Book picks similar to
The Forest Dwellers by Judith Arnopp


historical-fiction
historical
england
british-literature

Wicked Designs


Lauren Smith - 2013
    Her plan to be done with dominating men forever is simple—find herself a kind husband who will leave her to her books. It seems an easy enough plan, until she is unexpectedly abducted by an incorrigible duke who hides a wounded spirit behind flashing green eyes.Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex, spends countless nights at the club with his four best friends, and relishes the rakish reputation society has branded him with. He has no plans to marry anytime soon—if ever. But when he kidnaps an embezzler’s niece, the difficult debutante’s blend of sweetness and sharp tongue make him desperate for the one thing he swears he never wanted: love. Yet as they surrender to passion, danger lurks in Godric’s shadowed past, waiting for him to drop his guard—and rob him of the woman he can’t live without. Product Warnings:This novel includes a lady who refuses to stay kidnapped, a devilish duke with a dark past, and an assortment of charming rogues who have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.

Until We Meet Again


Rosemary Goodacre - 2019
    An office worker, she lives at home, along with her parents and spirited younger brother, Bertie. But her life is transformed when she meets handsome young man, Edmond Derwent, son of one of the wealthiest families in the small town of Larchbury, and student at Cambridge University.The couple are falling deeply in love when war breaks out and, eager to do his duty for England, Edmond signs up as an officer. The couple plan to be wed, eager to start a new life together - but their happiness is short-lived when Edmond is sent to Flanders to lead his men into battle. Amy trains as a VAD nurse and is soon sent to France, where she sees the true horror of war inflicted on the brave young men sent to fight.Separated by war, Edmond and Amy share their feelings through emotional letters sent from the front line. But when Edmond is critically wounded at Ypres, their love faces the biggest test of all – can their love stay strong while the world around them is crumbling?A romantic, emotional saga set in WW1 – readers of Rosie Goodwin, Katie Flynn and Val Wood will be captivated by this story of love.

The Long Shooters


Daniel C. Chamberlain - 2011
    Ballou perfected the art of the judicious killer. His ability with his cherished Stephens target rifle is legendary, making a nearly miraculous shot that no one else – North or South – could accomplish. After the war, he disappears… Samuel Roark is a small-time rancher and part-time lawyer. One personal tragedy after another leaves Samuel gripped by periodic bouts of depression. When a hidden marksman of uncommon skill murders his son, the death leaves Samuel on the brink of total madness.Roark’s wife Sarah, a woman of strength, grace and startling beauty is now both emotionally and physically exhausted by the tragic circumstances that have beset her family. After discovering her husband’s quest for revenge, she does everything in her power to prevent what she fears will ultimately destroy him.Matthew Shaw is a known manhunter and soldier of fortune that people call on when they’re willing to pay someone else to deal with obstacles in their lives. When required, Shaw reluctantly uses his considerable marksmanship to achieve those ends. Now Shaw finds himself caught between a job he truly believes in, and a very good reason to walk away when he realizes he’s falling in love with Sarah, the wife of the man who hired him.

The Lion's Daughter


Loretta Chase - 1992
    She's determined to avenge the murder of her beloved father, an enigmatic English aristocrat who lived in self-imposed exile. Honor demands that Esme let nothing and nobody stand in her way. That includes the handsome wastrel who's become entangled in her life, whose charm does not make up for his lazy and irresponsible character.Having gambled away his entire family fortune, Varian St. George, Lord Edenmont, now lives by his wits and winning ways. A man who has always taken the path of least resistance — preferably in soft beds with willing women — he does not want to become embroiled in a mad quest with a hot-tempered and heavily armed redhead.But forced to travel together through an exotic land, the mismatched pair soon discovers that friction can produce some very dangerous sparks ...

The Locksmith's Daughter


Karen Brooks - 2016
    She has apprenticed with her father since childhood, and there is no lock too elaborate for her to crack. After scandal destroys her reputation, Mallory has returned to her father's home and lives almost as a recluse, ignoring the whispers and gossip of their neighbors. But Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster and a frequent client of Mallory's father, draws her into his world of danger and deception. For the locksmith's daughter is not only good at cracking locks, she also has a talent for codes, spycraft, and intrigue. With Mallory by Sir Francis’s side, no scheme in England or abroad is safe from discovery.But Mallory's loyalty wavers when she witnesses the brutal and bloody public execution of three Jesuit priests and realizes the human cost of her espionage. And later, when she discovers the identity of a Catholic spy and a conspiracy that threatens the kingdom, she is forced to choose between her country and her heart.Once Sir Francis's greatest asset, Mallory is fast becoming his worst threat—and there is only one way the Queen’s master spy deals with his enemies…

Tahn


L.A. Kelly - 2005
    Trapped between his master's evil commands and his persistent conscience that tells him to do otherwise, Tahn Dorn finds himself in a twisting plot that threatens not only his life but also that of the lovely Netta.

The Scottish Highland Series: Beloved Impostor, Beloved Stranger, and Beloved Warrior


Patricia Potter - 2017
    The men of the Maclean Clan are fierce warriors. From the battle of Flodden Field to the waters off the Spanish Coast, they fight to protect their homes and those they love. In this spellbinding Scottish Highland series, the Maclean brothers find unexpected romance with women who heal and stir their souls.  Beloved Imposter: Felicia Campbell has set a plan in motion to escape her wedding to the lecherous old Earl of Morneith—but she’s interrupted when she’s abducted. Her fury turns to curiosity when she discovers her captor is the handsome Rory Maclean, her clan’s hated enemy. And Rory, who has sworn never to love again, finds himself daring to care for the fiery captive who could save his broken soul . . .  Beloved Stranger: Lachlan Maclean rode with King James IV of Scotland to free his country from English tyranny. In the slaughter at Flodden Field, he’s thrown from his horse and awakes to the beautiful visage of Kimbra Carlton, a border woman whose husband was killed by a Scot, leaving her to fend for her daughter alone. Now, she can neither let the wounded Lachlan die nor let anyone know his heritage. But perhaps in healing him, she may heal her own heart . . .  Beloved Warrior: Patrick Maclean spent years enslaved aboard a Spanish galleon. But after he leads his fellow oarsmen in an uprising, he finds himself in charge of not only the vessel but also a fetching young passenger: Juliana Mendoza, the ship owner’s niece. Juliana was bound for a wedding and a man she never wanted. But the more she comes to know Patrick and his honorable clan, the more she realizes that only she can decide her fate . . .

The Brigand Bride


Miriam Minger - 1990
    Hooded and disguised, she led a series of daring raids against the forces of the Crown--vowing to love no man until the English invaders were driven from her native soil. Hot-blooded Captain Garrett Marshall was entrusted with the capture of the mysterious brigand called "Black Jack." But the sensuous, azure-eyed beauty hidden beneath the bandit's manly garb tested Garrett's loyalty to his King. Inflamed by a desire he could not ignore, the handsome officer would wed his bewitching enemy to save her from the gallows. But first he'd have to quell her hatred...and conquer her heart.

The House of Women


Anne Whitfield - 2006
    She is the buffer between her violent father and her sisters, who look to her for guidance. As Grace tries to hold them together through times of hardship and humiliation, her own secret love, William Ross rejects her. Thankfully another man, Doyle gives Grace the calm support she has been missing. Only, their subtle attraction creates more disturbance. When shocking events occur, Grace makes decisions that will affect everyone’s future, which sets sister against sister, mother against daughter. As her life crashes into chaos with scandal, near bankruptcy and murder, a coalmine disaster brings Grace into contact with an introverted miner. His cool reserve makes Grace take notice. This man is dismissive of her station and evokes an image of a life much simpler.

Fairchild


Jaima Fixsen - 2013
    They should have a son and if it can be managed, he should be handsome. Cleverness isn’t important. Daughters in limited quantities are fine so long as they are pretty. Bastards are inconvenient and best ignored. It's not a big problem, unless you are one. Unfortunately, Sophy is. Sick of her outcast role, she escapes her father’s house, only to fall from her horse during a spring storm. Injured, soaked, and shivering, she stumbles to a stranger’s door—Tom, a blunt edged merchant from a family of vulgar upstarts. Mistaking Sophy for the genuine article, he takes her in. Sophy can’t resist twisting the truth. Soon she’s caught in her own snare—and it might just be a noose.

The English Heiress


Roberta Gellis - 1979
    Her mother and brother had died in the prison where she had been raped and starved for no greater crime than her father’s title. And her father had died in the escape engineered by an utter stranger, who claimed he had come to bring her to England where she would inherit the property and wealth of an uncle. After what had happened to her, did Leonie dare to believe in such altruism?Roger St. Eyre’s life had been destroyed by the girl he fell passionately in love with. Solange did not love him; she was selfish and vicious and extravagant. By the time she died, Roger felt dead himself. Perhaps he was hoping for the peace death brings when he set out to wrest his old friend Henry de Conyers from the murderous grip of the French Revolution.Instead Roger and Leonie both found love and reasons to live—if they could escape exposure to the revolutionary fanatics ... and their favorite toy, the guillotine.

The Wheel of Fortune


Susan Howatch - 1984
    Take me back to Oxmoon and make it live again!"Oxmoon, the rambling old mansion on a sprawling estate in Wales, has been for generations, the dream, the downfall, and the destiny of the wealthy Godwin family. They are entranced by tales of glittering parties where young lovers waltzed beneath the chandeliers as the orchestra played "The Blue Danube Waltz". They are ensnared by the family legacy of madness, murder, and doomed romance --- the disastrous consequences of 19th-century Gwyneth Godwin's scandalous affair with sheep farmer Owen Bryn-Davies.

The Welsh Girl


Peter Ho Davies - 2007
    Young Esther Evans has lived her whole life within the confines of her remote mountain village. The daughter of a fiercely nationalistic sheep farmer, Esther yearns for a taste of the wider world that reaches her only through broadcasts on the BBC. Then, in the wake of D-day, the world comes to her in the form of a German POW camp set up on the outskirts of Esther's village. The arrival of the Germans in the camp is a source of intense curiosity in the local pub, where Esther pulls pints for both her neighbors and the unwelcome British guards. One summer evening she follows a group of schoolboys to the camp boundary. As the boys heckle the prisoners across the barbed wire fence, one soldier seems to stand apart. He is Karsten Simmering, a German corporal, only eighteen, a young man of tormented conscience struggling to maintain his honor and humanity. To Esther's astonishment, Karsten calls out to her. These two young people from worlds apart will be drawn into a perilous romance that calls into personal question the meaning of love, family, loyalty, and national identity. The consequences of their relationship resonate through the lives of a vividly imagined cast of characters: the drunken BBC comedian who befriends Esther, Esther's stubborn father, and the resentful young British "evacuee" who lives on the farm-even the German-Jewish interrogator investigating the most notorious German prisoner in Wales, Rudolf Hess. Peter Ho Davies has been hailed for his "all-encompassing empathy that is without borders" (Elle). That trancendent compassion shines through The Welsh Girl, a novel that is both thought-provoking and emotionally enthralling.

An Undeniable Rogue


Annette Blair - 2002
    What she needs is a husband, and she knows well enough that romance and matrimony aren't always compatible. While providing for her twins and the child she now carries is paramount, wedding a virtual stranger—even a wealthy one, like Gideon St. Goddard, Duke of Stanthorpe—is no light matter.Sabrina knows the friend who arranged the union would not promise her to a true scoundrel, but one look at her future husband convinces her that he is a shameless rogue. A shockingly handsome and desirable one, at that. Why has he agreed to marry her? When Gideon flashes that wicked, seductive smile, the reason hardly matters, but the chance that he'll steal her heart becomes all too real...

The Illuminator


Brenda Rickman Vantrease - 2004
    The printing press had yet to be invented, and books were rare and costly, painstakingly lettered by hand and illuminated with exquisite paintings. Finn is a master illuminator who works not only for the Church but also, in secret, for John Wycliffe of Oxford, who professes the radical idea that the Bible should be translated into English for everyone to read. Finn has another secret as well, one that leads him into danger when he meets Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow struggling to protect her inheritance from the depredations of Church and Crown alike. Finn's alliance with Lady Kathryn will take us to the heart of what Barbara Tuchman once called the calamitous fourteenth century.Richly detailed and irresistibly compelling, Brenda Rickman Vantrease's The Illuminator is a glorious story of love, art, religion, and treachery at an extraordinary turning point in history.