Books like 'My Beloved Son'
Readers who enjoyed My Beloved Son by Catherine Cookson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance military, war & conflict historical-fiction family war drama
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A Ration Book Wedding by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt's February 1942 and the American's have finally joined Britain and its allies. Meanwhile, twenty-three-year-old Francesca Fabrino, like thousands of other women, is doing her bit for the war effort in a factory in East London... -
Eve's Daughters by Lynn Austin
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsYearning for love and dignity, four generations of women must come to grips with the choices they've made--and those their mothers made before them. But breaking the cycle that has ensnared them over the decades will prove more difficult than they had ever imagined....Eighty-year-old Emma Bauer has carefully guarded a dark secret for more than fifty years... -
The Girls in the Attic by Marius Gabriel
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe bestselling author of The Designer presents a sweeping story of blind faith, family allegiance and how love makes one man question everything he thought he knew.Max Wolff is a committed soldier of the Reich. So when he is sent home wounded, only to discover that his mother is sheltering two young Jewish women in their home, he is outraged... -
The Star and the Shamrock by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAriella Bannon has no choice: she must put her precious children, Liesl and Erich, on that train or allow them to become prey for the Nazis. Berlin 1939... -
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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... -
For All Their Lives by Fern Michaels
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the wildly beloved bestselling author Fern Michaels, a haunting portrait of love and war—and the passionate woman swept into an epic of desire, heartbreak, and destiny. Casey Adams, a dedicated nurse, loses her heart overseas to idealistic officer Mac Carlin, the rebellious scion of a wealthy family. Then tragedy strikes... -
The Sky Above Us by Sarah Sundin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNumbed by grief and harboring shameful secrets, Lt. Adler Paxton ships to England with the US 357th Fighter Group in 1943. Determined to become an ace pilot, Adler battles the German Luftwaffe in treacherous dogfights in the skies over France as the Allies struggle for control of the air before the D-day invasion... -
The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFamily secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid's Tale—during World War II.In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé... -
A Maiden's Voyage by Rosie Goodwin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThursday's child has far to go . . . 1912, London.Eighteen-year-old Flora Butler is going up in the world. She has the prized position of lady's maid to young Constance Ogilvie, and is able to provide for her beloved parents and four younger siblings. She has even fallen in love, and though she does not feel quite ready to marry the charming Jamie Branning, her future seems clear... -
The Lost Valley by Jennifer Scoullar
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTasmania, 1929: Ten-year-old-twins, Tom and Harry Abbott, are orphaned by a tragedy that shocks Hobart society... -
The Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratings' A real insight into how it was for these women in a Sunderland major ship building yard ... The foundation book of a series. Which I shall be reading as each one is written. Loved it. ' - 5 star real reader review Sunderland, 1940, and the women go to the shipyards to do their bit for the war effort... -
The Dollmaker's Daughters by Dilly Court
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTwo sisters, tragically divided by love, jealousy and ambition ... For Ruby and Rosetta Capretti life in the slums of the East End holds little promise. Although very similar in looks they dream of very different futures... -
Island in the East by Jenny Ashcroft
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in 1890s and 1940s Singapore, the stunning Island in the East is a story of love, sisterly rivalry and the true cost of betrayal. Vivid, authentic and utterly beautiful, it's the perfect read for fans of Victoria Hislop, Fiona McIntosh and Kate Morton. 1897: twenty-year-old identical twins, Harriet and Mae, born from a scandalous affair, have spent their lives slighted by gossips... -
The Girls of Mulberry Lane by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLove, marriage, birth, death and betrayal make up life in Mulberry Lane, perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries and Cathy Sharp. Maureen Jackson is a prisoner of her father's blackmail. Three years ago, she'd been hoping to marry Rory, the man of her dreams. However after her mother's death Maureen was left to care and work for the overbearing father who claimed he couldn't manage without her... -
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So Pure a Heart by Amber Lynn Perry
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSince the night her dear uncle gave his life for hers, Hannah Young is determined to risk everything by spying for the Patriots in order to seek retribution against the British soldier who killed him. But when her former love, Joseph Wythe, insists on ensuring her safety, she must decide if the vengeance she seeks is worth the danger of his nearness... -
The Woodcutter's Wife by David Johnson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet against the backdrop of the Civil War comes a tale of love lost and found. Mary Thomson is no ordinary woman. She works alongside her husband William cutting firewood to sell in the city, earning the nickname “The Woodcutter’s Wife.” She kills a bear with her bare hands. And she prefers plowing a field to cooking a meal... -
Survivor by Lesley Pearse
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRussell, 1938 It is 1938 and Mariette is a defiant, strong willed and selfish 17 yr old. The small, gossipy town of Russell, New Zealand isn’t nearly big enough for Mariette’s ambitions and her devoted parents, Belle and Etienne, fear for her reputation... -
The Shop Girls of Harpers by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1911 – The beginning of a brand new series for No1 bestselling author Rosie Clarke, Welcome to Harpers of Oxford Street. When Sally, Beth, Margaret and Rachel meet at a job interview for the wonderful new store in Oxford Street they have no idea they will become lifelong friends.When all four girls are lucky enough to be selected as sales staff their exciting new adventure begins... -
Twice Born by Margaret Mazzantini, Ann S. Gagliardi
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis international bestseller is a sweeping portrait of motherhood, loss, and redemption in war-torn Sarajevo. Filled with memories of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, Gemma reluctantly boards a flight from her native Rome to that war-scarred city with her sixteen-year-old son, Pietro. She hopes to teach her son about the city of his birth and about Diego, the father he never knew... -
The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFor readers of Orphan Train, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Book Thief comes an unforgettable novel inspired by a true story about the power of human kindness and bravery in a time of unimaginable heartbreak... -
Something Dangerous by Penny Vincenzi
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe dazzling Lytton twins, Adele and Venetia, are born into the great Lytton publishing empire. In 1928, on their eighteenth birthday, they are rich and admired, with a confidence verging on arrogance. But the spectre of Nazi Germany is growing... Gradually their privileged world darkens in unimaginable ways - but it is not just the twins whose lives have been irrevocably changed... -
The Promise by Lesley Pearse
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLondon 1914 Belle Reilly finally has the life she's dreamed of thanks to a devoted husband in Jimmy and the hat shop she's wanted to own since she was a child. But as the storm clouds of World War One begin to gather, Belle's already turbulent life is to change in ways she never imagined possible... -
Love Comes Home by Ann H. Gabhart
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWorld War II is finally over and the people of Rosey Corner are busy welcoming the boys home. The Merritt sisters in particular are looking toward the future. Kate is eager to start a family and live out her dream of happily ever after with Jay. Evangeline wants a beautiful house and encourages Mike to pastor a big-town church... -
Lizzie's Secret by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLONDON 1938. A gritty, heart-warming and wholesome drama about two girls united in friendship and tested in love. Perfect for the fans of Katie Flynn and Nadine Dorries. Lizzie Larch is a twenty-year-old hatmaker in London's east end. She is happy and popular, but she carries a secret. Seven years ago she was viciously attacked, and recovered in a private sanatorium where she miscarried a child... -
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Dreams of Silver by Mina Baites, Alison Layland
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA single treasured keepsake links one unforgettable family across continents in this enthralling saga by Mina Baites, the author of The Silver Music Box. London, 1963. I dream about my sister almost every night. Lilian Morrison has one memento of her beloved sister, Emma: a battered silver music box... -
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 Unfinished Gift by Dan Walsh
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDan Walsh is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Daytona Beach, Florida, a church he helped found 23 years ago. Walsh lives with his family in the Daytona Beach area. This is his first novel.Can a gift from the past mend a broken heart?Ian Collins is an old man without his son. Patrick Collins is a young boy without his father. On his Christmas list are only three items... -
The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIf you loved I AM ANASTASIA you won't want to miss this novel about her sister, Grand Duchess Maria. What really happened to this lost Romanov daughter? A new novel perfect for anyone curious about Anastasia, Maria, and the other lost Romanov daughters, by the author of THE SECRET WIFE... -
The Secret Keepers by Genevieve Graham
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwin sisters Dot and Dash Wilson share many things: a birthday, a best friend named Gus, and a secret shorthand based on Morse code, a language their father, a WWI veteran, taught them as children. But that’s where their similarities end. While Dot’s nose is always in a book, preferably the latest by Agatha Christie, Dash is a social butterfly and spends her evenings out dancing... -
We'll Meet Again by Lily Baxter
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt is April 1939 and unaware that the German war machine is advancing towards the Channel Islands, seventeen-year-old Meg Colivet and her sister are enjoying a holiday in Oxford with their aunt. Here Meg meets charismatic German undergraduate Rayner Weiss and the couple fall passionately in love... -
The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn aristocratic French family, a legendary chteau, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire. La Cte dAzur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinires, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent chteau and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debtand almost as many questions . . -
At the Going Down of the Sun by Elizabeth Darrell
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis family epic, set during World War I, follows the fortunes of three brothers and the women who loved and waited for them. One, heir to the exquisite family home of Tarant Hall in Dorset, will be driven to the Front by accusations of cowardice... -
Through the Storm by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe third novel in bestseller Maureen Lee's outstanding Liverpool sequence about family life during World War IITwo years of war have taken a terrible toll on Pearl Street, Liverpool. German bombs have reduced some houses to rubble and most of the inhabitants have lost friends and family... -
Miss Dauntless by Grace Burrowes
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMatilda Merridew, former hoyden of the first water, finds herself widowed, weary, and in want of coin. Along comes Marcus, Lord Tremont, with an interesting–and decent–proposition. Tremont will provide Matilda a handsome salary and keep a commodious roof over her head if she will relieve him of the burden of managing a houseful of unruly former soldiers... -
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The First Emma by Camille Di Maio
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCamille Di Maio's fifth novel THE FIRST EMMA is the true story of Emma Koehler, whose tycoon husband Otto was killed in a crime-of-the-century murder by one of his two mistresses—both also named Emma—and her unlikely rise as CEO of a brewing empire during Prohibition. When a chance to tell her story to a young teetotaler arises, a tale unfolds of love, war, beer, and the power of women... -
Across the Mersey by Annie Groves
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of 'The Grafton Girls' comes the story of one Liverpool family preparing for the onslaught of World War Two, while trying not to fight among themselves. Jean and Vi are twins but couldn't be more different. Jean's proud of her honest, hardworking husband and their children, but there's never a penny to spare... -
Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsColonial Williamsburg lives again in this rich story which is Elswyth Thane's first novel of American history in her bestselling series... -
Unbroken by Carolynn Amara
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Alex Ramirez returns home from Afghanistan, his wife is thrilled to have her husband back. But the man that returns isn't the same fresh-faced eager soldier that boarded the plane so many months ago. He may have left the war in another country but the one that brews inside follows him everywhere he goes... -
Maggie's War by Terrie Todd
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 1942, telegrams always bring life-altering and tragic news in a war-hardened world—and the one Maggie Marshall receives is no different. But running a restaurant with the help of only pregnant, unwed girls has taught her to be tough. Maggie’s no weeping widow, but Charlotte Penfield thinks she’s the most unfeeling woman on earth... -
Territory by Judy Nunn
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA priceless 16th century locket threads two riveting stories together in this saga set in and around Darwin, Australia’s ultimate frontier town... -
The French Promise by Fiona McIntosh
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLuc and Lisette Ravens – a former French resistance fighter and a one-time British spy – have somehow survived the war, but recovering from the horrors of those years is a challenge they're yet to overcome. Casting their fate to the winds, they sail to Tasmania, hoping to rebuild their lives and plant new lavender fields in a land that's full of promise... -
When I Was Yours by Lizzie Page
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWe stand in the back of the hall as the children troop in. Big ones, little ones. Straggly hair, cropped hair, curls… the adults surge forward to choose and soon there is just one child left, a little girl sitting on the floor. She is thin as a string bean and her sleeve is ragged and damp – like she’s been chewing it. 1939... -
Our Last Goodbye by Shirley Dickson, Joan Walker
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA heart-wrenching, poignant and totally unforgettable tale of a young woman who must finally face up to the secret she has hidden for a lifetime. A beautiful World War Two novel for fans of Wives of War, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe, that will have you reaching for the Kleenex... -
The Award by Danielle Steel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCapturing historical events, terrifying moments of danger, tragedy, the price of war, and the invincible spirit of a woman of honor, The Award is a monumental tale from one of our most gifted storytellers—Danielle Steel’s finest, most emotionally resonant novel yet. Gaëlle de Barbet is sixteen years old in 1940 when the German army occupies France and frightening changes begin to occur... -
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Far From Home by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is 1940 and Staff Nurse Polly Brown has been granted a posting at Cliffehaven Memorial Hospital on the south coast to be near her badly injured husband, Adam. But her decision has meant that she has had to part with their beloved five-year-old daughter, Alice, who is travelling to safety in Canada... -
Victor's Blessing by Barbara Sontheimer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAmerican Legacy Book Awards - Finalist Romance General For fans of Kristen Hannah, Jodi Picoult and Shana Abe, Victor's Blessing offers an interwoven love triangle of passion, torment, betrayal and the most challenging of all human emotions, forgiveness.Victor Gant 6'5",the son of an Osage slave, is an unexpected hero for a Civil War tale. A self-made man he prospers In Ste. Genevieve Missouri... -
Finding Rebecca by Eoin Dempsey
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNothing could keep Christopher and Rebecca apart: not her abusive parents, or even the fiancé she brought home after running away to England. But when World War II finally strikes the island of Jersey, the Nazi invaders ship Rebecca to Europe as part of Hitler's Final Solution against the Jewish population... -
When the World Fell Silent: A Novel of the 1917 Halifax Explosion by Donna Jones Alward
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA story of loss, hope and redemption against the most impossible odds. 1917. Halifax, Nova Scotia.Nora Crowell wants more than her sister’s life as a wife and mother. As WWI rages across the Atlantic, she becomes a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Nursing Corp. But trouble is looming and it won’t be long before the truth comes to light... -
The Dancing Years by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1919. As the euphoria of the Armistice fades, the nation counts the cost: millions dead or disabled, unemployment, strikes and shortages. As prices and taxes rise, it becomes harder to remember what the war was for... -
The G.I. Bride (Memory Lane) by Eileen Ramsay
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTruro, Cornwall, 1941After the Blitz took her parents, April decided to leave London for Cornwall. Training as a nurse, she finds hope in the new friends she makes and the American G.I.s that arrive. But when a bomb lands close to home she'll need courage she never knew she had...
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