Sorcerer to the Crown
Zen Cho
Like Kowal's glamour, magic here is bound up with Regency society and propriety, but Cho adds sharp wit and questions about who is allowed to practise it.
11 books to read next
Books Like Shades of Milk and Honey
If you loved Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Readers love Shades of Milk and Honey for its gentle, Austen-like voice and its quiet magic: glamour treated as a ladylike art, like painting or music. Jane is plain, sensible and overlooked, and the pleasure lies in watching her talent and judgment win through. The book is a drawing-room story of sisters, suitors, dowries and reputation, with magic woven into manners rather than battles. It is short, romantic, warm and steeped in Regency detail.
Regency manners with magic
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
The book Kowal's is often compared to: English magic in the Napoleonic era, told in a period voice. Longer and darker, but rich for fans of historical magic.
The Austen original
Persuasion
Jane Austen
Anne Elliot, overlooked and older than her sisters, shares much with Jane Ellsworth. Austen's quietest, most tender novel about second chances and steady character.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
The direct inspiration: sisters, suitors, entailed estates and a mother eager to see daughters married, with misjudged men and slowly revealed true worth.
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
A sensible elder sister watches her romantic younger sibling fall for the wrong man, much like Jane and Melody's dynamic in Kowal's novel.
Gentle romantic fantasy
A Natural History of Dragons
Marie Brennan
A Victorian-style lady narrates her unladylike pursuit of science and dragons, with the same period voice and a heroine pushing against expectations of her sex.
Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
A practical eldest sister who thinks herself unremarkable discovers hidden magical ability and romance. Warm, funny and full of the same understated charm.
Stardust
Neil Gaiman
A fairy-tale romance with a gently old-fashioned English voice, mixing courtship, quests and magic in a short, lovely read much like Kowal's.
Witty historical romance
Cotillion
Georgette Heyer
Heyer's Regency comedies capture the balls, suitors and family schemes of Kowal's world, and this one centres on a heroine finding love where she least expects.
Frederica
Georgette Heyer
A capable elder sister determined to secure a good match for her beautiful younger sibling finds her own romance instead, echoing Jane's story closely.
I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith
A clever, observant narrator watches her lovelier sister court wealthy suitors while her own feelings grow; wistful, funny and deeply sympathetic.
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