Books like The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

A novel about Emma Woodhouse, a young woman's struggles with matchmaking, misplaced pride, and the dangers of meddling in others' lives in 18th-century England.

A heart-wrenching coming-of-age story of poverty and resilience in 1930s Brooklyn.

In a remote Russian village at the edge of the wilderness, a young girl named Vasya discovers she is the only one who can protect her homeland from encroaching darkness, armed with a mysterious necklace and the spirits that haunt the land.

Cold Mountain follows wounded Confederate soldier Inman's perilous journey home to his love Ada, interweaving his odyssey through the war‑torn South with Ada’s struggle to revive her family farm, as both confront a nation and themselves in transition.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles follows Tess Durbeyfield, a rural woman from a poor family, as she confronts poverty, social injustice, and the rigid expectations of early 20th-century English society.

American Dorothy "Daisy" Miller charms in Switzerland and Italy, but her lively spirit and romance with the young American Winterbourne clash with the conservative norms of their fellow expatriates, prompting a critique of Anglo‑American cultural differences.

After a truck crash leaves her daughter and a horse in pain, a mother journeys to Montana to seek the legendary horse Whisperer, hoping to heal both the animal and herself.

A young woman from a poor background discovers the privileged life of an Ivy League college, forcing her to confront her values and self-esteem.

After her beloved Grandmother Hudson dies, young Rain Hudson inherits millions and must navigate a battle for the family fortune against her mother, stepfather, and foul‑mouthed Aunt Victoria. A tragic turn forces her to rebuild her life with unexpected help.

Eliza, an illegitimate child in rural England, seeks adventure and artistic freedom while befriending poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, moving to London, and traveling the world to uncover her mysterious parentage.

It is 1974 when Leni Allbright's impulsive father Ernt decides the family is moving to Alaska. But the Alaskan winter is just as unforgiving as Ernt, and life quickly becomes a struggle for survival.

A contemplative look at the enduring nature of marriage and friendship, set against the backdrop of Vermont life.

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950--and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story--of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school's tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder--but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse....An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions--and a rich literary delight.From the Hardcover edition.

A bright young girl from England finds her way to the Scottish Highlands, where she vows to rescue a frightened Arabian mare named Shantih from an abusive circus.

Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September paints a subtle portrait of an Irish gentry family in the 1920s, probing generational clash and the weight of guardianship amid rural country life.