Books like My Sweet Audrina — picked by fans

Like many people, I’d heard so much about this classic that I was braced for disappointment the first time I read it.

But no, du Maurier’s rich, atmospheric prose gripped me from that famous first line. While I agree about the power of the iconic cast, such as the infamous Mrs. Danvers, I feel that the setting itself is just as powerful a character. I especially love du Maurier’s way of personifying the setting, so that things such as trees, and plants, and buildings come alive with malevolence.

The opening pages, for example, immediately fill you with unease despite the narrator talking about nothing more than the driveway leading up to the house on the estate! From the woods that “crowded, dark and uncontrolled” and the beeches with “white naked limbs” to the hydrangeas “rearing to a monster height without a bloom, black and ugly” and the nettles that “choked… show more.

I liked the subtlety of the storytelling here and the way the whole tragic plot develops. Events develop as much out of boredom and lack of engagement rather than from evil intent.

The false messiah here doesn’t offer a great path and is not particularly charismatic. He just offers something slightly more interesting than all the others around. The outcome depends on accident more than any evil intention. Emma Cline finds an engaging way to explore a piece of history without exploitation.

Thanks to my religious conservative upbringing, I grew up naive and innocent. I learned a lot about life really quick when I entered college. I partied and made mistakes and definitely have my fair share of shame and regret.

However, reading this book even as an adult was still eye-opening. Life of the Party follows Mia, a fashion student living in Milan who lives the most chaotic life imaginable. She parties hard. She drinks endlessly. She wears outfits I'd never dare try on.

Mia couldn't be anything like rigid careful me, but I still resonated with her choices. I empathized with her trauma. I reveled in every small victory she has. Mia helped me realize just how much of the female experience is universal.

I picked up this book on a whim and was lured by the premise, which essentially lays out the story of a woman who marries a successful man at the turn of the century.

It's your standard "wealthy family has everything but they're all miserable" book but with Edwardian vibes. The narrative follows every member of the family, the saga of which I found so riveting. There was a bit of romance and angst and loneliness, specifically around the book's protagonist, Ursula.

This book resonated with me in a way that similar books haven't, which goes to show just what period drama can do, showing you that humans still struggle with the same stuff, no matter the time or place, but with a dash of romantic gothic aesthetic to make it fun.

My first experience reading a book with dual storylines, this novel held me spellbound cover to cover. McMahon has since become an auto-buy author for me, thanks to this fantastical story that puts a magnifying glass on the life of two sisters, a childhood friend, and an unexplained disappearance. The story moves between past and present and revolves around the Tower Motel in Vermont, now a ruined shell that refuses to yield its secrets. Secrets the girls discovered while playing games there as children. 

An unexpected splash of the paranormal and the use of letters from one sister to Mr. Hitchcock (yes, that Hitchcock) add the perfect touch to this disturbing gem.

I love stories set in modern times, with the fae living—secretly—in the local woods. It reminds me of the uncanny in real life, and the possibility of adventure.

The pleasure of this rendition of the fae-next-door is that the human realm is brought fully to life and slowly entwines with the fantastical. Also: It gradually dawned on me that the human thread of the story is a fairy tale in its own right. That really twisted my expectations.

I have long been a fan of Jennifer Weiner and expected another charming, funny (and modern) read when I picked up Mrs. Everything. But this book far surpassed my expectations. It was far more serious, ambitious, and sweeping than her other books. The story centers on two sisters growing up in 1950s Detroit, taking me back to an era where women were raised to be housewives alone, and follows them through the tumultuous sixties and beyond. Weiner’s writing and research are so strong, I felt like I experienced the historical milestones along with the characters. 

This is a novella that starts off the Drake Sisters series. Each book in the series follows a different sister, giving each their romantic HEA (happily ever after). The sisters are known in their small coastal town for their supernatural powers.

They all have vastly different careers and different supernatural abilities. Each story is a page-turner, and the series' final book is the best of the bunch! I’ve read and reread it countless times.

I turn to this series when I’m in a reading slump, and it always turns it around for me. The romantic suspense with supernatural elements makes it a win for me.

This novel is a murder mystery, of sorts, that also has a lot to say about socio-economic divides in contemporary Korea. This was particularly interesting to me because when I lived there in the 1970s, everyone was poor. No one owned a motorbike, much less a car, and they were all barely scraping by. Now, though, great wealth and privilege have emerged alongside persistent poverty, and that class divide looks too familiar to Americans. The rich are privileged and have access to things the poor do not, including justice.

What’s better than a humorous and sexy read about two sisters in the throes of personal growth after the unexpected death of their grandmother?

Hannah and Libby are in charge of the family’s PR Agency and are hemorrhaging clients to the point of closing the company’s doors. When an eccentric self-help guru enters the office searching for a new PR team, the sisters believe they have found their miracle; only there’s a catch. Both sisters must complete Lou’s “Crush Your Comfort Zone” 12-week program or no deal.

This delightful tale is about the love between siblings set in one of my favorite cities to visit my extended family—Chicago!