Fun Romances and a Non-Fiction Adventure

Try these books if you're looking for:

• romance
• fun
• light, but with some complexity
• not too much physicality
• read like Marina Adair, Robin Bielman, Deanna Raybourne

Queen of Babble 
By Meg Cabot
F CABOT
Lizzie Nichols discovers that her inability to keep her mouth shut has landed her in hot water when she aggravates her unfaithful boyfriend, is stranded in London, and takes a job as a bartender for a catered wedding at a French chateau. This title is also available as an ebook on Overdrive.

Can You Keep a Secret? 
By Sophie Kinsella
F KINSELLA
Terrified by a rough take-off, Emma Corrigan spills her darkest secrets to a stranger on an airplane. But come Monday morning, Emma's office is abuzz about the arrival of Jack Harper, the company's elusive CEO. Suddenly Emma is face-to-face with the stranger from the plane, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her. This title is also available as an ebook on Overdrive.

The Rosie Project 
By Graeme Simsion
F SIMSION
Don Tillman, a professor of genetics, sets up a project designed to find him the perfect wife, starting with a sixteen-page, scientifically valid questionnaire. Then he meets Rosie, who is everything he's not looking for in a wife, but an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate to help Rosie find her biological father. Don comes to realize that despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Venetia 
By Georgette Heyer
ROMANCE HEYER
Venetia Lanyon--beautiful, intelligent and independent--lives in comfortable seclusion in rural Yorkshire with her precocious brother Aubrey, but when she meets the dashing, dangerous rake Lord Damerel, her well-ordered life is turned upside down. This title is also available as an ebook on Overdrive.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon 
By David Grann
918.1104 GRA
In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century. This title is also available as an ebook on Overdrive.

You may also enjoy these titles:
Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich (ebook available)
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes
Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie (ebook available)

Light Fantasy Adventure Stories

Try these books if you're looking for:

• light reading
• fantasy stories
• adventure stories

Peter and the Starcatchers 
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
YA F BARRY
In this terrific story—a “prequel” to Peter Pan—Peter is an orphan who sails from England on the ship Never Land. On board he meets Molly, a young Starcatcher, whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust from a greedy pirate and the native inhabitants of a remote island. A fast, fun read.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore 
By Robin Sloan
F SLOAN
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco web-design drone and landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Soon he embarks on a complex analysis of the customers' behavior and ropes his friends into helping him figure out just what's going on.

Inkheart 
By Cornelia Caroline Funke
YA F FUNKE
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life. The fun begins when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.

The Graveyard Book 
By Neil Gaiman
YA F GAIMAN
Nobody Owens is a very small boy who wanders out of the house just before his entire family is murdered. He wanders down the street to the local graveyard where he is adopted by the ghosts who reside there. Nobody has quite an unusual upbringing and of course, there’s some unfinished business.

Light and Happy Teen Fantasy, Historical Setting

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean reads
• Teen books
• Fantasy
• Emphasis on characters and relationships
• Clever writing
• Non-contemporary time period
• Light reads
• Shannon Hale read-alikes
  

Princess of the Midnight Ball
By Jessica Day George
YA F GEORGE
A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse.

Secondhand Charm
By Julie Berry
YA F BERRY
On her journey to the royal university to become a doctor, fifteen-year-old Evie, wearing potent gypsy charms, learns of her monstrous inheritance.

Rose Daughter
By Robin McKinley
YA F MCKINLEY Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her love he is released from the curse that had turned him from man to beast.

Fairest
By Gail Carson Levine
YA F LEVINE
In a land where beauty and singing are valued above all else, Aza eventually comes to reconcile her unconventional appearance and her magical voice, and learns to accept herself for who she truly is.

A Curse as Dark as Gold
By Elizabeth Bunce
YA F BUNCE
Upon the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Charlotte struggles to keep the family's woolen mill running in the face of an overwhelming mortgage and what the local villagers believe is a curse, but when a man capable of spinning straw into gold appears on the scene she must decide if his help is worth the price. (This book isn't quite as light and happy as some of the others.)

LDS Books

Try these book if you're looking for:

• Books by LDS authors
• Light reads
• Clean reads

Icing on the Cake
By Elodia Strain
ROMANCE STRAIN
Annabelle Pleasanton, having recently been promoted at work, is also trying to deal with her best friend’s engagement and attractive Isaac Matthews. However, balancing everything turns out to be much more difficult than she anticipated.

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.

Cankered Roots
By G.G. Vanagriff
MYSTERY VANAGRI
Alexandra Campbell and Brighamina Poulson use genealogical records and stories to solve a murder mystery. Along the way, though, they discover secrets in Alex’s own family that help her understand much more about who she is.

Undercurrents
By Traci Hunter Abramson
ROMANCE ABRAMSON
Shaye Kendall is in the witness protection program and can’t reveal her secret to anyone. As much as she’d like to be able to get involved with other people, particularly Matt Whitmore, she knows it isn’t safe. However, when she realizes that whoever is after her has found her, she has to decide if she can trust Matt.

Sanctuary
By Beverly Lewis
F Lewis
A secret past forces Melissa James to flee her marriage and seek refuge with a Pennsylvania Dutch family, while her husband fears his own mistake will prevent their reunion. (This is not LDS, but it’s a clean, easy read.)

Light and Humorous Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Humor
• Romance
• Light books

A Man in a Kilt
By Sandy Blair
ROMANCE BLAIR
Beth Pudding inherits a haunted castle and must reside there in spite of its ghost in order to fulfill the terms of the will. At first annoyed by her presence, Laird Duncan MacDougal gradually finds himself intrigued by her forceful personality, and when she is in danger of drowning he acts to save her, bringing her back to his own time to brighten his days and break the curse under which he suffers.

Maggie Needs an Alibi
By Kasey Michaels
MYSTERY MICHAELS
Mystery novelist Maggie Kelly, who must deal with the arrival of detective Viscount Saint Just and his inept sidekick--fictional characters who have suddenly become very real--finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend. Kasey Michaels creates genre-blurring novels that may appeal to Kurland's readers.

An Improper Proposal
By Patricia Cabot
ROMANCE CABOT
On the eve of his wedding, Captain Connor Drake cannot shake the memory of Miss Payton Dixon's embrace, especially when she remains determined to win his heart.

Moving Target
By Elizabeth Lowell
MYSTERY LOWELL
Serena Charters inherits from her murdered grandmother a few pages of an illuminated manuscript and a warning to trust no one. Serena sends copies of the manuscript out to be appraised. One of the appraisers, Erik North, works with a highly regarded security, appraisal, and brokerage house for art. Erik has a personal interest in the manuscript and soon develops a personal interest in Serena. Together they piece together the origins of the manuscript and the motivations behind Serena's grandmother's murder, and foil the plans of a host of villains.

Quirky, Upbeat Teen Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Upbeat or light books
• Read-alikes for Diana Wynne Jones
• Quirky tone
  

The Secret Hour
By by Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE
Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess.

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.

Sabriel
By Garth Nix
YA F NIX
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.

Avielle of Rhia
By Dia Calhoun
YA F CALHOUN
Taught to hate and fear the heritage that sets her apart from most people of the kindgom, fifteen-year-old Princess Avielle of Rhia must finally embrace the magic of her Dredonian ancestors to save the very people who scorn her.

Wizard Test
By Hilari Bell
YA F BELL
Fourteen year-old Dayven is devastated when he learns he has wizard powers, since wizards are considered to be disloyal deceivers who believe in nothing, until he undergoes wizard training and discovers a new way of looking at the world that will change his values, friendships, and future.

Clean, Light Mysteries

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean reads
• Light books
• Mysteries
• Romance
• Nancy Atherton read-alikes
  

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
By Dorothy Gilman
MYSTERY GILMAN
The grooviest grandma ever to turn C.I.A. agent, Mrs. Pollifax is now assigned to spring a double agent, one Magda Ferenci-Sabo, from Istanbul. As usual, Mrs. Pollifax manages to pick up a number of unlikely helpers along the way. First in series.

Blueberry Muffin Murder
By Joann Fluke
MYSTERY FLUKE
Bakery owner and sleuth Hannah Swensen is on the case when Connie Mac, the pompous host of a cable TV cooking show who has been chosen to bake this year's official Winter Carnival cake, is murdered while eating one of Hannah's famous blueberry muffins.

The War against Miss Winter
By Kathryn Miller Haines
MYSTERY HAINES
It’s 1943, and Rosie Winter is a struggling actress in New York City, making ends meet by working days pushing papers at a detective’s office. When she discovers her boss murdered in his closet, she’s pressured by his former clients to continue investigating his last case–the one that led to his untimely death. She must rely on her skills as an actress to charm those who hold the information she needs.

The Cat Who Blew the Whistle
By Lilian Jackson Braun
MYSTERY BRAUN
When the discovery of embezzlement at the Lumbertown Credit Union in Sawdust City (aka Mudville, population 5,000) coincides with the disappearance of its wealthy president, Moose County's best-known philanthropist, columnist, and amateur detective, Jim Qwilleran, decides to investigate the mystery--with the help of his two Siamese cat sleuths, Koko and Yum Yum.

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 figure out what it is about Saren’s refused suitor that terrifies Saren so much—and brings so much danger to any of his enemies.

Creeps Suzette
By Mary Daheim
MYSTERY Daheim
Laughter and humor are the order of the day in this witty, light-hearted murder mystery. Once again Mary Daheim has given us a twisted tale of mystery and mayhem, filled with a cast of suspicious characters, dark secrets, and endless revealing clues. In need of a break, Judith McMonigle Flynn decides to accompany her cousin Renie to Creepers, the estate of kindly old Leota Burgess, but she soon ends up embroiled in a murderous intrigue involving the old lady and her disreputable relatives.

April Fool Dead
By Carolyn Hart
MYSTERY Hart
Annie Darling, bookstore owner, works with her husband, Max, to unmask an interfering prankster who caused her clever book promotion to backfire, but her search is complicated by her unpredictable mother-in-law, a troubled friend, and a killer.

Teen Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Contemporary books
• Light books
• Romance
• Teen books

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
By Ann Brashares
YA F BRASHARE
Four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants.

Ariana: The Making of a Queen
By Rachel Ann Nunes
ROMANCE NUNES
On a rainy Parisian evening, Ariana de Cotte considers her life. It is her wedding night, but Jacques has gone drinking with his friends, and she is left alone with her memories . . . memories of a lost twin brother; of her estranged parents, of the loneliness and anger that consume her. She is 19, and her life seems beyond hope or repair.

So Super Stylish
By Rose Wilkins
YA F WILKINS
Sixteen-year-old Octavia Clairbrook-Cleeve is trying to maintain a low profile at her new public school, but with her actress-mother's new romance in all the tabloids, Octavia's life is just too complicated.

My Secret Boyfriend
By Lurlene McDaniel
YA F MCDANIEL
Jordan Starling enters the eighth grade after an uneventful summer. To compete with one of the popular girls, she makes up a summer romance. The only problem is the "romance" was with Ryan, the son of her mother's best friend. Now, Ryan's parents have split up and Ryan and his mom are coming to live with the Starlings.

Humorous Light Mysteries

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Humor
  
• Light books
• Mysteries

Don of the Dead
By Casey Daniels
MYSTERY DANIELS
A former rich girl whose life has fallen apart around her, Pepper Martin takes a job as a tour guide in a local cemetery, but a head-on collision with a gravestone has left her with the ability to communicate with the disgruntled deceased, including a nasty Mafia don who is threatening to haunt her forever unless she can track down his killers.

Calamity Jayne
By Kathleen Bacus
MYSTERY BACUS
When she stumbles upon a dead body, Tressa "Calamity Jayne" Turner is determined to gain a little hometown respect by solving this murder, but in order to do so, she must turn to Department of Natural Resources officer Rick Townsend, who constantly picks on her, for help.

Death by Inferior Design
By Leslie Caine
MYSTERY CAINE
A friendly little design contest between home designer Erin Gilbert and her competitor, handsome Steve Sullivan, turns deadly when the two set out to rearrange the decor of two homes, across the street from each other in a quirky neighborhood in Crestview, Colorado.

Clean, Light Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical Fiction
• Light books
• Clean reads

Countess Below Stairs
By Eva Ibbotson
YA F IBBOTSON
After the Russian Revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian countess, flees to England. Penniless, she hides her background and becomes a servant in the Westerholme household, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties—not to mention her attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme.

Christy
By Catherine Marshall
F MARSHALL
When Christy Huddleston leaves a life of privilege and ease to teach in the impoverished Smokey Mountains, her faith is severely tested by her pupils, the love of two men, and the curious customs of the mountain people in her community.

Mrs. Mike, the Story of Katherine Macy Flannigan
By Benedict Freedman
F FREEDMAN
Young Kathy, a city girl, marries a Canadian Mountie and begins a new life in the wilderness of the North Woods.

Bath Tangle
By Georgette Heyer
ROMANCE HEYER
Lady Serena Carlow is an acknowledged beauty, but she's got a temper as fiery as her head of red hair. When her father dies unexpectedly, Serena discovers to her horror that she has been left a ward of Ivo Barrasford, marquis of Rotherham, a man whom Serena once jilted and who now has the power to give or withhold his consent to any marriage she might contemplate.

Blue Castle
By L. M. Montgomery
YA F MONTGOMERY
Valancy Stirling, an inhibited twenty-nine-year-old spinster, undergoes a total personality change when a doctor tells her she has no more than one year to live.