Here are 2 books that Quartet fans have personally recommended if you like Quartet. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Hamnet

Linda Proud Author Of Chariot of the Soul

From my list on historical fiction that makes you think.

Why am I passionate about this?

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been dismayed by the humdrum monotony of everyday life. Of course, that is why one is drawn to books. The books on this list are historical fiction with otherworldly wonder. The world of the imagination is not an escape; it’s a portal to a new view of life. I’ve written four books set in the Italian Renaissance and two set in ancient Britain. Because of the depth of research, each one has taken about eight years. I’m constantly astonished at how imagination can fill the gaps history leaves. Striving always for plausibility, it is encouraging to count historians and archaeologists amongst my readers, cheering me on.

Linda's book list on historical fiction that makes you think

Linda Proud Why Linda loves this book

Another bell-ringer is this wonderful novel which upturned everything I’d thought about Shakespeare’s wife. 

It so deftly weaves what is known with what is imagined. Away with Anne Hathaway! Meet Agnes Shakespeare. The ending of the book was terrific, and they managed to capture that in the film.

By Maggie O'Farrell ,

Why should I read it?

50 authors picked Hamnet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021
'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell

TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.

Neither…


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Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Book cover of The Judgment of Paris

Catherine Hewitt Author Of The Mistress of Paris: The 19th-Century Courtesan Who Built an Empire on a Secret

From Catherine's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Catherine's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Catherine Hewitt Why Catherine loves this book

The premise of this book is inspired. King spotlights the Paris art world during the decade preceding the ground-breaking 1st Impressionist exhibition in 1874. For his subjects, he takes an unlikely duo – Ernest Meissonnier (the academic painter who specialised in closely worked historical and military scenes) and Edouard Manet (the master of modern life and enfant terrible who inspired the Impressionists). The author moves backwards and forwards between the men’s different creative projects, plotting their relationship to the Paris Salon, that all-important, state-sponsored exhibition that could make or break an artist at the time. In so doing, King gives us two radically different angles on the 19th-century art world, with all its peaks and troughs, rules and penalties, backstabbing and intrigue. The research and level of detail here are astounding, but the text isn’t too heavy. On the contrary, flitting between the two different artists gives the narrative impetus,…

By Ross King ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Judgment of Paris as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With a novelist's skill and the insight of an historian, bestselling author Ross King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and the rivalry between Meissonier and Manet.

While the Civil War raged in America, another revolution took shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impressionism the most popular art form in history were showing their first paintings amidst scorn and derision from the French artistic establishment. Indeed, no artistic movement has ever been quite so controversial. The drama of its birth, played out on canvas and…


Book cover of Hamnet
Book cover of The Judgment of Paris

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