Books like 'Temple Secrets'
Readers who enjoyed Temple Secrets by Susan Gabriel also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery historical-fiction family domestic-drama magical-realism realistic humor paranormal black-mc
-
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death...Categorized as:
historical-fiction suspense literary-fiction family female-mc mystery fiction audiobook -
Tangled in Ivy: True Love and Family Dysfunction that Spans Decades by Ashley Farley
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of Sweet Tea Tuesdays comes a story of true love that spans decades.Lillian Alexander's father is dying of cancer. When he rambles on in a morphine-delirium, Lillian can't ignore the feeling he's trying to tell her something... -
The Lady of the Loch by Elena Collins
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratings‘Although I believe I will die here in this castle, my spirit will never be silent.’Ravenscraig Castle, Scotland. 1307When the castle she works in is sacked by the army of Prince Edward of England, kitchen maid Agnes Fitzgerald manages to escape north of Inverness to throw herself at the mercy of the Lord and Lady at Ravenscraig Castle...Categorized as:
historical-fiction ghosts family paranormal magical-realism suspense female-mc domestic-drama -
The Attic Child by Lola Jaye
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA hauntingly powerful and emotionally charged novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging.Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a shared secret. Early 1900s Taken from his homeland, twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of the time locked away in the attic of a large house by the sea...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc family black-mc fiction historical mystery -
-
A Time to Change by Callie Langridge
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsAn abandoned English manor transports a young woman back to the Edwardian era—where love and danger await—in this time travel romance.East Midlands, England, 2013 . The once grand Hill House is now surrounded by a shabby town of pubs and chip shops. As a child, Louisa Arnold was enthralled by the tragic history of its owners, the Mandeville family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction paranormal female-mc magical-realism family suspense romance time-travel -
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA child who does not know her name…In 1903 fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. An ambulance is sent for, and the two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the imposing asylum, hidden deep on Dartmoor...Categorized as:
historical-fiction paranormal suspense ghosts literary-fiction family domestic-drama female-mc -
The Lost Tower by Irina Shapiro
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Nicole visits Stiles Castle, the stately home of Lady Caroline Seaton, she doesn’t expect to stumble upon a centuries-old mystery hidden in the noble family’s genealogical tree. Once she finds that some vital details have been removed from the ancestral records, Nicole can’t refuse her friend’s plea to discover the truth and help her save the floundering family business... -
This Bitter Earth by Bernice L. McFadden
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn This Bitter Earth, Sugar Lacey is on her way out of Bigelow, Arkansas, where she’d come to break with the past. With her worn leopard-print suitcase and her head held high, she walks past the prying eyes of its small-minded, cruel-hearted townsfolk, praying for the strength to keep going. She doesn’t stop until she arrives at her childhood home in Short Junction...Categorized as:
black-mc family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc adult audiobook -
The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley, The Moon Sister transports you to the grandeur of the remote Scottish Highlands and the gypsy caves of Granada, just as Spain descends into civil war, interweaving the stories of two women searching for their destinies, at the risk of potentially losing their chance at love... -
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods, Evie Gaughan
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism literary-fiction family female-mc paranormal romance fantasy -
An Echo in Time by Boo Walker
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA woman delves into a centuries-old murder to find the truth behind her self-destructive behavior in a powerful novel about love, loss, and healing by the bestselling author of An Unfinished Story and The Stars Don’t Lie.Unable to catch a break in life or love as she approaches thirty, Charli Thurman sees red lights at every crossroads...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism family female-mc romance fiction mystery historical -
The Healer's Secret by Helen Pryke
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJennifer’s life isn’t going as she planned. Fired from her job and on the brink of divorce at thirty-one, her only salvation lies at the bottom of a wine bottle. When her mother insists she get away from everything, she reluctantly agrees to explore her Italian roots in Tuscany... -
The Dream Weavers by Barbara Erskine
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe brand-new, gripping historical novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lady of Hay!‘Warmth, depth, mystery, magic and the supernatural … such a beautiful book!’ bestselling author Santa Montefiore ‘A dazzling roller-coaster of a book that will thrill, enchant and intrigue those who love history and the supernatural’ bestselling author Alison WeirAvailable to pre-order now!Mercia,...Categorized as:
family female-mc ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction paranormal suspense adult -
Pushin' Up Daisies by Carolyn Brown
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCatherine O'Shea is the oldest and most responsible of the three O'Shea sisters. She has just buried her mother, one of the last victims of the flu epidemic of 1918. Her father had been one of the first to succumb to the flu and her fiance was killed in the war. And now there is a detective living at her hotel, the Black Swan, looking into the disappearance of her abusive brother-in-law... -
-
Dovetail by Karen McQuestion
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of Hello Love comes a spellbinding new novel of enduring love, family secrets, and mysterious death.Joe Arneson’s ordinary life is upended by troubling dreams of himself as a different man in another place and time. It isn’t until he visits his estranged grandmother, Pearl, in her Wisconsin hometown that a startling connection emerges...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal suspense adult -
The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O'Neal
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt’s been years since Zoe Fairchild has been to the small Devon village of her birth, but the wounds she suffered there still ache. When she learns that her old friend and grandmother’s caretaker has gone missing, Zoe and her fifteen-year-old daughter return to England to help.Zoe dreads seeing her estranged mother, who left when Zoe was seven to travel the world...Categorized as:
domestic-drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense adult -
The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA house full of history is bound to have secrets... 'Spine-tinglingly beautiful. Prepare to lose your heart' Lisa Jewell Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It's also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from..Categorized as:
family female-mc ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction paranormal suspense adult -
The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsFrom bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes an irresistible new novel. When Caroline Sears receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970 and there seems to be little that can be done. But her brother-in-law, a physicist, tells her that perhaps there is... -
Gullah Secrets by Susan Gabriel
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA family legacy in danger. A stranger in their midst. Do they have the strength to survive the gathering storm of secrets? For the Temple women, the winds of change are blowing. And if they’re not careful, it could sweep them all away…After rising from Temple servant to tea shop owner, Violet finally feels in charge of her destiny...Categorized as:
black-mc female-mc historical-fiction humor literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal poc-mc -
Mystery at the Edge of Madness by Beth Byers
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJuly 1925Severine DuNoir was twelve when she discovered the bodies of her parents, and the day after the funeral, she was sent to a convent in another country. By the time she resolves to go home, her sole focus is to reveal what happened to her parents.Coming home, however, unveils a far more sinister plot than she could have expected. It’s clear from her first night that something is afoot... -
The Fourth Daughter by Lyn Liao Butler
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn Taiwan, the bond between grandmother and granddaughter opens up a healing world for them both in an inspiring family saga about the comfort of food, untold histories, and indomitable mother love.Chef Liv Kuo’s star is on the rise…until a traumatic incident leaves her emotionally unable to venture outside her Manhattan apartment...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction female-mc romance fiction mystery historical -
The Secret by the Lake by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAmy's always felt like something’s been missing in her life, but as a nanny for the Laurent family - Julia, Alain, Viviane - she feels complete.So Amy wouldn’t think of leaving them when a sudden tragedy forces them to move from France to the small lakeside cottage in the isolated Somerset village where Julia grew up.But there’s something strange about the cottage by the lake... -
The Bridled Tongue by Catherine Meyrick
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDeath and life are in the power of the tongue. England 1586 Alyce Bradley has few choices when her father decides it is time she marry as many refuse to see her as other than the girl she once was—unruly, outspoken and close to her grandmother, a woman suspected of witchcraft...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction paranormal adult audiobook book -
Letters in Time by Susan Reiss
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen Emma Chase, a kindergarten teacher, moves to a quaint Cottage on land once known as Waterwood Plantation and finds an antique plantation desk, a unique adventure begins connecting the past and present. A letter dated 1862 appears on the desk declaring undying love and a plea for Emma to reply... -
-
The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMoonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets…Summer of 1929.Of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name, Blanche Magruder lies alone in a home for the aged and infirm.Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for treasure rumored to be hidden there...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult book -
The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe long-awaited follow-up to 2011's Slash & Burn and the ninth installment in Colin Cotterill's bestselling mystery series starring the inimitable Lao national coroner, Dr. Siri In a small Lao village, a very strange thing has happened. A woman was shot and killed in her bed during a burglary; she was given a funeral and everyone in the village saw her body burned... -
Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsKate Shugak will go to the ends of the earth to solve one Alaskan family's epic mystery in this breathtaking novel from New York Times bestselling author Dana StabenowThe residents of Alaska's largest national park are still stunned by the death of one of its lifelong residents: Eighty-seven-year-old Old Sam Dementieff...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc suspense adult audiobook -
The Puzzle Women by Anna Ellory, Kristin Atherton
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBerlin, 1989. Siblings Rune and Lotte are shaken awake by Mama and told to follow her quietly into the night. Last time they snuck away from Papa, with Mama bruised and broken, they were back within a week. But this time they are starting a new life, Mama says - where nobody can ever hurt them again...Categorized as:
domestic-drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century abuse adult -
A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTold in alternating tales at once haunting and redemptive, A Tangled Mercy is a quintessentially American epic rooted in heartbreaking true events examining the harrowing depths of human brutality and betrayal, and our enduring hope for freedom and forgiveness...Categorized as:
black-mc family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc adult audiobook -
The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe Pecan Man is a work of Southern fiction whose first chapter was the First Place winner of the 2006 CNW/FFWA Florida State Writing Competition in the Unpublished Novel category.In the summer of 1976, recently widowed and childless, Ora Lee Beckworth hires a homeless old black man to mow her lawn... -
Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn March 1920 Icelandic days are short and cold, but the nights are long. For most, on those nights, funny, sad, and dramatic stories are told around the fire. But there is nothing dramatic about Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith who barely manages to make ends meet. He knows nobody will remember his existence – they already don’t... -
How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTheir secret didn’t die with her.Colorado, 1918: Millie Boylan is a nurse who sees darkness marking those soon to die. When she falls for a doomed soldier named Edward Gainsbury, she vows to save his life. But Millie soon finds the greatest danger is the one she cannot see.Colorado, 1943: With a brother gone to war, Dinah must learn how to fend for herself... -
Homecoming by Kate Morton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAdelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia... -
Charming the Recluse by Mindy Burbidge Strunk
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA gothic castle, a noble curmudgeon, and a candid miss.After the tragic death of his sister, Arawn Beavin withdrew from all Society and vowed to stay cooped up in his family’s castle for the rest of his life. If only his mother were so accommodating. As their year of mourning comes to an end, his mother summons her favorite modiste to the castle...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism paranormal suspense romance industrial-era regency historical -
-
For Renata by B. Robert Sharry
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Moving at a fast clip...the narrative explores many weighty issues...which Sharry covers with insight and finesse. ...the tale becomes quite gripping as... past mysteries unfold. A nostalgic romance, rich with Portuguese culture and a few surprising twists at the end." KIRKUS REVIEWS... -
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 female-mc literary-fiction historical fiction audiobook mystery -
Rising Tides by Emilie Richards
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNine people have gathered for the reading of Aurore Gerritsen's will. Some are family, others are strangers. But all will have their futures changed forever when a lifetime of secrets is finally revealed. Aurore Gerritsen left clear instructions: her will is to be read over a four-day period at her summer cottage on a small Louisiana island. Those who don't stay will forfeit their inheritance... -
A Long Time Gone by Karen White, Карен Уайт
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"We Walker women were born screaming into this world, the beginning of a lifelong quest to find what would quiet us. But whatever drove us away was never stronger than the pull of what brought us back...." When Vivien Walker left her home in the Mississippi Delta, she swore never to go back, as generations of the women in her family had...Categorized as:
domestic-drama family female-mc ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense -
Whisper of the Moon Moth by Lindsay Jayne Ashford
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the author of The Color of Secrets and The Woman on the Orient Express comes a poignant novel inspired by the Hollywood legend—and the secrets of—actress Merle Oberon, famous for playing Cathy to Laurence Olivier’s Heathcliff in the film Wuthering Heights. For nineteen-year-old Estelle Thompson, going to the cinema is more than a way to pass the time…it’s a way out...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc poc-mc realistic literary-fiction romance historical fiction -
Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the award-winning author of All Her Little Secrets comes yet another gripping, suspenseful novel where, after the murder of a white man in Jim Crow Mississippi, two Black sisters run away to different parts of the country . . -
The Secret of Elephants by Vasundra Tailor
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNavsari, India. Penniless and trapped in a loveless marriage, Nirmala spends her days anxiously caring for her sick young son, Varun. Looming over Nirmala’s impoverished home is an imposing mansion built by her grandfather, and from its balcony her cruel aunt scorns them, refusing to help in any way...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc family literary-fiction female-mc fiction historical mystery -
Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked...Categorized as:
domestic-drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense adult -
The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe smallest items can hold centuries of secrets...Inara Erickson is exploring her deceased aunt's island estate when she finds an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in the house. As she peels back layer upon layer of the secrets it holds, Inara's life becomes interwoven with that of Mei Lein, a young Chinese girl mysteriously driven from her home a century before...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic adult audiobook -
Río Muerto by Ricardo Silva Romero
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOn the outskirts of Belén del Chamí, a town that has yet to appear on any map of Colombia, the mute Salomón Palacios is murdered a few steps away from his home. His widow, the courageous and foul-mouthed Hipólita Arenas, completely loses her sanity and confronts the paramilitaries and local politicians, challenging them to also kill her and her two fatherless sons...Categorized as:
historical-fiction suspense female-mc magical-realism family literary-fiction crime fiction -
-
The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsInspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina... -
Parting the Veil by Paulette Kennedy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsSome houses hold secrets that are meant to be kept forever…When Eliza Sullivan inherits an estate from a recently deceased aunt, she leaves behind a grievous and guilt-ridden past in New Orleans for rural England and a fresh start. Eliza arrives at her new home and finds herself falling for the mysterious lord of Havenwood, Malcolm Winfield...Categorized as:
family female-mc ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction paranormal suspense adult -
The Chocolatier by Jan Moran, Erin Bennett
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young widow. A husband she thought she knew. Will a chocolatier’s secret destroy the family left behind? San Francisco, 1953: Heartbroken over the mysterious death of her husband, Celina Savoia, a second-generation chocolatière, resolves to take their young son to Italy’s shimmering Amalfi coast to introduce him to his father’s family... -
The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHaunted by a memory, Lark McCourry traces the passage of a song through generations of her family, from a Scottish island through the pages of American history, to the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina. As the memory of the song dims over the years, Lark's only hope of preserving her family legacy lies in mountain wisewoman Nora Bonesteel, who talks to the living and the dead...Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal suspense adult book -
Lies We Never See by Michael Lindley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA heart-wrenching story of historical fiction and present day mystery and suspense from Amazon Kindle #1 author, Michael Lindley. Hanna Walsh’s husband is found murdered in Charleston, South Carolina. His failed land deal leaves her family and finances in ruins...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense adult anthologies fiction historical mystery -
Storm Rose by Corina Bomann
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen newly single Annabel Hansen moves to the coastal town of Binz, all she wants is to leave her former life behind. Soon after settling into a beautiful home overlooking the Baltic Sea, she stumbles upon an old fishing boat in a nearby harbor and discovers another purpose: to convert the bullet-riddled Storm Rose into a floating café...Categorized as:
domestic-drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction paranormal adult audiobook
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.