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Curses and Smoke

Vicky Alvear Shecter · back to the book

What’s in it

Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.

24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
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The Valiant

Lesley Livingston · 372 pages

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king and the younger sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha. When Fallon was just a child, Sorcha was killed while defending their home from the armies of Julius Caesar. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is excited to follow in her sister's footsteps and earn her place in her father's war band. She never gets the chance.

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionYoung Adult
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Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood

Jame Richards · 304 pages

Sixteen-Year-Old Celstia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel's hired boy. It's a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it's a love that could get Celestia disowned. T

Natural Disaster SurvivalForbidden LoveYoung AdultHistorical Fiction
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Quo Vadis

Henryk Sienkiewicz · 488 pages

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionSlavery Depicted
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A Voice in the Wind

Francine Rivers · 515 pages

Following the prides and passions of a group of Jews, Romans and Barbarians living at the time of the siege, the narrative is centered on an ill-fated romance between a steadfast slave girl, Hadassah, and Marcus, the brother of her owner and a handsome aristocrat. After surviving the massacre of her family and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, Hadassah is captured and sold to a well-to-d

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionSlavery Depicted
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Cleopatra's Daughter

Michelle Moran · 439 pages

The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony's revengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome; only two--

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionSlavery Depicted
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The Champion

Carla Capshaw · 288 pages

"Triumphs in the Coliseum--and society bedchambers-- made gladiator Alexius of Iolcos famous for his brutal skill and womanizing ways. Yet the only woman who intrigues him is Tiberia the Younger, who now needs his help. Protecting Tiberia places Alexius in the greatest danger he has ever known--from her vengeful father and his own heart ... Becoming a temple priestess may be an honor, but Tibi can

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionSlavery Depicted
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Pompeii: A Roman Girl's Diary, AD 78

Sue Reid · 172 pages

It's August AD 78 and Claudia is at the Forum in Pompeii. It's a day of strange encounters and even odder portents. When the ground shakes Claudia is convinced it is a bad omen. What does it all mean? And why is she so disturbed by Vesuvius, the great volcano that looms over the city.

Ancient RomeNatural Disaster SurvivalHistorical FictionTeen Protagonist
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The Last Days of Pompeii

Edward Bulwer-Lytton · 416 pages

Ancient RomeNatural Disaster SurvivalHistorical FictionRomance
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The Secrets of Vesuvius

Caroline Lawrence · 173 pages

Ancient RomeNatural Disaster SurvivalHistorical Fiction
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A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii

Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter · 337 pages

Ancient RomeNatural Disaster SurvivalHistorical FictionMultiple POV
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The Ides of April

Mary Ray · 168 pages

In Rome in 62 A.D., seventeen-year-old Hylas must find a way to save himself, his mother, and the other household slaves from imprisonment and imminent death when their master, a prominent senator, is found murdered.

Ancient RomeHistorical FictionYoung AdultSlavery Depicted
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Fight for Freedom

Simon Scarrow

Ancient RomeHistorical FictionYoung AdultSlavery Depicted
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Natural Disaster SurvivalForbidden LoveYoung AdultHistorical Fiction
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Pompeii

Robert Harris · 352 pages

Historical fiction about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD from the perspective of Marcus Attilius, an *aquarius* (hydraulic engineer) responsible for Aqua Augusta, the regional aqueduct.

Ancient RomeNatural Disaster SurvivalHistorical Fiction
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Outcast

Rosemary Sutcliff · 229 pages

Fifteen-year-old Beric feels increasingly bitter isolation when, because of his Roman birth, he is cast out by the Celtic tribe that raised him and, after reaching a Roman settlement, he is sold into slavery and sentenced to serve in a galley for the rest of his life.

Ancient RomeHistorical FictionYoung AdultSlavery Depicted
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Antony and Cleopatra

Colleen McCullough · 571 pages

Passion, politics, love and death combine in a novel of the legendary love triangle between the three leaders of the Roman era: Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Octavian, from the bestselling author of The Thorn BirdsMark Antony, famous warrior and legendary lover, expected that he would be Julius Caesar's successor. But after Caesar's murder it was his 18-year old nephew, Octavian, who was named in the

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionMultiple POV
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The Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79

Lauren Tarshis · 95 pages

Ancient RomeNatural Disaster SurvivalHistorical Fiction
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Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare · 207 pages

A magnificent drama of love and war, this riveting tragedy presents one of Shakespeare's greatest female characters--the seductive, cunning Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The Roman leader Mark Antony, a virtual prisoner of his passion for her, is a man torn between pleasure and virtue, between sensual indolence and duty . . . between an empire and love. Bold, rich, and splendid in its setting and emo

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionRomance
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The Hidden Flame

Davis Bunn, Janette Oke · 400 pages

In first-century Judea, the followers of the Way have burgeoned into a vibrant, growing community that cannot be ignored. Jerusalem is in turmoil as its religious leaders on one side, and their Roman rulers on the other, conspire to stamp out the fledgling Church. And Abigail, who thought she had finally found home and safety, is caught between the opposing forces.Two suitors desire the lovely Abi

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionMultiple POV
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The Forest House

Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana L. Paxson · 440 pages

The Forest House—prequel to The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley's beloved and enduring classic—is a mesmerizing epic of one woman's mythic role at a turning point in history.In a Britain struggling to survive Roman invasion, Eilan is the daughter of a Druidic warleader, gifted with visions and marked by fate to become a priestess of the Forest House.But fate also led Eilan to Gaius, a soldi

Ancient RomeForbidden LoveHistorical FictionRomance
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A Stray Drop of Blood

Roseanna M. White · 344 pages

Ancient RomeHistorical FictionSlavery DepictedRomance
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The Gladiator's Master

Fae Sutherland, Marguerite Labbe

Ancient RomeHistorical FictionSlavery DepictedRomance
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Love from the Ashes

Denise A. Agnew · 337 pages

During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, privileged Grace Wyne and Irish immigrant Nathaniel Dempsey fall in love. They seek a new life together, but society, her family, and nature itself, wage war against them. Their forbidden love is a sure formula for disaster.

Natural Disaster SurvivalForbidden LoveHistorical FictionRomance
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Spartacus: The Gladiator

Ben Kane · 486 pages

The mighty slave army, led by Spartacus, has carried all before it, scattering the legions of Rome. Three praetors, two consuls and one proconsul have been defeated. Spartacus seems invincible as he marches towards the Alps and freedom. But storm clouds are massing on the horizon. Crixus the Gaul defects, taking all his men with him.

Ancient RomeHistorical FictionSlavery DepictedMultiple POV
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