Books like Maria Elena by Valentina Luellen

Julia Álvarez’s Pulitzer‑winning memoir‑like novel chronicles the lives of four Dominican sisters who became symbols of resistance against Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship, blending history, family, and the Spanish language’s lyrical beauty.

A young woman's journey across her father's isolated island.

A Dominican‑American teenager in New Jersey struggles with weight, family history, and an unbreakable love, while his dream of becoming a writer clashes with a centuries‑old curse that haunts his lineage.

A love story of widow Madeline May and notorious Viscount Altea, who turn to each other for help in dealing with men of ill repute while the blackmail situation escalates into murder.

Amanda Lindhout’s memoir chronicles her daring travels across the globe, her fifteen‑month captivity in Somalia, and her transformation into a force for hope and education in the Horn of Africa.

Three spirited women navigate the high seas and the social customs of Regency England, overcoming the challenges of Regency romance.

A Regency-era romance set in England, featuring a determined lady who must marry a man she doesn't love in order to save her nephew.

When Colombian lawyer Antonio Yammara becomes entangled in the mysterious past of ex‑pilot Ricardo Laverde, a series of murders, drug trafficking and a relentless pursuit of truth thrust him into a world of danger and obsession.

Elena follows a Mexican American girl as she remembers her mother’s migration to the United States during the Mexican Revolution, exploring family, identity, and the journey of a new homeland.

Two sisters, twins in high school, navigate teenage romance: while one hunts her secret admirer, the other wrestles with a crush on a fellow student.

Refusal to marry the man of her father's choice at the age of sixteen resulted in the beautiful Madelon del Rivas y Montevides being exiled to a convent where she was to spend the next three years until her father's death freed her to return with her brother to court and to a life she had glimpsed only briefly before being sent into seclusion. Beauty and innocence were rare qualities in a woman at the Spanish court in the year 1072, when Christians and Moslems formed strange alliances in the battle for wealth and power. Madelon had both and she was soon to find herself plunged into a world of lies, intrigues and murder. After successfully imprisoning their younger brother Garcia, and dividing his kingdom of Galicia between them, Alphonso, King of Leon and his elder brother, Sancho of Castile, wage war to determine who shall rule both kingdoms. Madelon finds herself on the opposing side to the man who has stolen her heart, Valentin Maratin, Lord of the Eagles, and his controversial friend Rodrigo Diaz, the Cid, both of whom had been instrumental in saving her from being taken prisoner by marauding Moors and sold into slavery. The story of her growing love for Valentin and of the disastrous consequences resulting from it is told in this exciting historical romance set in 11th Century Spain. Fiction and history have mingled to produce an exciting new heroine as unpredictable as the times in which she lived and loved . . . MADELON.

The Awakening of Ivy Leavold is a historical romance novel by Sierra Simone that explores love and personal growth against a period backdrop.