82 books like The Duke and I

I’ve long been inspired by Butler’s writing, which features BIPOC characters front and center. As a multiracial person, I seldom saw people who looked and thought like me in the older fiction I read.

The notable thing about this book is that it’s technically science fiction, not alternate history, since the novel's beginning in 2024 (this year!). However, much of what Butler wrote has come to pass, raising one question: Has her vision of the future become an alternate version of the past? I love trying to wrap my head around that conundrum.

I love stories where the heroes are facing great challenges. In One Perfect Rose, as the story begins, Stephen Kenyon, Duke of Ashburton, has just learned from his doctor that he has only a short time left to live. Shocked, he runs from his wealthy world and wanders the country as an ordinary man. When he rescues a young boy who had been swept away by a flood, he is embraced by the boy’s family and finds all that he had been missing in his life—the warmth of a family and our heroine, Rosalind. His hidden past and his knowledge of his impending death made this a page-turner for me.

As the story begins, Jackson Rule is being released from prison after serving fifteen years for a crime he confessed to. Since he’s our hero, I knew right then he had to be innocent, and I was hooked. Who was he protecting?  He gets hired by a preacher’s daughter, Rebecca, who has misgivings about hiring him. He proves himself to be a hard worker, and Rebecca also discovers that there’s something exciting about him that she can’t resist.

The hero Mitchell Shaw is a Navy SEAL, but as the story begins, he wakes up in a homeless shelter with amnesia. He does have a gun in his boot and money, too, but no clue how he got there. He finds a note that says “Looking forward to meeting you.”—Rebecca Keyes, the Lazy Eight Ranch. He heads for the ranch, hoping it will help him figure out who he really is. What a great hero!

I got soooo hooked on Julie’s contemporary suspense books. In Heartbreaker, as the story opens, we learn our hero agent Nick Buchanan has just saved a young boy’s life by taking out a serial killer who held him captive. Nick then gets to take some time off for a vacation, and as he’s on the plane waiting to depart, he stops an armed man from trying to free a prisoner another lawman has on the plane. He is definitely the white knight showing up at just the right time. When he meets up with his best friend, he learns a serial killer is after his friend’s sister. I couldn’t wait to see how he was going to protect the heroine, Laurant, from the psychopath and bring him in. This is my kind of hero—courageous, up for anything, never afraid to put his life in danger to right a wrong.

I love this book’s original take on the “spore” or “fungal” zombie outbreak. It feels like the author took The Last Of Us (which I also adore) and flipped the story on its head. Melanie is this unique character, at once the snarky, hilarious child of the piece and its terrifying monster.

She’s the threat, battlefield, and hope—and I find that combination so compelling. While it’s a grim, often bleak tale set in a decimated UK, this thread of unexpected hope and unusual connections kept me hooked. This story might not give me the future I wanted at the start of the story, but it offers a different vision with its own version of hope for humanity, and because of that, it has a special place on my shelf.

I debated which of Cosmere’s many books to put here but settled on this one because it was my introduction to Sanderson. The main attraction of his books for me is always the unique and scientific hard magic systems and how they relate to every aspect of his stories, from characters to worldbuilding.

My favorite part was how the characters had to study the magic system and uncover its specific functions to “solve” the problem that was plaguing them. This is a pretty common narrative force behind many of Sanderson’s books, but I also enjoyed this one because of its religious and sociopolitical commentary. I found the high priest’s arc especially compelling, as he found his views on faith challenged by another character.

The World Over is the first book in a series, so it sets up the expectations for what is coming.

Winter, on the other hand, is the last in a series, and it did a lot to show me how to bring together an ensemble cast in a way that builds to a satisfying ending without making previous installments feel unnecessary or redundant.
While zombies don’t appear in Winter, the history of the experimentation done to create the evil queen’s lupine army gets a lot of screen time without crossing the line into over-telling.

For anyone interested in the more technical aspects of a zombie apocalypse, Winter is a great novel for learning to weave background exposition with foreground action.

Whenever I read a Cat Sebastian, I sigh in envy at how well she writes nuanced characters with nuanced emotions.

In Soldier’s Scoundrel, two heroes from very different backgrounds unite around a single goal.

From Jack’s perspective, we see the challenges of poverty and classism. From Oliver, we see a veteran trying to adjust to everyday life.

Together, they try to protect and defend women from physical, emotional, and economic abuse. Their love story is beautiful, requires them to pierce layers of their psyches to find vulnerability, and makes you feel all of the feels.

Even better, by the end of the novel, I had a new perspective on how the patriarchy works in societal systems. This is a read that made my empathy grow like the Grinch’s heart! 

Alexis Hall is the most well-known author on this list, and this sapphic Regency fantasy will not disappoint readers who like a Byronic love interest.

I loved the way the novel is narrated by the very opinionated Robin Goodfellow (aka “Puck”), who has been kicked out of the fairy court. Robin describes how Maelys Mitchelmore’s social life becomes complicated when an unknown ill-wisher curses her.

A chance encounter introduces her to the dark, brooding, and attractive Lady Georgianna Landrake, who helps Maelys discover and defeat her adversary. But Lady Georgianna suffers from her own family curse, and magical forces nearly tear the two lovers apart.

It takes courage, wisdom, and the help of Maelys’ friends to free Lady Georgianna and allow love to triumph.