LitQueuelitqueue

After

Come the Spring

Julie Garwood1997

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

Same warm register, still historical romance

1 more ↓

  • Breathless

    Beverly Jenkins2017

    A hotel manager in the 1880s Arizona Territory reunites with a childhood friend. She must decide if their connection is worth her independence.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

    A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.

    warm → tense

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Paradise Logic

    Sophie Kemp2025

    A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.

    warm → epic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Into the Wilderness

    Sara Donati1998

    In 1792, an English spinster moves to a remote New York mountain village. She falls for a frontiersman caught between two cultures.

    warm → earnest, still historical romance

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Savage Prince

    Meghan March2018

    A powerful man in the New Orleans underworld becomes obsessed with a woman and pursues her despite the danger of his lifestyle.

    warm → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • The Professional: Part 2 (The Game Maker, #1b)

    Kresley Cole

    A Russian enforcer continues his pursuit of a graduate student across Europe. The focus is on their sexual power dynamic and his mafia duties.

    warm → tense, still forced proximity

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • Victory at Prescott High

    C.M. Stunich

    A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.

    warm → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    warm → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    warm → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    warm → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Wuthering Heights

    Emily Brontë1846

    Two families on the Yorkshire moors deal with the arrival and subsequent revenge of an adopted orphan. The story is told through nested narrators.

    warm → bleak

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3

  • A Farewell to Arms

    Ernest Hemingway1929

    An American ambulance driver and a British nurse conduct a love affair during the Italian campaign of World War I.

    warm → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+3

  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles

    Thomas Hardy

    A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.

    warm → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3