Here are 100 books that Wild at Heart fans have personally recommended if you like
Wild at Heart.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I am the bestselling author of more than 46 romance novels. I love history, enjoy research, and am always looking for little-known facts to make my stories more authentic. Some of those facts have revealed that women in the 19th century often took on occupations, hobbies, or causes that challenged them and sometimes placed them in danger. Although seldom acknowledged as such, women in the 19th century were a force to be reckoned with, although their contributions were often overlooked. But through reading personal accounts, letters of the time, biographies, and nonfiction accounts about various women’s roles, I have gained a greater appreciation for how daring women have been throughout history.
Little is more adventurous than a woman who owns a gambling hell, who has forged a path to success, and dares Society to judge her. I love Sarah’s depth of characterization and how she infuses her characters with a background and motivations that make their actions, even the questionable ones, understandable and believable. I find she always takes an insurmountable conflict and uses it to drive the characters toward change. I so admire Sarah’s ability to carry me on a journey that always ends with a sigh of satisfaction, and often a few tears.
'Fabulous' Eloisa James 'Smart, sexy, and always romantic' Julia Quinn 'For a smart, witty and passionate historical romance, I recommend anything by Sarah MacLean' Lisa Kleypas
RITA Award winning author, Sarah MacLean, reveals the identity of The Fallen Angel's final scoundrel in the spectacular conclusion to her Rules of Scoundrels series . . .
By day, she is Lady Georgiana, sister to a duke, ruined before her first season in the worst kind of scandal. But the truth is far more shocking-in London's darkest corners, she is Chase, the mysterious, unknown founder of the city's most legendary gaming hell. For…
I have loved the Regency for decades. I cut my teeth on it as a young reader, and it’s been exciting to see the genre expand to include all types of stories from manner-driven drawing room dramas that highlight the nuances of the era to seductive, sexy stories that simply take place during those years, to stories that draw heavily on the events of the era to design unique and exciting historical plots. The diversity within the genre reflects the diversity of life and experience during the Regency. I have tried to capture a little of each across the 70+ books I’ve written for Harlequin, Mills, and Boon and in my own reading.
This book, by Julie Anne Long, is also from her Palace
of Rogues series. It is also a great example of layering. However, it is also
a subtle allegory about celebrity and the power of attraction.
The hero
is a man of great renown who has escaped to the hotel for peace and
quiet in order to write his memoirs. He is high profile and has a
pristine reputation for morality. The heroine is also well known in her
own, less pristine circles and is not necessarily known for the better.
She is an utter scandal and the last sort of woman the duke ought to be
attracted to on the grounds of her reputation.
This is a clash of worlds
in a less traditional sense—it's not just about who has a title and
good birth and who doesn't. This book is so much deeper, so much better…
Sparks fly when a daring diva clashes with an ice-cold war hero in the newest thrilling romance in USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long's Palace of Rogues series.
She arrives in the dead of night, a mob out for blood at her heels: Mariana Wylde, the "Harlot of Haywood Street," an opera diva brought low by a duel fought for her favors. But the ladies of the Grand Palace on the Thames think they can make a silk purse from scandal: They'll restore her reputation and share in her triumph...provided they can keep her apart from that other guest.…
I am the bestselling author of more than 46 romance novels. I love history, enjoy research, and am always looking for little-known facts to make my stories more authentic. Some of those facts have revealed that women in the 19th century often took on occupations, hobbies, or causes that challenged them and sometimes placed them in danger. Although seldom acknowledged as such, women in the 19th century were a force to be reckoned with, although their contributions were often overlooked. But through reading personal accounts, letters of the time, biographies, and nonfiction accounts about various women’s roles, I have gained a greater appreciation for how daring women have been throughout history.
I find such fun in an innocent miss wanting to explore a brothel. Curiosity and inquisitiveness are attitudes that I believe drive adventurous women. But they don’t always start a brawl in a brothel nor do they have the scientific mind to develop a small bomb that will allow them to escape. I always enjoy a heroine with a sharp mind who isn’t afraid to use it. Vivienne Lorret brings humor to her stories, making her characters incredibly relatable. I smiled throughout the story and loved the heroine’s little quirks.
USA Today bestselling author Vivienne Lorret continues her charming new trilogy with a bluestocking whose search for information on the mating habits of scoundrels has her stumbling upon the missing heir to an earldom... in the London underworld.
Jane Pickerington never intended to start a brawl in a brothel. She only wanted to research her book. Yet when her simple study of scoundrels goes awry, she finds herself coming to the rescue of a dark, enigmatic stranger... who turns out to be far more than an average rake out for a night of pleasure. He's positively wild!
I am the bestselling author of more than 46 romance novels. I love history, enjoy research, and am always looking for little-known facts to make my stories more authentic. Some of those facts have revealed that women in the 19th century often took on occupations, hobbies, or causes that challenged them and sometimes placed them in danger. Although seldom acknowledged as such, women in the 19th century were a force to be reckoned with, although their contributions were often overlooked. But through reading personal accounts, letters of the time, biographies, and nonfiction accounts about various women’s roles, I have gained a greater appreciation for how daring women have been throughout history.
An adventurous lady gambler. I enjoy stories where the heroine is taking on the role usually belonging to the hero. Kelly Bowen is so skilled at giving us characters to care about and root for. This story was a delicious read with a heroine equal to the task of taming the hero. I love Kelly’s writing style and how smoothly her stories flow.
He should have thrown her out. But when club owner Alexander Lavoie catches a mysterious blonde counting cards at his vingt-et-un table, he's more intrigued than angry. He has to see more of this beauty-in his club, in his office, in his bed. But first he'll have to devise a proposition she can't turn down.
Gossip said he was an assassin. Common sense told her to stay away. But Angelique Archer was desperate, and Lavoie's club offered a surefire way to make quick money-until she got caught. Instead of throwing her out though,…
I’ve always been somewhat of an idiot optimist coming up with new and frivolous ideas. Yet, despite trying to inject my last three books with humour representative of myself, I feel a certain sense of seriousness in them. The fantasy genre has helped me shirk that feeling, allowing me to write uninhibited by regular boundaries. Without becoming captivated by George R.R. Martin and Terry Pratchett, I’d probably still be stuck trying to carve out a place in literary fiction—how serious. Fantasy works better for me—I like to make things up, and I like light-hearted books.
You either already know Jon Dever and are excited by my mentioning of him or you’re completely unfamiliar with his work.
Jon Dever is the pioneer of choose-your-own-adventure books and Lone Wolf is his flagship series. Mydnight Hero is a stand-alone sequel to the Lone Wolf series and is a great choice for anyone who doesn’t want to commit to a fantasy series. What’s special about Lone Wolf is that it makes the reader the main character of the story, allowing them to make decisions that impact the story—it even has a playable combat system.
I’ve been a gamer all of my life and am a teacher of elementary school students. After finding the LitRPG genre I wished to share this with other kids... like the one I had once been. Most parents in the genre push full 200k books on their children with an expectation of found love. While I imagine it works for a few of them, I rather expect that the majority of those attempts end in failure. Kids have their own world and their own sense of humor. I write to them, to inspire them and make them laugh, to make them entertained even as I teach them universal morals and lessons about the world.
Lone Wolf is a book that is also a game. A LitRPG for Kids, originally written in the 80s, it is the start of a wonderfully long series of illustrated books that both allowed children to choose their actions as the protagonist of the story and also gave them choices on how to develop the hero and make him progress.
It’s a model of book that I really would like to see more of today.
Lone Wolf might be the series that started me on my gaming path, and it is a magical and beautiful quest that teaches about honor, teamwork, and clever tactical planning.
Even better, the author made the series free online in 2015. So it is now available all over the internet and even as a number of free phone apps.
You are Lone Wolf. In a devastating attack the Darklords have destroyed the monastery where you were learning the skills of the Kai Lords. You are the sole survivor. FLIGHT FROM THE DARK You swear revenge. But first you must reach Holmgard to warn the King of the gathering evil. The servants of darkness relentlessly hunt you across your country and every turn of the page presents a new challenge. Choose your skills and your weapons carefully - for they can help you succeed in the most fantastic and terrifying journey of your life. The LONE WOLF adventures are a…
I’ve
been a student of story structure for decades. As a novelist, this initially
started as a means to learn as much as I could from those with more experience
than myself, but quickly grew into a passion. I read everything on the subject
I could get my hands on and eventually began analyzing the plots of novels and
movies for myself, amalgamating what I had learned with my own theories and
insights which coalesced into a wholly new structural paradigm. Since then,
I’ve had the privilege of working with many talented screenwriters and
novelists to help them shape their stories using Six Act Structure.
As
the title suggests, Williams’ book focuses on identifying the Moral Premise at
the heart of your story idea and building around it. It’s a very thematic
approach to storytelling. This Moral Premise essentially breaks the story into
four components: a positive “virtue”, a negative “vice”, desirable consequences
(success), and undesirable consequences (defeat). You can use this to create a
simple structure of “Vice leads to undesirable consequences (defeat), while
Virtue leads to desirable consequences (success)”. I'm admittedly oversimplifying
it, but it's a great tactic to get to the heart of your story's theme and
strengthen your narrative.
The Moral Premise reveals the foundational concept at the heart of all storytelling and successful box office movies. In concrete terms it explains how you can create your own success and, in the process, entertain, delight, challenge, and uplift this generation and the ones to come.
My name is Susan Perrow. I am an Australian whose ‘work’ passion is stories and storytelling. I am an author, storyteller, teacher trainer, and parent educator. For the last 30 years, I have been documenting stories from other cultures, writing stories, and telling stories to groups of children and adults – all this woven in with a career in teaching, lecturing, and consulting in Australia, Africa, Asia, China, Europe, and North America. I currently have four published story collections, in a total of 14 languages. Three of my collections are Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviour, An A-Z Collection of Behaviour Tales, and Stories to Light the Night: A Grief and Loss Collection for Children, Families and Communities.
I have chosen my fourth collection to introduce to you below.
Birds of Heaven is a tiny book full of noble thoughts on why stories and storytelling are integral to our humanity. Okri, the Man Booker Prize author of ‘The Famished Road’, eloquently states ‘The universe began as a story… we are part human, part stories.’
The text contains two inspirational essays on the meaning of language and its power to shape our lives. The work presents an alternative spiritual response to the problems of the present day. It is bursting with beautiful and insightful gems.
This text contains two inspirational essays from the author of "The Famished Road", on the meaning of language and its power to shape our lives. The work presents an alternative spiritual response to the problems of the present day.
I have been fascinated by the richness of fairy tales since I was a child. The fantasy writing offers endless possibilities to nourish my mind’s eye and pearls of wisdom that I can transfer to real life. I remember from childhood that I cried reading the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. This childhood memory never left me. Fantasy writing is interwoven with the realm of nature and beings other than humans that offer a tapestry for the tradition of storytelling and nature writing, which I found a fascinating field to explore. I hope you can find the same in the books on this list.
I love how the wonderful illustration of the tree with three children on the book's cover evoked my imagination to read this story. This feeling was reinforced when I opened the book and read the quotation on the first page: “So much world all at once” by Wislawa Syzmborska.
It is, indeed, a fascinating story that immersed me in a rich plot and introduced me to a diversity of characters who gained life in the little town of Blackbird Tree.
In this story, I could see the mastery of creating a tapestry, with the written words as the threads that bring together different worlds, feelings, and emotions, like love, friendship, and forgiveness.
In the little town of Blackbird Tree a series of curious events unfold when Naomi and Lizzie, two spirited orphan girls, meet the strangely charming new boy, Finn. Three locked trunks, the mysterious Dingle Dangle man, a pair of rooks, a crooked bridge, and that boy change their lives for ever. As the story alternates between their small town and across-the-ocean Ireland, two worlds are woven together, revealing that hearts can be mended and that there is indeed a gossamer thread that connects us all.
'One of those stories that stays with you long after you have finished reading.' Booksellers'…
As a kid I used to sit around the table, hearing my French grandparents share stories about life during the Second World War and helping the French Resistance movement. I remember seeing my mum sitting down to interview my French grandad about his life and getting captured near Dunkirk as a young French soldier. That’s where my love for storytelling was born. By the age of 26 I had interviewed over 100+ government officials and business leaders across 7 countries. By 2021 my podcast The Unconventionalists won “best-interview podcast” at the podcasting for business awards. I wrote Glow in the Dark, to help entrepreneurs and business leaders impact the world with their story.
Matthew is a serial public speaking champion who basically should be entered in The Moth Hall of Fame asap. If you've never heard Matthew Dicks talk, pause this and go watch his videos online. He's that good. What I love about his book is that he shares how he crafts his own stories and shares some amazing tips on how to capture everyday events that can later on be turned into powerful stories. Although this book isn't so much geared towards business or work, I think everyone can learn a great deal from Matthew's impressive experience of making people pay attention and connect to what you say (both as a best-selling novelist, school teacher, and public speaking champion).
A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story — and why doing so matters.
Whether we realize it or not, we are always telling stories. On a first date or job interview, at a sales presentation or therapy appointment, with family or friends, we are constantly narrating events and interpreting emotions and actions. In this compelling book, storyteller extraordinaire Matthew Dicks presents wonderfully straightforward and engaging tips and techniques for constructing, telling, and polishing stories that will hold the attention of your audience (no matter how big or small). He shows that anyone…
