Books like The queen's vow by C. W. Gortner

A 1930s wartime tale of a blind French girl and a German boy whose lives intersect in occupied France, weaving themes of survival, friendship, and the moral choices people make amid World War II.

Cora, a woman enslaved on a Georgia cotton plantation, partners with a new slave named Caesar to flee the South. Their daring escape follows a literal underground network of tunnels that mirrors the perilous journey of countless fugitive slaves toward freedom.

In the Elizabethan‑age setting of England’s Wars of the Roses, Philippa Gregory chronicles the rise of Elizabeth Woodville from lady-in-waiting to queen, exposing the political intrigue and personal turmoil that shaped the era.

In seventh‑century Britain, the powerful but ruthless King Edwin schemes for an Anglian empire. Hild, his brilliant youngest niece and a prophetess, watches the court’s violence while navigating her prophetic gifts and her bloodline’s destiny.

A vivid fictional portrait of Augustus Caesar, tracing his rise from youth to power amid Rome’s political intrigue.

A concise historical exploration of Mary Boleyn, the lesser-known sister of Anne, set within the Tudor court of 1508–1543.

Julian Barnes’s concise portrait of the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, tracing his early struggles, political pressures, and artistic choices in the 1930s and beyond.

Set in sixth‑century Scotland, "The Lost Queen" follows Languoreth, twin sister of the historic Merlin, as she navigates war, rising Christianity, and political intrigue to defend her kingdom and preserve the Old Way.

A poignant WWII tale of an Irish writer who travels to Paris, forging deep friendships, engaging in the French Resistance, and navigating the horrors of Nazi occupation, all while chronicling the turbulent era with literary grace.

In "Mrs. Lincoln's Rival," Jennifer Chiaverini portrays the fierce social and political rivalry between First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and Kate Chase Sprague, the ambitious daughter of Salmon P. Chase, set against Washington society’s glittering high‑stakes world.

Stewart O'Nan’s historical novel portrays F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final years in Hollywood as he struggles, writes screenplays, and navigates romance with columnist Sheilah Graham, amid the glitter of 1930s studio life.

In Tudor England, two sisters embroiled in political intrigue and love navigate the treacherous court as Mary Tudor’s reign unfolds, risking treason for survival and choice between duty and desire.

C. W. Gortner’s historical novel reexamines the life of Queen Juana of Castile, the last Spanish monarch of her blood, revealing her resilience amid dynastic conflict in 15th‑century Europe.

The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this history, Jones resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world. They produced England's best and worst kings: Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice a queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; their son Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and his conniving brother King John, who was forced to grant his people new rights under the Magna Carta, the basis for our own bill of rights. Combining the latest academic research with a gift for storytelling, Jones vividly recreates the great battles of Bannockburn, Crécy, and Sluys and reveals how the maligned kings Edward II and Richard II met their downfalls. This is the era of chivalry and the Black Death, the Knights Templar, the founding of parliament, and the Hundred Years' War, when England's national identity was forged by the sword.

A biographical historical novel that follows the budding friendship between a teenage Louise Brooks and a middle‑aged chaperone as they travel to New York City in 1922, showing how the journey reshapes their lives.