Books like 'Forever Amber'
Readers who enjoyed Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction classics early-modern epic royalty literary-fiction
-
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:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPawn in Frankincense is the fourth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles. Somewhere within the bejeweled labyrinth of the Ottoman empire, a child is hidden. Now his father, Francis Crawford of Lymond, soldier of fortune and the exiled heir of Scottish nobility, is searching for him while ostensibly engaged on a mission to the Turkish Sultan...Categorized as:
classics early-modern historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult angst -
The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe third volume in The Lymond Chronicles, the highly renowned series of historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett, Disorderly Knights takes place in 1551, when Francis Crawford of Lymond is dispatched to embattled Malta, to assist the Knights of Hospitallers in defending the island against the Turks... -
The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFor the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.Fifth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, The Ringed Castle leaps from Mary Tudor's England to the barbaric Russia of Ivan the Terrible. Francis Crawford of Lymond moves to Muscovy, where he becomes advisor and general to the half-mad tsar... -
-
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 epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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 female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsIn this breathtaking novel, rich in history and adventure, #1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon continues the story of Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser that started with the now-classic novel Outlander and continued in Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager. Once again spanning continents and centuries, Gabaldon has created a work of sheer brilliance...Categorized as:
classics drama epic female-mc historical-fiction steamy 20th-century action-adventure -
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 drama epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt is 1939. Despite a law banning him from performing surgery, Ravic – a German doctor and refugee living in Paris – has been treating some of the city’s most elite citizens for two years on the behalf of two less-than-skillful French physicians...Categorized as:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 98 ratingsWhat happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride...Categorized as:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction royalty 20th-century action-adventure -
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... -
The Physician by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick—and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing—a gift that urged him on to become a doctor...Categorized as:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
A Time to Love and a Time to Die by Erich Maria Remarque, Denver Lindley
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the quintessential author of wartime Germany, A Time to Love and a Time to Die echoes the harrowing insights of his masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front. After two years at the Russian front, Ernst Graeber finally receives three weeks’ leave. But since leaves have been canceled before, he decides not to write his parents, fearing he would just raise their hopes...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
-
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA glorious novel of the controversial Richard III - a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history...Categorized as:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction royalty 20th-century action-adventure -
So Much Owed: An Irish World War 2 Story by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsIn a turbulent and uncertain world, the birth of two children revitalise a small Irish town and set the stage for a closer look into lives torn asunder by war. When Dr. Richard Buckley returns home to his wife and beloved hometown of Dunderrig, his mind is wearied by the ravages of The Great War...Categorized as:
epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Queens' Play by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSecond in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Queens' Play follows Francis Crawford of Lymond who has been abruptly called into the service of Mary Queen of Scots. Though she is only a little girl, the Queen is already the object of malicious intrigues that extend from her native country to the court of France... -
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...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
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 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 Norwegian Assassin by Hannah Byron
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsVienna, 1938Her family’s gone. Her fiancé taken from her. Esther Weiss sees only one way to fight back.Life is good for Esther and her Jewish family until Hitler annexes their home country Austria. Her wedding to fiancé Carl Bernstein is postponed, and her family's entire life is uprooted... -
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsCalled “a Russian Thorn Birds,” The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons is a sweeping saga of love and war that has been a monumental bestseller all over the world. The acclaimed author of Tully, Simons has written a stirring tale of devotion, passion, secrets, betray, and sacrifice. “A love story both tender and fierce” (Publishers Weekly ) that “Recalls Dr...Categorized as:
cheating classics domestic-drama drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century -
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 female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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 historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
-
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 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:
epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy... -
Warleggan by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen Ross and Elizabeth's old attraction rekindles itself, Demelza retaliates by becoming dangerously involved with a Scots cavalry officer. With bankruptcy an increasing possibility, the Poldarks seem to be facing disaster on all fronts...Categorized as:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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 romance historical 20th-century fiction -
Heaven Has No Favorites by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom one of the twentieth century’s master novelists, the author of the classic All Quiet on the Western Front, comes Heaven Has No Favorites, a bittersweet story of unconventional love that sweeps across Europe. Lillian is charming, beautiful . . . and slowly dying of consumption. But she doesn’t wish to end her days in a hospital in the Alps...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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:
drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWith House Of Glass comes the final chapter of Pramoedya's epic quartet, set in the Dutch East Indies at the turn of the century. A novel of heroism, passion, and betrayal, it provides a spectacular conclusion to a series hailed as one of the great works of modern literature...Categorized as:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
-
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:
classics drama epic historical-fiction literary-fiction royalty 20th-century action-adventure -
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 female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 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:
classics drama epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCornwall, 1790. Ross Poldark faces the darkest hour of his life. He is to stand trial for the wrecking of two ships. Despite their stormy married life, Demelza has tried to rally support for her husband. But Ross Poldark has many powerful enemies...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Secret Wife by Gill Paul
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries . . . Love. Guilt. Heartbreak. 1914 Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance – and their lives – in danger . .Categorized as:
cheating domestic-drama drama epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction royalty -
Katherine by Anya Seton, Philippa Gregory
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThis classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history—that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family... -
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 female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 Keeper of The Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe very last novel that Gene Stratton-Porter wrote before her death. The tale of a wounded World War I veteran, a beekeeper and an impish tomboy all helped by each other...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book california -
The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe author of the engrossing international bestseller The Room on Rue Amélie returns with a moving story set amid the champagne vineyards of northern France during the darkest days of World War II, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale.Champagne, 1940: Inès has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade... -
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... -
Shadow of a Century by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA journalist in modern New York stumbles across a story from a century earlier when the streets of Dublin were ablaze as men and women fought valiantly for liberation from the British Empire. This is the story of three women. Mary Doyle was reared by nuns and knows nothing of her parents, except that they were a source of shame...Categorized as:
epic female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Bitter Tears by Marion Kummerow
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRichard Klausen is a fugitive. A Wehrmacht deserter, hiding out on a farm in Poland. He thought once the war was over, he’d be safe. Wrong. Things only get worse and staying in Poland threatens his very life. Katrina Zdanek longs for peace. But when it’s finally there, she soon finds out that loving the wrong man still is a crime. She’s Polish. He’s German. Antagonists even after the war... -
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 female-mc fiction historical outdoors family survival
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.