Books like 'We Had It So Good'
Readers who enjoyed We Had It So Good by Linda Grant also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical historical-fiction literary-fiction family university
-
Moonlight and Ashes by Rosie Goodwin
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDespite being trapped in an abusive marriage, Maggie still feels blessed with her eight-year-old twins, Danny and Lizzie, and baby girl, Lucy. But when the Second World War begins it seems that her blessings may have run out.Although the war lets her escape her husband when he's sent to the front, she must also lose the twins, as they're evacuated to North Wales... -
![Silva Rerum II by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė]()
Silva Rerum II by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRomāna darbība notiek no 1707. līdz 1710.gadam. Karš, mēris, bads, nesamērīga greznība un nāvīgs izsalkums, zviedru un krievu karavīri, jūdu ārsti, holandiešu kāršu spēlmaņi, turku konkubīnes, franču dāmas, spītīgi žemaiši un ironiski viļņieši, bezvārda mūks, kurš apglabājis vairāk nekā divdesmit tūkstošus mēra upuru, un, protams, vēl viena bajāru Norvaišu dzimtas paaudze... -
![The Blessed Child by Rosie Goodwin]()
The Blessed Child by Rosie Goodwin
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratings'A vibrant page-turner with entrancing characters' Margaret Dickinson'Rosie writes such heartwarming sagas' Lyn Andrews 'The new Catherine Cookson' Coventry Evening Telegraph Wednesday's child is full of woe . . -
![Sarah and Solomon: Only A Stone Should Be Alone by Roberta Kagan]()
Sarah and Solomon: Only A Stone Should Be Alone by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“…Fathers and Give me your children!” – Chaim RumkowskiIt is September 1942, and the already battered occupants of the Lodz Ghetto have just been dealt another horrendous blow from Hitler’s iron fist. They must surrender their sick, elderly, and children for ‘deportation... -
-
![The Orphan's Mother by Marion Kummerow]()
The Orphan's Mother by Marion Kummerow
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1945, the German-Polish border: With Nazis on one side and Soviet forces approaching on the other, a mother and her little boy are torn apart, and so begins an unforgettable tale of courage, heartbreak and motherhood in wartime.“If you ever get lost, Jacob, you need to stay where you are and wait, because I’ll come looking for you. And I’ll always find you... -
![Gilding the Lily by Rita Bradshaw]()
Gilding the Lily by Rita Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA heartrending tale of two sisters and their quest for a place to belong, from much-loved author Rita Bradshaw.Lily and Sarah Brown's childhood is an unhappy one. Sarah escapes by marrying Ralph Turner, a Sunderland dock worker, but Lily doesn't trust Ralph - a dark volatile man with a hidden cruel streak. When he tries to seduce Lily on his wedding day, her worst fears are confirmed... -
![A Mother's Grace by Rosie Goodwin]()
A Mother's Grace by Rosie Goodwin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTuesday's child is full of grace . . . Pious young Grace Kettle escapes the world of her unsavoury and bullying father to train to be a nun. But when she meets the dashing and devout Father Luke her world is turned upside down. Her faith is tested and she is driven to make a scandalous and life-changing choice - one she may well spend the rest of her days seeking forgiveness for . . -
![The Letter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Letter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWORDS HAVE THE POWER TO HEAL, REUNITE AND TO HURT... Isabel opened her bag and pulled the letter out, glancing at the address one last time before she slid it through the slot, hearing it land with a plunk. It was gone. She’d done it, and now she’d have to wait to see what happened next... -
![A Glimpse at Happiness by Jean Fullerton]()
A Glimpse at Happiness by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings1844: when Josie returns to London after twelve years in America, she is overjoyed to discover her childhood sweetheart, Patrick, who she believed to be dead, is alive and well. But her happiness is short-lived – Patrick now belongs to another. Heartbroken, Josie tries to settle back into the East End... -
![Jessie's Promise by Rosie Clarke]()
Jessie's Promise by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of LIZZIE'S SECRET and LIZZIE'S WAR, a story about resilient, strong women surviving adversity post World War 1. DEVON 1918. When Jessie Hale loses her nursing job at the end of the First World War, she leaves London to become the nursemaid to the Kendle family in Devon. On arrival she finds the family in disarray... -
![Erin's Child by Sheelagh Kelly]()
Erin's Child by Sheelagh Kelly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFamily ties have united the Feeneys through famine and poverty, but can they withstand success? It is 1875 and the Feeneys have left the squalor of York’s slums behind them. Yet all is not well. Patrick remains a man of simple tastes, increasingly out of touch with Thomasin’s ambition to expand her business empire still further across Yorkshire... -
![Bright Day Dawning: Music Hall Series, Book 3 by Anna Jacobs]()
Bright Day Dawning: Music Hall Series, Book 3 by Anna Jacobs
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGwynna had fallen from grace once, bearing a stillborn child out of wedlock. Determined to have a respectable future, she finds a position for herself as a nursemaid at Hungerton House. But just as she begins to find her feet, the secrets of her past are revealed. She is swiftly dismissed but not before she becomes the target of a lascivious groom... -
![Return to Sarah's Valley: Sequel to Sarah's Valley by Sharon Mierke]()
Return to Sarah's Valley: Sequel to Sarah's Valley by Sharon Mierke
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsReturn to Sarah's Valley is a follow-up story to Sarah's Valley, which was published in 2012 by the same author, Sharon Mierke. In Sarah's Valley, Patrick Smithson meets Frank Lawdry. Frank, who prefers his Abenaki name, Winnipesaukee, spends the night recalling his life story. He and his sister, Sarah, were left orphans when everyone on a wagon train died in a horrific tragedy... -
![A Family’s Heartbreak by Kitty Neale]()
A Family’s Heartbreak by Kitty Neale
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAll they ever wanted was somewhere to call home… Beaten When Jenny’s mother abandons her and her younger siblings, Jenny is left at the mercy of her abusive father Henry. And when Henry beats his eldest daughter so badly that she ends up in the hospital, it seems like there’s nowhere left for them all to go...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction romance historical audiobook fiction urban -
-
![Rindu by Tere Liye]()
Rindu by Tere Liye
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratings"Apalah arti memiliki, ketika diri kami sendiri bukanlah milik kami?Apalah arti kehilangan, ketika kami sebenarnya menemukan banyak saat kehilangan, dan sebaliknya, kehilangan banyak pula saat menemukan?Apalah arti cinta, ketika menangis terluka atas perasaan yg seharusnya indah? Bagaimana mungkin, kami terduduk patah hati atas sesuatu yg seharusnya suci dan tidak menuntut apa pun?Wahai,... -
![Emma's War by Rosie Clarke]()
Emma's War by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAll she wanted was her husband to come home… Newly married to the caring RAF pilot Jonathan Reece, Emma thinks that life couldn’t be better. But her happiness is short-lived: within months, Jon’s plane is shot down over France and he is declared missing, presumed dead. Alone and with two children to care for, Emma’s first thought is how to support her family... -
![The Island We Left Behind by Kate Hewitt]()
The Island We Left Behind by Kate Hewitt
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“I love you. Of course I do. But we haven’t any choice in the matter, do we? If our little boy’s health, even his survival, is at stake, we have to do whatever it takes.”1928, New York City: Ellen and Lucas Lyman have made a heart-wrenching decision to leave their beloved Amherst Island behind in search of a new life... -
![In The Dark Streets Shining by Pamela Evans]()
In The Dark Streets Shining by Pamela Evans
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Rose Brown's husband is killed at Dunkirk in 1940, she feels as though she's lost a part of herself. Rose can't imagine the future without Ray, but she's certain he would have wanted her to start again. She decides to volunteer as a postwoman in West London, and when she courageously rescues a young boy from a bombed-out house and takes him home, she finds a new sense of purpose... -
![The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll]()
The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe New York Times Book Review praised Brendan O'Carroll's first novel, The Mammy, as "Cheerful...as unpretentious and satisfying as a home-cooked meal...with a delicious dessert of an ending... -
![Refuge by Dot Jackson]()
Refuge by Dot Jackson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“An intensely readable novel of the complexity of family ties . . . Dot Jackson is a true Southern voice, a master storyteller and an Appalachian treasure” (Dori Sanders, author of Clover and Her Own Place )... -
![The Rose Stone by Teresa Crane]()
The Rose Stone by Teresa Crane
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA dazzling jewel holds the key to a prosperous new life… or total ruin The Rose Stone. A diamond, gained through betrayal and blood, upon which the Rosenberg family's fortunes were founded and whose price is yet to be paid. Kiev, 1875: Josef Rosenberg narrowly escapes death from a Cossack raid, rescuing Tanya, the youngest daughter of his old friend Boris Anatov...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family romance historical 20th-century fiction epic -
![Margot's Secret by Roberta Kagan]()
Margot's Secret by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAmid the chaos of Hitler's conquest of Europe, a family teeters on the edge of utter destruction.Trudy is still obsessed with her sister's husband, Max. But Max is torn between his loyalty to his wife, Margot, and giving in to Trudy, who might turn him in for the murder of her husband, the SS officer Rudolph...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction ww2 mystery historical fiction 20th-century -
![Dieu et nous seuls pouvons by Michel Folco]()
Dieu et nous seuls pouvons by Michel Folco
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPour échapper à la galère, Justinien Pibrac devient bourreau officiel du seigneur de Bellerocaille. Le jour de sa première exécution, après quelques maladresses rocambolesques, il parvient finalement à briser les os du condamné. Ainsi début la saga trépidante des Pibrac, qui deviendront de génération en génération les plus grands bourreaux de tous les temps...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction university adult book fiction historical medieval -
![The Wretched Wreath Sellers Christmas Miracle by Nell Harte]()
The Wretched Wreath Sellers Christmas Miracle by Nell Harte
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsChristmas, London 1875: Surviving on the streets of London is brutal. Especially in Winter. Especially at Christmas.Edith Atkinson lives hand to mouth on the streets of London with her friends James and his sister Donna Walsh, selling songs, flowers and Christmas wreaths.But survival is never guaranteed for street rats, even at Christmas... -
-
![The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsROSA’S PAST IS HER PANDORA’S BOX, AND THE LID IS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED … ‘If you lie down with dogs you’ll rise with fleas’ – Irish Proverb Rosa Sorenson’s conversation was often peppered with sayings from her homeland. It was these conversational clangers that gave her daughter Kitty the only clue as to a childhood her mother refused to speak of...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
![The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey]()
The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the Amazon Top Ten Overall Bestselling author of Finding RebeccaThe war will force him to choose between his community, his family, or the woman he loves. The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972The Bogside is an area in open revolt, cordoned off from the rest of the city of Derry, patrolled by masked IRA men atop burnt out barricades...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book fiction historical violent-conflict -
![The Meadow by James Galvin]()
The Meadow by James Galvin
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn American Library Association Notable BookIn discrete disclosures joined with the intricacy of a spider's web, James Galvin depicts the hundred-year history of a meadow in the arid mountains of the Colorado/Wyoming border. Galvin describes the seasons, the weather, the wildlife, and the few people who do not possess but are themselves possessed by this terrain...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction university adult book fiction historical industrial-era -
![The Secret Years: An emotional drama of love and survival by Judith Lennox]()
The Secret Years: An emotional drama of love and survival by Judith Lennox
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA moving story about life in the East Anglian Fens after the First World War, evoking the emotions of the men who came through their ordeals and the women who survived the trauma of separation.During the golden summer of 1914, four young people played in the gardens of Drakesden Abbey... -
![Saddle The Wind by Jess Foley]()
Saddle The Wind by Jess Foley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLet much loved author Jess Foley sweep you away with this beautifully breathtaking saga of one woman's search for love and fulfilment. Fans of Catherine Cookson, Dilly Court and Katie Flynn will absolutely love this... -
![North Woods by Daniel Mason]()
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries—a daring, moving tale of memory and fate from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction historical outdoors audiobook male-author -
![The Norton Anthology of American Literature by Robert S. Levine, Wayne Franklin]()
The Norton Anthology of American Literature by Robert S. Levine, Wayne Franklin
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition, features a diverse and balanced variety of works and thorough but judicious editorial apparatus throughout. The new edition, which also newly includes much-requested authors and selections and 130 in-text images, remains an unmatched value for students...Categorized as:
university literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction classics anthologies historical drama -
![An Apartment Called Freedom by Ghazi A. Algosaibi]()
An Apartment Called Freedom by Ghazi A. Algosaibi
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company... -
![The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin by Alexander Pushkin]()
The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin by Alexander Pushkin
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlexander Pushkin was Russia's first true literary genius. Best known for his poetry, he also wrote sparkling prose that revealed his national culture with elegance and understated humour. Here, his gift for portraying the Russian people is fully revealed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction university adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
![Where The Winds Dwell by Böðvar Guðmundsson, Bovar Gumundsson]()
Where The Winds Dwell by Böðvar Guðmundsson, Bovar Gumundsson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWritten as a letter from a father to a daughter, Where the Winds Dwell is compassionate and real. Guðmundsson brings together past and present in this tragic story of the historic journey to Nýja Ísland, the world's largest Icelandic community outside of Iceland... -
-
![The Edge of Nowhere by C.H. Armstrong]()
The Edge of Nowhere by C.H. Armstrong
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe year is 1992 and Victoria Hastings Harrison Greene—reviled matriarch of a sprawling family—is dying. After surviving the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, Victoria refuses to leave this earth before revealing the secrets she’s carried for decades.Once the child of a loving family during peaceful times, a shocking death shattered her life... -
![Nelly Kelly: An uplifting tale of grit and determination in the most desperate of circumstances by Lena Kennedy]()
Nelly Kelly: An uplifting tale of grit and determination in the most desperate of circumstances by Lena Kennedy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the turmoil and confusion of London's East End between the wars, young Nelly Kelly soon learns that life may never match her expectations. Forced to keep house for her autocratic, charming father, Nelly toils in a sweatshop to keep her family fed and clothed. But when life is hard, Nelly has friendship, dancing and her early dreams to cling to... -
![The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church]()
The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA searing book club novel for fans of Where the Crawdad's Sing and The Girls in the Stilt House following one girl fighting for her family, her body, and her right to create a future all her ownSome folks will do anything to control the wild spirit of a Carolina girl...For fourteen-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is as simple as it is free...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book coming-of-age female-mc -
![Leah's Journey by Gloria Goldreich]()
Leah's Journey by Gloria Goldreich
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner of the National Jewish Book Award of 1979, this classic novel of love and war is now available in paperback! Violence shattered her golden world, and Leah's journey began... It swept her from the burning villages of old Russia to the tenements of New York, from the glittering showrooms of Paris to the settlements of war-torn Israel... -
![Prophet Song by Paul Lynch]()
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning authorOn a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.Ireland is falling apart...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction family fiction dystopia sci-fi historical parenthood -
![Maggie's Market by Dee Williams]()
Maggie's Market by Dee Williams
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's 1935 and Maggie Ross loves her life amongst the stallholders in Kelvin Market where her husband Tony has a bric-a-brac stall and where she lives, with her young family, above Mr Goldman's bespoke tailors. But when one fine Spring day her husband disappears into thin air her world collapses... -
![The Girl from Oto by Amy Maroney]()
The Girl from Oto by Amy Maroney
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“An exquisite novel.” Martha Conway, author of Thieving Forest A Renaissance-era woman artist and an American scholar. Linked by a 500-year-old mystery… The secrets of the past are irresistible—and dangerous. 1500: Born during a time wracked by war and plague, Renaissance-era artist Mira grows up in a Pyrenees convent believing she is an orphan...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book early-modern fiction historical -
![Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen]()
Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn eccentric scientist lies dead in his coffin reflecting on the past and his last experiment--collecting random incidents from human history and finding the underlying pattern that connects them... -
![A White Bird Flying by Bess Streeter Aldrich]()
A White Bird Flying by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAbbie Deal, the matriarch of a pioneer Nebraska family, has died at the beginning of A White Bird Flying, leaving her china and heavy furniture to others and to her granddaughter Laura the secret of her dream of finer things...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction book classics fiction historical literary -
![The Camerons by Robert Crichton]()
The Camerons by Robert Crichton
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Scottish girl living in the coal-mining town of Pitmungo, sets out on her sixteenth birthday to find a husband who will help her achieve social... -
-
![The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church]()
The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA searing book club read for fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman and The Girls with No Names set in the Baby Scoop Era of 1960s and the women of a certain condition swept up in a dark history.It's the 1960s and Lorraine Delford has it all – an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and a white picket fence home in North Carolina...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction historical fiction audiobook mystery female-mc -
![Misteriosa Buenos Aires by Manuel Mujica Lainez]()
-
![The Manor by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
The Manor by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis novel portrays the difficulties encountered by traditionalist Jews coming to terms with the social changes that rocked Poland in the late 19th century. The central figure of the novel is Calman Jacoby, who stands between the old and the new, unable to embrace either whole-heartedly...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction classics historical 20th-century book -
![El color del silencio by Elia Barceló]()
El color del silencio by Elia Barceló
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings16 de julio de 1936, Islas Canarias. Un asesinato desencadena el golpe de Estado de Franco y el inicio de la Guerra Civil española.20 de julio de 1969, Rabat, Marruecos. Una familia celebra el aterrizaje en la Luna en el jardín de una antigua mansión. Un asesinato tendrá lugar esa misma noche, destrozando el destino de la familia.Madrid, época actual...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction fiction audiobook drama historical female-author -
![Tommo and Hawk by Bryce Courtenay]()
Tommo and Hawk by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBrutally kidnapped and separated in childhood, Tommo and Hawk are reunited at the age of fifteen in Hobart. Together they escape their troubled pasts and set off on a journey into manhood...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book drama -
![The Triumph of the Lions by Stefania Auci]()
The Triumph of the Lions by Stefania Auci
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsKnown as the Lions of Sicily, the Florios have officially arrived. Once rich only in ambition, the family has amassed a fortune that includes palaces, factories, ships, silks, and jewels. The city of Sicily admires them, honors them and, above all, fears them...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction romance fiction historical audiobook 20th-century
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
