Adventurous Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Fantasy
• Read-alikes for Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Rick Riordan, and J.K. Rowling

The Curse of Chalion
By Lois McMaster Bujold
SCI-FI BUJOLD Chalion #1
Seeking a position in the royal household, Cazaril is offered the post of secretary to the Royesse Iselle, the sister to the heir to Chalion's throne, but his new assignment brings him face to face with old enemies.

The Runelords
By David Farland
SCI-FI FARLAND
A young prince-wizard embarks on a journey to a far-flung fiefdom to marry a princess, a journey that soon becomes a matter of life and death.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA F CASHORE
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Olympos
By Dan Simmons
SCI-FI SIMMONS
Achilles and Hector lay seige to the home of the gods, inadvertently triggering a massive conflict between humanity and such powerful beings as Setebos, Prospero, and Caliban.

Mister Monday
By Garth Nix
YA F NIX Keys to #1
Although Arthur Penhaligon is supposed to die, he is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock, and now some bizarre creatures--including Mister Monday, his avenging messengers, and an army of dog-faced Fetchers--will stop at nothing to get the key.

Historical Fiction Set in Europe or Asia

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical fiction
• International setting

Invisible Bridge
By Julie Orringer
F ORRINGER
An unforgettable story of three brothers, of history and love, of marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family's struggle against annihilation, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.

The Smile
By Donna Joe Napoli
YA F NAPOLI
In Renaissance Italy, Elisabetta longs for romance, and when Leonardo da Vinci introduces her to Guiliano de Medici, whose family rules Florence but is about to be deposed, she has no inkling of the romance--and sorrow--that will ensue.

The Clan of the Cave Bear
By Jean M. Auel
F AUEL
After a natural disaster kills Ayla's tribe, members of the Clan of the Cave Bear find her and mistrust her because her blonde hair and blue eyes are different, but she eventually helps them survive.

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
By Lensey Namioka
YA F NAMIOKA
Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
By Lisa See
F SEE
A story of friendship set in nineteenth-century China follows an elderly woman and her companion as they communicate their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies through a unique secret language.

Single Girl in the City

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-lit

Swept off Her Feet
By Hester Browne
F BROWNE
Enlisted by her straight-laced sister to value various objects in a friend's dilapidated Scottish castle, antiques dealer Evie Nicholson is swept up in plans for a romantic ball while uncovering scandalous secrets about an Edwardian woman and falling for her host.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
By Sarah Strohmeyer
F STROHMEY
Despairing of finding Mr. Right after years of tiresome dating, thirty-six-year-old Genie Michaels nevertheless falls for a best-selling author who proposes on national television to an anonymous other woman, a humiliating event after which Genie pretends to be the man's fiancé.

Millie’s Fling
By Jill Mansell
F MANSELL
Novelist Orla owes her life to her friend Millie, whose rotten boyfriend has just left her. So Orla invites Millie to Cornwall, envisions Millie as the heroine of her next novel, and decides to find Millie the man of her dreams. Except the two women have drastically different ideas about what kind of guy that should be.

Sammy’s Hill
By Kristin Gore
F GORE
Working as a health-care analyst for Ohio Senator Robert Gary, idealistic young intern and hypochondriac Samantha Joyce struggles to balance her seventy-hour work week, a constantly shifting set of neuroses, and a new romance.

Jemima J
By Jane Green
F GREEN
Plus-sized Jemina Jones struggles with weight, dating, and work issues as she navigates a treacherous world dominated by thinner women.

Books with Humor and Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Romance
• Humor

Maybe This Time
By Jennifer Crusie
ROMANCE CRUSIE
North Archer, Andie's ex, asks her to become the guardian of two orphans and live in a haunted house What follows is an adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-in-law, and her jealous fiance. Just when Andie thinks things can't get more complicated, North shows up, making her wonder if maybe things could be different between them.

Very Valentine
By Adriana Trigiani
F TRIGIANI Valentin #1
Valentine Roncalli struggles to save her decades-old family business, finding love and the life she wants along the way.

Just Breathe
By Susan Wiggs
ROMANCE WIGGS
With Chicago--and her marriage--in the rear view mirror, cartoonist Sarah Moon flees to the town where she grew up. As she comes to terms with her lost marriage, Sarah encounters a man she never expected to see again: Will Bonner, the high school heartthrob she'd skewered mercilessly in her old comics. Now a firefighter, he's changed as well. But just as her heart is reawakening, Sarah discovers she is pregnant--with her ex's twins.

Dangerous Edge of Things
By Tina Whittle
MYSTERY WHITTLE Tai Rand #1
Trying to run her newly inherited Confederate-themed gun shop, Tia Randolph's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body in her brother's driveway.

Nature Girl
By Carl Hiassen
F HIAASEN
Honey Santana, the bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes," has plans to give Boyd Shreave and his mistress a lesson in civility, unaware that she is being followed by her obsessed ex-employer and her one-time drug runner ex-husband.

Character-Driven Modern Classics with Rural Settings

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Classics
• Strong characterization
• Rural setting

As I Lay Dying
By William Faulkner
F Faulkner
In a novel about hopeless perseverance in the face of mortality, guileless Lena Grove searches for the father of her unborn child, Reverend Hightower is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen, and drifter Joe Christmas is consumed by his mixed ancestry.

The Truest Pleasure
By Robert Morgan
F Morgan
Pentecostal worship ideals attract Ginny while her husband Tom disapproves, but they keep their marriage intact in the early-20th-century Blue Ridge mountains through a series of difficulties.

My Antonia
By Willa Cather
F Cather
Antonia works as a servant for her neighbors after her father's death, elopes, and then returns to marry a Bohemian farmer.

Cold Mountain
By Charles Frazier
F Frazier
After Inman escapes from a war hospital in 1864 and starts walking to Cold Mountain, Ada struggles to save her mountain farm with the help of Ruby, an illiterate but efficient farmer.

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
F Steinbec
The Joad family, Okie farmers forced from their dustbowl home during the Depression, try to find work as migrant fruitpickers in California.