Books like 'When the Ground Is Hard'
Readers who enjoyed When the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery action / adventure historical-fiction realistic coming-of-age friendship boarding-school family poc-mc
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The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsFrom the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war IrelandCyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey realistic religion spirituality -
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIn the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O’Banion, a lively orphan boy whose exploits constantly earn him the superintendent’s wrath...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey poc-mc realistic religion -
Honor by Thrity Umrigar, Sneha Mathan
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsIn this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide. Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction journey poc-mc realistic religion spirituality action-adventure -
The Heart's Charge by Karen Witemeyer
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMembers of Hanger's Horsemen, Mark Wallace and Jonah Brooks arrive in Llano County, Texas, to deliver a steed, never expecting they'd deliver a baby as well. Left with an infant to care for, they head to a nearby foundling home, where Mark encounters the woman he'd nearly married a decade ago...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook -
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Heart of Mine by Caroline Fyffe
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsUSA Today bestselling author Caroline Fyffe makes love the grandest adventure on the frontier for the resistant darling of Eden, Colorado. Emma Brinkman is the most eligible bachelorette in town and staying that way. After learning twice that romance is a lie, she's focused only on making the mine she and her sisters inherited a booming success...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Girl From the Island by Lorna Cook
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA world at war.One woman will risk everything.Another will uncover her story.1940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep – a childhood friend who has now become their enemy... -
The Mersey Mothers by Sheila Riley
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLiverpool 1953January sees the dawn of the Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation year as the mothers of Reckoners Row unite in preparation for the celebration of the new Queen.Meanwhile Evie Kilgaren is dreaming of her summer wedding to Danny Harris, but trouble looms for Skinner & Sons with a new rival trying to put them out of business, but no-one knows why... -
Harvest of Rubies by Tessa Afshar, Irena Modrijan
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe prophet Nehemiah's cousin has been catapulted into the center of the Persian court—working long hours, rubbing elbows with royalty, and becoming the queen's favorite scribe.Not bad, for a woman living in a man's world. But a devastating past has left Sarah believing that God doesn't love her and her achievements are the measure of her worth—a measure she can never quite live up to...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey religion spirituality action-adventure audiobook book christian -
Confessions by Jaume Cabré
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAt 60, Adrià Ardèvol re-examines his life before his memory is systematically deleted. He recalls a loveless childhood where the family antique business and his father’s study become the centre of his world; where a treasured Storioni violin retains the shadows of a crime committed many years earlier...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction journey religion spirituality 21st-century action-adventure adult -
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey poc-mc realistic 20th-century -
Whispers on the Wind by Caroline Fyffe
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA straitlaced bookseller and a rowdy trail guide fight their ill-suited attraction in Book Five of the Prairie Hearts series by USA Today bestselling author Caroline Fyffe. Wyoming Territory, October 1883 Tabitha Canterbury came to Logan Meadows with one goal: to open the bookshop she’s always dreamed of having...Categorized as:
friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook book -
To Treasure an Heiress by Roseanna M. White
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratings1906Beth Tremayne has always been drawn to adventure. During her childhood, she fed that desire by exploring every inch of the Isles of Scilly. Now, after stumbling across an old collection of letters and a map buried on her family's property, she's found more adventure than she ever anticipated in the hunt for pirate treasure...Categorized as:
friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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 family friendship historical-fiction journey poc-mc realistic religion -
The Whispers in the Walls by Sophie Cleverly
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the walls begin to speak, it is unwise to ignore what they have to say...At the bidding of their cold-hearted stepmother, twin sisters Scarlet and Ivy are sentenced to board for a year at Rookwood School. The headmaster is cruel, the hallways are drafty, and there seems to be a thief afoot...Categorized as:
boarding-school family historical-fiction law-enforcement realistic action-adventure book children -
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Top Marks for Murder by Robin Stevens
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDaisy and Hazel are finally back at Deepdean, and the school is preparing for a most exciting event: the fiftieth Anniversary.Plans for a weekend of celebrations are in full swing. But all is not well, for in the detectives' long absence, Deepdean has changed. Daisy has lost her crown to a fascinating new girl - and many of the Detective Society's old allies are now their sworn enemies... -
The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBased on a remarkable true story of Taj Rowland. Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in India, sold to a Christian orphanage, and then adopted by an unsuspecting couple in the United States. It takes months before the boy can speak enough English to tell his parents that he already has a family back in India...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey realistic spirituality action-adventure -
The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAlly D’Aplièse is about to compete in one of the world’s most perilous yacht races when she hears the news of her adoptive father’s sudden, mysterious death. Rushing back to meet her five sisters at their family home, she discovers that her father—an elusive billionaire affectionately known to his daughters as Pa Salt—has left each of them a tantalizing clue to their true heritage... -
First Class Murder by Robin Stevens
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDaisy Wells and Hazel Wong are taking a holiday on the famous Orient Express. From the moment the girls step aboard, it's clear that everyone in the first-class carriages has something to hide. Then there is a scream from one of the cabins, and a wealthy heiress is found dead, But the killer has vanished - as if into thin air .. -
Abigail by Magda Szabó
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAbigail, the story of a headstrong teenager growing up during World War II, is the most beloved of Magda Szabó’s books in her native Hungary. Gina is the only child of a general, a widower who has long been happy to spoil his bright and willful daughter...Categorized as:
boarding-school coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey religion spirituality 20th-century -
The Girl in the Picture by Melissa Wiesner
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs the newspaper clipping falls from the cardboard box Tegan takes in the woman in the picture: her chestnut hair, her eyes full of laughter, the way she nestles against the man beside her. And as she reads the words in the article, Tegan almost stops breathing...Categorized as:
journey historical-fiction friendship family mystery fiction historical mental-illness -
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsPhilomena meets Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceit - the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other.In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility - much like Maggie Hughes’ parents...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey realistic religion spirituality 20th-century -
Love's Eternal Breath by Naomi Rawlings
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe bestselling Eagle Harbor Series continues with Book 4, Love’s Eternal Breath. Lindy Marsden once dreamed of having a husband, a house, some children, and maybe even a sewing machine. But since she grew ill five years ago, those dreams have become too much to hope for...Categorized as:
historical-fiction bullying spirituality religion christian fiction suspense survival -
The Lost Twin by Sophie Cleverly
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIvy, I pray that it's you reading this. And if you are, well, I suppose you're the new me...When shy Ivy's troublemaking twin Scarlet vanishes from Rookwood boarding school, Ivy is invited to "take her place." But when Ivy arrives, she discovers the school's true intention; she has to pretend to be Scarlet. She must think like Scarlet, act like Scarlet, become Scarlet... -
All We Have Left by Wendy Mills
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo girls. Two lives. One event that changed them—and the world—forever.Now: Sixteen-year-old Jesse is used to living with the echoes of the past. After her older brother died in the September 11th attacks, her dad filled their home with anger and grief. When Jesse gets caught up with the wrong crowd, one thoughtless decision turns her life upside down...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic religion spirituality -
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Listen to the Moon by Michael Morpurgo, Mike Grady
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe stunning new novel of World War One from Michael Morpurgo, the nation’s favourite storyteller and multi-million copy bestseller. May, 1915. Alfie and his fisherman father find a girl on an uninhabited island in the Scillies - injured, thirsty, lost…and with absolutely no memory of who she is, or how she came to be there. She can say only one word: Lucy...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century -
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsA new novel inspired by historical events: a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students' lives...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction realistic spirituality action-adventure adult -
Angels and Demons / The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #1-2) by Dan Brown
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsEnter the labyrinthine world of internationally bestselling author Dan Brown with his first two spellbinding thrillers featuring Robert Langdon:Angels and DemonsWhen a groundbreaking scientist is found brutally murdered, world renowned Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared on to the dead man's chest...Categorized as:
historical-fiction law-enforcement religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook book -
To Disguise the Truth by Jen Turano
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen Arthur Livingston arrives out of the blue at the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency, anxious to hire the agency to seek out a missing heiress, Eunice Holbrooke realizes her past has finally caught up with her.Having fled from the scene of her grandfather's murder seven years before, Eunice is a lady with secrets--the most important that she is the missing heiress Arthur is seeking...Categorized as:
historical-fiction law-enforcement religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Dressmaker’s Secret by Lorna Cook
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsParis, 1941: As Coco Chanel’s assistant, Adèle lives side by side with German officers in the splendor of The Ritz hotel. But Adèle has a secret. She is working for the resistance, right under the German’s noses...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSent in 1910 to live with distant relatives who own a rubber plantation along the Amazon River, English orphan Maia is excited. She believes she is in for brightly colored macaws, enormous butterflies, and "curtains of sweetly scented orchids trailing from the trees." Her British classmates warn her of man-eating alligators and wild, murderous Indians...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey realistic 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 family friendship historical-fiction journey religion spirituality 20th-century -
Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsLondon, 1876 and Hetty Feather is just a tiny baby when her mother leaves her at the Foundling Hospital. The Hospital cares for abandoned children - but Hetty must first live with a foster family until she is big enough to go to school.Life in the countryside is hard but with her 'brothers' Jem and Gideon, she helps in the fields and plays imaginary games... -
Wild Blue Yonder by M.W. Arnold
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAir Transport Auxiliary pilot Doris Winter is accused of stealing a valuable item from a famous Hollywood movie star, now a captain in the US Army Air Corps, after a dance at the air base in England where he's stationed. Gathering her close friends together, she's determined to clear her name...Categorized as:
historical-fiction law-enforcement religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Baron of Emberly by Tamara Leigh
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA WARRIOR DANGEROUSLY IN CONTROL England, 1334 ~ In the second book of The Feud series, Baron Magnus Verdun is a warrior whose handsome face gives little indication of the darkness he struggles to contain...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure book christian fiction -
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Across the Blue by Carrie Turansky
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSet in Edwardian England and ideal for readers who enjoy Julie Klassen novels, this romance about an English aviation pioneer and the girl who falls in love with him is filled with adventure and faith. Isabella Grayson, the eldest daughter of a wealthy, English newspaper magnate, longs to become a journalist, but her parents don't approve...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction spirituality action-adventure adult book christian -
The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRobin was always wandering off (her mother's words) to get away from the confusion she felt inside her. It was not until Robin's father found a permanent job at the McCurdy ranch, after three years as a migrant worker, that Robin had a place to wander to... -
Rivers of Gold by Tracie Peterson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBook 3 of Yukon Quest historical fiction series set in Alaska in the late 1800s. Miranda Colton, presumed dead, finds herself under the care of a native Alaskan and a studious botanist from England, Teddy Davenport. Miranda only longs to find her friends and and continue north. She fears that her chances are diminishing with each passing day...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure audiobook book christian -
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe letter waits in a book, in a box, in an attic, in an old house in Lambert, South Carolina. It's waiting for Candice Miller.When Candice finds the letter, she isn't sure she should read it. It's addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. But the letter describes a young woman named Siobhan Washington. An injustice that happened decades ago...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction law-enforcement poc-mc realistic -
The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress comes The Wedding Shop. Two women separated by decades. Both set out to help others find their dreams when their own have crumbled...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction realistic religion spirituality action-adventure audiobook -
The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe engrossing epic novel—a #1 bestseller in Norway-of a young woman whose fate plays out against her village’s mystical church bells As long as people could remember, the stave church’s bells had rung over the isolated village of Butangen, Norway. Cast in memory of conjoined twins, the bells are said to ring on their own in times of danger...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction journey religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAugust 1611. Jack Fletcher is shipwrecked off the coast of Japan - his beloved father and the crew lie slaughtered by ninja pirates.Rescued by the legendary sword master Masamoto Takeshi, Jack's only hope is to become a samurai warrior. And so his training begins.But life at the samurai school is a constant fight for survival... -
The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff, Sanna Majuri
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratings1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers... -
A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe sequel to the international best-selling novel The Art of Hearing Heartbeats Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend recently left her, she has suffered a miscarriage, and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen Michael is washed up on an island in the Pacific after falling from his parent's yacht, the Peggy Sue, he struggles to survive on his own. But he soon realises there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey law-enforcement realistic 20th-century -
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The Black Book of Buried Secrets by Mallory Kass, Rick Riordan
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFor the past five hundred years, the Cahills have silently dominated the world. Their desperate hunt for the 39 Clues lies behind some of history’s biggest enigmas – the curse of the Hope diamond, the race to summit Mt. Everest, the wild life and death of Harry Houdini. And now – finally – the secrets are out...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction law-enforcement realistic action-adventure book children children-books -
Wakestone Hall by Judith Rossell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE MAGICAL CONCLUSION TO STELLA'S AWARD-WINNING STORY From bestselling writer-illustrator Judith Rossell comes the thrilling and magical conclusion to her multi-award-winning novel, Withering-by-Sea... -
My Sister's Prayer by Mindy Starns Clark, Leslie Gould
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWomen of Fearless DevotionVirginia, 1705 Celeste Talbot is usually such a sensible young woman—until she falls for an English soldier reassigned to the Colonies. Leaving her Huguenot family behind, she sets sail for America, only to realize that her younger sister Berta has been kidnapped and forced on board the very same ship...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure book christian -
The Heart of an Agent by Tracey J. Lyons
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTracey J. Lyons, the author of A Changed Agent, returns to the Adirondack Mountains of the 1890s in a novel of love, faith, and secrets… Former Pinkerton spy Lily Handland has always dreamed of a quiet, safe life, free from chasing criminals and putting herself at risk...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure adult book christian -
For Deader or Worse by Sheri Cobb South, Joel Froomkin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter a modest wedding ceremony, Bow Street Runner John Pickett and his bride Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst, set out for a wedding trip to Somersetshire, where Pickett must face his greatest challenge yet: meeting his in-laws.Sir Thaddeus and Lady Runyon are shocked at their daughter's hasty remarriage--and appalled by her choice of a second husband...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey law-enforcement religion spirituality abuse action-adventure adult -
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 35 ratings#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In her most powerful novel yet, acclaimed author Lisa See returns to the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z. G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction journey poc-mc realistic 20th-century
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