Book picks similar to
Circumference of Silence by Jacquie Herz


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The Viking


Marti Talbott - 2010
    Yet, the battle was not at all what he expected and he soon found himself alone and stranded in Scotland. Thirteen-year-old Kannak’s problem was just as grave. Her father deserted them and the only way to survive, she decided, was to take a husband over her mother‘s objections. Suddenly she was helping a hated Viking escape. Could Kannak successfully hide a Viking in the middle of a Scottish Clan? And why was someone plotting to kill the clan's beloved laird?

The Witch of Napoli


Michael Schmicker - 2015
    A reporter photographs the miracle, and wealthy, skeptical, Jewish psychiatrist Camillo Lombardi arrives in Naples to investigate. When she materializes the ghost of his dead mother, he risks his reputation and fortune to finance a tour of the Continent, challenging the scientific and academic elite of Europe to test Alessandra's mysterious powers. She will help him rewrite Science. His fee will help her escape her sadistic husband Pigotti and start a new life in Rome. Newspapers across Europe trumpet her Cinderella story and baffling successes, and the public demands to know - does the "Queen of Spirits" really have supernatural powers? Nigel Huxley is convinced she's simply another vulgar, Italian trickster. The icy, aristocratic detective for England's Society for the Investigation of Mediums launches a plot to trap and expose her. Meanwhile, the Vatican is quietly digging up her childhood secrets, desperate to discredit her supernatural powers; her abusive husband Pigotti is coming to kill her; and the tarot cards predict catastrophe. Inspired by the true-life story of controversial Italian medium Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918), The Witch of Napoli masterfully resurrects the bitter,19th-century battle between Science and religion over the possibility of an afterlife.

Last Train to Istanbul


Ayşe Kulin - 2002
    Yet the spirited young beauty only has eyes for Rafael Alfandari, the handsome Jewish son of an esteemed court physician. In defiance of their families, they marry, fleeing to Paris to build a new life.But when the Nazis invade France and begin rounding up Jews, the exiled lovers will learn that nothing—not war, not politics, not even religion—can break the bonds of family. For after they learn that Selva is but one of their fellow citizens trapped in France, a handful of brave Turkish diplomats hatch a plan to spirit the Alfandaris and hundreds of innocents, many of whom are Jewish, to safety. Together, they must traverse a war-torn continent, crossing enemy lines and risking everything in a desperate bid for freedom. From Ankara to Paris, Cairo, and Berlin, Last Train to Istanbul is an uplifting tale of love and adventure.

The Executions


Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer - 2015
    A war is brewing in the Choctaw Nation as two political parties fight out issues of old and new ways. Caught in the middle is eighteen-year-old Ruth Ann, a Choctaw who doesn’t want to see her family killed. In a small but booming pre-statehood town, her mixed blood family owns a controversial newspaper, the Choctaw Tribune. Ruth Ann wants to help spread the word about critical issues but there is danger for a female reporter on all fronts—socially, politically, even physically. But what is truly worth dying for? This quest leads Ruth Ann and her brother Matthew, the stubborn editor of the fledgling Choctaw Tribune, to old Choctaw ways at the farm of a condemned murderer. It also brings them to head on clashes with leading townsmen who want their reports silenced no matter what. More killings are ahead. Who will survive to know the truth? Will truth survive?

Moorland Mist (Sinclair Family Saga Book 1)


Gwen Kirkwood - 2015
     “I climbed into this book and lived its plot. I read it at every spare moment.” Margaret “Beautifully written and engaging.” Ratana 1895, SCOTLAND Emma Greig is almost fourteen when her father announces she will be sent to be a maid at Bonnybrae Farm. She has never left her village so she is terrified of the change, especially when she realises she must learn to milk cows. PERFECT FOR FANS OF NADINE DORRIES, GLENDA YOUNG, DILLY COURT OR SHEILA NEWBERRY. Emma goes to work for the Sinclair family. Maggie Sinclair, the oldest of the Sinclair children, is kind and gentle. Her brothers, Jim and William, are friendly and tease Emma, but their mother offers no welcome. Mrs Sinclair is a proud woman with a secret in her past which has left her bitter and without compassion. She is angry when friendship blossoms between a mere maid and her own family. As the bond between Emma and her son strengthens, she dismisses Emma without notice or a reference. And William is banished from the farm he loves and sent away to Yorkshire to make his own way in the world. WILL THIS DESTROY THEIR LIVES AND BURGEONING ROMANCE? DISCOVER A ROMANTIC AND HEART-WARMING TALE ALSO BY GWEN KIRKWOOD SINCLAIR FAMILY SAGA SERIES Book 1: Moorland Mist Book 2: Moorend Farm

The Hostage of Glenorchy: A Highland Romance of Tudor Scotland


Kristin Gleeson - 2016
    Disguised as a boy, she becomes a lute player among the household musicians where she encounters the laird’s hostage, the attractive Iain MacGregor, a pawn in the laird’s struggle for power in Scotland’s turbulent politics. But is Iain really a hostage to fortune or is he playing his own dangerous game? As Abby’s feelings intensify for this Glenorchy hostage she is caught in the web of intrigue that permeates the household and is drawn deeper and deeper into danger. With spice, wit and action packed plotting, Kristin Gleeson’s Highland Ballad Series is as compelling as Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels. 'A highland ballad brought to life - plays sweetly on the heart-strings.' Jean Gill, 'The Troubadours Quartet'

Beautiful Exiles


Meg Waite Clayton - 2018
    Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets disheveled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship—forged over writing, talk, and family dinners—flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they’re covering the Spanish Civil War.Martha reveres him. The very married Hemingway is taken with Martha—her beauty, her ambition, and her fearless spirit. And as Hemingway tells her, the most powerful love stories are always set against the fury of war. The risks are so much greater. They’re made for each other.With their romance unfolding as they travel the globe, Martha establishes herself as one of the world’s foremost war correspondents, and Hemingway begins the novel that will win him the Nobel Prize for Literature. Beautiful Exiles is a stirring story of lovers and rivals, of the breathless attraction to power and fame, and of one woman—ahead of her time—claiming her own identity from the wreckage of love.

The Road Show


Gary Jennings - 1999
    In The Road Show we meet Zachary Edge, a Confederate soldier, on his way home at the war's close. He stumbles upon a traveling troupe, a chance encounter that is the start of an unforgettable odyssey. Edge hits the road with bawdy showgirls, roguish tricksters, and a host of colorful characters. He soon finds himself in the arms of Autumn Auburn, the lithesome artiste known for her breathtaking sensuality.

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister


Nonna Bannister - 2009
    Nonna's writings tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl, born into a family that had known wealth and privileges, was exposed to the concentration camps and learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness.

The Practice House


Laura McNeal - 2017
    Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.

Elizabeth's Star


Rhonda Forrest - 2021
    Joanie has also arrived in New Guinea, with a chance to manage a trading store with her father, Reg, too exciting an opportunity to pass up.As the tendrils of war creep closer to the islands north of Australia, some who call Rabaul home are given an opportunity to return to Australian shores. Others have no option but to stay. Will separation and distance affect the destiny of those who live in the path of the approaching enemy or will the power of love prevail?Based on actual events, Elizabeth’s Star begins the story of Michael and Joanie, unfolding the lives of their families and friends while following the life of Gracie, a little girl left behind when her father went to war.A moving tale of love, loss and separation.

30 Pieces of Silver


Carolyn McCray - 2010
    John the Baptist's bones inscribed in ancient Greek. A dark secret carried from the foot of the crucifixion. Can science solve the world's greatest mystery?

The Snow Gypsy


Lindsay Jayne Ashford - 2019
    Eight years ago, her brother disappeared while fighting alongside Gypsy partisans in Spain. From his letters, Rose has just two clues to his whereabouts—his descriptions of the spectacular south slopes of the Sierra Nevada and his love for a woman who was carrying his child.In Spain, it has been eight years since Lola Aragon’s family was massacred. Eight years since she rescued a newborn girl from the arms of her dying mother and ran for her life. She has always believed that nothing could make her return…until a plea for help comes from a desperate stranger.Now, Rose, Lola, and the child set out on a journey from the wild marshes of the Camargue to the dazzling peaks of Spain’s ancient mountain communities. As they come face-to-face with war’s darkest truths, their lives will be changed forever by memories, secrets, and friendships.

In the Midst of Shadows


Nicola Italia - 2021
    Costing a penny, readers purchased the stories and entered the fantastic world of superhuman men and damsels in distress.The stories have been popular for over fifty years and Lavinia Howard is a young woman who dreams of being such a writer. Having recently lost her father, she turns to a family friend who puts her in touch with Jasper Courtenay, owner of Courtenay Publishing.Writing under the pen name G. R. Howard, Lavinia creates a character who becomes a huge success as her penny dreadful stories are the most popular ever printed. Her character is brash and obnoxious and has no respect for authority as he solves London murders and the working classes adore him!But strange things begin to happen as the stories Lavinia writes start to come true. Two very similar deaths mirror those she writes about, and Detective Chief Inspector Harrison Bryce is assigned to investigate. Inspector Bryce soon discovers that Lavinia has become so popular that she has also made enemies along with her legion of fans.He realizes that everyone surrounding Lavinia has a motive to have committed the crimes. He must work fast to determine who wants to harm her as he suspects Lavinia may be the next target on the killer’s list.

The Locket


Ruth Saberton - 2020
    Falling in love is little more than a dream and leaving her small Cornish village an impossibility. But as the storm clouds of war gather a chance encounter changes Emily’s future and steals her heart forever.Over a century later researching family history is a solace for Alison Foy while her beloved soldier son is away on active service. When she stumbles across a forgotten link between her great-grandparents and the famous war poet Kit Rivers, Alison discovers their past is woven through her present in a tapestry of loss, love and long kept secrets. One tug of the thread will be all it takes for a decades-old pattern to unravel…THE LOCKET, the new companion novel to Ruth Saberton’s bestselling THE LETTER, is an unforgettable tale of friendship, sacrifice and never-ending love.