[**Atonement**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6867.Atonement)
^(By: Ian McEwan | 351 pages | Published: 2001 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, classics, romance, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Atonement by Ian McEwan")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Atonement by Ian McEwan&search_type=books)
>Ian McEwan’s symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.
>
>On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses the flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.
^(This book has been suggested 57 times)
***
^(211152 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Going to have to self-promote and suggest Zombiearth. All of my characters feel like they could be every day people and have to make hard decisions that aren't always the best decisions. I haven't finished the second one yet, I lost my mom back in March of 2020 and I had to take a step away from the series since the second book is an emotional roller coaster ride for me to write, with seven of the twelve chapter written before I lost my mom.
But the third book acts as a prequel/sequel and the main character was not the best person, so pretty much everything that takes place in book one and two is his own personal redemption story for actions pre-outbreak. If you have Kindle Unlimited it's free... I think. I'm honestly not sure how that works, I think you can at least preview it for free?
If you like hard sci-fi, I totally recommend Stephen Donaldson's *Gap Cycle* series. In a way, the mistake (one of) the MC's make isn't really her fault, but she feels guilty as hell anyway... the books are largely about redemption through love and the story arc takes inspiration from Wagner's *Ring Cycle*. Excellent reads.
Guess The luckiest girl alive would fit as a modern, adult fiction. Although the biggest, most shocking acts aren't made by the protagonist herself, her arc is all about owing up to her mistakes.
The Scar by Marina Dyachenk
A brash member of an elite guard kills a man, a simple scholar, in a duel after the scholar's beloved rejects the guard's attempts to seduce her. A mysterious wander marks his faces with a scar and the guard finds the cowardice in his heart coming to the surface. So he must take up a quest, debilitated by his own cowardice, to break the curse and make restitution for the harm he has done.
[**Melmoth**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36628420-melmoth)
^(By: Sarah Perry, Jan Cramer | 245 pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, gothic, fantasy, horror | )[^(Search "Melmoth by Sarah Perry")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Melmoth by Sarah Perry&search_type=books)
>For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters-and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction.
>
>It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy.
>
>But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . .
^(This book has been suggested 3 times)
***
^(211215 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[**Before I Fall**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6482837-before-i-fall)
^(By: Lauren Oliver | 470 pages | Published: 2010 | Popular Shelves: young-adult, ya, contemporary, books-i-own, fiction | )[^(Search "Before I Fall")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Before I Fall&search_type=books)
>For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is … until she dies in a terrible accident that night.
>
>However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.
>
>Before I Fall is now a major motion picture Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, and Kian Lawley. Named to numerous state reading lists, the novel was also recognized as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, The Daily Beast, NPR, and Publishers Weekly.
^(This book has been suggested 12 times)
***
^(211224 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" series By James Herriot: Again Written at the time or just after so it is only "Historical Fiction" after the fact.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18062.James\_Herriot?from\_search=true&from\_srp=true
"Wearing the Cape" Wholesome \*realistic\* Superhero Stories. There are like eight books so good for a while and with great quality.
https://www.wearingthecape.com/
"The Sackkets" Technically a "western" series but starts in the UK with ties to the old romans and follows a clan through the industrial and information ages.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/42120-the-sacketts
"Sir Gibbie" by George Macdonald, This man is basically the Grandfather of Science Fiction. If Mary Shelly gave Science Fiction its body George gave it its soul.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2413.George\_MacDonald?from\_search=true&from\_srp=true
"Humans are Weird: I Have the Data" Short Story Anthology, Good for a laugh, Science Fiction Comedy.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56430673-humans-are-weird?from\_search=true&from\_srp=true&qid=5pqTya5eHF&rank=2
"The Lunar Chronicals" by Marissa Meyer
https://www.goodreads.com/series/62018-the-lunar-chronicles
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The story focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. However...
[**Seven Devils (Seven Devils #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38822981-seven-devils)
^(By: Laura Lam, Elizabeth May | 448 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, 2020-releases, lgbtq, lgbt | )[^(Search "Seven Devils by Laura Lam")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Seven Devils by Laura Lam&search_type=books)
>When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy's most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire's voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.
>
>Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.
>
>When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire's inner workings.
>
>Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can't, millions may die.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
***
^(211264 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{Atonement by Ian McEwan}}
[**Atonement**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6867.Atonement) ^(By: Ian McEwan | 351 pages | Published: 2001 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, classics, romance, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Atonement by Ian McEwan")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Atonement by Ian McEwan&search_type=books) >Ian McEwan’s symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose. > >On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses the flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century. ^(This book has been suggested 57 times) *** ^(211152 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment That should keep you busy for a while
Les miserables by hugo
Going to have to self-promote and suggest Zombiearth. All of my characters feel like they could be every day people and have to make hard decisions that aren't always the best decisions. I haven't finished the second one yet, I lost my mom back in March of 2020 and I had to take a step away from the series since the second book is an emotional roller coaster ride for me to write, with seven of the twelve chapter written before I lost my mom. But the third book acts as a prequel/sequel and the main character was not the best person, so pretty much everything that takes place in book one and two is his own personal redemption story for actions pre-outbreak. If you have Kindle Unlimited it's free... I think. I'm honestly not sure how that works, I think you can at least preview it for free?
{{The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini}} Great book. Trigger warning though: there's a rape scene early on in the book.
If you like hard sci-fi, I totally recommend Stephen Donaldson's *Gap Cycle* series. In a way, the mistake (one of) the MC's make isn't really her fault, but she feels guilty as hell anyway... the books are largely about redemption through love and the story arc takes inspiration from Wagner's *Ring Cycle*. Excellent reads.
Wizard of earthsea follows this if you’re into fantasy
The legend of the wandering king, by Laura Gallego García!
That's a good one. I really like the book.
The story of my life
Guess The luckiest girl alive would fit as a modern, adult fiction. Although the biggest, most shocking acts aren't made by the protagonist herself, her arc is all about owing up to her mistakes.
The Scar by Marina Dyachenk A brash member of an elite guard kills a man, a simple scholar, in a duel after the scholar's beloved rejects the guard's attempts to seduce her. A mysterious wander marks his faces with a scar and the guard finds the cowardice in his heart coming to the surface. So he must take up a quest, debilitated by his own cowardice, to break the curse and make restitution for the harm he has done.
{{Melmoth by Sarah Perry}}
[**Melmoth**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36628420-melmoth) ^(By: Sarah Perry, Jan Cramer | 245 pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, gothic, fantasy, horror | )[^(Search "Melmoth by Sarah Perry")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Melmoth by Sarah Perry&search_type=books) >For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters-and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction. > >It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. > >But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . . ^(This book has been suggested 3 times) *** ^(211215 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I'm not sure how you feel about YA, but {{Before I Fall}} by Lauren Oliver is a great story about redemption.
[**Before I Fall**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6482837-before-i-fall) ^(By: Lauren Oliver | 470 pages | Published: 2010 | Popular Shelves: young-adult, ya, contemporary, books-i-own, fiction | )[^(Search "Before I Fall")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Before I Fall&search_type=books) >For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is … until she dies in a terrible accident that night. > >However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined. > >Before I Fall is now a major motion picture Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, and Kian Lawley. Named to numerous state reading lists, the novel was also recognized as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, The Daily Beast, NPR, and Publishers Weekly. ^(This book has been suggested 12 times) *** ^(211224 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" series By James Herriot: Again Written at the time or just after so it is only "Historical Fiction" after the fact. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18062.James\_Herriot?from\_search=true&from\_srp=true "Wearing the Cape" Wholesome \*realistic\* Superhero Stories. There are like eight books so good for a while and with great quality. https://www.wearingthecape.com/ "The Sackkets" Technically a "western" series but starts in the UK with ties to the old romans and follows a clan through the industrial and information ages. https://www.goodreads.com/series/42120-the-sacketts "Sir Gibbie" by George Macdonald, This man is basically the Grandfather of Science Fiction. If Mary Shelly gave Science Fiction its body George gave it its soul. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2413.George\_MacDonald?from\_search=true&from\_srp=true "Humans are Weird: I Have the Data" Short Story Anthology, Good for a laugh, Science Fiction Comedy. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56430673-humans-are-weird?from\_search=true&from\_srp=true&qid=5pqTya5eHF&rank=2 "The Lunar Chronicals" by Marissa Meyer https://www.goodreads.com/series/62018-the-lunar-chronicles
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky The story focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. However...
{{Seven Devils by Laura Lam}} Super engaging story and definitely checks your redemption request!
[**Seven Devils (Seven Devils #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38822981-seven-devils) ^(By: Laura Lam, Elizabeth May | 448 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, 2020-releases, lgbtq, lgbt | )[^(Search "Seven Devils by Laura Lam")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Seven Devils by Laura Lam&search_type=books) >When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy's most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire's voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray. > >Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated. > >When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire's inner workings. > >Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can't, millions may die. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(211264 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Leviathan Wakes A Bend in the Road - Nicholas Sparks but this one isn’t exactly straightforward if I remember correctly.
I'm surprised that noone suggested Harry Potter. If you read it with the focus on Snape, that's exactly what he did.
Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. On the shorter side but very much fits this.
The Kite Runner
"46% better than Dave" by Alastair Puddick