I need a book that will make me forget what time it is.

[Kayemm]

You know what I mean. One that you don't actually read because you are there with the characters.

I've loved:-
The Woman in White
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
Persuasion
Watership Down.
The Book Thief.
A Tale of Two Cities.

Not so much
Eleanor whatshername.
Misery memoirs.
Cloud Atlas

Throw your best suggestions at me?

Thanks.

Jonathan strange and Mr norrell
Rebecca
Crime and punishment
The 100 year old man that climbed out of the window

The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton) and Washington Square (Henry James)

Also I'd second the PP who recommended Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Morland Dynasty series. I've lost count of the number of times I've reread them, and I started them back in the mid-1980s

Sandysmam I searched for some of these books on my library app and the first one I found was The Help.
I'm going to curl up in bed and start it right now!

Discovery of Witches trilogy - witches, vampires and time travel, almost a twilight for grown ups but very well written. The adaptation on sky was terrible but the books are great.

Tracy Borman's Kings Witch series - set as James 1 takes the throne. Written by a historian so very accurate, Witch trials and life at court.

River God and the follow on book The Seventh Scroll by Wilbur Smith. Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett

I’m listening to “never let me go” by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is a beautifully-written, tragic and disturbing tale. Just under halfway through and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Language of flowers

A bit of an old one now but I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb is a big American saga type (slightly reminiscent of Owen Meany). Second The Nightingale mentioned upthread.

The Pursuit of Happiness - Douglas Kennedy

I was reading it in the canteen at work one lunchtime, and had to take the afternoon off to carry on reading!

Bit corney but you just can’t go wrong with Jane Eyre.
Harvey Angel is good too.

The most absorbing books I've read this year are:

• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
• Codename Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Other favourites are absolutely everything by JT Geissinger, who writes romance with incredible depth, and Donna Augustine, Helen Harper and KF Breene if you like Paranormal stuff.

MY kindle is full of samples of all these books now, thanks OP, thanks everybody!

Me before you by JoJo Moyes if you want a serious sob - loved that book and read the last couple of chapters with tears just rolling down my cheeks.

Seven sisters series by Lucinda Riley

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber, I read it years ago and still sometimes wonder what became of the main character.
Also agree with Life after Life, I was inside that book.

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
The Painted Veil and Liza of Lambeth by W Somerset Maugham
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Bel Canto by Anne Patchett

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles - starts with The Game Of Kings

The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Frenchman’s Creek
The Poldark series.

Definitely The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Anything by Patricia Highsmith or Sarah Waters

And agree that Bleak House is one of my favourite Dickens

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Goldfinch and The Secret History bith by Donna Tartt,, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, A Quiet Belief in Angels by RJ Ellory

Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus,
The Starless Sea
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood
Palimpsest
Girl, Woman, Other
Julian Barnes - love some: The Sense of an Ending
Willa Cather
Mary Lawson
Geraldine Brooks - her non-fiction is amazing, too

Seven Sisters - Lucinda Riley
Maeve Binchey books
Rosamund Pilcher books
Jeffery Archer books

I second the time travellers wife, a beautiful book.

@Ohffs66 you’ve listed all my favourites there, but I’ve never heard of A Quiet Belief In Angels, so thanks for that. I’m going to order it now.