Books like 'Circling the Sun'
Readers who enjoyed Circling the Sun by Paula McLain also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance action / adventure 20th century historical-fiction literary-fiction animals horses drama journey
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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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
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...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction season-summer -
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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... -
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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction drama season-summer journey literary-fiction family friendship female-mc -
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:
colonization coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsFrom the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England...Categorized as:
animals drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction horses 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 Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAn alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-1492671527 can be found here.In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry...Categorized as:
animals coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction -
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsA portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
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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 family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
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:
colonization drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Riviera House by Natasha Lester
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Secret weaves a lush and engrossing novel of World War II inspired by a true story and perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff. Paris, 1939: The Nazis think Éliane can't understand German. They’re wrong. They think she’s merely cataloging art in a Louvre museum and unaware they’re stealing national treasures for their private collections...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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 -
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:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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 -
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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... -
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 -
The Girls of Pearl Harbor by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of Wives of War comes a harrowing tale of four brave young nurses whose lives change forever in the wake of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.When Grace, April, and Poppy join the US Army Nurse Corps, they see it as little more than an adventure, one made all the better by their first station: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic season-summer -
Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“Angels of the Resistance brings to life a deadly-effective and deeply moving sisterhood.” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose CodeFrom the bestselling author of The Flight Girls comes a story inspired by true events, about courageous women who risked everything for country, for family, and for each other... -
All the Flowers in Paris: A Novel by Sarah Jio
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTwo women are connected across time by the city of Paris, a mysterious journal, and shocking secrets, sweeping from World War II to the present--for readers of Sarah's Key. When Caroline wakes up in a Paris hospital with no memory of her past, she's confused to learn that she's lived a sad, reclusive life for years in a sprawling apartment on the Seine...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century -
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA grand love story and an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are torn apart by war.Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century -
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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:
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Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsInspired by a little-known chapter of World War II history, a young Protestant girl and her Jewish neighbour are caught up in the terrible wave of hate sweeping the globe on the eve of war in this powerful love story that’s perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.If you’re reading this letter, that means I’m dead...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
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 family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
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:
animals 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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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 Lieutenant's Girl by Shari J. Ryan
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPearl Harbor, 1941. War planes hurtle across the horizon, skimming the clouds. Gunpowder fills the air as the earth shatters. Everett’s hands cup my cheeks. “If I lose you, Elizabeth, please know that the time I’ve spent with you has been worth every second I’ve been alive...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
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:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 19th-century 20th-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:
colonization coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSix-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Auschwitz. Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks. As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They mean to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl’s unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. Gretl is the only survivor...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
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The Autumn of the Ace by Louis de Bernières
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLouis de Bernières is the master of historical fiction which makes you both laugh and cry. This book follows an unforgettable family after the Second World War.Daniel Pitt was an RAF fighter in the First World War and an espionage agent for the SOE in the Second. Now the conflicts he faces are closer to home...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family colonization coming-of-age fiction historical war -
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsEmily Starr never knew what it was to be lonely—until her beloved father died. Now Emily's an orphan, and her mother's snobbish relatives are taking her to live with them at New Moon Farm. She's sure she won't be happy. Emily deals with stiff, stern Aunt Elizabeth and her malicious classmates by holding her head high and using her quick wit...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
The Gamekeeper's Wife by Clare Flynn
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMartha Walters is the widow of an abusive man. Christopher Shipley is the reluctant heir to a substantial family fortune. He has more money than he needs or wants – but responsibilities he can’t shirk. She has nothing, and now stands to lose even her home. They were never meant to fall in love …but sometimes you know the wrong person is the right one...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Chalky Sea by Clare Flynn
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTwo troubled people struggle to find their way in a turbulent world. In July 1940, Gwen Collingwood drops her husband at the railway station, knowing she may never see him again. Two days later her humdrum world is torn apart when the sleepy English seaside town where she lives is subjected to the first of many heavy bombing attacks...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Chimes of a Lost Cathedral by Janet Fitch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe story of THE REVOLUTION OF MARINA M. continues in bestselling author Janet Fitch's sweeping epic about a young woman's coming into her own against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. After the events of The Revolution of Marina M...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc literary-fiction journey drama coming-of-age europe east-europe -
Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA spellbinding story of forbidden love, spanning three continents and three decades. Set against the Independence struggles of two British colonies, Of Marriageable Age is ultimately a story of personal triumph against a brutal fate, brought to life by a multicultural cast of characters:Savitri, intuitive and charismatic, grows up among the servants of a pre-war English household in the Raj...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult
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