Book picks similar to
Leonardo and the Death Machine by Robert J. Harris
historical-fiction
fantasy
123
favorites
A Boy Without Magic
Guy Antibes - 2018
Even animals and plants use the ever present magical stuff some of the inhabitants call pollen to enhance their lives. For fourteen-year-old Sam Smith, it is a huge problem. Lightning went through his five-year-old body nine years ago and burned out his ability to manipulate pollen. He became, in that life-defining moment, a boy without magic in a world filled with it and he is still struggling with the aftereffects. He is banished from his home and goes on a village tour with a friendly healer to find that life outside his home town is filled with more adventure, peril, and promise than he ever imagined. Edition 2 is updated with a change in the initial start of the book along with a fresh edit and a new cover more appropriate to the story.
The Sandcastle Empire
Kayla Olson - 2017
Then the revolution happened, and everything changed.Now a powerful group called the Wolfpack controls the earth and its resources. Eden has lost everything to them. They killed her family and her friends, destroyed her home, and imprisoned her. But Eden refuses to die by their hands. She knows the coordinates to the only neutral ground left in the world, a place called Sanctuary Island, and she is desperate to escape to its shores.Eden finally reaches the island and meets others resistant to the Wolves. But their solace is short-lived when one of Eden’s new friends goes missing. Braving the jungle in search of their lost ally, they quickly discover Sanctuary is filled with lethal traps and an enemy they never expected. This island might be deadlier than the world Eden left behind, but surviving it is the only thing that stands between her and freedom.
Stranger
Keren David - 2018
1904.A boy staggers out of the forest covered in blood and collapses at the feet of 16-year-old Emmy. While others are suspicious and afraid, Emmy is drawn to him. Is he really the monster the townsfolk say he is?Astor, Ontario. 1994. Megan arrives from London for her great grandmother Emmy’s 105th birthday. It should be a happy family occasion, but Megan is nursing a broken heart and carrying a secret she fears might consume her.
Stonehenge
Bernard Cornwell - 1999
Bernard Cornwell's epic novel Stonehenge catapults us into a powerful and vibrant world of ritual and sacrifice at once timeless and wholly original-a tale of patricide, betrayal, and murder; of bloody brotherly rivalry: and of the never-ending quest for power, wealth, and spiritual fulfillment.Three brothers-deadly rivals-are uneasily united in their quest to create a temple to their gods. There is Lengar, the eldest, a ruthless warrior intent on replacing his father as chief of the tribe of Ratharryn; Camaban, his bastard brother, a sorcerer whose religious fervor inspires the plan for Stonehenge; and Saban, the youngest, through whose expertise the temple will finally be completed. Divided by blood but united-precariously-by a shared vision, the brothers begin erecting their mighty ring of granite, aligning towering stones to the movement of the heavenly bodies, and raising arches to appease and unite their gods. Caught between the zealousness of his ambitious brothers, Saban becomes the true leader of his people, a peacemaker who will live to see the temple built in the name of salvation and regeneration.Bernard Cornwell, long admired for his rousing narrative and meticulous historical imaginings, has here delivered his masterpiece, the most compelling and powerful human drama of its kind since Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and Edward Rutherford's Sarum. His re-creation of civilization as it might have been in 2000 B.C. at once amplifies the mystery of his subject and makes the world of Stonehenge come alive as never before.
A Beautiful Poison
Lydia Kang - 2017
But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned—and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note.Desperate for answers and dreading her own engagement to a wealthy gentleman, Allene returns to her passion for scientific discovery and recruits her long-lost friends, Jasper and Birdie, for help. The investigation brings her closer to Jasper, an apprentice medical examiner at Bellevue Hospital who still holds her heart, and offers the delicate Birdie a last-ditch chance to find a safe haven before her fragile health fails.As more of their friends and family die, alliances shift, lives become entangled, and the three begin to suspect everyone—even each other. As they race to find the culprit, Allene, Birdie, and Jasper must once again trust each other, before one of them becomes the next victim.
Love, Julie
Christine Bush - 2006
She was not supposed to slide down drainpipes, play baseball in Central Park, or, worst of all, want to teach. Teaching was for impoverished young relatives, not for the heiress of the Brightingham fortune. When her father suddenly dies, leaving her wicked Uncle Edward as her trustee, she must resist his attempt to force her into a marriage that would bring her misery, no matter what the cost. She decides to leave the world behind. Julietta trades her fashionable dresses and dainty dancing shoes for serviceable travel clothes and sturdy boots. Dying her blond hair brown and donning her glasses, she travels incognito across the country to Grey Eagle, Montana, as Julie Bright, planning to take the position of school teacher, to begin a new life. But the handsome and dedicated young Sheriff, Jack White, takes one look at her and wants to send her packing. She is not what he expected as a teacher for his fledgling town. He knows trouble when he sees it. But for some reason, no matter what his instincts, he cannot make her leave. When the past finally catches up with her, he knows he'd move heaven and earth to keep her safe, and make her stay.
The Mind's Eye
K.C. Finn - 2014
But Kit has an extraordinary psychic power: she can put herself into the minds of others, see through their eyes, feel their emotions, even talk to them – though she dares not speak out for fear of her secret ability being exposed.As Kit settles into her new life in the North Wales village of Bryn Eira Bach, solitude and curiosity encourage her to gain better control of her gift. Until one day her search for information on the developing war leads her to the mind of Henri, a seventeen-year-old Norwegian boy witnessing the German occupation of his beloved city, Oslo. As Henri discovers more about the English girl occupying his mind, the psychic and emotional bonds between them strengthen and Kit guides him through an oppressive and dangerous time. There are secrets to be uncovered, both at home and abroad, and it’s up to Kit and Henri to come together and fight their own battles in the depths of the world’s greatest war.
Grace be a Lady
Heather Blanton - 2015
Think like a lady. Act like a man. Banished to the dusty cow town of Misery, Wyoming for an alleged affair, Grace Hendrick is facing the hardest decisions of her life. If she tries to return to Chicago, her husband promises to whisk their four-year-old son off to a boarding school and Grace will never see him again. She has no choice but to play along, at least temporarily. But in order to survive--and to save her son--she needs money. Misery, however, isn't brimming over with jobs for respectable women. Stubborn and proud, Grace refuses to consider prostitution. Since she'd rather die than give her husband that kind of victory, she forges an audacious plan. If she has to live in a man's world, she'll live as a man. Thad Walker is the middle son of the oldest, most successful cattle baron in Wyoming and he always puts ranch work first. One chance meeting with Grace Hendrick, though, batters his resolve like a hail storm in July. When Grace's brother Greg Henderson gets hired by a local widow lady, Thad figures the kid is the straightest path to Grace's heart. Friendship and love blossom, but so do the lies. Eventually, deceit catches fire and threatens everything Grace and Thad hold dear. Set against the backdrop of the Johnson County War, 1891 Wyoming will prove more explosive than the mean streets of Chicago.
A Constant Heart
Siri Mitchell - 2008
She was born with the face of an angel. Her father is a knight, and a small fortune has been lavished upon her. And now she is to be married to an earl. Her security is fixed, her destiny guaranteed. At least, she hopes.The Earl of Lytham has already been married once. But the beautiful woman only left him with a broken heart and the bitter taste of betrayal. Now, his only demand of Marget is that she help him win favor with the Queen.But when Marget's introduction to court is met with the jealous queen's wrath, the young bride fears she's lost her husband forever. Desperate to honor him, she'll risk everything by doing whatever it takes to recapture the heart of a man bound to the Queen in a world where love is the only forbidden luxury.
Clever John
Elizabeth Hoyt - 2011
Clever John gives readers an early glimpse inside Hoyt's next Maiden Lane novel, Scandalous Desires. Extended preview of Scandalous Desires included.
Waking Romeo
Kathryn Barker - 2022
Location: London. Mission: Wake Romeo.It’s the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forward. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the “now,” living off of the scraps left behind.Among them are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo lies in a coma and Jules is estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance.Then a mysterious time traveler, Ellis, impossibly arrives from the future with a mission that makes Juliet question everything she knows about life and love.Can Jules wake Romeo—and rewrite her future?
How to Hang a Witch
Adriana Mather - 2016
Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?If dealing with that weren't enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with The Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it's Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.
The Black Arrow
Robert Louis Stevenson - 1883
Young Dick Shelton, caught in the midst of England's War of the Roses, finds his loyalties torn between the guardian who will ultimately betray him and the leader of a secret fellowship, The Black Arrow. As Shelton is drawn deeper into this conspiracy, he must distinguish friend from foe and confront war, shipwreck, revenge, murder, and forbidden love, as England's crown threatens to topple around him.
Margherita Dolce Vita
Stefano Benni - 2005
This is his twelfth bestselling book of fiction. Fifteen-year-old Margherita lives with her eccentric family on the outskirts of town, a semi-urban wilderness peopled by gypsies, illegal immigrants, and no end of bizarre characters: a reassuring and fertile playground for an imaginative little girl like Margherita. But one day, a gigantic, black cube shows up next door. Her new neighbors have arrived, and they’re destined to ruin everything.
Butterfly Swords
Jeannie Lin - 2010
Miles from home, with only her delicate butterfly swords for defense, she enlists the reluctant protection of a blue-eyed warrior. Battle-scarred, embittered Ryam has always held his own life at cheap value. Ai Li's innocent trust in him and honorable, stubborn nature make him desperate to protect her which means not seducing the first woman he has ever truly wanted.