Apologies! I’d meant to have this particular list up last week, but life intervened. So, better late than never, if you like historical holiday-themed novels, you’ll probably like…. — Mary Balogh’s A Christmas Promise, a classic Regency marriage of convenience story with a holiday twist; — Jo Beverley’s Christmas Angel, another Regency marriage of convenience…

As some of you may know, I have a weakness for theme reading. Now that we’ve hit the holiday season, it’s theme reading bonanza time. Since there are so many, I’m dividing this into two lists: contemporary holiday books this weeks and historical holiday books next week. If you like contemporary, holiday-themed novels, you’ll probably…

Having grown up with PBS’s Mystery on Sunday nights, one of my particular pleasures is the British mystery. I’m not talking any of the more recent offshoots of the genre, the historical mystery, and so forth, but the standard, bread and butter fare: the Detective Chief Inspector or dedicated amateur who goes around solving a…

I was chatting with a friend the other day about popular history books that read like novels. They haven’t quite reached the “add dialogue and stir” stage (i.e. Jean Plaidy), but they’re way too much fun to be assigned in history classes. If you like biographies and history books that read like novels, you’ll probably…

Remember, remember the 5th of November/ Gunpowder, treason and plot;/ I see no reason why gunpowder treason/ Should ever be forgot…. It’s been 407 years since the Gunpowder Plot was discovered and no one, after years of scholarly wrangling, is entirely sure what happened. Who sent that mysterious warning note? Was the plot really a…

With the winds howling outside my window, I was tempted to detour this “if you like” into something about storms– but it’s hard to think of “like” and “storm” in the same phrase just now, so, instead, I’m going with the original plan: Halloween movies. Every year, I put on my princess dress, fill my…

If you like Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper, you’ll probably like: — Her three other books: The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, and The Distant Hours (if you haven’t read these yet, you’re in for a treat); — The Ashford Affair: I usually try to leave my books out of these, but some of…

When I posted a call for “If You Like” queries a few weeks ago, one of the requests that popped up was for “Lady Academic Fiction”, fiction set in an academic setting or with a grad student/professor as the protagonist. What could be more appropriate for back to school season? If you like Lady Academic…

I was just remembering how, last year, I went through about a month of being obsessed with John Harwood’s The Ghost Writer. I talked about it to anyone who would listen. (If I remember correctly, it was Pam who recommended it to me, here on this site, on either If You Like or Weekly Reading…

Last week, I posted about historical friends to lovers plots. This week, it’s on to contemporary-set novels. If you like friends to lovers stories set in the now (or near now), you’ll probably like…. — No one does friends to lovers stories like Kristan Higgins. My favorite is Fools Rush In, but you can’t go…