Well-written Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Literary
• Strong Characterization

The Count of Monte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas
F DUMAS
Imprisoned unjustly for supposedly having helped the exiled Napoleon, Edmond Danté escapes after 15 years, finds a treasure in the cavern of Monte Cristo and sets out to reconnect with his childhood love and punish his enemies.

These is My Words
By Nancy E. Turner
F TURNER
In 1881, Sarah Agnes Prine, 17, goes from New Mexico to Texas and back, protecting her family with her rifle, and then becoming ranch manager while her second husband serves as a Texas Ranger. An excellent read.

The Winner Stands Alone
By Paulo Coelho
F COELHO
At the Cannes Film Festival, a successful, driven entrepreneur goes to the darkest lengths to reclaim a lost love. Captured in all their crassness are producers, actors, aspiring starlets, supermodels, and notorious fashionistas, whose lives and actions hold sway over millions.

The Private Patient
By P. D. James
MYSTERY JAMES
Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a murder at a private nursing home for the wealthier patients being treated by the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. The book has the cerebral qualities James is known for and focuses on the intertwining relationships of the patients and staff that reside at the stately English residence, Cheverell Manor.

Humorous Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Humor

Eyre Affair
By Jasper Fforde
SCIFI FFORDE
It's 1985 in England, at least on the calendar; the Crimean War is in its hundred-and-thirty-first year; time travel is nothing new; and the literary branch of the special police, led by the beguiling Thursday Next, are pursuing Acheron Hades, who has set his sights on kidnapping the Jane Eyre, a theft that could have disastrous consequences for Brontë lovers who like their story straight.

Good Omens
By Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
SCIFI GAIMAN
The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichris.

Practical Demonkeeping
By Christopher Moore
SCIFI MOORE
Meet one of the most mismatched pairs in literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor façade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, though, thinks he sees a way to rid himself of his traveling companion. The winos and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.

Unseen Academicals
By Terry Pratchett
SCI-FI PRATCHETT
The wizards of Unseen University in the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else. As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed forever.

Historical Fiction Set in the U.S.

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical Fiction
• U.S. Setting
  

The Diary of Mattie Spenser
By Sandra Dallas
F DALLAS
Unexpectedly married to the man considered the catch of her hometown, a young woman finds herself traveling via covered wagon to Colorado in search of a new start, with only her reticent husband and her personal journal to keep her company.

Into the Wilderness
By Sara Donati
F DONATI
In 1792, Elizabeth Middleton embarks on the first great adventure of her life. Having been living with her aunt and cousin's in England she now travels across the ocean to join her father and brother in the primitive wilderness of upper New York, hoping to be able to teach children in the area.

March
By Geraldine Brooks
F BROOKS
In a story inspired by the father character in Little Women and drawn from the journals and letters of Louisa May Alcott’s father, a man leaves behind his family to serve in the Civil War and finds his beliefs challenged by his experiences.

Fever, 1793
By Laurie Halse Anderson
YA F ANDERSON
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.

Contemporary Teen Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-Lit
• Contemporary
• Romance
• Teen

Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras
By Cathy Hopkins
YA F HOPKINS
Looking young for her age, fourteen-year-old Lucy finds her friendship with Izzie strained when sixteen-year-old Nesta comes into the mix, in a coming-of-age tale about three British girls.

How Not to Spend Your Senior Year
By Cameron Dokey
YA F DOKEY
After her father testifies against a major criminal and her family must enter the witness protection program, Jo O'Connor must begin living under a new identity, and finds something strange has happened to her old one.

Squashed
By Joan Bauer
YA F BAUER
As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own. (This title isn't really chick-lit, but it's still a great book by a great author.)

Cupidity
By Caroline Goode
YA F GOODE
When the gods of Mount Olympus send Cupid to an Ohio high school to help make the dreams of seventeen-year-old Laura Sweeney come true, things get a bit out of control when the old matchmaking tricks go awry.

Pulling Princes
By Tyne O’Connell
YA F O’CONNELL
Hoping to become more popular at her elegant English boarding school, fifteen-year-old Californian Calypso Kelly invents a fake handsome boyfriend, until she realizes that her wit and skill at fencing may be enough to attract the attention of a real-life handsome prince.

Teen Fantasy Similar to Robin McKinley

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Clean reads
• Teen
• Robin McKinley read-alikes
• Gail Carson Levine read-alikes
  

The Goose Girl
By Shannon Hale
YA F HALE
On her way to marry a prince she’s never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers. This is a first in the Bayern series.

Golden
By Cameron Dokey
YA F DOKEY
Born bald and raised by an adoptive mother, Rapunzel is finally told the truth about Rue, another daughter trapped in a tower due to a witch's curse, and so she heads off to help the imprisoned girl but becomes jealous of Rue's beautiful hair.

East
By Edith Pattou
YA F PATTOU
Edith, a young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment.

Sirena
By Donna Jo Napoli
YA F NAPOLI
The gods grant immortality to the mermaid Sirena when she rescues a human man from the sea and they fall in love, but his mortality creates great conflict between love and honor when he is called to defend Greece in the Trojan War.

Sorcery and Cecelia, or, The enchanted chocolate pot: being the correspondence of two young ladies of quality regarding various magical scandals in London and the country
By Patricia C. Wrede
YA F WREDE
In 1817 in England, two young cousins, Cecilia living in the country and Kate in London, write letters to keep each other informed of their exploits, which take a sinister turn when they find themselves confronted by evil wizards.

Historical Fiction with Romantic Subplot

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical Fiction
• Romance
• Intrigue and Espionage
  

The Golden Tulip
By Rosalind Laker
F LAKER
Francesa Visser is about to begin an art apprenticeship with Jan Vermeer when she finds out that, in order to get money to pay off gambling debts, has found a new patron to support him—a patron with a shady past who demands Francesca as collateral. An unexpected person provides the needed financial aid to allow Francesca to go free—and to pursue a relationship with a tulip grower.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra
By Margaret George
F GEORGE
History and legend are combined in this story of Cleopatra, who tells of life from the time of her mother’s death to her own suicide. This emotional saga includes political intrigue and passion.

The Innocent
By Posie Graeme-Evans
F GRAEME-EVANS
Anne, a beautiful young peasant, travels to London to find work. Her skills with herbs and healing attract the attention of the Queen, while her beauty catches the eye of King Edward IV.

The Black Tulip
By Alexander Dumas
F DUMAS
Famous author Alexander Dumas weaves historical events surrounding a brutal murder into a tale of romantic love. Set in Holland in 1672, this timeless political allegory draws on the violence and crimes of history, making a case against tyranny and creating a symbol of justice and tolerance: the fateful tulipa negra.

Fast-paced Suspense Novels

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fast-paced
• Suspense

Odd Thomas
By Dean Koontz
F KOONTZ
Over the course of two days, Odd Thomas, his soul mate Stormy Llewellyn, and an assortment of allies make their way through a dark, terrifying world in which past and present, and life and death collide as they try to avert a cataclysm.

Bourne Identity
By Robert Ludlum
F LUDLUM
A shooting victim, suffering from amnesia, finds himself with a Swiss bank account in the name of Jason Bourne, a professional assassin being manipulated by a top-secret American government organization to kill his arch rival, the dreaded Carlos. (If you have seen the movie…it’s nothing like the book. It will still keep you turning the pages.)

The Relic
By Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
F CHILD
Investigating a series of savage murders that disrupt a massive new exhibition at the New York Museum of Natural History, graduate student Margo Green finds a clue in a failed Amazonian expedition.

Along Came a Spider
By James Patterson
F PATTERON
A serial murderer is suspected of kidnapping two people. Alex Cross and a woman Secret Service supervisor collaborate to find them.

Saving Faith
By David Baldacci
F BALDACCI
A woman who is about to tell the FBI everything she knows about a powerful lobbyist, flees for her life with a private investigator, a man she barely knows, yet must trust.

Historical Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Historical fiction
• Supernatural
• Strong characterization
• Detailed plot lines

The Falling Woman
By Pat Murphy
SCI FI MURPHY
With her personal life in shambles for many years, and alienated from modern society, Elizabeth Butler buries herself in her archaeological work in Yucatan, seeking answers to how the Maya lived. In the process she conjured up the ghost of a long-dead Mayan priestess, who offers to help bring about a new cycle of the world if Elizabeth will make a sacrifice of her own.

Stardust
By Neil Gaiman
SCI FI GAIMAN
In the quiet English hamlet of Wall, Tristran Thorn embarks on a remarkable journey through the world of Faerie to recover a fallen star for his lover, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester.

A Game of Thrones
By George R.R. Martin
SCI FI MARTIN
The kingdom of the royal Stark family faces its ultimate challenge in the onset of a generation-long winter, the poisonous plots of the rival Lannisters, the emergence of the Neverborn demons, and the arrival of barbarian hordes.

Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea
By Diana Marcellas
SCI FI MARCELLAS
Certain that she is the last shari'a witch on the planet, Brierley saves the life of a powerful Allemanii nobleman's wife, and in doing so, stumbles into a treacherous web of power and deceit that threatens her very survival.

Dark, Mysterious and Suspenseful Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Dark tones
• Fantasy
• Mystery
• Suspense
  

The Secret Hour (Midnighter series #1)
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE
Jessica Day discovers she belongs to a select group of individuals whose birth at the stroke of midnight gives them the special ability to move about in a mysterious 25th hour. As Jessica takes her place among these extraordinary teens, she must battle the increasingly dangerous creatures that have suddenly become more violent and aggressive.

Twilight
By Stephenie Meyer
YA F MEYER
Bella moves to Forks to live with her father, and ends up meeting--and falling in love with--the mysterious Edward Cullen. Edward and his family are vampires who feed on animals, but through her association with them Bella meets vampires who are after her blood and the Cullens try to save her.

A Great and Terrible Beauty
By Libba Bray
YA F BRAY
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

Nine Coaches Waiting
By Mary Stewart
MYSTERY STEWART
When Linda Martin arrives at Château Valmy as a governess, it seems like a dream. But terror is crouching in the shadows. Her charge's uncle Leon is the epitome of charm but only his son Raoul seems able to stand up to him. To Linda, Raoul is an enigma--a darkly attractive enigma.

Uglies
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFELD
Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society where the citizens believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors.

Clean Fast-Paced Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean reads
• Fast-paced
• Romance

Keturah and Lord Death
By Martine Leavitt
YA F LEAVITT
When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

The Covenant
By Beverly Lewis
F LEWIS
Four sisters in Lancaster County witness the secrets of their tiny home community as Leah suffers from her sister Sadie's shameful loss of innocence with an English boy and finds her own dreams of love with Jonas spinning out of control. This novel is first in Lewis’ popular Abram’s Daughters series. Lewis’ novels are largely informed by her religious values, and she is well know for her clean romantic fiction.

A Great and Terrible Beauty
By Libba Bray
YA F BRAY
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world. Though not a romance, this novel invokes the same Gothic tradition that Stephanie Meyer played on in her Twilight Series.

Love Comes Softly
By Jeanette Oke
ROMANCE OKE
Marty is a young pioneer woman, recently widowed and pregnant with no place to live and no means to go home. Clark Davis asks her to be his wife of "convenience" since he needs a caretaker for his young daughter, Missie, and Marty needs food and shelter. Not at all interested, but desperately in need, she accepts. Marty is determined to pull her weight and do her time until spring when Clark has agreed to pay her way home.

Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
F DU MAURIER
The story is told through the eyes of the young second wife of Maxim de Winter, owner of Manderley, a Cornish estate that had won renown under the executive management and fascination of the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca. Bit by bit, the character of Rebecca is built up in the mind of her successor, and the sinister figure of the housekeeper who had adored her, strengthens the conviction that her ghost haunts the place. Then comes disaster, impending tragedy, and in the face of what seems the end of all things, a new Rebecca emerges -- and a new marriage is brought to life.

Clean Romantic Suspense Novels

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean reads
• Romance
• Suspense
• Lynn Gardner read-alikes
  

Rebecca
By Daphne Du Maurier
F DU MAURIER
This classic novel of romantic suspense takes place at the great Cornwall estate of Manderley. Maxim de Winter and his frightened new wife try to live with the haunting legacy of Maxim's first wife, the beautiful and cold Rebecca, who died in a sailing accident.

Book of a Thousand Days
By Shannon Hale
YA F HALE
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. The arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

A Bid for Love
By Rachel Ann Nunes
ROMANCE NUNES
Cassi Mason is the head buyer for a prestigious art gallery in California. Jared Landine is a handsome returned missionary, who works as a buyer for an exclusive New York gallery. Sparks fly as the two come head-to-head in a bidding war for a very expensive piece of art. Both are determined to win but other people also want it, and are willing to do anything to get it. To survive they must trust each other.

Time Travel Romances

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Romance
• Time Travel
  

Enchantment
By Orson Scott Card
SCI-FI CARD
Follows one man from ninth-century Russia to present-day America as he struggles to rescue a princess and her kingdom, find true love, and overcome the blackest of evil.

Somewhere in Time
By Richard Matheson
F MATHESON
When Richard Collier, a dying screenwriter, becomes infatuated with Elise McKenna, a celebrated actress at the turn of the century, his love proves strong enough to bring him through time to her side.

The Hourglass Door
By Lisa Mangum
YA F MANGUM
Dante, a prisoner sent from fifteenth-century Italy into the present time as punishment, meets and falls in love with Abby, a high school senior who may be the only one who can save him.