Books like 'Brighter Than the Sun'
Readers who enjoyed Brighter Than the Sun by Julia Quinn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance action / adventure comedy 20th century industrial-era regency historical-fiction marriage-of-convenience humor
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The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 98 ratingsWhat happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 80 ratingsAn alternative cover for this ISBN can be found hereSophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady...Categorized as:
humor industrial-era family 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book british-isles -
A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsMiles Vorkosigan has a problem: unrequited love for the beautiful widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson, violently allergic to marriage after her first exposure. If a frontal assault won't do, Miles thinks, try subterfuge. He has a cunning plan... Lord Mark Vorkosigan, Miles' brother, also has a problem: his love has just become unrequited again. But he has a cunning plan.. -
Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDuellist and gamester, the young Marquis of Vidal had fairly earned the sobriquet 'Devil's Cub' - a tribute to the wilder excesses of his father, the Duke of Avon.When Mary Challoner discovered Dominic's plans to run away with her lovely sister, she donned cloak and mask in a daring impersonation and found herself bound for France with the most notorious rake in Georgian London...Categorized as:
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Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe fifteenth adventure for Amelia, Emerson and the whole Peabody-Emerson clan! At last the Great War is over. Amelia, her distinguished Egyptologist husband Emerson and their extended family are preparing for another season of excavation in Egypt. To everyone's great joy their son Ramses and his wife Nefret have become parents...Categorized as:
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The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAmelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season -- after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era victorian 20th-century action-adventure adult africa -
The Magic of You by Johanna Lindsey
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAlso see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] ACE #1 ACE #2 As wild and reckless as the most incorrigible of her male cousins, Amy Malory has reached a marriageable age and has set her sights on a most inappropriate mate: the straight-laced American ship captain who once nearly had her Uncle James hung hanged for piracy... -
A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWhen a devilish lord and a bluestocking set off on the road to ruin... time is not on their side. Minerva Highwood, one of Spindle Cove's confirmed spinsters, needs to be in Scotland. Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne, a rake of the first order, needs to be... anywhere but Spindle Cove... -
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhen the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on business, he leaves his only daughter Sophia with his sister, Elizabeth Rivenhall, in Berkeley Square. Newly arrived from her tour of the Continent, Sophy invites herself into the circle of her relatives... -
The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAlong with Wit, Charm, Health, and Courage, Princess Amy of Phantasmorania receives a special fairy christening gift: Ordinariness. Unlike her six beautiful sisters, she has brown hair and freckles, and would rather have adventures than play the harp, embroider tapestries . . . or become a Queen...Categorized as:
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Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this delightful new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service, Georgie is plotting a trip down the aisle but finds herself embroiled in a murder that hits a little too close to home...Georgie is finally able to plan for her wedding in the summer...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction humor industrial-era 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe 1895-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Amelia Peabody, her dashing Egyptologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and their precocious (some might say rambunctious) eight-year-old son, Ramses. The long-denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor has finally been granted, and the much-coveted burial chamber of the Black Pyramid is now theirs for the exploring...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era victorian 20th-century action-adventure adult africa -
The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady by Gerald Morris
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSquire Terence and Sir Gawain are off questing again, but this time their journey is overshadowed by their ultimate destination: Gawain is to meet up with the Green Knight in a contest that could easily lead to Gawain's death. Along the way the two have a slew of hair-raising adventures and encounter the usual odd assortment of characters, including the plucky Lady Eileen...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure arthurian book children christian -
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsConnie Willis' Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Doomsday Book uses time travel for a serious look at how people connect with each other. In this Hugo-winning companion to that novel, she offers a completely different kind of time travel adventure: a delightful romantic comedy that pays hilarious homage to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat... -
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The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe first and most successful in the Baroness’s series of books that feature Percy Blakeney, who leads a double life as an English fop and a swashbuckling rescuer of aristocrats, The Scarlet Pimpernel was the blueprint for what became known as the masked-avenger genre...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsMiles from anywhere, Darracott Place is presided over by elderly Lord Darracott. Irascible Lord Darracott rules his barony with a firm hand. The tragic accident that killed his eldest son by drowning has done nothing to improve his temper. For now, he must send for the next heir apparent--the unknown offspring of the uncle whom the family is never permitted to mention...Categorized as:
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These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsUnder the reign of Louis XV, corruption and intrigue have been allowed to blossom in France, and Lord Justin Alastair, the notorious Duke of Avon, known for his coldness of manner, his remarkable omniscience, and his debauched lifestyle. Society believes the worst of Justin, who is clearly proud of his sobriquet, 'Satanas'...Categorized as:
aristocracy drama family historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency 20th-century -
The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAt the age of five-and-thirty, Sir Waldo Hawkridge, wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as the nonesuch for his athletic prowess, and when he comes north to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom hall in the West Riding, his arrival leads to the most entertaining of ramifications. When they learned that Sir Waldo was coming, the village gentry were thrown into a flurry...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency victorian 20th-century action-adventure age-gap -
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer, Joan Wolf
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen the news went out that Sylvester Rayne, the elegant, impeccable Duke of Salford, was seeking a wife, all England was aflutter! Lord Sylvester is a polished bachelor who has stringent requirements for his future wife -- she must be well-born, intelligent, elegant and attractive. And of course she must be able to present herself well in high society... -
Les Liaisons Dangereuses a Play by Christopher Hampton
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"Les Liaisons Dangereuses", A Play by Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos. Produced on the Broadway Stage by James M. Nederlander, The Schubert Organization, Inc., Jerome Minskoff, Elizabeth I. McCann and Stephen Graham in association with Jonathan Farkas... -
The Warlock in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBack in Print: the novel that launched the epic Warlock series. In an interstellar romp that proves science and sorcery can mix, only hard-headed realist Rod Gallowglass can save the people of Gramarye from their doom by becoming--The Warlock in Spite of Himself--if only he believed in magic... -
The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer, Anne Stuart
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsShe could disguise everything -- except her love for him . . .The capricious politics of the eighteenth century made it necessary for Robin & Prudence Merriot to engage in a charming deception - one which became more & more fraught with danger..Categorized as:
aristocracy family historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency 20th-century action-adventure -
An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsPatrick Taylor first charmed readers with An Irish Country Doctor, a warm and enchanting novel in the tradition of James Herriot and Jan Karon. Now Taylor returns to the colorful Northern Ireland community of Ballybucklebo, where there's always something brewing beneath the village's deceptively sleepy surface... -
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTo Kitty Charing, the conditions of her guardian's will were intolerable. She had to marry one of his nephews before she could inherit a farthing of the old man's fortune. And the only nephew she wanted was handsome Jack Westruther. Jack, however, made it quite clear he was not ready for marriage...Categorized as:
drama family friends-to-lovers historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency 20th-century -
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Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOne thing that constantly disrupts the peace of life at Blandings is the constant incursion of impostors. Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice. Now there are two of them – both intent on a dangerous enterprise...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe national bestselling author of Royal Blood whisks her heroine away to the French Riviera for fun-and danger. Lady Georgiana Rannoch has once again been called into service by Her Majesty the Queen. This time she's sent to Nice on a secret assignment that's nothing to sneeze at-recover the Queen's stolen snuff box...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth audiobook -
The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen, Katherine Kellgren
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAudie Award Finalist, Solo Narration—Female, 2013She may be 35th in line for the throne, but Lady Georgiana Rannoch cannot wait to ring in the new year—before a Christmas killer wrings another neck…On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me—well, actually, my true love, Darcy O’Mara, is spending a feliz navidad tramping around South America...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth audiobook -
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAmelia Peabody inherited two things from her father: a considerable fortune and an unbendable will. The first allowed her to indulge in her life's passion. Without the second, the mummy's curse would have made corpses of them all...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era victorian 20th-century action-adventure adult africa -
Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"First published in the U.S.A. 1941 under the title Beau Wyndham"--Title page verso...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency victorian 20th-century action-adventure -
The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe Talisman Ring is one of Heyer's funniest and fastest-paced romantic comedies, telling the story of a fugitive heir, a tempestuous Frenchwoman, and the two sensible people who try to keep them out of trouble.Neither Sir Tristram Shield nor Eustacie, his young French cousin, share the slightest inclination to marry one another. Yet it is Lord Lavenham's dying wish...Categorized as:
aristocracy historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer, Karen Hawkins
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsGervase Frant finally returns to his father's estate to claim his title as the new Seventh Earl of St. Erth at Stanyon. Unscathed from glory at Waterloo, Gervase expected a hero's welcome - instead he's given a frigid cold shoulder...Categorized as:
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Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRoger Mifflin is part pixie, part sage, part noble savage, and all God's creature. With his traveling book wagon named Parnassus, he moves through the New England countryside of 1915 on an itinerant mission of enlightenment. Mifflin's delight in books and authors is infectious--with his singular philosophy and bright eyes, he comes to represent the heart and soul of the book world... -
A Change of Fortune by Jen Turano
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLady Eliza Sumner is on a mission. Her fortune was the last thing she had left after losing her father, her fiancé, and her faith. Now, masquerading as Miss Eliza Sumner, governess-at-large, she's determined to find the man who ran off with her fortune, reclaim the money, and head straight back to London. Mr...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency victorian 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Mrs. Tim Christie by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTenth May, 1934. At this moment I look up and see the Man Who Lives Next Door standing on his doorstep watching my antics, and disapproving (I feel sure) of my flowered silk dressing gown. Probably his own wife wears one of red flannel, and most certainly has never been seen leaning out of the window in it - The Awful Carrying On of Those Army People - he is thinking... -
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A Touch of Flame by Jo Goodman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsUSA Today bestselling author Jo Goodman returns to the gunslinging outlands of A Touch of Frost with a sizzling new romance where the new town doctor learns there's nothing she likes better than a run-in with the law. Dr. E. Ridley Woodhouse is like no physician Ben Madison has ever met—she's a woman...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era 20th-century abuse action-adventure adult audiobook -
Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAs thirty-fifth in line for the throne, Lady Georgiana Rannoch may not be the most sophisticated young woman, but she knows her table manners. It's forks on the left, knives on the right, not in His Majesty's back. Here I am thinking the education I received at my posh Swiss finishing school would never come in handy...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure amateur-sleuth audiobook book -
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer, June Barrie
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt is in regrettable circumstances that beautiful Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine first meet Julian St John Audley. The man, they both agree, is an insufferably arrogant dandy. But unfortunately for them, he's also the Fifth Earl of Worth, a friend of the Regent and, their legal guardian...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency victorian 20th-century action-adventure -
Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer, Eve Matheson
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThis story of mistaken love is a romantic fiction set in the English Regency period. It centres on Lord Sheringham who has been rejected by the woman he loves but the woman who has secretly loved him since childhood is waiting... -
The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer, Daniel Hill
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCaptain John Staple’s exploits in the Peninsula had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack among his fellow Dragoons. Now home from Waterloo, life is rather dull. But when he finds himself lost and benighted at an unmanned toll-house in the Pennines, his soldiering exploits pale away besides an adventure — and romance — of a lifetime...Categorized as:
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The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the author of The Personal History of Rachel Dupree , shortlisted for the Orange Award for New Writers and longlisted for the Orange Prize. 1900. Young pianist Catherine Wainwright flees the fashionable town of Dayton, Ohio in the wake of a terrible scandal...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor industrial-era 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
If I Only Had a Duke by Lenora Bell
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsAfter three failed seasons and a disastrous jilting, Lady Dorothea Beaumont has had more than enough of her family's scheming. She won't domesticate a duke, entangle an earl, or vie for a viscount. She will quietly exit to her aunt's Irish estate for a life of blissful freedom. Until an arrogant, sinfully handsome duke singles her out for a waltz, making Thea the most popular belle of the season...Categorized as:
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Love Among the Walnuts by Jean Ferris
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSandy Huntington-Ackerman didn't expect life to be a free ride (even though his parents are multimillionaires). He certainly didn't expect his two money-grubbing uncles to try to kill his family with a drugged birthday cake. Luckily for Sandy, the cake only sends his parents (and their pet chicken, Attila) into a coma... -
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsMiss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies... -
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAnd indeed Mr. Briggs seemed very much interested. He wanted to hear all about everything she had been doing from the moment she got there... -
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Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsPrecocious Puritan and aspiring witch Arian Whitewood spends her lonely nights dreaming of magic and excitement. She gets more excitement than she bargains for when she crash lands straight out of a witch hunt into the 20th century and the arms of Tristan Lennox, a reclusive billionaire...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure adult billionaire book -
The Foundling by Georgette Heyer, Kay Hooper
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA diffident young man of 24 years, easily pushed around by his overprotective uncle and the retinue of devoted family retainers who won't let him lift a finger for himself, Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware ("Gilly"), the seventh Duke of Sale, sometimes wishes he could be a commoner. One day he decides to set out to discover whether he is "a man, or only a Duke...Categorized as:
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False Colours by Georgette Heyer
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSomething is very wrong, and the Honourable Christopher "Kit" Fancot can sense it. Kit returns to London on leave from the diplomatic service to find that his twin brother Evelyn has disappeared and his extravagant mother's debts have mounted alarmingly...Categorized as:
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The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratings" Pride and Prejudice lives on" ( USA Today ) in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, which has been hailed for its addictive blend of history, romance, and adventure. In The Orchid Affair , Willig introduces her strongest heroine yet...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor industrial-era regency victorian 20th-century action-adventure -
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt's 1930s London, and Lady Georgiana -- thirty-fourth in line to the throne -- has a lot on her plate, but little in her cupboards, in this national bestseller...Baked beans and boiled eggs. That's what my houseguest, the Bavarian princess, will have to eat if I don't get help posthaste...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book british-isles -
Seductie by Loretta Chase
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFrom the Design Book of Marcelline Noirot:The allure of the perfect gown should be twofold:ladies would die to wear it . . .and gentlemen would kill to remove it!Brilliant and ambitious dressmaker Marcelline Noirot is London's rising star...
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