LitQueuelitqueue

After

Sweet Nothing

Jamie McGuire2015

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • A Walk to Remember

    Nicholas Sparks1999

    A popular high school senior in 1958 recounts his relationship with the local minister's daughter. Their romance is shaped by her secret.

    Same tender register, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

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

    tender → tense

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tender → epic

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Joy Luck Club

    Amy Tan1989

    Four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters navigate cultural gaps through shared stories of their pasts in San Francisco.

    tender → elegiac

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Sheik's Arranged Marriage (Desert Rogues, No. 2)

    Susan Mallery2000

    A prince pressured to marry finds himself drawn to a studious woman who uses a secret persona to test his affections.

    tender → playful, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Losing It

    Cora Carmack2012

    A college senior has a one-night stand to lose her virginity, only to find the man is her new theater professor the next morning.

    tender → playful, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Sweet Filthy Boy

    Christina Lauren2014

    After a drunken Vegas wedding, a recent graduate follows a Frenchman to Paris for the summer. They live together while deciding if it is real.

    tender → playful, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tender → propulsive, still contemporary romance

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    tender → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    tender → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tender → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    tender → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

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

    tender → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tender → bleak

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    tender → elegiac

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    tender → elegiac

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2