I need help finding my next amazing read. I’ve been looking and looking on my own and I’m finally outsourcing it to all you beautiful brilliant minds.
I’m looking for a fiction book that’s:
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Cozy & evocative but NOT formulaic and silly (as in, the heroine moves to a small seaside town in a perfect cottage and finds love at the local bookstore.) Think: the Louise Penny novels without the murder and death.
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Witty/smart/funny- Full of clever writing that makes me laugh out loud occasionally. (it doesn’t have to be a comedy). Think: this is where I leave you (the book, not the movie). But please, no Christopher Lamb, or the other guy whose name I can’t think of right now, but who kind of riffs on his own dysfunctions all the time.
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Is not too dark, apocalyptic, or futuristic.
While I’ve read some of the Murderbot books and enjoyed them, and I LOVE the writing of Stephen King, given the holiday season. I just want to feel nice and hopeful about the future at the moment. Think: the outlander book series. (when is that next book coming out, dammit!)
Overall, I just want to get lost in a cozy world where everything is ultimately positive and hopeful, where I can have a few laughs and I’m left with good vibes, but the plot doesn’t insult my intelligence.
I can’t wait to read all of your suggestions, thank you in advance!
by goldenhourcocktails
6 Comments
The House in the Cerulean Sea!
Terry Pratchett – The Wee Free Men
The Hollow Kingdom is exactly what you are seeking in all ways: funny, dark, wry, witty, quirky and odd with a narrator you will fall in love with. After that, Geek Love.
Legends and Lattes and if you enjoy it the other two novels in the series should appeal.
I second House by the cerulean sea. And Wee Free men. And given the season Hogfather.
Not sure if it quite fits what your looking for but I found Liches get stiches and it’s follow ups to be very cozy despite being full of gore and death. It’s about a witch who dies and comes back as an undead creature and learns she can make more undead. She’d also really like for folks to leave her alone so she can do some crafting.
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. The first book is called The Eyre Affair and features Jane Eyre being kidnapped out of her book and held to ransom (in a kind of convoluted comic way since one of the ransom demands is renaming a motorway service station after one bad guy’s mother). They’re quirky books with a lot of puns and a very British sense of humour. They definitely feel cosy to me. I mean the main character, Thursday, has a pet dodo named Pickwick, drives a red, green and blue striped sports car and dabbles in illegal cheese trading.
I have three suggestions.
Spinning Silver – one of the coziest books I’ve read, a story inspired by fairy tales, where a money lender’s daughter decides to collect money for her dad, and she gains the attention of the fae realm. It’s charming, cozy, not very dark most of the time, and you’ll just want to climb into a blanket and drink tea while reading it.
Legends and Lattes – an ork hangs up her adventuring after taking her stash of the treasure and starts a coffee shop. It’s the coziest book. Unfortunately, her past catches up to her. It’s full of delicious descriptions, cozy stories, and hopeful nice characters.
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – The book that started the phrase “hopepunk” is about a crew on a spaceship having little adventures across the galaxy as they travel to a planet where they will build a wormhole to fast travel to and from. Lots of fun character stories, a kind crew who feel like a family, and though it is Scifi, it always feels grounded.