The Wild Ones

Carter Reed

Tijan2015

A woman seeks protection from a cold-blooded mafia hitman who was her childhood best friend. She is fleeing her brother's dangerous employer.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert1856

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

Same tense register

pace0·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.

tense → epic

pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

Mad Mabel

Sally Hepworth2025

An eighty-one-year-old woman with a history of killing people tries to hide her past when a curious young girl moves into the neighborhood.

tense → dark

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Simply Sensual

Sandra Brown2001

A private investigator is hired to secretly watch a wealthy heiress. She attempts to seduce him while he tries to hide that he is on her payroll.

tense → playful, still contemporary romance

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Linda Howard2006

While planning her wedding, a former cheerleader survives a hit-and-run and tries to convince her detective fiancé she is being targeted.

tense → playful, still contemporary romance

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

It Must Be Love

Rachel Gibson2000

An undercover detective must pose as the boyfriend of the woman who blew his cover. They navigate a fake relationship and his meddling family.

tense → playful, still contemporary romance

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Sidetracked (Mindf*ck #2)

S.T. Abby2016

As Lana continues her revenge killings, she is targeted by a new threat. Her boyfriend, an FBI profiler, tries to protect her from himself.

tense → propulsive, still romantic suspense

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

Ruthless People

J.J. McAvoy2017

The heirs to the Irish and Italian mobs marry to end a war. They compete for dominance while eliminating shared enemies.

tense → propulsive, still romantic suspense

pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

tense → propulsive, still romantic suspense

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

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.

tense → playful

pace-2·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.

tense → elegiac

pace-2·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.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

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.

tense → bleak

pace-1·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.

tense → elegiac

pace-1·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.

tense → elegiac

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2