I love to travel and explore new cultures! In 2012, my husband and I competed on the CBS reality television show The Amazing Race and got to travel the world. This once-in-a-lifetime experience fueled my passion for travel. My debut novel Beneath the Sand was inspired by a trip to the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. You can escape into Ancient Rome and learn a few things along the way in my book. I have found that these books on my list will make it feel like you are in another place just as if you have traveled there yourself.
Growing up in the caverns underneath the colosseum is anything but ordinary for a Roman teenager like Noemi. Helping her father train wild beasts for the emperor’s extravagant shows and being feted with romantic gifts from her fiancé, hers is a life few girls could imagine.
While Noemi loves the lions beneath the colosseum and the bloody shows above, her sister, Livia, is a contrast in extremes stopping at nothing to improve her social life. And then there’s Cato, a top-ranked gladiator who is keeping a risky secret of his own. Noemi, Livia and Cato find that keeping secrets is not just child’s play, but dangerous games with deadly consequences. Can they all fool the emperor long enough to avoid a date with the executioner?
Let’s escape to London and Australia! This historical mystery is written from three generational viewpoints spanning the 1900s, 1970s, and 2000s. Cassandra is mourning her beloved grandmother, Nell, when she stumbles upon an old family secret. Solving the mystery leads her not only to answers surrounding her family but herself as well. Morton masterfully moves between countries and protagonists making you lose yourself in her writing. I dare you to try and put it down!
A special Sophie Allport Design limited edition of the moving and powerful mystery, The Forgotten Garden, the bestselling second novel from the author of The House at Riverton, Kate Morton.
A lost child . . .
On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her -but has disappeared without a trace.
A terrible secret . . .
On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell Andrews learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she…
This historical fiction novel is Young Adult, but is a must-read for adult historical fiction lovers as well. Set in the WW2 era, Lina and her family are deported from Lithuania and forced to work in Siberian labor camps under the Soviets. This powerful story depicts a harrowing journey of survival and the ugly truth of the awful conditions some displaced Europeans had to endure during Stalin’s rule. The sense of place in this book is well done, even if the place is not great.
The haunting and powerful Second World War novel by Ruta Sepetys that inspired the feature film, ASHES IN THE SNOW, OUT NOW.
One night fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother and young brother are hauled from their home by Soviet guards, thrown into cattle cars and sent away. They are being deported to Siberia.
An unimaginable and harrowing journey has begun. Lina doesn't know if she'll ever see her father or her friends again. But she refuses to give up hope.
Lina hopes for her family. For her country. For her future. For love - first love, with the boy she barely…
Best known for his novel The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns is one not to be missed. Set in Afghanistan, this follows the heart-wrenching story of two women, Laila and Mariam, from different generations that are brought together in an unlikely way. Aligned in their misfortune, they form a friendship as they try to survive and find happiness in their circumstance. This book sheds light on the awful way women are treated in other parts of the world and you feel like you are on a journey of your own as you follow theirs.
Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.
Abandoned by her father on an island filled with thieves and little food, young Fable figures out how to survive and get herself off the island to find her father and demand answers. She discovers that the world of gem trade is more dangerous than she thought as she tries to navigate her new life and build a relationship with her estranged father. This book takes you to the seas and vividly describes life as a crew member on a ship with all the pirate vibes you could want. Adrienne Young is a master at keeping you turning the pages and getting lost in her world.
Seventeen-year-old Fable is a dredger-a freediver who excavates rare gemstones from the coral reefs that fill The Narrows. For the last four years, she's been trying to get off the island of Jeval, find the father who abandoned her there, and claim her mother's place on his trading crew. But when she finally makes it off the island, she discovers it may have been the safest place for her.
This is the first installment of one of my favorite series to date. In this fantasy world, people are divided by blood: silver or red. Mare, a commoner with red blood, finds herself working in the palace of the silver elites. It is discovered that despite the color of her blood, she possesses the power of the silvers. The palace declares her a long-lost silver princess in an attempt to hide what she can do. Mare walks a dangerous line of pretending to be a silver and secretly working with the Red Guard to take down the elites and shift the balance of power.
This book has a little bit of everything: romance, adventure, magic, and suspense. You can easily escape into the world Aveyard created and will want to devour this series.
The first novel in the #1 bestselling RED QUEEN series by Victoria Aveyard.
THIS IS A WORLD DIVIDED BY BLOOD - RED OR SILVER.
The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.
That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of…
Born Nameless. Raised in ice and snow. Destined to rule.
Arya Nameless has sidestepped her destiny in favour of joining House Ravenstrike and helping Thiara Ravenstrike become High Warlord of Dunidaen. First, Arya must ensure that Thiara’s only son, Rorin, succeeds in running the Dreadwater Gate into Khadini, a deadly rite of passage that none have survived for decades. If they triumph, Arya will be named general of Ravenstrike’s army and land a political blow against their powerful adversary, Warlord Mathas Crowtalon.
Yet Khadini holds challenges far beyond what they expected. And while Arya contends with wild jungles, fierce enemy warriors, and potential new allies, the Nightstalker continues to seek her with relentless intensity. The monsters hunting her wield a dark magic she has no way of countering. Survival relies on staying hidden, secret.
Yet, when Arya’s wyvern calls, the time for hiding is over.
Born Nameless. Raised in ice and snow. Destined to rule.
Arya Nameless has sidestepped her destiny in favour of joining House Ravenstrike and helping Thiara Ravenstrike become High Warlord of Dunidaen. First, Arya must ensure that Thiara's only son, Rorin, succeeds in running the Dreadwater Gate into Khadini, a deadly rite of passage that none have survived for decades. If they triumph, Arya will be named general of Ravenstrike's army and land a political blow against their powerful adversary, Warlord Mathas Crowtalon.
Yet Khadini holds challenges far beyond what they expected. And while Arya contends with wild jungles, fierce enemy…
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