100 books like One Perfect Rose

By Mary Jo Putney,

Here are 100 books that One Perfect Rose fans have personally recommended if you like One Perfect Rose. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Jackson Rule

Bobbi Smith Author Of The Lady & the Texan

From my list on great hunks for heroes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love romances because the stories always end happily, and also because of the heroes! They are my ideal men—handsome, of course, but always strong and honorable. They always do the right thing, even if it requires hardship and sacrifice, and at the end of the story, when they pledge their love to the heroine, we know that love will be forever. I sold my first book back in 1982, and in every one of my stories I feature this kind of hero.

Bobbi's book list on great hunks for heroes

Bobbi Smith Why did Bobbi love this book?

As the story begins, Jackson Rule is being released from prison after serving fifteen years for a crime he confessed to. Since he’s our hero, I knew right then he had to be innocent, and I was hooked. Who was he protecting?  He gets hired by a preacher’s daughter, Rebecca, who has misgivings about hiring him. He proves himself to be a hard worker, and Rebecca also discovers that there’s something exciting about him that she can’t resist.

By Sharon Sala aka Dinah McCall,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Jackson Rule as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For powerful emotion and unforgettable romance Sharon Sala can't be beat. This beautifully repackaged classic is sure to delight her long-time fans and attract new ones!

Jackson Rule had spent nearly half his life behind bars for murder. Now he was starting over--or trying to. Once he laid hungry eyes on his new employer, though, his resolve to lead a simple solitary life deserted him, replaced by yearnings for fierce, forbidden passion.

Preacher's daughter Rebecca Hill was raised to give folks the benefit of the doubt--though maybe this time she'd taken charity a bit too far. True Jackson Rule had…


Book cover of Identity Unknown

Bobbi Smith Author Of The Lady & the Texan

From my list on great hunks for heroes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love romances because the stories always end happily, and also because of the heroes! They are my ideal men—handsome, of course, but always strong and honorable. They always do the right thing, even if it requires hardship and sacrifice, and at the end of the story, when they pledge their love to the heroine, we know that love will be forever. I sold my first book back in 1982, and in every one of my stories I feature this kind of hero.

Bobbi's book list on great hunks for heroes

Bobbi Smith Why did Bobbi love this book?

The hero Mitchell Shaw is a Navy SEAL, but as the story begins, he wakes up in a homeless shelter with amnesia. He does have a gun in his boot and money, too, but no clue how he got there. He finds a note that says “Looking forward to meeting you.”—Rebecca Keyes, the Lazy Eight Ranch. He heads for the ranch, hoping it will help him figure out who he really is. What a great hero!

By Suzanne Brockmann,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Identity Unknown as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Identity: Unknown by Suzanne Brockmann released on Nov 24, 1999 is available now for purchase.


Book cover of Heartbreaker

Bobbi Smith Author Of The Lady & the Texan

From my list on great hunks for heroes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love romances because the stories always end happily, and also because of the heroes! They are my ideal men—handsome, of course, but always strong and honorable. They always do the right thing, even if it requires hardship and sacrifice, and at the end of the story, when they pledge their love to the heroine, we know that love will be forever. I sold my first book back in 1982, and in every one of my stories I feature this kind of hero.

Bobbi's book list on great hunks for heroes

Bobbi Smith Why did Bobbi love this book?

I got soooo hooked on Julie’s contemporary suspense books. In Heartbreaker, as the story opens, we learn our hero agent Nick Buchanan has just saved a young boy’s life by taking out a serial killer who held him captive. Nick then gets to take some time off for a vacation, and as he’s on the plane waiting to depart, he stops an armed man from trying to free a prisoner another lawman has on the plane. He is definitely the white knight showing up at just the right time. When he meets up with his best friend, he learns a serial killer is after his friend’s sister. I couldn’t wait to see how he was going to protect the heroine, Laurant, from the psychopath and bring him in. This is my kind of hero—courageous, up for anything, never afraid to put his life in danger to right a wrong.

By Julie Garwood,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Heartbreaker as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When a serial killer reveals the identity of his next victim--a beautiful woman named Laurant Madden--FBI agent Nick Buchanan steps in to protect her, but quickly finds his mission complicated by his feelings for her. Reissue.


Book cover of The Duke and I

Cassiopeia Fletcher Author Of The World Over

From my list on writing a “realistic” zombie apocalypse.

Why am I passionate about this?

Zombies are not my writer’s passion, family is. I chose the zombie backdrop to showcase the family I wanted to write about at both their best and worst moments. Because when it all comes down to the end of the world, it really doesn’t matter what happened to end it. But who you’re with at the end can make all the difference.

Cassiopeia's book list on writing a “realistic” zombie apocalypse

Cassiopeia Fletcher Why did Cassiopeia love this book?

In a list about zombie apocalypse references, this is definitely a quirky entry. But it is important for all writers to read outside of their genre, or they run the risk of becoming generic. 

Far more important than the story’s backdrop is the story’s focus. People predominantly care and read about people.

Whether that means writing about people resisting zombies, as is the case with most zombie stories, or writing about zombies doing their best to become human—as seen in Elantris and The Girl With All The Gifts—writers need to know how to tell stories about people.

I don’t write books about zombies, I write books about families. And there is probably no more famous family right now than the Bridgertons (though if I had one more recommendation, it would definitely be Swiss Family Robinson).

By reading books about strong families, I’m better able to translate my own…

By Julia Quinn,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Duke and I as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


A #1 New York Times Bestseller

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the story of Daphne Bridgerton, in the first of her beloved Regency-set novels featuring the charming, powerful Bridgerton family, now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix.

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince-while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable...but not too amiable.…


Book cover of Titanic: Minute By Minute

Carla Louise Robinson Author Of The Light In The Darkness Book One

From my list on the Titanic.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a bibliophile who loves dogs and prefers the country to the city. I’m the kid who yelled at my kindergarten teacher because she hadn’t taught me to read by the end of the year. That same tenacity followed me when, at seven years old, I learned that James Cameron was making a movie based on the Titanic. With righteous fury, I yelled at my befuddled parents, before asking why they had not told me about this ship. I pleaded with my parents to take me to see the movie for my upcoming eighth birthday, and they relented, with my mum buying my first fictional Titanic novel. That’s how my Titanic obsession began.

Carla's book list on the Titanic

Carla Louise Robinson Why did Carla love this book?

I can’t tell you how many times I consulted Jonathan Mayo’s Titanic: Minute By Minute book, checking that the Titanic’s timeline fit in with what my characters were doing at any given time. It’s non-fiction, and it’s nail-bitingly intense. The book is written in present tense, giving you a sense of urgency as Mayo tells you where everyone is, and what is happening at varying parts of the ship at that exact moment. It helps ground you in reality: The truth was, many of Titanic’s crew and passengers didn’t know the ship was sinking. And many of those who did genuinely believed another ship would arrive long before anything serious could actually happen. Mayo uses both accounts from passengers who survived the sinking, as well as the crew member’s testimony from the British and American Titanic inquiries. 

If you’ve ever wanted to know exactly what happened the night…

By Jonathan Mayo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Titanic as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2.20am on 15th April 1912, the Titanic is plunging 12,000 feet to the ocean floor.

Machinery, coal, crystal goblets, pianos and jewellery all tumbled through the dark water. Hundreds of passengers and crew remained trapped below decks - hundreds more would perish on the surface.

This is the definitive chronology of the Titanic's final hours, offering readers a real-time experience of one of the greatest dramas of twentieth century history.


Book cover of The Beginners

Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau Author Of Memento: A Novel in Dreams, Thoughts, and Images

From my list on literary fiction about what goes on in a person's mind.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a psychoanalyst and a writer. I'm fascinated with the thoughts, feelings, dreams, and fantasies that make up our inner worlds, and I love how the beauty of language can reach beyond what ordinary experience seems to suggest. My novels take place in the minds of their protagonists; I look through their eyes and follow the ideas, memories, and hopes that guide their lives. I enjoy their idiosyncrasies, allow them to be weird, vulnerable, and volatile, and I think of them as lovable and in times of adversity as brave as any human being can be.

Cordelia's book list on literary fiction about what goes on in a person's mind

Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau Why did Cordelia love this book?

In the first sentence of this novel Anna Lore falls madly in love with a man she happens to run into on the street of her hometown.

Even though she only vaguely recognizes him as they strike up a brief conversation, she becomes so obsessed with him that she is willing to give up everything for him, including her marriage of twenty years with a loving and reliable husband who she loves too.

Reading this novel, I was fascinated with Anna Lore's struggle to understand what's driving her towards a man, who almost against his will has such irresistable power over her. To follow her thinking as it makes her crazy infatuation appear reasonable and compelling is a fascinating experience of the uncanny nature of the unconscious.

By Anne Serre, Mark Hutchinson (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Beginners as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Anna has been living happily for twenty years with loving, sturdy, outgoing Guillaume when she suddenly (truly at first sight) falls in love with Thomas. Intelligent and handsome, but apparently scarred by a terrible early emotional wound, he reminds Anna of Jude the Obscure. Adrift and lovelorn, she tries unsuccessfully to fend off her attraction, torn between the two men. "How strange it is to leave someone you love for someone you love. You cross a footbridge that has no name, that's not named in any poem. No, nowhere is a name given to this bridge, and that is why…


Book cover of Mud, Blood and Poppycock: Britain and the Great War

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Author Of Goodbye, Piccadilly

From my list on most readable books on World War 1.

Why am I passionate about this?

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is the author of the internationally acclaimed Morland Dynasty books. Five volumes of this comprehensive historical series focus on WW1, covering the military campaigns and the politics behind them. With the approach of the WW1 centennials, she was asked to write about the period again, this time from the point of view of the people who stayed at home. The result was the six-volume series, War At Home, which views the war from a more personal perspective, through the eyes of the fictional Hunter family, their servants, and friends.

Cynthia's book list on most readable books on World War 1

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Why did Cynthia love this book?

The shout line on the jacket is “This will overturn everything you thought you knew about…The First World War”, and it certainly delivers. No other conflict has been so misrepresented, and for most people, their idea of it comes straight from Blackadder Goes Forth. But men did not spend months at a time in the trenches; a whole generation did not die; the generals were not cowardly, incompetent fools.

When I first began to write about WW1 for my Morland Dynasty series, I knew as little as anyone, and what I thought I knew was all wrong! By the time I was researching for War At Home, I knew a lot more, but Corrigan opens my eyes to many more subjects. Informative, well-researched, but above all wonderfully readable, this book should be required reading for anyone who is interested in what really happened, not just the made-for-tv version.

By Gordon Corrigan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mud, Blood and Poppycock as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The true story of how Britain won the First World War.

The popular view of the First World War remains that of BLACKADDER: incompetent generals sending brave soldiers to their deaths. Alan Clark quoted a German general's remark that the British soldiers were 'lions led by donkeys'. But he made it up.

Indeed, many established 'facts' about 1914-18 turn out to be myths woven in the 1960s by young historians on the make. Gordon Corrigan's brilliant, witty history reveals how out of touch we have become with the soldiers of 1914-18. They simply would not recognize the way their generation…


Book cover of Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front

Spencer Jones Author Of Courage Without Glory: The British Army on the Western Front 1915

From my list on the British Army in World War I.

Why am I passionate about this?

Spencer Jones is an award-winning historian who has written several critically acclaimed books about the British Army in the First World War. He teaches history at the University of Wolverhampton, serves as the Regimental Historian of the Royal Artillery, and is the President of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides.

Spencer's book list on the British Army in World War I

Spencer Jones Why did Spencer love this book?

What was war like for the average British soldier – ‘Tommy’ - taken from civilian life and sent into the inferno of battle? This magisterial study is the best book about British soldiers and their wartime experiences. It explores reasons for enlistment, training, tactics, life in the trenches, and experience of battle. Although vast in scope, it never loses sight of the human side of war. This book presents presents a nuanced, fascinating, and touching study of the common soldier.

By Richard Holmes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tommy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first history of World War I to place centre-stage the British soldier who fought in the trenches, this superb and important book tells the story of an epic and terrible war through the letters, diaries and memories of those who fought it.

Of the six million men who served in the British army, nearly one million lost their lives and over two million were wounded. This is the story of these men - epitomised by the character of Sgt Tommy Atkins - and the women they left behind.

Using previously unseen letters, diaries, memoirs and poetry from the years…


Book cover of Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies

Tim Cook Author Of The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War

From my list on the Great War and why it haunts us.

Why am I passionate about this?

Tim Cook is the Great War historian at the Canadian War Museum. Since 2002, he has curated the permanent First World War gallery of the CWM, which has been visited by an estimated 8 million people, and he has created many temporary, traveling, and digital exhibitions. He is also the author or editor of 13 books of Canadian military history. For his contributions to the study of Canadian history, he is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada. He has selected five books that cover the scope of the war, from its origins to the legacy.

Tim's book list on the Great War and why it haunts us

Tim Cook Why did Tim love this book?

Amid the industrial war of fire and fury, a key question remains on how the soldiers survived. Watson’s book explores the experience for British and German soldiers, drawing upon their letters and diaries. Enduring the Great War offers new ways to understand the war of the trenches, how morale was sustained, and it provides an inner portrait into the men who took in the grinding warfare.

By Alexander Watson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Enduring the Great War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book is an innovative comparative history of how German and British soldiers endured the horror of the First World War. Unlike existing literature, which emphasises the strength of societies or military institutions, this study argues that at the heart of armies' robustness lay natural human resilience. Drawing widely on contemporary letters and diaries of British and German soldiers, psychiatric reports and official documentation, and interpreting these sources with modern psychological research, this unique account provides fresh insights into the soldiers' fears, motivations and coping mechanisms. It explains why the British outlasted their opponents by examining and comparing the motives…


Book cover of An American Traveler: True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Sport

Gary Orleck Author Of Travels With Maurice: An Outrageous Adventure in Europe, 1968

From my list on life and it's changes – the what, where, and why.

Why am I passionate about this?

At 13 years old I told my father that “I will be travelling around the USA as soon as I graduate college." It took 10 days to prepare but prepare and depart I did. I worked my way around the USA for 6 months and on the way home I told my Dad, “Next is Europe.” A year later I traveled with the son of the richest man in the world and the adventures we had driving 19,865 miles through 12 European countries for 10 weeks were both mind-blowing and life-changing. My passion for traveling and life shows throughout my book, and I assure you that you'll enjoy travelling along with me. 

Gary's book list on life and it's changes – the what, where, and why

Gary Orleck Why did Gary love this book?

This is a collection of a dozen essays allowing us to feel the fun, the drama, the craziness of travel, and the effect it can have on both our personalities and views after the journey. In other words, this book teaches us to feel these stories, which show us the more you risk the more rewards you will gain from your travel adventures.

It also reminds us to worry or at least be concerned for whom you are traveling with. After reading this, I believe it is not what we accomplish by traveling but what we take away from traveling.

By Randy Wayne White,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked An American Traveler as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A scintillating new collection from one of America's premier travel writers.


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the United Kingdom, World War 1, and presidential biography?

The United Kingdom 582 books
World War 1 905 books