AmongReaders.com Add a tiny library
📚 AmongReaders — track what you read, talk chapter by chapter without spoilers, and read with friends. Free.Join AmongReadersSign in

🧲 Books like this

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore

Stella Duffy · 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
❤️

Angelique

Anne Golon, Serge Golon · 795 pages

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionSeries Starter
❤️

The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora

Stephanie Thornton · 440 pages

Traces the early life of Theodora, who, in sixth century Constantinople, defied every convention and rose from a common theater tart to become the empress of a great kingdom and the most powerful woman the Roman Empire would ever know.

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel · 653 pages

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power England is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him.

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionSeries Starter
❤️

The People's Queen

Vanora Bennett · 534 pages

Set in late fourteenth century England, Vanora Bennett's rich, dramatic new novel presents an England uncannily like our own. The country is in turmoil, The King is in debt to the City, and the old order had broken down - a time of opportunity indeed, for those who can seize the moment. The king's mistress, Alice Perrers, becomes the virtual ruler of the country from his sickbed. Disliked and d

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

Babylonia

Costanza Casati · 432 pages

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

The Darling Strumpet

Gillian Bagwell · 423 pages

"She sold her innocence and captured the heart of a king... Growing up in the bawdy atmosphere of 17th Century Covent Garden, Nell Gwynn is little more than a girl when she enters the world of the courtesan. But Nell learns the hard way that to be at the mercy of unscrupulous men is no life at all. With London's theatres flourishing, Nell seizes an opportunity to change her luck and takes a job se

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

World Without End

Ken Follett · 1,056 pages

En 1327, quatre enfants sont les témoins d'une poursuite meurtrière dans les bois : un chevalier tue deux soldats au service de la reine, avant d'enfouir dans le sol une lettre mystérieuse, dont le secret pourrait bien mettre en danger la couronne d'Angleterre. Depuis ce jour, le destin des enfants se trouve lié à jamais.

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

The Demon King

Cinda Williams Chima · 464 pages

Relates the intertwining fates of former street gang leader Han Alister and headstrong Princess Raisa, as Han takes possession of an amulet that once belonged to an evil wizard and Raisa uncovers a conspiracy in the Grey Wolf Court.

Royal CourtRags to RichesSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️

Forever Amber

Kathleen Winsor · 800 pages

Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England—that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to t

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

The Goose Girl

Shannon Hale · 383 pages

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, or simply Ani for short, was destined to be the queen of Kiladree. But then her father died. Now she is being whisked away to Bayern to marry a prince she's never met in order to ensure peace between the two countries. However, she faces betrayal after betrayal from those she least expects it from- her mother, her guards, and even her seemingly faithful ladyinwaiti

Royal CourtRags to RichesSeries StarterSeries
❤️

Pope Joan

Donna Woolfolk Cross · 448 pages

Rags to RichesHistorical FictionRoyal CourtFemale Lead
❤️

The Sisters of Versailles

Sally Christie · 420 pages

"A sumptuous and sensual tale of power, romance, family, and betrayal centered around four sisters and one King. Carefully researched and ornately detailed, The Sisters of Versailles is the first book in an exciting new historical fiction trilogy about King Louis XV, France's most "well-beloved" monarch, and the women who shared his heart and his bed. Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear. S

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterPolitical Intrigue
❤️

The Perfect Royal Mistress

Diane Haeger · 410 pages

Born into poverty and raised in a brothel, Nell Gwynne sells oranges in the pit at London's King's Theater, newly reopened after the plague and the Great Fire devastated the city. Soon, her quick sense of humor and natural charm get her noticed by those who have the means to make her life easier. But the street-smart Nell knows a woman doesn't get ahead by selling her body. Through talent, charm,

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

The Sekhmet Bed

Libbie Hawker, L.M. Ironside

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️

Exit the Actress

Priya Parmar

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

The Shadow Queen

Rebecca Dean · 423 pages

Reimagines the life of the woman for whom Edward VIII of England abdicated the throne, from her disadvantaged childhood to her upbringing as a socialite by wealthy relatives to her entry into British society.

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

Cleopatra's Shadows

Emily Holleman · 385 pages

Reimagines the beginnings of Cleopatra's epic saga through the eyes of her younger sister. Reading-group guide available. Abandoned by her beloved sister Cleopatra and an indifferent father, young Arsinoe must fight for her survival in the bloodthirsty royal court when her half-sister Berenice seizes Egypt's throne. To survive, she escapes the palace for the war-torn streets of Alexandria. When t

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️

The Twentieth Wife

Indu Sundaresan · 397 pages

An enchanting seventeenth-century epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses -- a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles, and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal empire - Goodreads.

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️

Little

Edward Carey · 448 pages

Rags to RichesRoyal CourtHistorical FictionFemale Lead
❤️

Shadow on the Crown

Patricia Bracewell · 416 pages

Marrying the much-older king of England in the year 1002, sixteen-year-old Emma of Normandy is surrounded by a treacherous court and regarded as a threat by her husband before drawing on her wits to gain a few friends and protect her station.

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️

The Serpent and the Pearl

Kate Quinn · 645 pages

Rome, 1492. A pope ies dying and the throne of God is lef vacant, a prize awarded only to the most virtuous -- or the most ruthless. The Borgia family begins its legendary rise, chronicled by an innocent girl who finds herself drawn into their dangerous web. Vivacious Giulia Farnese, who has beauty, wealth, and a handsome young husband, is stunned to discover that her glittering marriage is a sham

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️

Poison

Sara Poole

Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️
Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead
❤️
Royal CourtHistorical FictionSeries StarterFemale Lead

In the works

To be read SpinnerCan’t pick your next book? Spin your Want to read.Blind date with a bookPick a mood, unwrap a surprise.Add a tiny librarySnap a little free library and its books.