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After

Son of the Shadows

Juliet Marillier2002

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More like it

Same earnest register, still historical fantasy

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  • Dear George, Dear Mary: A Novel of George Washington's First Love

    Mary Calvi

    A fictionalized account of young George Washington’s relationship with New York heiress Mary Philipse during the mid-1750s.

    Same earnest register, still star-crossed lovers

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Denser prose

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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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To recover

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  • The Sheik & the Princess in Waiting

    Susan Mallery2007

    A woman discovers her college romance was a legal marriage and travels to a desert kingdom to secure a divorce from a prince.

    earnest → playful

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  • The Drawing of the Dark

    Tim Powers1979

    An Irish mercenary in 1529 Vienna is hired to protect a brewery. The beer is magical, and the Siege of Vienna is a battle for Western magic.

    earnest → wry, still historical fantasy

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  • A Veiled Deception

    Annette Blair2009

    A vintage shop owner investigates a murder during her sister's wedding preparations to clear her family's name.

    earnest → playful

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Faster

earnest → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • Warbound

    Larry Correia2013

    In an alternate 1930s, people with magical abilities fight a war against a trans-dimensional threat. It is the final book in a trilogy.

    earnest → propulsive, still historical fantasy

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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.

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  • The Professional: Part 2 (The Game Maker, #1b)

    Kresley Cole

    A Russian enforcer continues his pursuit of a graduate student across Europe. The focus is on their sexual power dynamic and his mafia duties.

    earnest → tense

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Slower

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  • Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales

    Greer Gilman2009

    A triptych of stories set in a mythic Yorkshire, told in dense, archaic dialect. It follows the intersections of folk magic and celestial myth.

    earnest → dreamlike, still historical fantasy

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  • Dhalgren

    Samuel R. Delany1975

    An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

    earnest → dreamlike

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  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    earnest → playful

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Heavier

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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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  • Brokeback Mountain

    Annie Proulx1997

    Two ranch hands begin a secret sexual and emotional relationship in 1963 Wyoming. The story follows their occasional meetings over twenty years.

    earnest → elegiac

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  • Bright Side

    Kim Holden2014

    An optimistic college student moves to Minnesota for a fresh start while hiding a terminal diagnosis from her best friend.

    earnest → tender

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