Books like “The Other Boleyn Girl”

What to read after “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Greatest Knight
Elizabeth Chadwick · 2005
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Betrayal
William Marshal, a landless younger son, wins renown on the tournament circuit of twelfth-century Europe. Sworn to kings and queens, he serves through rebellion and shifting alliances, and his loyalty is tested as often as his skill at arms.
2
The Bronze Horseman
Paullina Simons · 2000
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle”
- Love Triangle
In Leningrad in 1941, as the German army tightens its siege, Tatiana meets Alexander, a young officer with a secret. Their love is forbidden by her family and by the war, but through hunger, loss and the frozen winter they hold on to each other and to the hope of survival.
3
The Shadows Between Us
Tricia Levenseller · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Femme Fatale” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Femme Fatale
- Morally Grey Character
Alessandra will do anything to gain power, including marry the young king and then kill him. The Shadow King, feared and rumoured to have killed his own family, is the perfect target. But court intrigue and unexpected feelings complicate her cold plan, and someone is hunting them both.
4
The White Queen
Philippa Gregory · 2009
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Betrayal
Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed commoner, secretly marries King Edward IV and is crowned in a court that dislikes her family. Through the wars between Lancaster and York she and her relatives rise, scheme and lose ground to rivals who will not accept a commoner as queen.
5
The Maltese Falcon
Dashiell Hammett · 1929
Similar plot moves: “Femme Fatale” and “Betrayal”
A woman walks into Sam Spade's San Francisco office with a story about a missing sister, and the case becomes a hunt for a jewel-encrusted black bird. Spade's partner is killed, and he must decide whom to trust among liars, thieves and double-crossers.
6
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell · 1936
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Love Triangle
- Morally Grey Character
Spoiled Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara sees her world torn apart by the American Civil War. Determined to rebuild her family's plantation and her fortune, she schemes and marries her way through the ruins of the Old South, chasing a man she cannot have.
7
The Kind Worth Killing
Peter Swanson · 2015
Similar plot moves: “Femme Fatale” and “Betrayal”
- Femme Fatale
- Betrayal
On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted tells a stranger that he wishes his cheating wife were dead. Lily calmly offers to help him plan it. As their murder scheme takes shape in Boston, each of the narrators hides a past the others know nothing about.
8
One Day in December
Josie Silver · 2018
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle”
- Love Triangle
Laurie locks eyes with a stranger through a bus window and spends a year searching for him, only to meet him again as her best friend's new boyfriend. Across ten years of friendship, missed chances and other relationships, the two circle a connection they are never free to act on.
9
The Postman Always Rings Twice
James M. Cain · 1934
Similar plot moves: “Femme Fatale” and “Betrayal”
A drifter called Frank takes a job at a roadside diner and begins an affair with the owner's unhappy wife. Their plan to be together, a murder made to look like an accident, sets off a chain of events that neither of them can control.
10
The Thorn Birds
Colleen McCullough · 1977
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle”
- Love Triangle
On a sheep station in the Australian outback, Meggie Cleary grows up in the shadow of a family curse. She falls in love with Ralph de Bricassart, a priest whose ambition pulls him towards Rome, and the two stay bound to each other for decades by a love they can never openly have.
11
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas · 2012
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Love Triangle
- Morally Grey Character
Celaena Sardothien, the kingdom's most notorious assassin, is dragged from a salt mine to compete in a contest for the king. Victory would buy her freedom, but the court is full of plots and her rivals will do anything. Between a prince and a guardsman, she searches for who she can trust.
12
The Essex Serpent
Sarah Perry · 2016
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
In 1893 the newly widowed Cora Seaborne moves to a village on the Essex marshes, drawn there by reports of a winged serpent. A keen amateur naturalist, she befriends the local vicar, whose faith is tested as the rumours spread, while the doubtful and the devout hunt for signs. A slow, atmospheric story of belief and desire.