Books like 'Independence'

Readers who enjoyed Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

historical  south asian  war  multicultural  suspense  20th century

  • The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani

    The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 69 ratings
    From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream. Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake...
  • The Secret Midwife by Soraya M. Lane

    The Secret Midwife by Soraya M. Lane

    Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    London, 1995: When on the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz a news broadcast runs an appeal for information on the identity of a midwife who saved hundreds of lives, Emilia knows it is time to finally tell her story...
  • Sponsored links
  • A Fire Sparkling by Julianne MacLean

    A Fire Sparkling by Julianne MacLean

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 45 ratings
    An Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller. From the USA Today bestselling author of A Curve in the Road comes a spellbinding novel about one woman’s love, loss, and courage during wartime...
  • The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

    The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

    Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 34 ratings
    A milestone in historical mystery fiction as Maisie Dobbs takes her final bow! Psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs unravels a profound mystery from her past in a war-torn nation grappling with its future. London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion—the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing...
  • The Violinist of Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood

    The Violinist of Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Based on the unforgettable true story of Alma Rosé, this novel brings to life one of history’s most fearless, inspiring, and courageous heroines.In Auschwitz, every day is a fight for survival. Alma is inmate 50381, the number tattooed on her skin in pale blue ink. She is cooped up with thousands of others, torn from loved ones, trapped in a maze of barbed wire...
    Categorized as:
    war  20th century  historical  length-medium
  • A View Across the Rooftops by Suzanne Kelman

    A View Across the Rooftops by Suzanne Kelman

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    An unforgettable story of love, hope and betrayal, and a testament to the courage of humanity in history’s darkest days. As Nazis occupy his beloved city, Professor Josef Held feels helpless. So when he discovers his former pupil Michael Blum is trying to escape the Gestapo, he offers Michael a place to hide in his attic...
  • Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

    Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 68 ratings
    William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a Boston millionaire, the other a penniless polish immigrant-born on the same day near the turn of the century on opposite sides of the world-are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream. Two men - ambitious, powerful, ruthless - are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fueled by their all-consuming hatred...
  • Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler

    Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Based around the pivotal WWII battle of Stalingrad (1942-3), where the German advance into Russia was eventually halted by the Red Army, and around an extended family, the Shaposhnikovs, and their many friends and acquaintances, Life and Fate recounts the experience of characters caught up in an immense struggle between opposing armies and ideologies...
  • The Star and the Shamrock by Jean Grainger

    The Star and the Shamrock by Jean Grainger

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Ariella Bannon has no choice: she must put her precious children, Liesl and Erich, on that train or allow them to become prey for the Nazis. Berlin 1939...
    Categorized as:
    20th century  war  historical  length-medium
  • The German Daughter by Marius Gabriel

    The German Daughter by Marius Gabriel

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    The band new absolutely gripping and heartbreaking World War II historical novel from master storyteller Marius Gabriel. What readers are saying about Marius 'A must read for fans of WW2 books , it not only educates you... but also breaks your heart .... Five stars for this book... I loved it and cried at the end' Reader review, 5 stars'A wonderful, unputdownable book..
  • The Girl with the Diary by Shari J. Ryan

    The Girl with the Diary by Shari J. Ryan

    Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    “What if you never come back?” I asked.“I will find you, Amelia. I promise I will find you.”“What if you die trying?”Nazi-occupied Prague, 1942: Amelia is hiding in her closet when flashlights blind her and she’s captured by the SS. Out on the cobblestone street, she is shoved onto a freight train with hundreds of others. Hours pass as they travel in darkness...
  • The Dance Teacher of Paris by Suzanne Fortin

    The Dance Teacher of Paris by Suzanne Fortin

    Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    'But how will I look after them? Where can I hide them?' She looked up at me and didn't try to stop the tears from falling. 'I'm begging you. Please, save our children.'Paris, 1942. As the Germans occupy the city she calls home, Adele Basset is determined to keep her pupils' spirits up. Their dance class offers a moment of solace in the dark days of occupation...
  • The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham

    The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham

    Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars
    · 22 ratings
    Paris, 1940: He pressed the tattered book into her hands. ‘You must go to the café and ask at the counter for Pierre Duras. Tell him that I sent you. Tell him you’re there to save the people of France...
    Categorized as:
    war  20th century  historical  length-long
  • Home Sweet Home by Lizzie Lane

    Home Sweet Home by Lizzie Lane

    Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    Will they meet again? Frances Sweet can’t really remember her real parents. Brought up by her uncle, her cousins Ruby and Mary have always treated her like their little sister.As the war continues to keep her cousins separated from the men they love – Frances is growing up fast enough to catch the eye of dashing American soldier Declan...
  • My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie

    My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 45 ratings
    From the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy...
  • The London Girls by Soraya M. Lane

    The London Girls by Soraya M. Lane

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    From the bestselling author of The Last Correspondent comes a remarkable story of three young women who defy the bombs to do their bit for Britain. Will they survive the dark streets of London to see the Allies win the war?London, 1941. The Blitz...
  • The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey

    The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    A female American spy in Nazi-occupied France finds purpose behind enemy lines in a novel of unparalleled danger, love, and daring by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Beantown Girls.Anna Cavanaugh is a restless young widow and brilliant French teacher at a private school in Washington, DC...
  • The Parisians by Marius Gabriel

    The Parisians by Marius Gabriel

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Paris, 1940. The Nazis have occupied the city—and the Ritz. The opulent old hotel, so loved by Parisians, is now full of swaggering officers, their minions and their mistresses.For American Olivia Olsen, working as a chambermaid at the hotel means denying her nationality and living a lie, every day bringing the danger of discovery closer...
  • Just Once: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury

    Just Once: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    The #1 New York Times bestselling author “known for her deeply heartfelt novels” ( Woman’s World ) writes a sweeping World War II love story about a young woman torn between two brothers.In 1941, beautiful Irvel Holland is too focused on her secret to take much notice of the war raging overseas...
  • The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story by Mark Helprin

    The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story by Mark Helprin

    Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Mark Helprin, the #1  New York Times best-selling author of  Winter’s Tale and A Soldier of the Great War , returns with a fast-paced, beautifully written novel about the majesty of the sea; a life dedicated to duty, honor, and country; and the gift of falling in love...
  • New Neighbors for Coronation Close by Lizzie Lane

    New Neighbors for Coronation Close by Lizzie Lane

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Bristol 1936Jenny Crawford has resigned herself to a loveless marriage living hand to mouth with their two children. Like many others, husband Roy struggles to find work at the docks but a chance encounter turns his outlook and the family's fortunes around.Not only does he get regular work but they are also allocated a council house on Coronation Close on the outskirts of the city...
  • The German Midwife by Mandy Robotham

    The German Midwife by Mandy Robotham

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    For readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Kate Furnivall comes a gritty tale of courage, betrayal and love in the most unlikely of places. Germany, 1944. Taken from the camps to serve the Fuhrer himself, Anke Hoff has been assigned as midwife to one of Hitler’s inner circle. If she refuses, her family will die...
  • Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Michael Hofmann

    Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Michael Hofmann

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 43 ratings
    Inspired by a true story, Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is the gripping tale of an ordinary man's determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi rule. This Penguin Classics edition contains an afterword by Geoff Wilkes, as well as facsimiles of the original Gestapo file which inspired the novel. Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear...
    Categorized as:
    20th century  war  humor  historical  length-long
  • The Lantern's Dance by Laurie R. King

    The Lantern's Dance by Laurie R. King

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are caught up in a case that turns intensely personal, shining light on a past that even Holmes himself did not suspectAfter their recent adventures in Transylvania, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes look forward to spending some time getting to know Holmes' son, the artist Damian Adler, and his family...
  • The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy

    The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Loch Ewe, 1940. When gamekeeper’s daughter Flora’s remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird’s son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed...
  • When the World Goes Quiet by Gian Sardar

    When the World Goes Quiet by Gian Sardar

    Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    In the final days of World War I, an aspiring artist’s courageous journey is just beginning in a powerful novel about love, danger, and survival by the author of Take What You Can Carry.It’s 1918 in German-occupied Bruges, Belgium. With luck, Evelien will make it to the end of the war and be given what she was a prized painting in exchange for safeguarding her employer’s possessions...
    Categorized as:
    20th century  war  historical  length-medium
  • Fire and Fury for the Tobacco Girls by Lizzie Lane

    Fire and Fury for the Tobacco Girls by Lizzie Lane

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    As war rages, everyone has to do their bit...Bristol 1941As the clouds of war grow bleaker both at home and abroad, the Tobacco Girls are determined to do their bit for King and Country. To that end Maisie Miles and Bridget Milligan become voluntary ambulance drivers...
    Categorized as:
    war  suspense  military  historical  length-medium
  • The Ops Room Girls: An uplifting and romantic WW2 saga by Vicki Beeby

    The Ops Room Girls: An uplifting and romantic WW2 saga by Vicki Beeby

    Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    When Evie’s dreams come crashing down, she’s determined to still make something of herself in these trying times…It is 1939 and working class Evie Bishop has received a scholarship to study mathematics at Oxford when tragedy turns her life upside down...
  • The Orphans of Berlin: The BRAND NEW heartbreaking World War 2 historical novel by Jina Bacarr for 2022 by Jina Bacarr

    The Orphans of Berlin: The BRAND NEW heartbreaking World War 2 historical novel by Jina Bacarr for 2022 by Jina Bacarr

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    'A moving novel of strength and resistance in the face of evil but also an inspiring journey of resilience after loss.' Erin Litteken, bestselling author of The Memory Keeper of KyivA heartbreaking World War 2 novel that tells the story of two women’s fight for love, family and hope, as the world crumbles around them...
  • The Girl from Guernica by Karen Robards

    The Girl from Guernica by Karen Robards

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Inspired by Picasso’s great masterpiece Guernica, New York Times bestselling author Karen Robards returns with a riveting story of love, intrigue, deception and bravery in the face of war…On an April day in 1937, the sky opens and fire rains down upon the small Spanish town of Guernica. Seventeen-year-old Sibi and her family are caught up in the horror...
  • Deadly Secrets by Carla Simpson

    Deadly Secrets by Carla Simpson

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A severed foot. Fingerprints left on a wine glass. A secret cypher code. The scent of orange and cinnamon left behind by the murderer...
  • All My Tomorrows by Ellie Dean

    All My Tomorrows by Ellie Dean

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    The compelling new Second World War novel from the author of Always in My Heart. In defending herself against her brutal husband, eighteen-year-old Ruby Clark is forced to flee London. She has no idea where Cliffehaven is, or what she will find there, but she knows that she will never be able to return home again. At first it seems she's fallen on her feet...
  • Wild, Beautiful, and Free by Sophfronia Scott

    Wild, Beautiful, and Free by Sophfronia Scott

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    From award-winning author Sophfronia Scott comes the story of one young woman’s bold journey to reclaim her birthright and carve out her own place in a world that tells her she doesn’t belong. Born the daughter of an enslaved woman and a Louisiana plantation owner, Jeannette Bébinn is raised alongside her white half sister―until her father suddenly dies...
  • Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia, Simon Bruni

    Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia, Simon Bruni

    Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    From the bestselling author of The Murmur of Bees comes a transportive novel of two families uprooted by war and united by the bonds of love and courage.With war looming dangerously close, Ilse’s school days soon turn to lessons of survival. In the harshness of winter, her family must join the largest exodus in human history to survive...
    Categorized as:
    20th century  war  historical  length-long
  • The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham

    The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    The Home for Unwanted Girls meets Orphan Train in this unforgettable novel about a young girl caught in a scheme to rid England’s streets of destitute children, and the lengths she will go to find her way home—based on the true story of the British Home Children...
    Categorized as:
    20th century  war  historical  abuse  length-medium
  • The Girls in Blue by Fenella J. Miller

    The Girls in Blue by Fenella J. Miller

    Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Jane Hadley has nothing to lose when she runs away to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Whatever faces her in war-torn London can't be any worse than staying at home with her abusive father...The city is nothing like she could have imagined, but she's soon on the move, travelling from base to base for her top-secret training...
    Categorized as:
    war  20th century  historical  length-medium
  • The Boy Who Granted Dreams by Luca Di Fulvio

    The Boy Who Granted Dreams by Luca Di Fulvio

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    1909. Ellis Island. Arriving off one of the many transatlantic freighters are Cetta Luminita and her illegitimate baby boy Natale, fleeing the poverty and violence of their Southern Italian hometown. Having sacrificed everything, and endured every possible shame, Cetta has but one wish: that her baby should be an American, and grow up with the freedom to decide his own destiny...
  • People Like Us by Louise Fein

    People Like Us by Louise Fein

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    For fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime.As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer, Hetty Heinrich is keen to play her part in the glorious new Thousand Year Reich...
    Categorized as:
    war  20th century  historical  military
  • Where the Sky Begins by Rhys Bowen

    Where the Sky Begins by Rhys Bowen

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    A woman’s future is determined by fate and choice in a gripping WWII novel about danger, triumph, and second chances by the New York Times bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Tuscan Child.London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’s world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash...
  • Half in Shadow by Gemma Liviero

    Half in Shadow by Gemma Liviero

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    From the bestselling author of In a Field of Blue comes an unforgettable novel about courage, love, and consequences at the dawn of World War I.1915. In German-occupied Belgium, a tragic loss forces Josephine Descharmes to navigate dangerous new territory. By day it’s compliance, serving German officers at the Hotel Métropole...
    Categorized as:
    war  20th century  historical  length-medium
  • Shelter from the Storm by Ellie Dean

    Shelter from the Storm by Ellie Dean

    Rated: 4.66 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Nineteen-year-old April Wilton has just enlisted in the WRENs in Portsmouth, where she works servicing engines on ships. She finds herself immersed in dockyard life and surrounded by soldiers - from England and America. The atmosphere is one of spontaneity and impulsiveness, brought on by the unpredictability of war...
  • Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer

    Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    Once An Eagle is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power...
  • Night Angels by Weina Dai Randel

    Night Angels by Weina Dai Randel

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    From the author of The Last Rose of Shanghai comes a profoundly moving novel based on the true story of a diplomat and his wife who risked their lives to help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis.1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace...
    Categorized as:
    war  20th century  historical  length-medium
  • Finding Friends on Beamer Street by Sheila Riley

    Finding Friends on Beamer Street by Sheila Riley

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    The start of a brand new series from Sheila Riley, bestselling author of the Reckoner's Row saga series!Liverpool 1921 Pregnant, Mary Jane Starlings secret wedding to Paddy Redfern ends in disaster when her fiancé is murdered on the way to the church. Paddy’s wayward twin ‘Red’ intercepts Mary Jane and warns that they must flee Ireland for fear of reprisals from her family, never to return...
  • The Sound of Light by Sarah Sundin

    The Sound of Light by Sarah Sundin

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    When the Germans march into Denmark, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt exchanges his nobility for anonymity, assuming a new identity so he can secretly row messages for the Danish Resistance across the waters to Sweden.American physicist Dr. Else Jensen refuses to leave Copenhagen and abandon her research--her life's dream...
  • The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood

    The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood

    Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    “We must die standing up for something.”“And what are we standing up for?”“The most important thing there is. Freedom.”Millions of people walked through Auschwitz’s gates, but she was the first woman who escaped. This powerful novel tells the inspiring true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history…Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive...
    Categorized as:
    20th century  war  historical  length-medium
  • Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King

    Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Laurie R. King's The God of the Hive and Pirate King.En route to San Francisco to settle her family’s estate, Mary Russell, in the company of husband Sherlock Holmes, falls prey to troubling dreams—and even more troubling behavior. In 1906, when Mary was six, the city was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake...
  • The Oceans Between Us by Gill Thompson

    The Oceans Between Us by Gill Thompson

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Inspired by heartrending real events, a mother fights to find her son and a child battles for survival in this riveting debut novel.For readers of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, The Letter by Kathryn Hughes, and Remember Me by Lesley Pearse.A woman is found wandering injured in London after an air raid.She remembers nothing of who she is...
  • Dragonfly by Leila Meacham

    Dragonfly by Leila Meacham

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Roses comes a gripping new novel about five young spies embedded among the highest Nazi ranks in occupied Paris At the height of World War II, a handful of idealistic young Americans receive a mysterious letter from the government, asking them if they are willing to fight for their country...
  • Chasing Moonlight by Raven St. Pierre

    Chasing Moonlight by Raven St. Pierre

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Bestselling author, Raven St. Pierre, returns with the third standalone in a breathtaking family saga filled with love, acceptance, and adversity. Jesse Peterson lives by the sweat of his brow and doesn’t hold back from defending his beliefs—even if that means getting dirty and breaking a few noses in the process...
Fantastic book recommendations by romance book lovers for romance book lovers.
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

romance book finder

Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.


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