Chick-Lit and Fantasy with Happy Endings

Try these books if you're looking for:

• chick lit
• happy endings
• fantasy
• read like Jane Austen, Eragon, Sarah Eden

Eon 
By Alison Goodman
YA F GOODMAN
Eon has a secret, keeping it will result in either life or death. This coming of age novel takes place in feudal Asia, during a time when dragons still exist and men are the supreme rulers of everything. Could all of that be about to change??? With a strong protagonist, shrewd evil villain and unique supporting characters, this is a great fantasy in which to escape. Do not be discouraged if you think the beginning moves a bit slow. The adventure picks up quite nicely.

Persuasion: A Latter-day Tale 
By Rebecca H. Jamison
ROMANCE JAMISON
Eight years ago, Anne told Neil Wentworth she’d marry him. The next day, bowing under her parents’ disapproval and her own fear that she didn’t know how to have a happy marriage, especially after watching her parents’ marriage dissolve, she broke it off. Though they went their separate ways, Anne never forgot him or found anyone else. Now Neil’s back…This is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic.

The Apothecary’s Daughter 
By Julie Klassen
F KLASSEN
Set in England when society’s rules allowed women little advancement of the mind or spirit, Lilly Haswell tries to balance two worlds. Lilly is a sensible, intelligent, strong willed young woman who has had much family responsibility set on her shoulders. Her wealthy Aunt and Uncle offer her a “dream come true” when they invite her to stay with them in London. Sometimes life just does not work out like the fairy tales and she is suddenly called home. Strong characters, attention to detail describing the life and customs of England and the apothecary’s world plus a fun plot make this an enjoyable read.

Historical Fiction Set in England

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical fiction
• Books set in England
• Read-alikes for Jane Austen or Philippa Gregory

Green Darkness
By Anya Seton
F SETON
A 16th-century Benedictine monk Stephen Marsdon falls in love with Celia de Bohun and forsakes his vows only to be reincarnated 400 years later in a similar situation.

Innocent Traitor
By Alison Weir
F WEIR
A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shaffer
F SHAFFER
In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.

Katharine of Aragon
By Jean Plaidy
F PLAIDY
An evocative historical novel chronicles the life of Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon, from her early days in England after being sent from Spain to marry Henry's sickly older brother, through her subsequent marriage to Henry, to the divorce that ignited a storm of controversy that changed history.

Rebecca
By Daphne du Maurier
F DU MAURIER
A classic novel of romantic suspense finds the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter entering the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learning the story of the house's first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is unnaturally devoted.

Love Stories Like Those by Nicholas Sparks or Jane Austen

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Romance
• Nicholas Sparks read-alikes
• Jane Austen read-alikes
• Meaningful themes
• Strong Characterization
  

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 since he needs a caretaker for his young daughter, Missie, and Marty needs food and shelter. Not interested, but desperately in need, she accepts. Marty is determined to pull her weight until spring when Clark will pay her way home.

One Tuesday Morning
By Karen Kingsbury
ROMANCE KINGSBURY
The last thing Jake Bryan knew was the roar of the World Trade Center collapsing on top of him and his fellow firefighters. The man in the hospital bed remembers nothing--not rushing to help trapped victims, not being blasted from the building, and not the woman sitting by his bedside who says she is his wife. Jamie Bryan will do anything to help her husband regain his memory. But that means helping Jake rediscover the one thing Jamie has never shared with him--his deep faith in God.

The Gazebo
By Emily Grayson
ROMANCE GRAYSON
Overburdened single mother Abby Reston is hard at work as editor of her small upstate New York hometown newspaper when Martin Rayfiel appears at her door unannounced. Too busy to pay much attention to the handsome elderly man as he attempts to tell her his story of love, loyalty, and loss that spanned half a century, Abby finds herself intrigued in spite of her efforts to ignore the stranger in her office.

The Last Promise
By Richard Paul Evans
F EVANS
Eliana came to Italy to study art and soon married Maurizio Fernini and had a son. What seemed like a fairy tale quickly soured - Eliana knows that in her adopted country she's expected to shrug philosophically at her husband's cheating, but she remains furious and desperately lonely. Then she meets American Ross Story. Eliana asks Ross to sit for a portrait, and soon she's not as lonely as she used to be. But as the two fall for each other, she faces a tormenting choice between romantic love and her love for her son.

Bel Canto
By Ann Patchett
F PATCHETT
When terrorists seize hostages at an embassy party, an unlikely assortment of people is thrown together, including American opera star Roxane Coss, and Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese CEO and her biggest fan.