Growing Up ... Adult Fiction Historicals and True Love
Explore captivating adult fiction with 'Growing Up...'—historical novels brimming with true love and heartfelt journeys. Discover your next favorite read in this curated list of timeless stories.
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The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
In this rousingly good ghost story, Setterfield's debut novel rejuvenates the genre with a closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths.
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The Winter Rose
by Jennifer Donnelly
It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel. And yet, in the summer of 1900, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin. Among the reformers is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones, recently graduated from medical school. With the help of her influential fiance--Freddie Lytton, an up-and-coming Liberal MP--she works to shut down the area's opium dens that destroy both body and soul. Her selfless activities better her patients' lives and bring her immense gratification, but unfortunately, they also bring her into direct conflict with East London's ruling crime lord--Sid Malone. India is not good for business and at first, Malone wants her out. But against all odds, India and Sid fall in love. Different in nearly every way, they share one thing in common--they're both wounded souls. Their love is impossible and they know it, yet they cling to it desperately. Lytton, India's fiance, will stop at nothing to marry India and gain her family's fortune. Fractious criminal underlings and rivals conspire against Sid. When Sid is finally betrayed by one of his own, he must flee London to save his life. Mistakenly thinking him dead, India, pregnant and desperate, marries Freddie to provide a father for hers and Sid's child. India and Sid must each make a terrible sacrifice--a sacrifice that will change them both forever. One that will lead them to other lives, and other places...and perhaps--one distant, bittersweet day--back to each other.
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The Shallow Seas
by Dawn Farnham
Young Charlotte Macleod arrives in Batavia (now called Jakarta) to marry one of the richest merchants in the Dutch East Indies, but can she forget the lover she left behind in Singapore, the man whose child she is carrying? Can she come to terms with marriage to a man she doesn't love in a city she doesn't understand?
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Olivia and Jai
by Rebecca Ryman
Calcutta, 1848. Twenty-Two-Year-Old Olivia O Rourke Comes To Spend A Year With Her Aunt, Lady Bridget Templewood, Who Would Like To See Her Married Off To A Suitable Englishman. But Olivia Feels Stifled By The Restrictive Society Of Wealthy English Colonials, And Yearns For The Challenges And Freedoms Of America, Her Homeland. Enter Jai Raventhorne. Brooding, Intriguing, Volatile, Forbidden. The Son Of An Unknown Englishman And An Indian Servant Girl, He, Like Olivia, Is An Alien In The Prejudiced World Of The British Raj. Jai Soon Becomes Olivia S Obsession. She Gives Her Self And Soul To Him; Yet She Is Never Able To Know His Mind, His Past, His Secrets. Together They Defy Every Convention Of A Time And Place, Swept In Waves Of Passion And Frustration, Until Inevitably, Her Heart Shattered, Olivia Turns From Devoted Lover To Fierce Enemy. Intense And Captivating, Olivia And Jai Is An Intricately Constructed Love Story Woven With Superb Mystery And Wonderfully Accurate History.
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The Blood of Flowers
by Anita Amirrezvani
Both a sweeping love story and a luminous portrait of a city, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS is the mesmerizing historical novel of an ill-fated young woman whose gift as a rug designer transforms her life. Illuminated with glorious detail of persian rug-making, and brilliantly bringing to life the sights sounds and life of 17th-century Isfahan, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS has captured readers' imaginations everywhere as a timeless tale of one woman's struggle to live a life of her choosing.
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Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico blends poignant romance, bittersweet wit, and delicious recipes. This classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef, using cooking to express herself and sharing recipes with readers along the way.
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Daughter of Fortune
by Isabel Allende
An orphan raised in Valparaíso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, young, vivacious Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. She enters a rough-and-tumble world whose newly arrived inhabitants are driven mad by gold fever. With the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chi'en, Eliza moves freely in a society of single men and prostitutes, creating an unconventional but independent life for herself. The young Chilean's search for her elusive lover gradually turns into another kind of journey, and by the time she finally hears news of him, Eliza must decide who her true love really is.
