Books like 'River God'
Readers who enjoyed River God by Wilbur Smith also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy ancient times suspense mystery war 20th century royalty
-
Ponniyin Selvan- Whirlwinds : Part 2 by Kalki
Rated: 4.66 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsWhirlwinds, the exciting second part of Kalki R Krishnamurthy's historic magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan, our hero Vallavarayan Vandhiyathevan's adventures continue as he rides into marshy quagmires, befriends a mysterious girl, becomes the object of intense suspicion by the wily Pazhuvettarayars - and meets the hero of his dreams... -
Whirlwinds by Kalki
Rated: 4.65 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsWhirlwinds, the exciting second part of Kalki R Krishnamurthy's historic magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan, our hero Vallavarayan Vandhiyathevan's adventures continue as he rides into marshy quagmires, befriends a mysterious girl, becomes the object of intense suspicion by the wily Pazhuvettarayars - and meets the hero of his dreams... -
Sword of Slaughter by Kalki
Rated: 4.66 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsKalki Krishnamurthy’s Ponniyin Selvan is a masterpiece that has enthralled generations of Tamil readers. Many authors have written phenomenal books in Tamil literature after Kalki Krishnamurthy, but Ponniyin Selvan remains the most popular, widely-read novel... -
Ponniyin Selvan-Part 1-Fresh Floods by Kalki
Rated: 4.64 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsPonniyin Selvan is Kalki’s magnum opus based in the 10th century and presents the early life of Raajaraajan and the kings of Chozha Empire. Though written more than 60 years ago this saga is timeless, reeling the readers in its gripping plot which is interwoven with intrigue, conspiracies and romance... -
-
The Reckoning by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsHere, alive from the pages of history, is the compelling tale of a Celtic society ruled by Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, on a collison course with a feudal realm of Edward I. WIth this last book in the extraordinary trilogy that began with HERE BE DRAGONS and continued in FALLS THE SHADOW, Sharon Kay Penman has written a beautiful and moving conclusion to her medieval saga... -
Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
Simon de Montfort was a man ahead of his time in the thirteenth century, a disinherited Frenchman who talked his way into an English earldom and marriage with a sister of the English king, Henry III. A charismatic, obstinate leader, Simon soon lost patience with the king's incompetence and inability to keep his word, and found himself the champion of the common people... -
Troy by Stephen Fry
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsThe story of Troy speaks to all of us - the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against the city of Troy, to which they will lay siege for ten whole years. It is a terrible war with casualties on all sides as well as strained relations between allies, whose consequences become tragedies... -
Aztec by Gary Jennings
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAztec is the extraordinary story of the last and greatest native civilization of North America... -
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsA lost child: On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her - but has disappeared without a trace. A terrible secret: On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell Andrews learns a secret that will change her life forever... -
Winter Warriors by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsWinged demons gather, silent and unseen, above the city of Usa, their talons long and sharp. Their purpose is clear, as is the Upon the deaths of the three kings, the demon riders of the Krayakin will become flesh, free to slake their thirst with human blood - and the stench of evil will cover the land. Two of the kings are already dead... -
A.D. 33 by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker delivers the gripping story of Maviah, a slave who becomes a queen in Arabia, A.D. 33. They call her the Queen of the Outcasts. Maviah, a woman whose fate was sealed on her birth by this world-unwanted, illegitimate, female, a slave-subject to the whims of all. But then she met a man named Yeshua who opened her eyes... -
The City of Tears by Kate Mosse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsFollowing on from the Sunday Times number one bestseller, The Burning Chambers, Kate Mosse's The City of Tears is the second thrilling historical epic in The Burning Chambers series, for fans of Ken Follett and Dan Brown... -
Dovetail by Karen McQuestion
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 36 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... -
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn his first novel since Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières creates a world, populates it with characters as real as our best friends, and launches it into the maelstrom of twentieth-century history. The setting is a small village in southwestern Anatolia in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Everyone there speaks Turkish, though they write it in Greek letters... -
-
A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn 1866, tragedy strikes at the exclusive Windfield School. A young student drowns in a mysterious accident involving a small circle of boys. The drowning and its aftermath initiates a spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many lives... -
A.D. 30 by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsA sweeping epic set in the harsh deserts of Arabia and ancient Palestine. A war that rages between kingdoms on the earth and in the heart.The harrowing journey of the woman at the center of it all. The story of Jesus in a way you have never experienced it. Step back in time to the year of our Lord, Anno Domini, 30... -
The Forgotten Palace by Alexandra Walsh
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn an underground labyrinth a lost soul wanders, waiting for revenge, waiting for love… London 1900Alice Webster has made the worst decision of her life. When her Aunt Agatha offers her the chance to go on a Grand Tour she jumps at the opportunity to get away from the glare of scandal... -
A Family Affair by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratings1926 was the year of the General Strike, but Adams Enterprises, under the wily management of Sammy Adams, youngest entrepreneur in Walworth and Lambeth, was doing very well. All the Adams brothers worked in the business, and so did two of the wives, Emily and Susie. There was just one dark cloud on the horizon - the impending trial of Gerald Ponsonby... -
On Mother Brown's Doorstep by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe big event of the Walworth year was to be the wedding of Sammy Adams, King of Camberwell, to Miss Susie Brown. Everyone was looking forward to it, and Susie was particularly overjoyed when her soldier brother suddenly turned up on leave from service in India in time for the approaching 'knees-up'... -
The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge, Donna Gillespie
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSpanning three generations, this historical novel tells the tale of Boudicca, the most famous warrior of ancient Britain, and Caradoc, the son of a Celtic king, who sets out to unite the people of the Raven and lead them against Rome. Caradoc's objective is not easily accomplished as the Roman army advances into Britain, raping Celtic women and burning villages to the ground... -
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn 18th-century England, a widowed confectioner is drawn into a web of love, betrayal, and intrigue and a battle of wits in this masterful historical novel from the author of the “delicious puzzle-box of a novel” (The New York Times) and USA TODAY bestseller The Square of Sevens... -
The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley
From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Kingdoms, an epic Cold War novel set in a mysterious town in Soviet Russia... -
The Engineered Throne by Megan Derr
Lord Vellem is a man desperate for escape. His father hides from his problems in alcohol, his mother hides from her misery in drugs, and his brother fled to the relative safety of the royal palace. Vellem eventually found solace in the Royal Army Corp of Engineers, but still could not entirely escape... -
Down Lambeth Way by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Adams family of Walworth were poor, cheerful, and above all respectable - even though they sometimes had to seek a little help from the pawnbroker. Mrs Adams - affectionately called Chinese Lady by her children - was a widow, her soldier husband having gone, rather carelessly, to a hero's death on the Northwest Frontier... -
-
The Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBritannia, AD 117: Roman centurion Flavius Ferox is trying to live a quiet life of dignified leisure, overseeing his wife's estate and doing his best to resist the urge to murder an annoying neighbour – until someone else does it for him... -
Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsAriantes is a Sarmatian, a barbarian warrior-prince, uprooted from his home and customs and thrust into the honorless lands of the Romans. The victims of a wartime pact struck with the emperor Marcus Aurelius to ensure the future of Sarmatia, Ariantes and his troop of accomplished horsemen are sent to Hadrian's Wall... -
The Watchmaker's Daughter by Dianne Haley
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsHiding the worn piece of paper among her father’s watch deliveries, her eyes fill with tears at the memory of her brave friend walking towards the Nazi soldiers, and the sharp sound of gun fire. Her friend sacrificed herself so that she could deliver this message... -
A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Scotland, 1766. Sentenced to a life of misery in the brutal coal mines, twenty-one-year-old Mack McAsh hungers for escape. His only the beautiful, highborn Lizzie Hallim, who is trapped in her own kind of hell. Though separated by politics and position, these two restless young people are bound by their passionate search for a place called freedom... -
The Circus Train by Amita Parikh
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsAt the World of Wonders, Europe's most magnificent travelling circus, every moment is full of magic, and nothing is as it seems--especially for the people who put on the show Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo... -
The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDorset, 1642. England is on the cusp of civil war.Jayne Swift, a daughter of the Dorset gentry, has resisted all offers of marriage and instead trained as a physician, using her skills to tend to her Royalist father's tenants and the local population. When civil war sweeps England she vows to remain neutral and aid the injured whether they be Royalist or Parliamentarian... -
Night Train to Marrakech by Dinah Jefferies
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMARRAKECH 1966 Vicky Baudin steps onto a train winding through Morocco, looking for the grandmother she has never met. It’s an epic journey that’ll take her to the edge of Atlas Mountains – and closer to the answers she’s been craving all her life. But dark secrets whisper amongst the dunes. And in unlocking the mystery of Clemence’s past, Vicky will unearth great danger too . . -
A Year of Ravens by Ruth Downie, Stephanie Dray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBritannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her people in a desperate rebellion against the might of Rome, an epic struggle destined to consume heroes and cowards, young and old, Roman and Celt . . . and these are their stories. A calculating queen sees the sparks of revolt in a king’s death... -
A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsThe third book in the Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes series.It is 1923. Mary Russell Holmes and her husband, the retired Sherlock Holmes, are enjoying the summer together on their Sussex estate when they are visited by an old friend, Miss Dorothy Ruskin, an archeologist just returned from Palestine...Categorized as:
mystery suspense 20th century historical victorian contemporary fantasy heroine sleuth -
Black Fox One by Elyse Hoffman
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJonas Amsel and Avalina Keller, devoted Nazis and best friends, have a bright future in Hitler’s Third Reich. Ava, a talented gymnast, wants to serve Germany in the Olympics, and Jonas, who has loved Ava since they were children, wants nothing more than to marry her and start a family. When he is about to propose, however, Ava and her entire family vanish without a trace... -
-
Tales of Love, Madness and Death by Horacio Quiroga
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThis is an English translation of the famous collection of 18 weird tales of Horacio Quiroga, which is presented as a Spanish/English bilingual edition.Most of the stories are dark and strange and describe situations that offer no clear way out for the protagonist... -
Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsDreaming the Eagle is the first part of the gloriously imagined epic trilogy of the life of Boudica. Boudica means Bringer of Victory (from the early Celtic word "boudeg"). She is the last defender of the Celtic culture in Britain; the only woman openly to lead her warriors into battle and to stand successfully against the might of Imperial Rome - and triumph... -
Wait for Me: A Novel by Santa Montefiore
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom #1 internationally bestselling author Santa Montefiore comes a gripping new novel of enduring love and devastating secrets, sweeping across England during WWII to Australia five decades later, based on a true story.Rupert promised he was going to come back. All Florence had to do was wait... -
Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsIn the Novels of the Golden City, J. Kathleen Cheney created a “mesmerizing” (Publishers Weekly) realm where magic, history, and intrigue combine. Now, she presents a new world ruled by psychic talents and fatal magic... Shironne Anjir's status as a sensitive is both a gift and a curse... -
The Smoke Hunter by Jacquelyn Benson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft in Benson's engrossing action thriller."-RT Book Reviews, Top Pick THE DEBUT OF A CAPTIVATING VOICE AND RIVETING STORYTELLER!Frustrated suffragette and would-be archaeologist Ellie Mallory stumbles across a map to a city that shouldn't exist, a jungle metropolis alive and flourishing centuries after the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed... -
11处特工皇妃 [Division 11's Princess Agent] by Xiao Xiang Dong Er, 潇湘冬儿
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsShe was the trusted adviser of the military intelligence unit 11 in the National Security Bureau in charge of collecting intelligence, planning and deployment, arranging assassination missions, and devising strategies in unfriendly countries to obtain victory thousands of miles away. She could be said to be the pinnacle of military intelligence building...Categorized as:
war ancient times historical fantasy love triangle from hate to love other-man-woman -
To Free the Stars by J'nell Ciesielski
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Great War consumes all in its path, but for the assassins at Talon it’s just another day on the job . . . until a new threat rises from the smoke of war-torn Europe to obliterate the world as they know it... -
Murder on the Tor by Frances Evesham
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA silent child, a necklace of amber beads, and a body on Glastonbury Tor add up to more cosy crime in the third Exham on Sea Mystery...Categorized as:
mystery ancient times suspense heroine sleuth historical urban legends & fairy tales fantasy -
The Clockmaker’s Wife by Daisy Wood
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsThe world is at war. And time is running out…London, 1940. Britain is gripped by the terror of the Blitz, forcing Nell Spelman to flee the capital with her young daughter – leaving behind her husband, Arthur, the clockmaker who keeps Big Ben chiming. When Arthur disappears, Nell is desperate to find him... -
The Secret of the Three Fates by Jess Armstrong
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsFollowing the atmospheric and award-winning gothic historical mystery debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall, USA Today bestselling author Jess Armstrong's heroine, Ruby Vaughn, returns in The Secret of the Three Fates, where the Scottish Hills hold ghosts of the past that threaten Ruby’s present.American heiress Ruby Vaughn still hasn't entirely forgiven her octogenarian employer and housemate Mr...Categorized as:
mystery suspense 20th century fantasy historical heroine sleuth length-medium audiobook -
-
The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsCarcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever... -
Enchanted Hill by Emily Bain Murphy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEscape to Enchanted Hill in this historical mystery where two people with a dark, shared past collide while working undercover at a glittering mansion on the California coast. The year is 1930 and Cora McCavanagh is posing as a maid at Hollywood magnate Truman Byrd’s legendary estate. She’s closing in on the damning evidence she needs for a high-profile client...Categorized as:
mystery suspense 20th century historical fantasy heroine sleuth length-medium audiobook -
Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIt is the dawn of the New Year, 1861. After two centuries of isolation, Japan has been forced to open its doors to the West, igniting a clash of cultures and generations. And as foreign ships threaten to rain destruction on the Shogun’s castle in Edo, a small group of American missionaries has chosen this time to spread the word of their God... -
Awakening by Tracy L. Higley
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAwakening Critically-Acclaimed Romantic Suspense Novel Kallie Andreas is a mystery, even to herself. Seven years ago Kallie woke up in a New York City museum, injured and traumatized. Alone and unclaimed...Categorized as:
suspense mystery ancient times fantasy super rich hero christian historical contemporary -
Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 24 ratings'Achingly believable' - Publishers Weekly 'Beautifully written and impeccably researched, Dreamland is a rollicking ride...Categorized as:
20th century mystery suspense heroine sleuth historical fantasy length-medium audiobook -
A Botanist's Guide to Rituals and Revenge by Kate Khavari
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBrilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh faces her hardest challenge yet when she returns to her childhood home in the fourth book in the charming Saffron Everleigh mystery series. “A cleverly plotted puzzle” (Ashley Weaver) in the vein of Opium and Absinthe, this is perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Sujata Massey...
Find out more about romance.io.
Get recommendations by genres & tropes
Use the romance book finder to mix and match over 100 content keywords to find the books that match your preferences

Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.