Books like 'Dragonfruit'
Readers who enjoyed Dragonfruit by Malia Mattoch McManus also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Triumph of the Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratings***ORDER YOUR COPY NOW*** THE EIGHTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING SHIPYARD GIRLS SERIES! ‘Emotional and gripping’ Take a Break______________________________Sunderland, 1943: With the future of Britain so uncertain, the women are trying to keep their lives at home on an even keel.Head-welder Rosie is just about managing to keep her double life hidden from little sister Charlotte’s prying eyes... -
The Endless Forest by Sara Donati
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWith a master storyteller’s skill and a historian’s precision, Sara Donati has delighted readers and critics alike with her bestselling novels of the nineteenth-century New York frontier. Now she brings us The Endless Forest, set in the remote village of Paradise, where the Bonner family that readers first met in Into the Wilderness make their home...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult -
Come High Water by Carolyn Brown
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBridget O'Shea had sworn she'd never fall in love again. She had a hotel, The Black Swan, to operate alone, since her sisters - Catherine and Alice - had both married the previous year. And then there was Ella, her lovely baby daughter. The hotel and Ella took up all her time and energy... -
The Country Bride: The final book in the heartwarming, romance saga from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Village Scandal by Dilly Court
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe third book in the dramatic new Village Secrets trilogy from the Sunday Times bestselling author. The time had come to leave Creek Manor. Their relationship was doomed from the start, he was the master of the house and she the servant… Summer, Little Creek 1879For most of her life, Judy Begg has been a loyal servant at Creek Manor and to Jack Fox, its future lord...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction action-adventure adult book coming-of-age -
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Christmas with the Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTHE SEVENTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING SHIPYARD GIRLS SERIES. ‘Nancy Revell knows how to stir the passions and soothe the heart!’ Northern Echo____________________________________________________________Sunderland, 1942: Christmas is fast approaching and with it comes a flurry of snow and surprises…Against all odds, Polly’s fiancé has finally returned home from the front line...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Under a Sky of Memories by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Last Correspondent comes the powerful story of three brave women who go to war—and end up fighting for their lives.Sicily, 1943. Three American women, all nurses in the Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, are determined to do all they can for their country...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt’s the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he’s sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his Blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he’s not welcome there. Except for Juniper Jones...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc season-summer 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Augusta by Carolyn Brown
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAugusta "Gussie" Dulan is the only Dulan sister to make it all the way to California on the wagon train for brides. Each of her four sisters has taken off along the trail to marry up with a man they fell in love with and now Gussie is hoping to find a man to love here at the end of the trail... -
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSurvival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc action-adventure audiobook book -
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA lavish new picture book from Caldecott-winner Sophie Blackall that will transport readers to the seaside in timeless, nautical splendor!Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction season-summer action-adventure book children children-books -
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... -
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAn international bestseller: Grace learns that she can be anything she wants...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc action-adventure book children -
Gypsy by Carolyn Brown
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGypsy Rose Dulan just knew there was a secret hidden in the stars. She just didn't expect to fall sleep while searching for that secret. And she sure didn't expect to be awakened by a rude, overbearing, short Irishman by the name of Tavish O'Leary... -
Key Player by Kelly Yang
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMia Tang is going for the goal in the fourth Front Desk novel by New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang! The Women’s World Cup coming to Southern California, everyone is soccer-crazy -- especially Mia Tang! The U.S. is playing China in the finals, and Mia feels like her two identities are finally coming together. Less exciting, though? The fact that her P.E...Categorized as:
historical-fiction friendship poc-mc family female-mc middle-grade fiction realistic -
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Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Spanish Ambassador has moved next door, and Madeline knows right away that his son, Pepito, is bad news...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure animals -
A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the New York Times-bestselling author of Lionheart comes the dramatic sequel, telling of the last dangerous years of Richard, Coeur de Lion’s life. This long-anticipated sequel to the national bestseller Lionheart is a vivid and heart-wrenching story of the last event-filled years in the life of Richard, Coeur de Lion...Categorized as:
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The Poacher’s Daughter: A Western Story by Michael Zimmer
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsThe Poacher’s Daughter is an extraordinary story of betrayal and redemption, set within an uncompromising landscape of raw brutality and unimaginable beauty. In 1885 young Rose Edwards is widowed by Montana vigilantes who hang her husband for an alleged theft, then burn her Yellowstone Valley cabin to the ground as a warning for her and others of her kind to quit the territory...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc western fiction audiobook action-adventure historical -
Walk About by Aaron Fletcher
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWrested from the primordial Australian wilderness, Tibooburra Station had taken the blood, sweat and tears of generations of Kerricks and given them a magnificent heritage in return. But now the golden legacy of the outback station was threatened by the disappearance of the young boy who would one day inherit it all... -
An Artificial Light by Petra Durst-Benning, Edwin Miles
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA defiant woman in pre–World War I Germany carves out her own unconventional destiny as the enthralling Photographer’s Saga continues.Germany, 1911. Certain things are expected of a woman. Defiant Mimi Reventlow has chosen to be the woman she wants to be. For now, that’s the resident, if temporary, photographer in Laichingen...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
From Sea to Shining Sea by James Alexander Thom
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn one generation, the Clark family of Virginia fought for our nation's independence, and explored, conquered, and settled the continent from sea to shining sea. This powerfully written book recreates the warm life of the family, the dangers of the battlefield, the grueling journeys across an untamed wilderness, and the soul-stirring Lewis and Clark Expedition...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult book -
Panther in the Sky: A Novel Based on the Life of Tecumseh by James Alexander Thom
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsRich, colorful and bursting with excitement, this remarkable story turns James Alexander Thom's power and passion for American history to the epic story of Tecumseh's life and give us a heart-thumping novel of one man's magnificent destiny--to unite his people in the struggle to save their land and their way of life from the relentless press of the white settlers... -
Her Own Legacy by Debra Borchert
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Woman Fights for Her Legacy as the French Revolution Erupts Headstrong Countess Joliette de Verzat prefers secretly managing her family’s Loire Valley château and vineyards to the cut-throat politics of Versailles. For nearly three centuries, generations of families have toiled to produce Château de Verzat wines, and their homes and livelihoods depend upon Joliette...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc family historical fiction feminism action-adventure military -
Be Still the Water by Karen Emilson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFinalist 2019 Canadian Book Club AwardsShortlisted for the 2017 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction2017 IPPY Silver Medal WinnerSet in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba, Be Still the Water brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson Family—immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family friendship female-mc fiction historical literary-fiction outdoors -
Fire the Sky by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNew York Times bestselling novelists W. Michael and Kathleen O’Neal Gear have long been considered the foremost chroniclers of early Native American life. Now, in a critically acclaimed, sweeping new series, they recreate the conflict-filled years following one of the first European invasions...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult book -
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Blood on the Blade by Griff Hosker
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsErik and his family are Norse who live on the island of Orkneyjar. Their world is thrown upside down when the King of Norway colludes with their jarl to take over their home. They flee to the land north of Mercia. Hoping for a life free from the tyranny of a king they have to fight Danes and Saxons... -
Berlin Butterfly: Ensnare by Leah Moyes
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDeath or Freedom? Hardly a choice. Aug 12, 1961, Berlin Germany. Nationale Volksarmee soldiers roll barbed wire across the war-torn city to create the first Berlin Wall. Families are separated, livelihoods destroyed, death comes easily as crippling fear paralyzes the occupants on both sides of the wall...Categorized as:
historical-fiction friendship female-mc romance historical fiction young-adult military -
Hyperversum: Il cavaliere del tempo by Cecilia Randall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSono passati tre anni dal momento in cui Ian e Daniel si sono salutati prendendo strade (e secoli) molto diversi tra loro. Di tanto in tanto, Daniel non può fare a meno di ritentare una partita con Hyperversum, nella speranza di incontrare nuovamente l'amico...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction romantic-love action-adventure audiobook book fiction historical -
The French Sultana by Zia Wesley
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Sultan found her irresistible.The Chief Eunuch wanted to use her to his own ends.Jealous rivals plotted her demise...Categorized as:
historical-fiction royalty family romantic-love harem fiction action-adventure slavery -
Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, Sophie Blackall
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsRuby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family poc-mc female-mc children-books fiction realistic children -
Winnetou III by Karl May
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSlight signs of...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc season-summer action-adventure book children children-books -
Brother Wind by Sue Harrison
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn a time before time at the top of the world -; in a harsh and unforgiving age of ice -; courage will sustain three remarkable souls through trials as bitter as the chill winds of the eternal winter."Claimed by a brutal, despised enemy, Kiin must sacrifice her love for the sake of her tribe and the safety of her children...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc romantic-love action-adventure adult book fiction -
People of the Raven by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn People of the Raven, award-winning archaeologists and New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors W...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult book female-author fiction -
The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Mary Ellen gets bored with her reading, Grandpa knows a hunt for a bee tree is just what she needs. Half the town joins the exciting chase, but it's not until everyone returns home that Mary Ellen makes a discovery of her own: Sometimes, even the sweetest of things must be worked for...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction season-summer action-adventure animals book children -
The Only Way Home by Jeanette Minniti
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of the 2022 Colorado Authors League 1st Place Award in Historical Fiction!Desperate times. Danger on the rails. A journey to save a family.It is 1933 inside a sweltering courtroom in Macon, Georgia. Fifteen-year-old Robert sits on a bench awaiting sentencing after being picked up for vagrancy and spending a night in jail...Categorized as:
historical-fiction romantic-love family fiction historical audiobook mystery action-adventure -
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My Sister the Moon by Sue Harrison
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn prehistoric Alaska, an Aleut girl, unwanted and abused, changes the destiny of her tribe.Gray Bird wanted only sons. His daughter, Kiin, would have been killed at birth to make way for a male heir if not for the tribal chief, Kayugh, who claimed the infant as a future wife for one of his two young sons...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult ancient-civilization book -
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn spring, the hills and meadows of Texas and Wyoming are ablaze with the reds, oranges, and yellows of the Indian Paintbrush. How this striking plant received its name is told in an old Indian legend...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure book children children-books -
Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA spellbinding debut novel about the trailblazing poet Forugh Farrokhzhad, who defied Iranian society to find her voice and her destiny “Remember the flight, for the bird is mortal.”—Forugh Farrokhzad All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh is told that Iranian daughters should be quiet and modest...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc season-summer 20th-century action-adventure adult -
October in the Earth by Olivia Hawker
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Depression-era Kentucky, a defiant wife embarks on an impulsive and liberating journey in a powerful novel by the bestselling author of One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow and The Ragged Edge of Night . Del Wensley, wife of the most celebrated preacher in Harlan County, tries to mind her place. Until her husband’s infidelity pushes an already strained marriage to a breaking point... -
Across the Great Sparkling Water (The Peacemaker Series) by Zoe Saadia
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTo live in captivity, adopted by the enemies of her people, or to break the law and tradition by running away? That question did not occur to Onheda until after she fled Little Falls on the spur of the moment, against any better judgment. If she was to die in the woods, making her way back to her people, accused, even by them, of breaking the ancient custom, it was still the better choice... -
Hearts in Defiance by Heather Blanton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMEN MAKE MISTAKES. GOD WILL FORGIVE THEM. WILL THEIR WOMEN? Charles McIntyre built the lawless, godless mining town of Defiance practically with his bare hands … and without any remorse for the lives he destroyed along the way. Then a glimpse of true love, both earthly and heavenly, changed him. The question is, how much? Naomi Miller is a beautiful, decent woman...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult book christian -
Queen & Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHow does one conquer a kingdom without spilling blood? You offer your hand in marriage to the king who killed your husband. Almira was raised by a calculating father who forged her in political cunning. She’s prepared for this moment since childhood. Like pieces on a board, she lays out the players one by one. One. King Alton, the brother-killer... -
House Without Walls by Ching Yeung Russell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor most people, home is a place with four walls. It's a place to eat, sleep, rest, and live. For a refugee, the concept of home is ever-changing, ever-moving, ever-wavering. And often, it doesn't have any walls at all.Eleven-year-old Lam escapes from Vietnam with Dee Dee during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc friendship family middle-grade fiction historical young-adult -
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA single mother. An abandoned farmhouse. An epic battle with the northern wilderness.Broke and desperate, Molly Bannister accepts the ironclad condition laid down in her great-aunt’s will: to receive her inheritance, Molly must spend one year in an abandoned, off-the-grid farmhouse in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult book -
Lord of Secrets by Erica Ridley
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSome secrets should never be unveiled… Heath Grenville is the problem-solver for London's elite. Unmask the devious cretin skewering the ton with audacious caricatures? With pleasure . His success should keep the powerful happy. But when his work leads him to a young lady outside his class, surely he won’t do anything so scandalous as to fall in love .. -
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Savage Winter by Constance O'Banyon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJoanna found happiness and contentment as Windhawk's wife, until the day she was kidnapped and returned to the white world. Now she must rely on Windhawk's love and devotion to find her and bring her home to his side...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
The Children of First Man by James Alexander Thom
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith its beautifully written and deeply felt descriptions of the feelings the first white settlers and Native Americans had for each other, THE CHILDREN OF FIRST MAN tells the fascinating story of a European people gradually absorbed into the Amerindian culture until their literacy was lost and their Christian religion submerged in the legend of a Welsh Prince named Madoc, the First Man...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Walk in My Soul by Lucia St. Clair Robson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTiana was a Cherokee woman. She grew up learning the magic, spells, and nature religion of her people. Before Sam Houston became the father of Texas, he was a young man who had run away from his home in Tennessee to live among the Cherokee. He came to love Tiana. As the Cherokee would say, she walked in his soul. But Sam was a white man, and Tiana, a Cherokee...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc action-adventure book drama fiction historical -
An Instant in the Wind by André P. Brink
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe year is 1749, when the Boers ruled South Africa. And so it has come to his Baas's final command to his Hottentot slave Adam, to flog his mother, because she refuses to prune the master's vineyard in order to attend her own beloved mother's funeral. And when he refuses to do so, and his Baas smashes his face with a piece of wood, Adam turns on him, and beats him almost to death...Categorized as:
colonization historical-fiction poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult book drama -
A Distant Hope by Ellin Carsta, Gerald Chapple
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this breathtaking and emotional saga, a family must travel far from home to save what they hold dear. Hamburg 1888: After thirty prosperous years, coffee importer Peter Hansen & Sons faces hard times—and certain bankruptcy—unless three brothers can make savvy moves to save the faltering business after their father’s untimely death... -
The President's Gardens by Muohsin Ramlai, Luke Leafgren
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn this extraordinary novel by heralded Iraqi author Muhsin Al-Ramli, One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite Runner against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "A profoundly moving investigation of love, death, and injustice." --The Guardian"A standard in contemporary Middle Eastern literature." --Booklist "A stunning achievement...Categorized as:
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