Books like The Far Pavilions — picked by fans

This chart-topping writing duo can do no wrong in my eyes. Their Innkeeper Chronicles series ranks amongst my all-time favorites, but when it comes to fierce female protagonists, their Kate Daniels series truly takes the cake.

I find Kate fascinating. She has a complex backstory (no spoilers here!), and she is a masterful fighter, excelling in both physical combat and magical prowess. She consistently stands up for others, often putting herself in peril to protect those around her. 

I love how her wit and humor shine through, striking the perfect balance between light and shade. 

I will always remember the way she greeted a particular deadly lion shifter with a cheeky “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.” For me, Kate Daniels embodies everything a fierce female protagonist should be.

The White Tiger is a witty and searing portrayal of a “self-made” man who has risen from the depths of abject poverty to a position of wealth and influence. 

The India portrayed is far from the glitz and romantic notions of Bollywood. It is a desperately poor place where the “haves” live like kings and the “have-nots" live like slaves.

In addition to shedding light on some of the harsh realities of class, economics, and corruption in India, The White Tiger somehow manages to subvert expectations and coax the reader into rooting for a murderer and thief who justifies his actions, not entirely convincingly, by describing himself as a sort of working-class hero.

In reality, he is more of a cautionary tale.

This book’s saga swallowed me whole.

I loved being immersed in the Middle Ages with characters so emotionally real I didn’t want to leave them. I’m fascinated by the complexity of Gothic architecture and agonized along with the builders as they struggled to complete their masterpiece.

I also loved how the cathedral’s slow, steady construction provided a solid framework for decades of interwoven stories, like a tall, straight tree growing from tangled roots. The author’s passion for the timeless magnificence of Gothic architecture made me feel as if I were standing before it, spellbound and transported.

Forster’s novel showed me the majesty and mystery of India at the height of British occupation. In delineating a complex friendship between an Englishman (Fielding) and an Indian (Aziz), it illustrated for me the difficulties of interracial relations at that time, even with the best of intentions. I love that the novel centers around a dramatic event in the Malabar Hills, a mystery that kept me guessing as to what really happened.

This first volume—with the other three—is, I think, the best book ever written about the British in India and their leaving of it. The whole story is rooted in a rape that happens to a young Englishwoman, whose lover is accused of the crime. I first read this when it came out in 1980, before the amazingly good TV series. There are so many unforgettable characters in it—the women, trying to survive with husbands and fathers away in the army, the missionaries and nuns, as well as the men. Scott does not in any way idealize the British—rather the opposite—and it is a feast of detail of the time and moving human stories. I have re-read it and will no doubt do so again. 

Set in 1940s India in the lead up to Independence, the backdrop is the rarely written about North-East India. The protagonists; Layla, (well-educated and independently-minded) and Manik (a free-thinker with a sense of adventure) are an unusual couple for the core romance but his work takes them to the remote tea plantations of Assam. I have written about the tea gardens in my India Tea Series, but largely from a British and Anglo-Indian point of view. Patel’s vivid depiction of this way of life is informed by her own upbringing, as the daughter of tea planters. It’s rich in detail with wonderful descriptions of Assam and keen observations of the British managers and Indian workers. As it builds towards Partition, the drama and tension are brilliantly evoked through Layla’s eyes.

As this novel is set in 1970s Islamabad, Pakistan and the ex-pats are mainly American, it’s technically not about the British in India. But the ex-colonial legacy is there to see: Pakistan was a creation of independence from British rule and is still being affected by geo-politics. I was gripped by the description of life in the Pakistani capital; an area where my grandparents had lived and worked and through which I had travelled in the ’70s. This coming-of-age story is told by teenager Aliya, (half-Pakistani and half-Dutch) who attends the American school. Not only are the tensions of identity well portrayed but also the growing unease between the communities after a traffic accident leaves a young boy dead and world events ignite further unrest. Fascinating and unusual historical fiction.

Wow. The voice in this book takes my breath away. I’ve never read anything else quite like it.

There’s a plot full of adventure, tragedy, and healing, but mostly, there is Rueben Land and his sister Swede, two of the most compelling characters in literature. The story begins with a miracle when Rueben’s father commands his newly stillborn son to breathe.

Questions about miracles, hope, faith, and redemption pepper the story with no easy answers, again asking: What does it mean to be human? That’s a question all great literature grapples with.

What I loved about this novel was learning about the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota, where Native Americans were taken from their parents for “re-education.” They were not allowed to speak their own language. Krueger’s descriptions of sexual abuse and violence against children are harrowing. 

The novel tells the story of two white orphans, Odie and Albert, who are placed in a Native American school, and how they come to escape the cruelties of the headmistress, whom they call “The Black Witch.” 

When Odie commits a terrible crime, Odie and Albert flee the school, taking with them two other orphans, Mose, a mute Sioux, and Emma, a young girl who has been adopted by the headmistress. They float down the river in a canoe, reminiscent of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. 

The novel is narrated as a yarn with plenty of hyperbole and melodrama, and there are many twists… show more.

This is a wonderfully romantic saga focusing on a young woman in the East End of London in the late 1800s, and how she works her way up to run her own business empire, facing tragedy and treachery along the way. Set alongside the Jack the Ripper murders, it has plenty of intrigue and mystery, as well as romance, perfect for fans of Downton Abbey or The Gilded Age. A true saga of the kind that was popular in the 1980s—a big, glitzy, wonderful, passionate book!