Books like Heroes of the Secret Underground — picked by fans

I love history and found this to be an engrossing, historically based time-slip novel. 

From reading this, I learned about the politician, social reformer, and feminist Edith Cowan. The author has woven a cast of supporting characters to add to the story’s depth. 

I particularly love the inclusion of the time-travelling bed, which holds its own secrets. It’s an interesting twist on the usual time-travel methods, and instrumental to the historical fiction story's timeline. 

This is an epic adventure of boldness and bravery, and I loved the character of Nerra, who is thrust into an important role, where she finds a new maturity.

I have long been interested in First Nations folklore, and this one kept me reading. The relationship between the girl and her great-grandmother is endearing to me as one who was largely raised by my maternal grandmother.

Nerra is a wonderful protagonist who learns to be brave and resilient along the way, as she tackles the serious task of saving the keepers of the rainbow, finding a new maturity along the way. 

This is an engrossing time-slip story with a difference. 

Involving two countries, two different timelines, four very different lives, and the English royal family in the Second World War, I was taken by the way the narrative interchanges seamlessly between the 1941 and 2022 time periods to create an action-filled MG story. 

The completely different character arcs of two boys who form a strong bond, taking two others along with them, are compelling. I also love the way the historical information side is well researched, providing knowledge I didn’t previously have. 

This is a great time-slip adventure story.

I love the author’s deep knowledge of Australian dinosaurs and the research she has put into creating a fast-paced and riveting story. Zac, Clare, and Luke Adamson are in drought-stricken outback Queensland. When the trio set off in search of dinosaur fossils, two cyclones merge, and after the storm clears, they are in a vastly different place and time. 

From reading this, I discovered something new and learned about an ancient creature known as the Demon Duck of Doom. Very interesting stuff indeed!

With this Hungarian author, I share the same birthday, as well as our mystical philosophy on life. Her book is an epic alchemical tale spanning centuries that describes the evolution of consciousness through subsequent incarnations from one life to the next.

I find not only the book itself fascinating but also the story of how it came into being. The author began to write it in a bomb shelter during WWII. Afterward, the Communists banned it and burned it, yet a few copies were miraculously rescued and hand-copied during dictatorial times.

Today, the book enjoys cult status in its homeland of Hungary. Unfortunately, the English translation is currently out of print, but if you can lay your hands on a version you can read, don’t miss out on this masterpiece.   

For me (and not just because my family is Hungarian), Wallenberg’s story is the most heart-wrenching of all accounts of Holocaust heroism. He was the Swedish diplomat in Nazi-occupied Budapest who worked tirelessly to save Jewish lives, despite death threats to himself. He issued thousands of Swedish protection documents and set up Jewish safe-houses. One incident particularly brings a lump to my throat. Hearing of a death march of Jewish deportees, he drove to the Hungarian border to head it off. Clutching a bunch of Swedish passports, he ordered the Arrow Cross guards (Hungarian fascists) to stand aside whilst he searched for the Jews entitled to them. The suspicious guards surrounded him with pointed bayonets, but he shouted above their heads that he had passes for anyone who had ‘lost’ them. Hands were raised throughout the crowd. Wallenberg was so convincing that the SS officer in charge finally relented. The… show more.

He tells half of this history as an expert, the other half as an idiot.  

He and other naïve British students in 1956 were told by an uncle, “You need a war. We had Spain. You can have Budapest.” They drove to Hungary when everyone else was leaving that nightmare. They did not know what they were getting into, but soon found out. 

He’s witty and honest about their foolishness. But once there, he started writing about the street warfare he witnessed. It was the start of his career as a journalist and author. 

Korda is a proper historian - objective, clear, intellectual and cool. He’s also a witty entertainer, with a great line in classically British ironic understatement. He makes history dramatic and huge, yet also engagingly personal.

As an infantry veteran, I felt especially drawn to the daughter’s loyalty and love of her dad; I shared her passion for exploring his diaries and traveling to the places in Hungary he described when his bomber was shot down in WWII.

I was thrilled at each stage of the daughter’s search for her dad near Budapest, and I tensed as she tried to decide which locals were on her side and which were out to deceive or harm her. I loved her passion to find the woman who had saved her dad’s life and I marveled at the wonders and charm of the two halves of the city, split by the Danube.

Strangers in Budapest is exotic, gorgeous, and like a beautiful orchestra on paper. It also keeps you turning the pages.

A young American couple move here with their baby son after the fall of the Communists, but they bring their ghosts with them, and assimilating is difficult. especially when they encounter an elderly Jewish-American veteran, who has come to Hungary to exact revenge on someone he is convinced married and then murdered his daughter. Just dazzlingly original.

For those who like their history infused with magic, this historical fantasy set in Hungary in 1956 introduces Jewish folklore and history along with the lives of Hungarians fighting for their freedom.

Csilla and her aunt have tickets out of the country, but news about her parents—executed by the previous Soviet-backed regime—along with the student uprising and two beautiful and mysterious strangers compel her to stay despite the specter of a bloody Soviet invasion.