100 books like The Secret of the Stones

When I opened this book, I first loved the main character, Cotton Malone, a guy who owns a bookshop in Copenhagen…really? Then he journeyed to Rennes Le Chateau, which I went to in 2013 while I led a tour to France in search of the Templar Knights's footprint and uncovering some of their myths and legends. You have to want to get there; it’s miles from anywhere and in the Pyrenees. In the 19th century, a priest suddenly became exorbitantly wealthy there, and Steve Berry’s book picks up the thread.

He’s a really great writer. You sit right in the middle of the action yourself. This book also introduces Cassiopa Vitt, an extraordinarily well thought through complex character. Malone finds that whichever way he turns, he gets himself deeper, and there are lots of little twists in this book. I read it in speedy time as I couldn’t put it… show more.

Clive Cussler sold a hundred million books, but for me Juan Cabrillo is by far my most favourite character. Why - because he speaks to me personally. I loved this book because it was written after Clive died, but it’s as good if not better than his early ones. Cabrillo is a team guy, and I love that. He always does the hardest stuff himself. As a leader, that speaks to me.

In this book, we deal with the Saudis as well as Mossad, the US Military, and private groups. How often do we find ourselves in these situations of having to keep everyone happy whilst playing one off against another? In this book, Cabrillo also has to deal with AI-induced soldiers as well as manage to complete the mission. It’s got everything in this book. History, modern opponents, high technology, and very real characters that you either love or… show more.

I will almost never buy a book on Atlantis anymore… except this one got me. Want to know why? I liked the write-up. I was short on adventure novels and I fell in love and read the whole series.

The two characters, Nina Wide and Eddie Chase, are brilliant. Eddie is a wise-cracking, no-nonsense guy, a British cockney who does the stupidest things and blows stuff up. You can't help but love him. In this book, Nina gets a tip on where to find Atlantis (here, her parents got killed trying to find it), and Eddie has to look after her.

McDermott writes like Clive Cussler on cocaine, so there is literally never a dull moment. Atlantis stuff can be really trite, but this is really good. I had some good laughs and could identify with the frustrations of someone on a goose chase. I also liked the villain in… show more.

There is nothing like a good evil villain - one whom you don’t know whether to love, hate, feel sorry for, or simply hope they get killed off.

This is book 11 of David S. Brody’s Templar in America series. (yes, I have read them all). I love how, in each of his books, he postulates a new group who came to America before Columbus. Each book is smothered in proof. This book is about Rome in America and why ancient Jews may have run to America to hide away.

I love the way that David ages his characters by book, and in this case, the main protagonist, Cam, is starting to feel his years. Every one of us has to overcome bureaucracy, work with people we don’t like, and get the job done, sometimes at great personal risk.

This book spoke to me personally about my journey to find… show more.

About a woman who rents a remote cabin in the mountains to decide; her cancer is back, and she must either fight again, or let nature take its course. There is a forest fire, and she is pivotal in saving not only her life, but the lives of others.

I loved it because it’s about a woman who doesn’t know how strong she is until faced with a situation she can’t let herself walk away from. 

This resonates in mine, and I expect many other women’s lives.

Character-driven romance is relatively rare, but this book, essentially a complex and deep love story, is seen entirely through the eyes of lovers. The people on these pages are both exceptional and real. We’re treated to their aspirations, frailties, courage, desires, truths, and lies. These are people I’ve met and been impressed by.

When young, gifted, and hauntingly beautiful Sarah enters the hideaway of best-selling reclusive author, Jeremy, both their lives are fundamentally changed. To supply any more details of the story would be to give spoilers, and the last thing I want to do here is spoil anyone’s read.

I recently read an advance copy of A Trip with Trouble (releases October 2022), the 2nd Mountain Lodge Mystery. In the first book in the series, protagonist Misty Murphy turned fifty, got divorced, and invested her settlement in a mountain lodge that she knew nothing about running. A Trip with Trouble finds the inn totally rented out to Dangerous Curves Motorcycle Club, a group of women who plan to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway. On a ride that Misty is invited to join, things go awry when the tail gunner (last rider) is found dead. Although I enjoyed the whodunit aspects of the book, Kelly’s vivid descriptions of the Blue Ridge Parkway area and the mountains grounded the book in reality. A quick read that I stayed up far too late so I could finish it in one sitting. (The book has certain chapters told through the eyes of… show more.

A friend once told me to read Becky Wade because her books were similar to mine.

I did and wow, I loved her style and immediately put everything of hers on auto-buy! Realistic temptation and passion mixed with heart- and soul-wrenching life lessons—home run for the Christian romance reader!

I grew up in southern Appalachia. Every time I fly home to visit my family, I see the scars of mountaintop removal coal mining as the plane begins to descend over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lost Mountain chronicles the far-reaching effects of this devastating and unethical practice. I truly believe it ought to be required reading for anyone living in America today.

I’m including some verse in my list because there’s no better way to capture Appalachia’s mix of beauty and sorrow than with poetry. This collection by Joseph Bathanti, former poet laureate of North Carolina and longtime inhabitant of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lays bare the effects of mountaintop removal mining against a backdrop of the serene landscape it destroys. I don’t often read a book of poetry more than once, but I found myself skipping back through this one a lot, unable to turn away from the forsaken people and places of the poems.