Books like 'When We Lost Our Heads'
Readers who enjoyed When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical historical-fiction literary-fiction lgbtq wlw romantic-love coming-of-age friendship
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Els assassins de l'emperador by Santiago Posteguillo
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRare...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction romantic-love adult audiobook book fiction historical -
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... -
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... -
Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this haunting, groundbreaking, historical novel, Danielle Daniel imagines the lives of her ancestors in the Algonquin territories of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family link to a girl murdered near Trois-Rivières in the early days of French settlement.Marie, an Algonquin woman of the Weskarini Deer Clan, lost her first husband and her children to an Iroquois raid...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction wlw romantic-love fiction historical audiobook -
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The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA small town, enduring love, a web of secrets.The Tell Tale has been watching and waiting, because there’s something queer about the village of Foel.Beth Griffiths has returned home to raise her daughter in the Welsh hills. They arrive to the open arms of the community, but not all is what it seems and Beth isn’t home for the reason she pretends either... -
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn & Maggie-Now by Betty Smith
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratings...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction book classics fiction historical literary -
Northern Borders: A Novel by Howard Frank Mosher
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA New York Times Notable A novel about growing up in a remote corner of Vermont, from the author Richard Russo calls “one of our very best writers... -
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... -
The Color Purple Collection: The Color Purple, The Temple of My Familiar, and Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThree powerful novels by Alice Walker, beginning with her masterpiece The Color Purple, and following characters as they are drawn into critical confrontations with history The Color Purple is Walker’s stunning, Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of courage in the face of oppression. Celie grows up in rural Georgia, navigating a childhood of ceaseless abuse...Categorized as:
historical-fiction wlw literary-fiction romantic-love fiction classics feminism historical -
Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratings* illustrated with many images related to Dostoyevsky's work, life and places* includes rare translations of short stories available nowhere else* the unfinished novel NETOCHKA NEZVANOVA* the rare novels UNCLE'S DREAM and THE VILLAGE OF STEPANCHIKOVO* informative and brief introductions to ALL of the novels* ALL of the short stories, which have been carefully collected and formatted for your... -
A Letter From Pearl Harbor by Anna Stuart
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNinety-eight-year-old Ginny McAllister’s last wish is for her granddaughter to complete a treasure hunt containing clues to her past. Clues that reveal her life as one of the first female pilots at Pearl Harbor, and a devastating World War Two secret...Categorized as:
friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
The Sorrow of Angels by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Sorrow of Angels is the second novel in an epic and elemental trilogy by the winner of the Icelandic Prize for Literature Jón Kalman Stefánsson, and the follow up to Heaven and Hell (publishing in paperback 3/11/15...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure book drama fiction historical -
The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLuanda, 1975. The Angolan War of Independence has been raging for at least a decade, but with the collapse of the Salazar dictatorship, defeat for the Portuguese is now in sight. Thousands of settlers are fleeing back to Portugal to escape the brutality of the Angolan rebels.Rui is fifteen years old...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult book female-author fiction -
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the nationally bestselling author of the “powerful, heartbreaking” (Shelf Awareness) The Stationery Shop, a heartfelt, epic new novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown... -
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Neither Present Time by Caren J. Werlinger
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCan a house save the lives of the people who live in it? Can an inscription written in a book over sixty years ago change the fates of people not even born when it was written? Beryl Gray is solid and dependable – her partner, Claire, thinks so, her family thinks so, her colleagues think so. She has a long-term relationship and a job she likes as a university librarian... -
The Girl in the Photo by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTheresienstadt Concentration Camp, 1944. ‘I have to go away, my darling. Please, be brave, stay alive, for me.’ Mama’s voice breaks. The little girl tries to stop the forbidden tears from falling, as the train takes her mother, and she is left alone…Berlin, six years later. Hanni Winter glows with pride as she shows her new husband around her first solo photography exhibition...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn empowering, uplifting tale of two women from opposite sides of society, and their extraordinary journey of sisterhood, betrayal, love and triumph.1800s China. Tightly bound feet, or "golden lilies," are the mark of an honorable woman, eclipsing beauty, a rich dowry and even bloodline in the marriage stakes... -
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsEvocative, magical and luminously written, The Cure for Drowning is not only a brilliant, boundary-pushing love story but a Canadian historical novel that boldly centres queer and non-binary characters in unprecedented ways...Categorized as:
lgbtq historical-fiction coming-of-age literary-fiction wlw romantic-love fiction historical -
The Garden of the Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn an ancient Mediterranean city, a tradition is maintained: every ten years an archaic game of human chess is staged, the players (visitors versus locals) bearing weapons. This archaic game, the central event of The Garden of the Departed Cats, may prove as fatal as the deadly attraction our narrator feels for the local man who is the Vizier, or Captain, of the home team...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
Return to Thrush Green by Miss Read
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt's Spring again in the village of Thrush Green and with the changing season comes change for many of the villagers... -
After Francesco by Brian Malloy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAcclaimed author Brian Malloy brings insight, humor, and the authenticity of his own experiences as a member of the AIDS generation to this universal story of love and loss set in New York City and Minneapolis at the peak of the AIDS crisis...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction romantic-love friendship coming-of-age fiction historical -
Blood Sisters by Barbara Keating, Stephanie Keating
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKenya 1957. During their childhood years in the Kenya Highlands three girls from vastly different backgrounds become blood sisters, promising that nothing will ever destroy the bond between them. But the legacy of the Mau Mau rebellion, and the tensions and upheavals of newly independent Kenya, tear their childhood dreams apart... -
Earl, Honey by D.S. Getson, Denise Getson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEARL HAHN is slow, the last one to catch on to things. Since the day his father hit him in the head with a two-by-four of loblolly pine, he’s struggled with a “thickness in his brain.” It takes him longer to make the connections others arrive at easily. When his father is prosecuted for the crime of incest, it feels like deliverance for Earl, his mother Lizzie Belle and the entire Hahn family... -
Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"This is book club fiction at its finest!" —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author From New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe comes her highly anticipated Where the Rivers Merge, the first of two epic and triumphant novels celebrating one intrepid woman's life across multiple generations in the American South... -
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The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA stunning collection of interconnected stories set in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuriesIn twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction lgbtq romantic-love fiction audiobook historical anthologies -
Born in a Treacherous time by Jacqui Murray
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBorn in the harsh world of East Africa 1.8 million years ago, where hunger, death, and predation are a normal part of daily life, Lucy and her band of early humans struggle to survive. It is a time in history when they are relentlessly annihilated by predators, nature, their own people, and the next iteration of man. To make it worse, Lucy’s band hates her... -
Dread of the Earl by Deborah Wilson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat happens when an earl weds a lady so that he can seek his revenge though marriage? Lady Lucy Newpark has been living the life of a servant in order to save her nephew. She’ll do anything to protect the innocent boy… Even engage in an ugly plot to cage and keep wealthy lords... -
Little Gold by Allie Rogers
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe heat is oppressive and storms are brewing in Brighton in the summer of 1982. Little Gold, a boyish girl on the brink of adolescence, is struggling with the reality of her broken family and a home descending into chaos. Her only refuge is the tree at the end of her garden. Into her fractured life steps Peggy Baxter... -
When I First Held You by Anstey Harris
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSilence tore them apart. Can the truth bring them back together?In 1960s Glasgow, anti-nuclear activists Judith and Jimmy fall in love. But their future hopes are dashed when their protestors’ squat is raided and many, including Jimmy, are sent to prison. Pregnant and with no word from Jimmy, Judith is forced to enter an unmarried mothers’ home, give up their baby and learn to live with her grief...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction coming-of-age romance fiction historical womens-fiction -
Шибил by Yordan Yovkov
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratings...Categorized as:
literary-fiction romantic-love historical-fiction classics human-nature historical fiction book -
Signed, A Paddy by Lisa Boyle
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe gruesome truth hung in the air, and none of us wanted to go near it. Not yet.Ireland, 1848. Fourteen-year-old Rosaleen watches her mother die. Her country is reeling from the great potato famine, which will ultimately kill more than one million people. Driven by a promise and her will to survive, Rosaleen flees her small coastal town...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction coming-of-age friendship fiction drama historical female-mc -
The Rain Queen by Katherine Scholes
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTwo women, bound by a shocking event, drawn to a vast and beautiful country they cannot forget. Kate Carrington has cut all ties with Africa, the land of her birth. Her past is buried alongside her missionary parents, the last reminders locked safely away in the attic. But when a mysterious woman moves in next door, Kate's carefully constructed world is torn apart...Categorized as:
friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book colonization drama fiction -
The Promise of Rain by Vasundra Tailor
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA treasured necklace that could unlock a family mystery. But why has it been hidden away for sixty years?With her thirtieth birthday on the horizon, Anna Kotze has accepted that there are some family secrets she’ll never know. While her mother’s Zimbabwean roots are woven into her life, all her father will say is that he was adopted...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction friendship literary-fiction fiction audiobook mystery family -
The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen should my story begin? Not when I was born, a butcher's son, in a tiny cottage just like all the other tiny cottages in Oakham. Who'd have thought then that I'd ever have much of a story to tell? Perhaps it starts when people began to nudge each other and stare as I walked with my mother to market, or the first time someone whispered that we were cursed. But I didn't know then...Categorized as:
coming-of-age friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book female-author -
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Love and Fury by Samantha Silva
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom Samantha Silva, the author of Mr...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction lgbtq fiction historical feminism audiobook female-author -
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 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:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book family female-mc -
Your Face In The Stars: A Wartime Love Story by John Ellsworth
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings... -
A Duke to Save her: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel by Scarlett Osborne
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings... -
Royaume de vent et de colères by Jean-Laurent Del Socorro
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1596. Deux ans avant l'édit de Nantes qui met fin aux guerres de Religion, Marseille la catholique s'oppose à Henri IV, l'ancien protestant. Une rébellion, une indépendance que ne peut tolérer le roi... -
Night Fires in the Distance by Sarah Goodwin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLaura and her husband William Deene have come a long way, from England to Ohio to Indian Territory. With their farm failing and Laura expecting her fourth child, their relationship begins to disintegrate and with another cruel winter coming on, Will’s mistrustful and violent nature becomes more apparent... -
Found Treasure by Grace Livingston Hill
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEffie Martin was humiliated! Lawrence Earle, the football hero, was coming back from college, and all the girls were planning a big picnic for him. She had been planning to go, too―until she overheard the girls saying they didn't want her along because she was too rough, too much of a tomboy. Well, she'd show them...Categorized as:
historical-fiction friendship coming-of-age romance christian fiction historical spirituality -
Goldene Zwanziger, dreckige Wahrheiten by Anna Basener
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDas neue Audible Original Hörspiel entführt in die Halbwelt der 1920er Jahre in Berlin: Die berühmte deutschstämmige Hollywoodschauspielerin Hedi (Jeanette Hain) sitzt in einem Frauengefängnis in Hollywood. Sie hat einen Mann erschossen... -
In Revere, In Those Days by Roland Merullo
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this richly evocative novel--the moving story of one boy's coming of age--acclaimed author Roland Merullo will make you nostalgic for a small Massachusetts city called Revere even if you've never been there. Providing a window into an unspoiled America of forty years ago, In Revere welcomes you to the fiercely loyal and devoted Italian-American family of the Benedettos...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction adult boarding-school book fiction historical -
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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... -
The Consorts by Melissa Addey
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsChina, 1700s. Lady Qing has spent the past seven years languishing inside the high red walls of the Forbidden City. Classed as an Honoured Lady, a lowly-ranked concubine, Qing is neglected by the Emperor, passed over for more ambitious women. But when a new concubine, Lady Ying, arrives, Qing’s world is turned upside down...Categorized as:
wlw historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction historical fiction female-author ancient-china -
A Thin Bright Line by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAt the height of the Cold War, Lucybelle Bledsoe is offered a job seemingly too good to pass up. However, there are risks. Her scientific knowledge and editorial skills are unparalleled, but her personal life might not withstand government scrutiny... -
How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ethan Mordden
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHow Long Has This Been Going On? brings together a rich and varied cast of characters to tell the tale of modern gay America in this remarkable epic novel. Beginning in 1949 and moving to the present day, Mordden puts a unique and innovating spin on modern history. An adventurous, adroit, and fascinating novel by one of the finest gay writers of our time... -
Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken by Nita Tyndall
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsBerlin, 1938It is the summer before World War II begins, but Charlotte Kraus doesn’t know it yet. All she knows is the zing of electricity she feels every time her best friend, Angelika Haas, grabs her hand...Categorized as:
historical-fiction wlw lgbtq friendship coming-of-age romance young-adult historical -
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