18 books like The Secret Book Society

What to read after The Secret Book Society — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women Marie Bostwick · 2025 · ★ 4.1 · 392p · ≈ 13h · Moderate By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson--the eccentric and artsy… Shares: Books About Books, Adult, Historical, Friendship

The Stolen Queen Fiona Davis · 2025 · ★ 3.9 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same. New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion… Shares: Adult, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

The Girl with a Thousand Faces Sunyi Dean · 2023 · ★ 4.3 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Mercy Chan is a triad exorcist with a mysterious past. After washing up on the shores of Hong Kong with no memory during World War II, she found a home in Kowloon Walled City, an infamous, ghost-infested slum full of lost and traumatised civilians. Since the war ended, Mercy has rebuilt her life and found work as a ghost-talker for the local triad, dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who… Shares: Adult, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Back to the Garden Laurie R. King · 2022 · ★ 3.9 · 322p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home's past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has… Shares: Adult, Historical, Historical Fiction, Mystery

Weyward Emilia Hart · 2023 · ★ 4.1 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate KATE, 2019 Kate flees London – abandoning everything – for Cumbria and Weyward Cottage, inherited from her great-aunt. There, a secret lurks in the bones of the house, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century. VIOLET, 1942 Violet is more interested in collecting insects and climbing trees than in becoming a proper young lady. Until a chain of shocking events changes her life… Shares: Adult, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

The Reformatory Tananarive Due · 2023 · ★ 4.4 · 576p · ≈ 19h · Moderate Gracetown, Florida - June 1950 Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. Robbie has a talent… Shares: Adult, Historical, Historical Fiction, Mystery

El infinito en un junco Irene Vallejo · 2020 · ★ 4.4 · 460p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Este es un libro sobre la historia de los libros. Un recorrido por la vida de ese fascinante artefacto que inventamos para que las palabras pudieran viajar en el espacio y en el tiempo. La historia de su fabricación, de todos los tipos que hemos ensayado a lo largo de casi treinta siglos: libros de humo, de piedra, de arcilla, de juncos, de seda, de piel, de árboles y, los últimos llegados, de… Shares: Books About Books, Historical

A Bitter Cut Anna Lee Huber · 2026 Lady Kiera Darby plans to spend the summer reconnecting with friends and family in anticipation of the betrothal of her beloved brother. But when a future in-law is implicated in a murder, the party takes a deadly turn. . . .July 1833. Lady Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage, are settling into their newly renovated home at Bevington Park in Warkwickshire with their young daughter. With… Shares: Historical Fiction, Mystery

The Book Eaters Sunyi Dean · 2022 · ★ 3.6 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Truth is found between the stories we're fed and the stories we hunger for. Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat… Shares: Books About Books, Fantasy

Next Time Will Be Our Turn Jesse Q Sutanto · 2025 · ★ 4.0 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Izzy Chen is dreading her family’s annual Chinese New Year celebration, where they all come together at a Michelin-starred restaurant to flaunt their status and successes in hopes to one up each other. So when her seventy-three-year-old glamorous and formidable grandmother walks in with a stunning woman on her arm and kisses her in front of everyone, it shakes Izzy to her core. She’d always… Shares: Adult, Historical, Historical Fiction

Bright Young Women Jessica Knoll · 2023 · ★ 4.0 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Tallahassee, 1978. Sorority president Pamela Schumacher wakes to a shocking scene of implausible violence and death, and is drawn into a mystifying crime that grips the nation for decades . . . In Seattle, Tina Cannon connects her best friend's disappearance to the Tallahassee tragedy, and is convinced that a single man is responsible. Determined to find justice, the two join forces as their… Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, Mystery

The Hacienda Isabel Cañas · 2022 · ★ 3.9 · 314p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches... In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding… Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery

Strangers in Time David Baldacci · 2025 · ★ 4.5 · 448p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life. Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable… Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, Mystery

Blaze of Noon Ernest K. Gann · 1946 · 310p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Ernest K. Gann, author of ''Island in the Sky'' Goodreads Member Review: KOMET (Sep 21, 2015 5 of 5 Stars) it was amazing:aviation-general, ernest-k-gann, mass-market-paperbacks Ernest K. Gann, in his day, was one of those aviators with a gift for conveying to the general reader the thrills and perils of flying. And in "BLAZE OF NOON", he succeeds brilliantly. The story begins in September 1925… Shares: Adult, Historical

What Moves the Dead T. Kingfisher · 2022 · ★ 3.9 · 175p · ≈ 5h · Moderate When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed… Shares: Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery

Nuestra parte de noche Mariana Enríquez · 2019 · ★ 4.2 · 598p · ≈ 19h · Moderate Un padre y un hijo atraviesan Argentina por carretera, desde Buenos Aires hacia las cataratas de Iguazú, en la frontera norte con Brasil. Son los años de la junta militar, hay controles de soldados armados y tensión en el ambiente. El hijo se llama Gaspar y el padre trata de protegerlo del destino que le ha sido asignado. La madre murió en circunstancias poco claras, en un accidente que acaso no… Shares: Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

The stress of her regard Tim Powers · 1989 · ★ 3.8 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate When Michael Crawford discovers his bride brutally murdered in their wedding bed, he is forced to flee not only to prove his innocence, but to avoid the deadly embrace of a vampire who has claimed him as her true bridegroom. Joining forces with Byron, Keats, and Shelley in a desperate journey that crisscrosses Europe, Crawford desperately seeks his freedom from this vengeful lover who haunts his… Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Dracul Dacre Stoker · 2018 · ★ 4.2 · 516p · ≈ 17h · Moderate It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here... A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home,… Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

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