her relatives... -
The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsInspired by the true World War II history of the few bookshops to survive the Blitz, The Last Bookshop in London is a timeless story of wartime loss, love and the enduring power of literature.August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Distant Daughter by Lorna Cook
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSingapore, 1941: Singapore City lights up with explosions as the first Japanese bombs rain down. Until now, the war has seemed a distant threat for Issey and her friends, drinking and dancing at Raffles. But with the Japanese invasion looming, Issey knows she must leave. Mysterious, handsome Alex Cartwright has sworn he will see her to safety...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family friendship epic female-mc literary-fiction romance fiction -
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsVikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find—through love or through exacting maternal appraisal—a suitable boy for Lata to marry... -
A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Place: Nebraska.The time: the 1870's, when every day on the prairie brought its threat -of hostile Indians, of prairie fires, of blizzards, and the overwhelming threat of accident or illness to the little homesteading family, Will and Abbie Deal and their babies...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 19th-century -
What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'If a woman loves you, Younes, if she truly loves you, and if you have the wisdom to appreciate this great privilege, then there is no god to touch you.'As a young man Younes' life is irrevocably changed when he leaves his broken home for the vibrant, colourful and affluent European district of Río Salado...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century
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