More Than Him

Breakable

Tammara Webber2014

A companion novel to Easy, told from Lucas's perspective. It follows his difficult childhood and his growing feelings for Jacqueline in college.

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Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert1856

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

earnest → tense

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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.

earnest → epic

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Scrap Metal

Harper Fox2013

A man fleeing a scandal takes a job on a remote Scottish island farm and falls for the local sheep farmer.

earnest → tender, still contemporary romance

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Honeysuckle Summer

Sherryl Woods2010

A woman with severe anxiety and agoraphobia after an abusive marriage finds support from a local deputy. He helps her re-enter the world.

earnest → warm, still contemporary romance

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This Girl

Colleen Hoover2013

A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.

Same earnest register, still contemporary romance

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On Dublin Street

Samantha Young2012

An American woman in Scotland enters a sex-only arrangement with her roommate's brother to avoid emotional intimacy. It is a contemporary romance.

earnest → warm, still contemporary romance

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Victory at Prescott High

C.M. Stunich

A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.

earnest → propulsive, still contemporary romance

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Quantum Radio

A.G. Riddle2023

A scientist at CERN discovers a signal from a parallel universe. He must flee a conspiracy while exploring the implications of the data.

earnest → propulsive

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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.

earnest → propulsive

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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.

earnest → playful

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Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner1936

The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

earnest → elegiac

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Either/Or

Søren Kierkegaard1992

A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

earnest → meditative

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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.

earnest → bleak

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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.

earnest → elegiac

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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.

earnest → elegiac

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