Here are 59 books that A Dress to Die For fans have personally recommended if you like
A Dress to Die For.
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From the beginning of my writing journey in 2000, all my girls have been full of spunk and sass and fighting every day to figure out life in the present while also dealing with the past, all while solving murders and mysteries and navigating relationships; oh my! The books I chose are all about that sass and spunk, those main characters in The Cozies (or RomCozies as I call mine since they have both murder and a budding romance) that not only make you snicker in the right places but also sigh when they’re over, you close the book, and hold it to your heart hoping the next is coming soon.
Donna Andrews is next with her delightful Meg Langslow Mysteries. My book was the first book I read in this series, and then I had to go back and start from the beginning and wait (im)patiently between each release for the next one.
I love how Meg handles things and how she puts the pieces together. I often finish the books in this series and think, “I could have figured it out if I hadn’t been snickering so much!”
Poor Meg Langslow. She’s blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She’s a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg’s road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair.
There are Michael’s and Meg’s doting but demanding mothers, for a start. And then there’s the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for the couple to live together. And a succession of crises brought on by the well-meaning but utterly wacky demands of her friends and family. Demands that Meg has a hard…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
From the beginning of my writing journey in 2000, all my girls have been full of spunk and sass and fighting every day to figure out life in the present while also dealing with the past, all while solving murders and mysteries and navigating relationships; oh my! The books I chose are all about that sass and spunk, those main characters in The Cozies (or RomCozies as I call mine since they have both murder and a budding romance) that not only make you snicker in the right places but also sigh when they’re over, you close the book, and hold it to your heart hoping the next is coming soon.
First up is Julia Ann Lindsey’s Bonnie and Clyde series. The laughs, the hijinks, the relationships, and the solved murders. It’s all a recipe for me to be pulled right into this series and away from anything I’m actually supposed to be doing.
I love the setting, the charm, and the way that the author gives us such a view right into the living room of Bonnie and her cat Clyde, so I want to go see if she’s available for a quick dinner! After she finds the killer, of course.
Bonnie’s embracing the big 4-0 and all it has to offer, including a celebratory night out with friends. The evening is a perfect blend of fun and fabulous, until the local love guru, Gretchen, is confronted by a client’s spouse, who’s displeased by a prediction of new romance in his wife’s future. Gretchen excuses herself to sort the situation, but in the morning, the man is dead. Stabbed with a cake knife from her True Love collection.
When Bonnie’s friends turn to her for help unwrapping the truth, she quickly moves saving Gretchen’s reputation to the…
From the beginning of my writing journey in 2000, all my girls have been full of spunk and sass and fighting every day to figure out life in the present while also dealing with the past, all while solving murders and mysteries and navigating relationships; oh my! The books I chose are all about that sass and spunk, those main characters in The Cozies (or RomCozies as I call mine since they have both murder and a budding romance) that not only make you snicker in the right places but also sigh when they’re over, you close the book, and hold it to your heart hoping the next is coming soon.
I mean, who doesn’t love a book with the tagline: When she gets pushed too far, even her hot flashes won't hold her back? If you like women of a certain age, you will be highly entertained by Tootsie and her entourage. They get into some of the hottest water and hilarious situations.
I love the way the community is building and the things the author chooses to highlight to make these books very hard to get away from until after you’re done and gone.
When her elderly friends lose their jobs in a shady business deal, feisty fifty-year-old Tootsie Goldberg decides it's never too late to speak up.
Tootsie Goldberg was never one to rock the boat. Witnessing tragedy after a seemingly harmless protest taught the Jersey native to keep her mouth shut, even when she's fuming. But when her elderly coworkers lose their radio station jobs due to a shady business deal, this feisty fifty-year-old decides it's never too late to use her smart mouth for something other than talking in circles.
Standing up for her friends lights a fire in her to…
A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.
The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…
From the beginning of my writing journey in 2000, all my girls have been full of spunk and sass and fighting every day to figure out life in the present while also dealing with the past, all while solving murders and mysteries and navigating relationships; oh my! The books I chose are all about that sass and spunk, those main characters in The Cozies (or RomCozies as I call mine since they have both murder and a budding romance) that not only make you snicker in the right places but also sigh when they’re over, you close the book, and hold it to your heart hoping the next is coming soon.
Last but certainly not least, I can’t have a list of sass and spunk without mentioning a cat with both! Jennifer J. Chow’s book Mimi Lee Cracks the Code is not only highly entertaining, but it also takes place on Catalina Island, where my very own Whit and Whiskers live. I wonder what they’d do if they met each other?
I laughed, and then I sighed, and then I laughed some more at this book. It’s a delightful tale with twists and turns that I absolutely loved. And that cat is quite the character.
One of BookRiot's Best Upcoming Cozy Mysteries for the Second Half of 2021!
When murder follows Mimi Lee to her romantic island getaway, she puts on her best sleuthing hat with her sassy cat in tow in this adventurous cozy mystery by Jennifer J. Chow.
Mimi Lee just found an extra perk to being a pet groomer at Hollywoof (other than cuddling animals all day long, that is). Pixie St. James, one of Mimi’s clients and the investor behind Hollywoof, has offered her and her boyfriend, Josh, a getaway at her vacation home, nestled on beautiful Catalina Island. With…
I write fantasy novels, specifically ones in the sub-genre of magical realism. It’s been a passion since my early days. When I was a professional playwright, before I turned to novel writing, I had the extraordinary opportunity to work with Ray Bradbury in adapting one of his novels for the stage. It was an immersion in that delicious blend of the uncanny and the tender. After experiencing a number of losses, I found that this genre—along with the marriage of magic, the supernatural, and hope—best expressed my discoveries and beliefs about life. The novels I write are ones that I would want to read. The novels I recommend are ones I wish I’d written!
I love the way the magic moves through this novel in quiet, intimate ways.
It’s never flashy, nor is the magic there only for the sake of excitement. It whispers a twisted love. It’s dreadful and beautiful, both to Addie LaRue and to the reader. Because of it, Addie changes. Addie lives in our world, in historical times and today, and the magic exists in our world.
One of the things I love about literary fantasy is that the main characters have true emotional arcs. We’re drawn into their experiences because we care about them. The questions they ask themselves are ones we all ask: Who do I want to be? What makes life meaningful? What do we owe the people we love?
"For someone damned to be forgettable, Addie LaRue is a most delightfully unforgettable character, and her story is the most joyous evocation of unlikely immortality." -Neil Gaiman
A Sunday Times-bestselling, award-nominated genre-defying tour-de-force of Faustian bargains, for fans of The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, and The Sudden Appearance of Hope.
When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she is convinced she's found a loophole-immortality in exchange for her soul. But the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.
I studied psychology in college and am fascinated with the human mind. The psyche holds so many joys, wonders, and the deepest horrors imaginable, all compact and functioning within our skulls. My love for psychology grew into the horror realm, where I read and watched anything revolving around the character study of an individual driven to the brink. Now, I write stories about the morality of actions taken by those who have found themselves in a peculiar position. I believe there is more to the clean-cut view of right versus wrong regarding the decision-making of one’s self-preservation.
Like meat, this book was hard to digest. It made me feel anxiety, turmoil, and pain despite my uncertainty as to what exactly triggered these responses. The isolated experience of a woman believing herself to be a tree, attempting to achieve spiritual happiness while others overstepped their boundaries, felt so very violating and personal.
I love it when stories slice me down raw, revealing wounds I did not know existed beneath my skin.
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide…
A wind sorcerer. A dark spirit. An unsolved murder.
On the haunted Draakensky Windmill Estate, sketch artist Charlotte Knight arrives to live on the property, hired to illustrate the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke—a bright and lucrative opportunity to boost her struggling art career.
I was a children's book illustrator for years before my agent prompted me to start writing. I didn’t know the first thing about writing for children, but I really wanted to try, and with help from the SCBWI and after a lot of failed attempts, I found that early reader graphic novels most fit in with my Mad Magazine and New Yorker style of gag humor. There are so many great early reader graphic novels out there these days, and I truly feel we are in a golden age for this genre. I hope you like my choices and find many more on your own!
When I first read this book, I fell instantly in love with the story, the characters, and the wonderful pencil and watercolor artwork, and I knew that this graphic novel was something different, something new, and totally amazing!
This story of a little tiger girl and her nighttime monster friend, who keeps her nightmares away, is told with such humor, heart, and imagination that all I could say was, "Wow," as I went from page to page.
I ended up thinking that this is how you do an early reader graphic novel. A perfect book that will appeal to all ages.
Tiger is a lucky kid: She has a monster living under her bed.
This monster arrived when Tiger was just a baby. It was supposed to scare her - after all, that's what monsters do. But Tiger was just too cute! Now, Tiger and Monster are best friends.
But Monster is a monster, and it needs to scare something. So every night, Monster stands guard and scares all of Tiger's nightmares away. This arrangement works out perfectly, until a nightmare arrives that's too big and scary for even Monster. Only teamwork and a lot of bravery can chase this nightmare…
I’m passionate about dark fantasy stories due to the fact of their characters and worlds. The eeriness of their landscapes can tell a tale of their own. Dark fantasy has always been a drawing interest for me when it comes to telling stories. I read these books mainly because of their dark fantasy worlds. The stories and characters which come to life as I read them only captivated my creativity to tell my own stories. It is my sincere desire that you take a look into these books on this list and have your creativity sparked just as my own to craft your own dark fantasy stories.
When it comes to dark fantasy books, The Sandman must be included. Even though it is a comic book series later compiled into ten graphic novels, I had to include it in this list. It inspired me not only to improve my creative writing skills but also taught me about the captivations of mythology. How myths impact generations and still touch others to this day. The combination of dark fantasy and mythology enriches a tale to be told. No matter the setting or the format.
While reading The Sandman, I became attached to Dream of the Endless and his stories. What I took away from it was the fact that dreams never die; they only grow into something more. Something… endless.
New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series THE SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision. In PRELUDES and NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power.…
I’m passionate about the theme of this list because I’ve experienced a lot in life already, even though I’m only 24 years old, and I know about the different situations that these books describe well. I’ve experienced a few traumatic situations later in my life (after I read these books) that these books have, it has turned me into somewhat of a realist over time, and I like to use my own talent of writing and creating characters to create, teach, and make people aware of scary and traumatic situations that can happen to anyone in real life. I hope more people will see the valuable lessons in these books.
I love this book because even though it’s fictional, it delves into phenomena that actually happen to people in real life. There is such a thing as having repeated nightmares that are linked to a real-life incident and/or person, mainly when it directly happens to someone. Still, it also happens to people who either witnessed something and/or have an item with energy attached to it.
A lot of people refuse to believe in stuff like this. It’s like having a dream of a ghost or an entity one night, just to later figure out it was the thing haunting your house or it’s something that attached itself to you.
Every night Maggie Travers has the same horrible dream. Every night she is forced to watch the same murder. And every night the girl in her dream cries out for help. Maggie is afraid to go to sleep again. But when the terrifying dream starts to come true and the gruesome accidents begin, staying awake is the real nightmare!
The epic saga continues. Jarnland is in a frenzy of excitement. After the eccentric demise of Old King Wyllard, his co-Majesty, young Queen Esmeralda, announces a Royal Tournament to celebrate the return of our heroes from their perilous quest. The Main Event will be a duel between the legendary warrior…
I am a multi-published author of mainly Gothic, haunted house, and ghostly novels, novellas, and short stories. I love nothing more than exploring historic houses, ancient stone circles and places that are noted for having a certain atmosphere that hints – or, in some cases, screams – a macabre and interesting past. I am the person you will spot, hunched over an old gravestone peering at the much-degraded carving, searching for the name of its owner and a hint to their story. Why? I blame a childhood spent reading M.R. James.
For me, he is the master of the horror genre in general and of the art of instilling creeping dread. It all starts quite innocently, with a driving lesson, but then...something not quite right happens. I love the way this author does this.
He weaves his stories like a tapestry, and in The Incubations, I felt myself transported into a Campbellesque world where nothing is quite right. Here we have a town which was twinned with one in Germany after World War 2 – and something has been festering ever since
This story enthralled and perplexed me. I loved the way the author blended the awful reality of the Nazi obsession with the supernatural and cult of the master race with Lovecraftian homages. For me, another masterpiece I wish I had written.
A collectable hardcover edition for Ramsey Campbell's 60 years in publication.
When a weight landed on his legs he raised his head from the violently crumpled pillow. The bed already had another occupant, and as Leo flung the quilt back so that it wouldn't hinder his escape the creature scurried up his body to squat on his chest, clutching him with all its limbs like half a spider...
Leo Parker's stay in Alphafen seems idyllic, but after he leaves, the nightmares begin: an airport turns into a labyrinth, his own words become treacherous if not lethal, and what…
