Books like 'The Lavender Bride'
Readers who enjoyed The Lavender Bride by Alexandra Weston also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century marriage of convenience queer fake relationship slow burn actors
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Banana Fish, Vol. 19 by Akimi Yoshida
Rated: 4.72 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNature made Ash beautiful; Nurture made him a killer!VICE NEW YORK IN THE 80s...Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of “Papa” Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him... -
The Emerald Horizon by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsBerlin, 1944. Ariella Bannon is being hunted. Someone is determined to betray her as a Jew, but she has survived against incredible odds, and the end is in sight. She will be reunited with her precious children, no matter what it takes.Meanwhile, Liesl and Erich have found a home in Ireland, away from the chaos of war-ravaged Europe... -
Twist and Shout by Gabriel (AO3), Standbyme
Destiel FanficWhat begins as a transforming love between Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak in the summer of 1965 quickly derails into something far more tumultuous when Dean is drafted in the Vietnam War. Though the two both voice their relationship is one where saying goodbye is never a real truth, their story becomes fraught with the tragedy of circumstance... -
The Secret Midwife by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsLondon, 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... -
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The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn one volume, the New York Times–bestselling epic about hardship and female friendship in postwar Naples that has sold over five million copies. Beginning with My Brilliant Friend, the four Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante follow Elena and Lila, from their rough-edged upbringing in Naples, Italy, not long after WWII, through the many stages of their lives—and along paths that diverge wildly... -
The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsSpanning four generations, The Midnight Rose sweeps from the glittering palaces of the great maharajas of India to the majestic stately homes of England, following the extraordinary life of a remarkable girl, Anahita Chaval, from 1911 to the present day . . -
My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsCentered around the 1986 attempt on the life of Augusto Pinochet, an event that changed Chile forever, My Tender Matador is one of the most explosive, controversial, and popular novels to have been published in that country in decades. It is spring 1986 in the city of Santiago, and Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power... -
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsSHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD A NEW YORK TIMES Selection for BEST 10 BOOKS OF THE YEARA WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK A PICK FOR THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S 2018 BEST BOOKSTHE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT FOR READERS“A page turner...An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis... -
The Violinist of Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsBased 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... -
A View Across the Rooftops by Suzanne Kelman
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAn 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... -
Moonlight and Ashes by Rosie Goodwin
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsDespite being trapped in an abusive marriage, Maggie still feels blessed with her eight-year-old twins, Danny and Lizzie, and baby girl, Lucy. But when the Second World War begins it seems that her blessings may have run out.Although the war lets her escape her husband when he's sent to the front, she must also lose the twins, as they're evacuated to North Wales... -
Love and Duty at Blackberry Farm by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsCambridgeshire – 1942 As a new year begins and the war continues, young Artie Talbot feels trapped. In his heart he longs to fight, like his two brothers, for his king and country but is duty tied to Blackberry Farm. As feelings grow between Artie and Jeanie Salmons, Artie wonders if marriage will help him to finally accept his lot and settle down... -
The Sky Beneath Us by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsAn inspiring, uplifting story of love and loss, courage and adventure, from the bestselling author of The Skylark’s Secret.1927. Violet Mackenzie-Grant is embarking on her dream of studying at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women... -
The Star and the Shamrock by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAriella 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... -
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Ha'Penny Schemes by Gemma Jackson
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn 1920’s inner-city Dublin tenements, Ivy Rose Murphy struggles to survive and thrive in the harsh poverty-stricken environment she was born into. She is trying to adapt to her new role as a married woman. There are those jealous of the improvements she has managed to make in her life. To Ivy it seems everyone wants a piece of her. She is stretched to breaking point... -
Harpers Heroes by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of the Welcome to Harpers Emporium and The Mulberry Lane Series.The Harpers Girls come face to face with the harsh reality of the cruelty of war.Oxford Street, London 1915Sally Harper quietly battles to keep Harpers afloat in the difficult days of the war, whilst husband Ben is working all hours for the War Office... -
The Velvet Ribbon by Nadine Dorries
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsIn this wonderful third Tarabeg novel, Mary Kate Malone finds that a secret life in the shadows with her great love, Dr Nicholas, brings heartache and sorrows. When disaster strikes unexpectedly, she turns to the only people she can trust, in the only place she feels safe – her Irish family and friends in the west coast village of Tarabeg. But back in Ireland, everything has changed... -
A Ration Book Childhood by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsIn the darkest days of the Blitz, family is more important than ever.With her family struggling amidst the nightly bombing raids in London's East End, Ida Brogan is doing her very best to keep their spirits up. The Blitz has hit the Brogans hard, and rationing is more challenging than ever, but they are doing all they can to help the war effort... -
The German Daughter by Marius Gabriel
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe 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
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
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
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 22 ratingsParis, 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... -
My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsFrom 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... -
A Family at War by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAll NEW to eBook - the start of 'The Family Feud' series from bestselling author Rosie Clarke Can they survive the war and all that it brings? 1940, Stretton Village, CambridgeshireThe start of the war and the tragic loss of their beloved father marks the end of an era for the Searles family as their children embark on their adult livesEldest sister Frances is about to marry her childhood... -
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Appalachian Song by Michelle Shocklee
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsForever within the memories of my heart.Always remember, you are perfectly loved.Bertie Jenkins has spent forty years serving as a midwife for her community in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Out of all the mothers she’s tended, none affects her more than the young teenager who shows up on her doorstep, injured, afraid, and expecting, one warm June day in 1943... -
The Storyteller of Casablanca by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this evocative tale from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker’s Gift, a strange new city offers a young girl hope. Can it also offer a lost soul a second chance?Morocco, 1941. With France having fallen to Nazi occupation, twelve-year-old Josie has fled with her family to Casablanca, where they await safe passage to America... -
The Keeper of Stars by Buck Turner
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWho says you can’t rewrite the stars?1962—Twelve years removed from the summer when she first gave her heart away, Dr. Elizabeth (Ellie) Spencer, Professor of Astronomy at Indiana University, receives a mysterious package that has her asking that very question.Inside the unmarked box is a novel written by Ellie’s first love, Jack Bennett... -
The Words We Whisper by Mary Ellen Taylor
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAs a hospice nurse, Zara Mitchell has already seen more death than most people will experience in a lifetime. So when her older sister asks her to help care for their ailing grandmother, Zara agrees—despite strained family relationships.Though pale and tired, Nonna has lost none of her sharp mind... -
The Lost Letters of Aisling by Cynthia Ellingsen
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsA woman faces the past she fled in a heart-stirring novel about unforgettable love and indomitable courage by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lighthouse Keeper.Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post–World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets... -
The Parisians by Marius Gabriel
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsParis, 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
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe #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 Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of What the Wind Knows and From Sand and Ash comes a powerful love story about a musical duo who put everything on the line to be together. New York, 1960: For Benny Lament, music is his entire life. With his father’s deep ties to the mob, the Bronx piano man has learned that love and family can get you in trouble... -
New Neighbors for Coronation Close by Lizzie Lane
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsBristol 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
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFor 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... -
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The Berlin Sisters by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Secret Midwife comes a story of bravery, sacrifice and resilience in war-torn Berlin―and two sisters who will risk it all to make a difference. Berlin, 1943: Ava Müller is a proud supporter of the German war effort, working for Joseph Goebbels alongside her father, a high-ranking official in the Reich... -
The Pianist's Wife by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.65 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsA heartbreaking story of friendship, loyalty and the true cost of love, from the bestselling author of The Secret Midwife and Wives of War.Berlin, 1944: Amira and Gisele have been best friends since they were children, and now Gisele is the only person who knows Amira’s secret. A secret that puts her and everyone she loves in unimaginable danger amid the daily horror and violence of Nazi Germany... -
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Michael Hofmann
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsInspired 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... -
The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author comes the latest instalment in the epic multimillion-selling series, The Seven Sisters.The story of Merope, the missing sister, is waiting to be told . . -
Backwards to Oregon by Jae
"Luke" Hamilton has always been sure that she'd never marry. She accepted that she would spend her life alone when she chose to live her life disguised as a man. After working in a brothel for three years, Nora Macauley has lost all illusions about love. She no longer hopes for a man who will sweep her off her feet and take her away to begin a new, respectable life...Categorized as:
slow burn queer f-f single-mother historical historical western length-long open-door -
28 Barbary Lane by Armistead Maupin
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsArmistead Maupin's uproarious and moving Tales of the City novels—the first three of which are collected in this omnibus volume—have earned a unique niche in American literature and are considered indelible documents of cultural change from the seventies through the first two decades of the new millennium.“These novels are as difficult to put down as a dish of pistachios... -
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Written in 1914 by the Nobel Prize–nominated author of Howard’s End, this intimate portrait of homosexual desire “seems as relevant as ever” (The Guardian). From early adolescence to his college years at Cambridge and into professional life at his father’s firm, Maurice Hall plays the part of the conventional Englishman... -
Silver Wings by H.P. Munro
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsWINNER - 2014 Golden Crown Literary Society - Historical FictionWhen in 1943, twenty-five-year-old Lily Rivera is widowed, she finally feels able to step out of the shadows of an unhappy marriage. Her love of flying leads her to join the Womens Airforce Service Pilots, determined to regain her passion and spread her wings, not suspecting that she would experience more than just flying... -
A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn the golden 1900s, Harry Cane, a shy, eligible gentleman of leisure is drawn from a life of quiet routine into courting and marrying Winnie, eldest daughter of the fatherless Wells clan, who are not quite as respectable as they would appear. They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all... -
Heart of Gold by L. Dreamer
Sometimes to be yourself, you have to become someone else.Thomasina Miller knew from a young age she wasn't like other girls. She didn't want to be a rancher's wife, so she makes the harrowing decision to leave all she's known, risking everything for the chance to choose her own fate in life...Categorized as:
queer marriage of convenience f-f historical historical western m-f-x open-door single-mother -
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Walking on Hidden Wings: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties by Rachel Scott McDaniel
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"A tangled web, a sleuthing adventure, a rekindled romance . . . Walking on Hidden Wings has it all."--Rachel Fordham, author of The Letter TreeGeneva Ashcroft Hayes's marriage to a newspaper mogul might have been arranged, but the New York socialite is devastated when her husband's plane crashes a few short months after their nuptials... -
Crimson by Casey Morales
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 11 ratings(Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0CHHBZJ6C.) What if two Ivy League boys were dropped into a James Bond movie? Harvard University, 1941 Will Shaw and his friends are typical American students, still celebrating the end of the Depression and dreaming about a future filled with success. The war in Europe is far away and someone else's concern. Until it isn't... -
Something Extraordinary by Alexis Hall
From the author of Boyfriend Material comes the absurdist adventure of two friends determined to avoid marriage to unsuitable people as they race through Regency England to marry each other instead.Sir Horley Comewithers isn’t particularly interested in getting married, especially when his match is a perfectly respectable young woman. Sir Horley is, after all, extravagantly gay...Categorized as:
queer marriage of convenience historical regency found-family angst asexual-heroine audiobook -
Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsMarcia's devoted friend and neighbour has her hands full with a loveless marriage, a scheming sister-in-law, and ill-mannered children... -
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsThe remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian--who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J...Categorized as:
20th century queer historical african-american racism contemporary mystery multicultural -
Brethren by W.A. Hoffman
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJohn Williams, the Viscount of Marsdale, libertine, duelist, dilettante, haphazard philanthropist and philosopher, is asked by his estranged father to start a plantation in Jamaica in 1667...
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