Books like 'The Brilliance of Stars'
Readers who enjoyed The Brilliance of Stars by J'nell Ciesielski also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy suspense 20th century ancient times christian mystery war
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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... -
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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... -
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThis is a skeptic's journey into the meaning of God and of human existence. At once an ironic rendering of the life of Christ and a beautiful novel, Saramago's tale has sparked intense discussion about the meaning of Christianity and the Church as an institution. Translated by Giovanni Pontiero...Categorized as:
20th century christian ancient times historical contemporary fantasy length-long audiobook -
Joanna by Katrina D. Hamel
Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsShe's bound to the infamous Herodian dynasty, but her bold faith will carve her name in the gospel.Joanna must pay the price for her brother's crime. Claimed as a hostage, she's forced from the verdant slopes of her beloved vineyard to serve Herod Antipas' neglected wife. In an opulent palace where Roman culture supersedes the commands of God, Joanna struggles to express her Jewish faith... -
Dreamers by Angela Elwell Hunt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsTuya came as a teenaged slave to Potiphar's household, a personal gift from the Pharaoh. Tall and slender, the young girl had eyes that shone like a stream of gold. She knew nothing about her past, except that she had always been a slave... -
Dreamers by Angela Elwell Hunt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIn the exotic land of Pharaoh, Tuya, a slave girl, is sold into servitude as a playmate to a wealthy child. Betrayed and cast out as she ascends into womanhood, Tuya finds herself belonging to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard. Yet she soon gives her heart to handsome Joseph, a man sold into slavery by his own brothers... -
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... -
The Daughter of Rome by Angela Elwell Hunt
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn Nero's Rome, Calandra helps her father, a renowned sculptor, complete the most significant commission of his illustrious career. But then a catastrophic fire nearly destroys the imperial city, leaving Calandra reliant on a group of Christians--unusual individuals unlike any she has encountered before... -
Heir of Hope by Morgan L. Busse
Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhat would you sacrifice to save mankind?The great city of Thyra has fallen and shadows spread across the land. Rowen Mar, the last Truthsayer, is taken before the Shadonae. But the Shadonae are not who she thought they were, and now they want to claim her as their own. Caleb Tala, former assassin and prince, is now a Guardian of mankind... -
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... -
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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... -
Heretic by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWith Calais in English hands, hostilities are suspended, but Thomas' quest to find the Holy Grail continues. His cousin Guy of Vexille still pursues him with deadly purpose, convinced that there is a link between Thomas and what he covets... -
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... -
The Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWren Blythe has long enjoyed being among the Northwoods, helping her father with programming at a youth camp. But when a little girl in the area goes missing, an all-out search ensues, reviving the decades-old campfire story of Ava Coons, the murderess, who still roams the woods. Joining the search, Wren stumbles upon the Coons cabin ruins and a rotting porcelain doll... -
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... -
He Who Lifts the Skies by Kacy Barnett-Gramckow
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPowerful imagery creates a 'you are there' immersion in the story of the post-Flood world. Kacy Barnett-Gramckow fans raved about her extraordinary job of moving the Flood off the Sunday School flannelgraph board and into life in the Heavens Before... -
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... -
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She Walks in Majesty by MaryLu Tyndall
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDanger around every corner. Intrigues in everyone’s past. And a romance that’s swoon worthy. She Walks in Majesty is all that and more, with a plot that twists and turns and truths that are hard-hitting... -
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 Premonition at Withers Farm by Jaime Jo Wright
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn 1910 Michigan, Perliett VanHilton is a self-proclaimed rural healer, leaving the local doctor, George Wasziak, convinced she practices quackery. It doesn't help that her mother, Maribeth VanHilton, is a Spiritualist who regularly offers her services to help others speak to their dearly departed... -
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... -
A Man Called Blessed (The Caleb Books Series Book 2) by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOne man holds the key to locating the Ark of the Covenant—but he’s hidden deep in the desert and no one has seen him since he was a boy. In this explosive sequel to Blessed Child, Jewish soldier-turned-archaeologist Rebecca Soloman leads a team deep into the Ethiopian desert to find the one man who may know the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant... -
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... -
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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 . . -
J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThe authorized biography of the creator of Middle-earth. In the decades since his death in September 1973, millions have read THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books. Born in South Africa in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood and brought up in near-poverty... -
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... -
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Of Daggers and Deception by A.L. Sowards
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter years as a soldier and mercenary, Rasheed has retired from battle to run the bathhouse in Thebes with his friends Gillen and Eudocia. The simple life suits them, so when Venetian strangers come to town looking to hire the renowned crew, their answer is no... -
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... -
Firstborn by Tosca Lee
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee comes the much-anticipated, high-speed sequel to The Progeny. Face-to-face with her past, Audra Ellison now knows the secret she gave up everything—including her memory—to protect. A secret made vulnerable by her rediscovery, and so powerful neither the Historian nor the traitor Prince Nikola will ever let her live to keep it...
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