LitQueuelitqueue

After

Straight from the hip

Susan Mallery2009

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same warm register, still contemporary romance

1 more ↓

  • All Rhodes Lead Here

    Mariana Zapata2021

    A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

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

    pace+1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • 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

    pace+1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Scrap Metal

    Harper Fox2013

    A man fleeing a scandal takes a job on a remote Scottish island farm and falls for the local sheep farmer.

    warm → tender, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Rising Tides

    Nora Roberts1998

    Ethan Quinn works on the Maryland shore and struggles with his long-standing feelings for a local woman. It is the second book in a family saga.

    Same warm register, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Marriage Bargain

    Jennifer Probst2012

    A bookstore owner enters a one-year contract marriage with a billionaire to save her family's land. They must follow a set of rules to stay platonic.

    warm → playful, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Wild Side

    Elsie Silver2025

    A woman enters a marriage of convenience with a man she dislikes to secure custody of her nephew. They live together in a small town.

    warm → earnest, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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, still contemporary romance

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

  • Burn for Me

    Ilona Andrews2014

    A private investigator with the ability to tell truth from lies is hired to find a fire-user. She is forced to work with a dangerous billionaire.

    warm → propulsive

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak0

  • Hounded

    Kevin Hearne2011

    A two-thousand-year-old Druid lives in modern Arizona and runs an occult bookshop. He must fight a vengeful Irish god who wants his sword.

    warm → wry

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak0

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-1·prose+3·bleak0

  • 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-1·prose+3·bleak+2

  • 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-1·prose+3·bleak0

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

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2