Books like The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin

In "Dragonfly in Amber," Diana Gabaldon transports readers across time to 18th‑century Scotland and France, following Claire Randall’s return with her daughter Brianna to uncover family secrets tied to the Jacobite uprising.

During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a penniless maid disguises herself in stolen jewelry and finds unexpected love with a charming gentleman. The two marry in the chaos, survive the flames, and uncover a devious plot to steal her fortune.

In post‑war Sydney, Maggie Chamberlin seeks a fresh start only to be swept into a passionate bond with the charismatic Reeve McKenna, whose own heart is torn over the mystery of a vanished brother.

Ryder Sherbrooke, a roguish rake, travels to Jamaica to investigate supernatural happenings at his plantation, where he encounters Sophia Stanton‑Greville, a sophisticated nineteen‑year‑old woman with a secret that tests both their desires.

A story of love and betrayal set against the backdrop of 19th-century England, where an orphaned heiress seeks to prove her worth in the pursuit of a marriage of convenience.

Set in a wartime English seaside town of the 1790s, Sylvia's Lovers follows a young woman torn between the passionate whaling harpooner Charley Kinraid and her devoted cousin Philip Hepburn, whose secret withholding ends in tragedy.

In 18th‑century Scotland, self‑made millionaire Daniel MacGregor must outwit a meddlesome patriarch and win the heart of the fiercely independent Anna Whitfield to launch his dynasty.

A tale of romance and political intrigue as Hope Matthews, a courtesan, marries a soldier to aid the king in his quest for power.

Margaret Mitchell’s 1916 short novel, discovered in 1996, follows a love triangle on a South Pacific island, wrapped in intimate letters she wrote to lover Henry Love Angel.

In a storm‑ridden mansion, Calliope Worthington discovers a hidden necklace and is caught by the reclusive Mr. Ren Porter, who offers a perilous bargain: marry him and pay each stolen pearl in a night of passion.

A Chinese mother and her adopted daughter, raised by an American couple, discover how a rare native tea links their worlds and transforms their family's destiny across cultures.

Li Lan, a young woman in 1893 Malaysia, is offered a ghost marriage by the powerful Lim family to appease a restless spirit; she must navigate the Chinese afterlife and uncover family secrets before she is trapped forever.

Everybody in McDade thought of Dellie O'Barr as "the good little sister." Dellie has always done what her father and brother wanted on the family farm; she even married the suitor her older sister stood up - an earnest man with a college education and a fine house in town. Dellie has always done the proper thing. Always, that is, until now. Out of the blue, she finds herself falling for a stranger, a man stirring up the countryside with his fiery Populist speeches. Clearly, no good can come of it - he's an out-and-out rabble-rouser, a man set on disturbing the turn-of-the-century status quo on farms all over central Texas. And he's married. And then, for the love of this man, Dellie O'Barr tosses aside her own status - a privileged life and perfect reputation - and opens herself to whispers of adultery and disloyalty. Not only that, she's suspected of burning down a local store hostile to her lover and his Populist followers. And when he flees town, she leaves her rich husband to chase after him. As much about married love as forbidden love, The Passion of Dellie O'Barr is the story of a singular woman's life and of the lives of the two men she chooses as lovers. One, Andrew Ashland, is a dynamic political crusader. The other, Daniel O'Barr, is the man she leaves behind - the man who waits for her to come back home and stands by her when she returns to the scandalized town of McDade.

On the Missouri frontier, Baptiste Lightbody and Maggie navigate prejudice—he a half‑breed, she a witch—and the wilderness, seeking a shared paradise that could either bind or break their hearts.

In "Ask the Dust", John Fante’s Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in 1930s Los Angeles, forms a precarious love‑hate bond with waitress Camilla Lopez while grappling with ambition, poverty and the quest for identity.

In Victorian England, Viscount Emilian St. Xavier seeks vengeance for his sister’s murder while Ariella de Warenne defies society’s expectations, leading to a forbidden, passionate romance that blurs lines between love and revenge.

Noble Lord Geoffrey Fitzroy pursues London’s high society until he meets the enigmatic Miss Serena Carew, a noble heiress raised in India whose mysterious past threatens to unravel their passionate marriage.