Created by and with thanks to That Artsy Reader! This week’s theme is a type of blog post I love to read, but turns out I have NO talent for creating. So I offer a mirror image: here are five books I loved so much, I’d love to read more like them–please give your recommendations!
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1. The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
I’ve never met a Christina Lauren book I didn’t love, and I’ll take any recs for romance authors who come even close to their style–but specifically if you’ve got any romances with a tight-knit family and a borderline commitment-phobic heroine, send them my way!
2. The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Wanted: inner-city romances, preferably London-based, featuring excursions to tiny beach towns…
3. Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Look, we all know Taylor Jenkins Reid is inimitable, and in any other hands, the documentary-format of this one might have been exhausting rather than brilliant. So I’ll settle for recs for angsty romances between musicians, if you’ve got any!
4. Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready
I haven’t read anything like this in a while, and it makes me miss that late 00s/early 10s vampire trend. On the off chance that I missed any, send me all your funny, tongue-in-cheek vampire romances–or else just send me your vampires with unusual lore. I’ll take all the vampires I can get!
5. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Two words to end this search for recs: dark academia.
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What books have you read lately that you’d recommend?
FangirlFlax 
Wicked Game does sound good!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-to-read-if-you-love-hard-science-fiction/
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I’m long overdue a reread!
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I’d totally take recommendations for things in these directions as well! 🤗
Since I don’t read a lot of romance outside of exam time, I highly doubt I’ll have read anything there that you haven’t already picked up. I do really like Talia Hibbert’s and Emily Henry’s books, but you probably already know about them 😉
As for angsty romances between musicians, I’d recommend Where She Went, the sequel to Gayle Forman’s If I Stay.
And Dark Academia – that’s totally my thing! If We Were Villains, The Betrayals, and The Secret History are some of my favorites. And I’ve heard The Atlas Six is really good, although I haven’t read it yet myself…
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Great minds, haha!
I love that you read romance in exam season–it’s such a destresser! I’ve read two of Emily Henry’s this year, and Beach Read was my favourite–I’ve been wanting to try out the Brown sisters books for ages though, thanks for the reminder! 🙂
Oh my GOD, Where She Went destroyed me about as hard as If I Stay did! I love that duology, even though they absolutely ruined me, haha .
Thank you for the dark academia recs!! The Secret History is on my radar, but I’ll be checking the rest out 🙂 you are a wealth of great recs, my friend!
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I’m so glad you also liked Where She Went! I’ve heard so many people say they hate it and complain that it ruins the characters from If I Stay, but I actually love it even more than the first book 😂 It’s so wonderfully angsty and emotional!
And I hope you enjoy the dark academia recs!
Also, regarding vampires – Katie Wismer is currently writing a new adult vampire series called The Marionettes, which I’ve been beta reading. It’s got similar vibes to early 2000s stuff
like Vampire Diaries or Vampire Academy, so maybe you’d enjoy it? The second book is set to come out in a couple of weeks, so it’ll probably take some time before the series is finished, though…
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Nooo! I didn’t think it ruined a thing–except for me, haha, it broke me all over again!
The Marionettes sounds definitely like my sort of thing with those comparisons, I’ll have to check it out!
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I’m also pretty terrible at these “if you like x, you might like y” recommendation posts 😂 If someone enjoys an author’s book I usually tell them to check out the author’s other books! Like TJR and CLo’s books are all awesome 😍
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Haha, I envy people who are so good at them! But yes, I’ve been making my way through CLo’s and TJR’s back catalogues and falling in love at ever step!
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I haven’t read any of these, but The Ninth House and The Flat Share are both on my TBR!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
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I hope you enjoy them when you read them!
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I love Christina Lauren! Have you read Lucy Score?
Happy TTT!
Lori
https://fiftytwo.blog/2021/11/15/ttt-if-you-like/
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I have not, but I am heading to check her out right now!
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I haven’t read Daisy Jones & The Six, but a book I read earlier this year that has been compared to it is The Final Revival of Opal & Nev.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/bookish-gift-guide-stocking-stuffer-edition/
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Ooh, I’ll check that out–thank you!
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Ooh for the Flat Share one I’d say try some Jenny Colgan – or Funny Girl/Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby? ‘Funny Girl’ is a girl from Blackpool trying to be a comedienne in London in the 60’s. One of my favourites!
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I will 100% be looking those up, thanks for the recs! 🙂
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Wicked Game sounds good! I enjoyed that late 00s/early 10s paranormal trend, too. Kelley Armstrong wrote some of my favorites in that genre.
My TTT this week: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2021/11/16/top-ten-tuesday-comfy-sff-books/
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It’s so underrated! I’m almost scared to reread in case I’ve overhyped it in my own mind, haha. Which coincidentally is also how I feel about Kelley Armstrong’s Darkest Powers series!
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I know that feeling!
I enjoyed Kelley Armstrong’s Darkest Powers trilogy, as well as the Darkness Rising trilogy that followed it. But my favorites of hers from that era were the main Women of the Otherworld books narrated by Paige. (Dime Store Magic & Industrial Magic) They’re adult and not YA, so they get steamier, but I really like them. She also has a new YA duology set in that universe, Wolf’s Bane and Wolf’s Curse. I think those came out in 2019/2020? I enjoyed them a lot, too.
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I’ve had the first Darkness Rising book for about a decade and just not read it–same as Broken and Stolen! I have no idea why, aha. I think I just realised I wasn’t a werewolf kinda gal?
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If it helps, Maya in Darkness Rising isn’t actually a werewolf… But I know what you mean. It seems most fans of Armstrong’s Otherworld have a favorite supernatural group (and mine isn’t the werewolves either).
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That does help, and make me wonder why I was convinced she was haha? (I can’t help it; I’m always siding with the vampires. Unless there are witches involved.)
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Well, Maya is a were… but not a wolf. I found her journey of learning more about who and what she was interesting enough that I got over my usual preference for other groups instead of the shifters.
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Ha! That seems like high praise for the book 🙂
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These really aren’t “my” genres, so I have no idea what to recommend. Sorry! Looks like other people are more helpful, thank goodness 🙂
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Ha, that’s okay! I’ve felt that way a lot today with people posting sci-fi, haha. Thank God for different tastes! 🙂
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I haven’t read any of these, but I just finished Catherine House which is dark academia and it was really unique.
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I’ll have to look it up, thanks!
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The only one I’ve read is Ninth House, and I’ve not really read much other dark academia, so I’m not sure I can help, sorry!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/top-ten-tuesday-342/
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Me too–it’s a good only one to have read, I think haha!
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I think so too!
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For fun vampires (and other supernatural creatures) try Vivian Shaw. Titles include Strange Practice, Dreadful Company, and Grave Importance.
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Ooh, thanks for the rec!
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