100 books like The Gilded Wolves

By Roshani Chokshi,

Here are 100 books that The Gilded Wolves fans have personally recommended if you like The Gilded Wolves. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Enchantée

Ryan Graudin Author Of The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois

From my list on set in a magical version of Paris.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love Paris. It is one of my favorite cities on Earth. One of the reasons I adore it so much is because it has such a palpable sense of enchantment. There is magic in its cathedrals and catacombs, its pâtisseries and feal markets, its rich tradition of art and joie de vivre. You can feel it in your soul as you walk through the city, under the gazes of its gargoyles and the charm of its cafes. Thus, I’ve always been drawn to stories that take this one step further—exploring a Paris that harbors actual magic.

Ryan's book list on set in a magical version of Paris

Ryan Graudin Why did Ryan love this book?

This story is set in one of the most intriguing periods of Parisian history, starting at the cusp of the French Revolution. I loved how Gita Trelease introduced magic into the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Every detail, from the dresses to the pastries, is imbued with enchantments, while the darkness of the impending revolution serves as a taut backdrop.

By Gita Trelease,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Enchantée as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

A compellingly beautiful tale of magic, intrigue and deception, set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century Paris on the cusp of revolution.

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries - and magicians . . .
When seventeen-year-old Camille is left orphaned, she has to provide for her frail sister and her volatile brother. In desperation, she survives by using the petty magic she learnt from her mother. But when her brother disappears Camille decides to pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Using dark magic Camille…


Book cover of Strange Beasts

Ryan Graudin Author Of The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois

From my list on set in a magical version of Paris.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love Paris. It is one of my favorite cities on Earth. One of the reasons I adore it so much is because it has such a palpable sense of enchantment. There is magic in its cathedrals and catacombs, its pâtisseries and feal markets, its rich tradition of art and joie de vivre. You can feel it in your soul as you walk through the city, under the gazes of its gargoyles and the charm of its cafes. Thus, I’ve always been drawn to stories that take this one step further—exploring a Paris that harbors actual magic.

Ryan's book list on set in a magical version of Paris

Ryan Graudin Why did Ryan love this book?

If you’re searching for a book that serves up monstrous werewolves in Paris’s catacombs and opera houses, then I highly recommend picking up this book.

I loved how Susan J. Morris used references to Sherlock Holmes and Dracula in her characters, who are racing to find a man-eating beast in 1900s Paris. This was a taut, twisty-turny read!

By Susan J. Morris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Strange Beasts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A whip-smart, lusciously atmospheric adventure' Frances White

'Fantastic and fresh' Wesley Chu

'Inventive, engaging, and terrific fun' H.G. Parry

In Belle Epoque Paris, a monster is murdering powerful men. Stopping it may be a woman's job.

When the Gendarmes ask the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena for help, they don't expect them to send Samantha Harker.

She's a researcher, more used to papercuts than knife fights. Sam is also the daughter of Dracula's killer and can see into the minds of monsters. It's a perilous power, one that could help her crack this case or have her…


Book cover of The Ladies of the Secret Circus

Ryan Graudin Author Of The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois

From my list on set in a magical version of Paris.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love Paris. It is one of my favorite cities on Earth. One of the reasons I adore it so much is because it has such a palpable sense of enchantment. There is magic in its cathedrals and catacombs, its pâtisseries and feal markets, its rich tradition of art and joie de vivre. You can feel it in your soul as you walk through the city, under the gazes of its gargoyles and the charm of its cafes. Thus, I’ve always been drawn to stories that take this one step further—exploring a Paris that harbors actual magic.

Ryan's book list on set in a magical version of Paris

Ryan Graudin Why did Ryan love this book?

I’m a big sucker for magical circuses, so when I found out this book featured a magical circus set in Paris in 1925, I was doubly invested.

I loved the carousels that took you back in time, the floating trapeze artists, and the dark allure lurking under the carnival’s performances. This story switches back and forth between two timelines, drawing readers into an unfolding mystery about the circus’s fate.

I was captivated right until the story’s shocking end.

By Constance Sayers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ladies of the Secret Circus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of A Witch in Time comes a magical story spanning from Jazz Age Paris to modern-day America of family secrets, sacrifice, and lost love set against the backdrop of a mysterious circus.

Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder—a world where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky. Bound to her family's circus, it's the only world Cecile Cabot knows until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that could cost her everything.…


Book cover of Grim Lovelies

Ryan Graudin Author Of The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois

From my list on set in a magical version of Paris.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love Paris. It is one of my favorite cities on Earth. One of the reasons I adore it so much is because it has such a palpable sense of enchantment. There is magic in its cathedrals and catacombs, its pâtisseries and feal markets, its rich tradition of art and joie de vivre. You can feel it in your soul as you walk through the city, under the gazes of its gargoyles and the charm of its cafes. Thus, I’ve always been drawn to stories that take this one step further—exploring a Paris that harbors actual magic.

Ryan's book list on set in a magical version of Paris

Ryan Graudin Why did Ryan love this book?

Megan Shepherd has long been a favorite author of mine, and her Grim Lovelies series is the perfect mix of magic and Paris.

When Anouk, a witch’s enchanted familiar, is suddenly accused of her mistress’s murder, she must flee through the city to discover who actually committed the crime before time runs out and she turns back into an animal.

I loved the magical wishing fountains, the glitzy shopping sprees in Galeries Lafayette, and the tense race to keep the main character’s humanity.

By Megan Shepherd,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Grim Lovelies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

"A magical dash through the streets of Paris. Part caper, part fairy tale, part opulent witch society, you'll be swept away by all of it. GRIM LOVELIES absolutely dazzles." -Kendare Blake, #1 NYT bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series

"A darkly enchanting saga...bound to attract fans of Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black, and more." -Entertainment Weekly

"I lost myself in this magical book." -Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval and Legendary


Seventeen-year-old Anouk envies the human world, where people known as Pretties lavish themselves in fast cars, high fashion, and have the freedom to fall in…


Book cover of After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War

Mary Ryan Author Of Under the Wild Sky: A Saga of Love and War in Revolutionary Ireland

From my list on unusual history that fascinated me.

Why am I passionate about this?

I live in Dublin, Ireland and am the author of eleven novels, many of them Irish bestsellers, all of them translated into foreign languages, most of them also published in the US by St Martin’s Press. A lawyer by profession, I gave up my law practice to concentrate on writing fiction, beginning with an historical novel Whispers in the Wind which was a No. 1 Irish bestseller. History is my passion.

Mary's book list on unusual history that fascinated me

Mary Ryan Why did Mary love this book?

The fascination of this book is its portrayal of the human cost involved in the fall of a civilisation. After the Bolshevik Revolution the cream of Russian society, including most of the aristocrats, the professional classes, the officer class, the middle class, fled Russia with little but the clothes on their backs. Being Francophone, most of them sought refuge in Paris only to find there destitution. Grand Dukes who formerly had palaces, country estates and scores of servants, now drove taxis, waited at table, washed dishes; Grand Duchesses embroidered for fashion houses (the lucky ones), all yearning for their homeland and being, as time passed, regarded with less and less tolerance by the French.  

The book is a reminder that catastrophe waits only for opportunity.

By Helen Rappaport,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked After the Romanovs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Helen Rappaport, the New York Times bestselling author of The Romanov Sisters comes After the Romanovs, the story of the Russian aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who sought freedom and refuge in the City of Light.

Paris has always been a city of cultural excellence, fine wine and food, and the latest fashions. But it has also been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when…


Book cover of The Paris Winter

Lise McClendon Author Of Blackbird Fly

From my list on transporting you to France.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m American but I’ve been a Francophile for ages. I didn’t get a chance to visit France until well into adulthood. So much history lives in France and it’s been my joy to illuminate it for readers who tell me they feel transported. There is no higher compliment, in my mind. I’ve been writing novels for thirty years, set in the Rocky Mountains, America’s heartland, and the scenic villages of France. The Bennett Sisters Mysteries are now up 18 books in the series, featuring settings from Paris to Champagne to the Dordogne, with more in the works. I must go back to France to research, oui

Lise's book list on transporting you to France

Lise McClendon Why did Lise love this book?

I love weaving history into my mysteries so I was drawn to this dark tale of Paris in the Belle Époque. An English girl goes to Paris to study art but, desperately poor, throws her fate into the hands of some shady characters. The atmosphere and scene-setting of Paris during a terrible rainy winter are unforgettable. 

By Imogen Robertson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Paris Winter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Extra material includes a deleted scene and a Q&A with Imogen Robertson

Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academy to paint, and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all her courage to escape, but Paris eats money. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling joys of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving, and dreading another cold Paris winter, Maud takes a job as companion to young, beautiful Sylvie Morel. But Sylvie has a secret: an addiction to opium. As Maud is drawn into the Morels' world of elegant luxury, their secrets become…


Book cover of Dawn of the Belle Epoque

Katrina Lawrence Author Of Paris Dreaming: What the City of Light Taught Me About Life, Love & Lipstick

From my list on the history of Paris (and Parisians).

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been obsessed with Paris since the age of five. For most of my life I’ve travelled there regularly and read every book on the subject I could find. After working as a beauty editor, I decided to try to make my passion my day job. That inspired me to write Paris Dreaming: What the City of Light Taught Me About Life, Love & Lipstick, and launch a travel consultancy business, Paris for Dreamers. I work with like-minded lovers of Paris, who constantly yearn for the city’s beguiling beauty and fascinating history, and who are always planning their next trip—or visiting Paris virtually, through the pages of a book!

Katrina's book list on the history of Paris (and Parisians)

Katrina Lawrence Why did Katrina love this book?

Think of this as the literary equivalent of a Gobelins tapestry, its various threads expertly woven together to tell a grand and colourful story. McAuliffe has expertly intertwined the narratives and anecdotes of some of the most fascinating of Parisians to create a wonderfully engaging overview of the Belle Époque, that fabled and hedonistic between-wars Parisian era. By telling the history of these times through the eyes of the key players who lived—and shaped—these times, McAuliffe has produced a book that almost reads like a novel. It’s a fabulous treatment she also employed for her subsequent books that explored later periods of Paris history: Twilight of the Belle Epoque, When Paris Sizzled, and Paris on the Brink.

By Mary McAuliffe,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dawn of the Belle Epoque as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A humiliating military defeat by Bismarck's Germany, a brutal siege, and a bloody uprising-Paris in 1871 was a shambles, and the question loomed, "Could this extraordinary city even survive?" Mary McAuliffe takes the reader back to these perilous years following the abrupt collapse of the Second Empire and France's uncertain venture into the Third Republic. By 1900, Paris had recovered and the Belle Epoque was in full flower, but the decades between were difficult, marked by struggles between republicans and monarchists, the Republic and the Church, and an ongoing economic malaise, darkened by a rising tide of virulent anti-Semitism. Yet…


Book cover of Zazie in the Metro

James W. Morris Author Of Rude Baby

From my list on literary fiction to laugh out loud.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a kid, I wrote a series of plays with my family as characters. Everyone (even the dog and cat) had lines that demonstrated their quirks, except me—the sane and reasonable one. When I performed these playlets for my mother (performing all parts, since no one else would co-operate) she laughed so hard she cried, and it’s fair to say my subsequent writing career has been an attempt to recapture the feelings that experience generated. Beginning as a joke writer (including a stint working for Jay Leno), I now focus on literary fiction, though humor is always a part of my work.

James' book list on literary fiction to laugh out loud

James W. Morris Why did James love this book?

I bought an English version of this French novel about Paris while actually in that city as a starving backpacker, and have forever associated the wacky joyfulness of the book with the pleasures of that trip. Originally written in a high-energy, idiomatic, slangy, bawdy version of French that scandalized many conservative readers, the plot involves a young country girl named Zazie, obsessed with the Parisian subway system called the Metro, though she’s never seen it. Finally allowed to visit her uncle in the city, she is outraged to find the Metro closed, its workers on strike. She runs away, roaming the crowded city streets, her hilarious extended tantrum not only upsetting her befuddled uncle’s safe and settled lifestyle, but also spreading a generalized craziness throughout Paris. 

By Raymond Queneau, Barbara Wright (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Zazie in the Metro as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Impish, foul-mouthed Zazie arrives in Paris from the country to stay with Gabriel, her female-impersonator uncle. All she really wants to do is ride the metro, but finding it shut because of a strike, Zazie looks for other means of amusement and is soon caught up in a comic adventure that becomes wilder and more manic by the minute. In 1960 Queneau's cult classic was made into a hugely successful film by Louis Malle. Packed full of word play and phonetic games, Zazie in the Metro remains as stylish and witty as ever.


Book cover of Genet: A Biography of Janet Flanner

Holly A. Baggett Author Of Making No Compromise: Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, and the "Little Review"

From my list on how lesbians in history had fun in spite of everything.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up in a small town and realizing I was gay, I saw nothing but dread ahead of me. In graduate school, I came across a one-sentence description of Margaret Anderson as a “lesbian anarchist.” I knew I was home. My book is the first full-length biography of Anderson and her partner, Jane Heap. They went through a lot of crap–they were tried for publishing Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses–but above all, they were witty rebels, strong women, and proud and out. 

Holly's book list on how lesbians in history had fun in spite of everything

Holly A. Baggett Why did Holly love this book?

This biography gives you the inside experience of one of the most visible lesbians in Paris during the mid-twentieth century.

Genet was the pseudonym for Janet Flanner, The New Yorker’s correspondent for France. Flanner knew and wrote about everyone. Her column noting Anderson’s death is particularly touching. From Indiana to the City of Lights in one lifetime.

By Brenda Wineapple,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Genet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The daughter of an Indianapolis mortician, Janet Flanner really began to live at the age of thirty, when she fled to Paris with her female lover. That was in 1921, a few years before she signed on as Paris correspondent for the New Yorker, taking the pseudonym Genet. For half a century she described life on the Continent with matchless elegance.


Book cover of The Paris Connection

Alana Oxford Author Of Scotsman in the Stacks

From my list on romances with G to PG rated love scenes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like to tell people that I found my passion in life and it's books. I write them, read them, review them and I’ve been a librarian for 17 years. (I’ve worked in libraries for longer than that. Over 25 years!) It’s been dark times recently and romance has become my happy place. I’m a sucker for romances with pretty covers, quirky characters, and not so much of the on-page spice. If there’s some travel involved, even better!

Alana's book list on romances with G to PG rated love scenes

Alana Oxford Why did Alana love this book?

I fell in love with this book so hard that I read it all in one sitting. (Yes, that means I spent one, entire, luxurious day reading it! That day was an absolute gift.) I loved the writing style, the chance to armchair travel to Paris on the back of Leo’s moped alongside Hannah. It had just enough intrigue but was quiet and charming overall. Reading this book was like taking my mind to a spa to be pampered and rejuvenated. 

By Lorraine Brown,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Paris Connection as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Launch Pad Writing Competition 2022
 
In this witty and heartfelt debut love story for fans of Josie Silver's One Day in December, a woman stranded in Paris for the day discovers that the wrong road can sometimes lead us in the right direction.

When Hannah and her boyfriend, Simon, set out to Amsterdam, they’re confident that they’ll make it to his sister’s wedding in time. However, unbeknownst to them, their train is scheduled to divide in the middle of the night. And when it does, half of it continues the route to Amsterdam. And the other half—the…


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