Loreful
HomeDiscover
Search series, authors…⌘K
Loreful

Reading orders for SF/F series and shared universes — with your place kept in every one.

Explore

UniversesSeriesWorksAuthorsAtlas

Help

FAQAboutSite map

Account & legal

Sign inCreate accountPrivacyTerms

Data

Built on ISFDB, Wikipedia, Wikidata and Open Library. Curated reading orders carry their reasoning on the page; the rest follow publication order. Data sources & licenses

© Loreful · data: ISFDB · CC BY

More like A Vampire Bundle

anchored on:paranormal romancevampirescontemporaryromancewerewolvesour world

but

Mood

The mood the book leaves you in.

  • The reading experience is propelled by journeys, exploration, and physical risk; excitement and forward momentum dominate over dread or introspection.
  • Joy and loss are deliberately mixed; the resolution grants characters something real while taking something else away, leaving warmth and sorrow together.
  • The book demands work from the reader — dense prose, difficult structure, unfamiliar ideas, or morally uncomfortable material — as part of its intended effect.
  • Grim events, cruelty, or despair dominate the atmosphere, and the book does not soften them with comfort or comic relief.
  • The atmosphere is quietly unsettling — wrongness, unease, and the uncanny pervade the book without necessarily escalating into overt horror.
  • The book is built to move the reader; character feeling is foregrounded and major scenes aim at a strong emotional response.
  • Humor is a primary aim and the prose plays for laughs — comic situations, wit, or dialogue produce sustained comedy, not occasional levity.
  • The book insists that things can improve; effort and decency are shown to matter, and the arc bends toward better outcomes even through hardship.
  • The book teaches as it goes — real facts, history, science, or craft are conveyed in enough depth that learning is part of the reading experience.
  • The book is designed to uplift and motivate, presenting perseverance or achievement in a way that invites the reader to aspire or act.
  • The overall register is cheerful and easygoing; stakes are kept gentle and the book avoids dwelling on pain or dread.
  • Withheld information drives the experience; the book sustains enigmas and secrets the reader wants resolved, whatever its genre.
  • The book is contemplative and inward-looking, giving more weight to thought, memory, and meaning than to external events.
  • The book works as comfort reading — low tension, a soothing pace, and an atmosphere the reader can unwind in.
  • Grief, loss, or melancholy set the dominant register, and the book lets sorrow stand rather than resolving it into comfort.
  • Sustained suspense is the point; the book keeps the reader braced for what happens next through danger, pressure, or impending revelation.
  • Playful invention and charm define the register — fanciful conceits, light absurdity, and a narration that delights in its own oddity.

About

What the story runs on.

  • Stories in which extraterrestrial beings are central — as characters, cultures, or the object of the plot.
  • Stories structured as a quest — a journey undertaken to find, deliver, or destroy something of great import.
  • Stories in which staying alive against nature, catastrophe, or scarcity is the central problem.
  • Stories of lovers kept apart by law, family, faith, or station, where the obstacle to love is the plot.
  • Stories in which a friendship — its making, testing, or loss — is the emotional center.
  • Stories of growing up — a young protagonist crossing from childhood into adult knowledge and responsibility.
  • Stories about who a character truly is — self-discovery, doubled lives, and the search for a self.
  • Stories about mourning — living through the death of a loved one and what loss does to the survivors.
  • Stories in which a buried family truth — hidden parentage, crimes, or shames — surfaces and reorders the present.
  • Stories driven by maneuvering for power — factions, conspiracies, and statecraft conducted in shadow.
  • Stories in which war itself is the subject — combat, occupation, and what warfare does to soldiers and civilians.
  • Stories organized around investigating a killing — the case, the clues, and the pursuit of the killer, in any genre's clothing.

Shelf

Where it sits in the library.

    • Fiction built on magic or other supernatural elements that have no scientific explanation.
    • Secondary-world fantasy at large scale, where the fate of nations or the world turns on the protagonists' struggle.
    • Fantasy set in a recognizably modern city or contemporary world where the supernatural intrudes on everyday life.
    • Fantasy that blends in horror's atmosphere and imagery, keeping a fantastical frame around grim or frightening material.
    • Action-driven fantasy following warriors or rogues with personal stakes against sorcerous threats, rather than world-spanning conflicts.
    • Fantasy set in a real historical period or a close analogue of one, with magic woven into the era.
    • Fantasy in which protagonists cross from the ordinary world into another world through a portal or similar passage.
    • Fiction that retells or reworks a traditional fairy tale in a new form or setting.
    • Fantasy drawing directly on myths, legends, and folklore, retelling them or building on their figures and logic.
    • Fantasy of ghosts, vampires, shapeshifters, psychics, and similar phenomena, usually set in an otherwise ordinary world.
    • Fiction mixing science-fictional trappings with overtly magical or impossible elements in one setting.
    • Low-stakes fantasy emphasizing comfort, community, and everyday pleasures over conflict and peril.
    • Speculative fiction of pervasive moral ambiguity, violence, and cynicism that rejects heroic conventions — fantasy and SF alike.
      • Fiction that extrapolates from science and technology — future societies, space travel, or speculative inventions — within at least nominally natural laws.
      • Science fiction of interstellar scope — starships, galactic polities, and adventure across star systems.
      • Science fiction committed to scientific rigor, where technical plausibility constrains the story.
      • Science fiction centered on armed forces and warfare, told largely from a military point of view.
      • Science fiction of networked, corporate-dominated near futures, pairing high technology with social decay.
      • Science fiction styled on nineteenth-century steam-powered technology, often in a Victorian or pseudo-Victorian setting.
      • Fiction depicting an oppressive or catastrophic society, presented as a warning.
      • Fiction set after civilization's collapse, following survivors in the ruins of the old world.
      • Fiction in which characters move between past and future, and the mechanics or consequences of that travel drive the plot.
      • Fiction exploring a world where a historical event went differently and history diverged from ours.
      • Science fiction about humanity's first encounter and communication with an alien intelligence.
      • Science fiction in which extraterrestrial forces attack or occupy Earth and humanity resists.
      • Fiction whose primary aim is to frighten or unsettle the reader through dread, menace, or the monstrous.
      • Horror of vast, indifferent, incomprehensible entities before which humanity is insignificant, in the Lovecraft tradition.
      • Horror of decaying houses, buried family secrets, and oppressive atmosphere in the Gothic literary tradition.
      • Horror centered on hauntings and the returning dead.
      • Horror located in the mind — paranoia, obsession, and unreliable perception rather than external monsters.
      • Horror built around the reanimated dead and survival amid their outbreaks.
      • Horror defined by explicit, transgressive gore that refuses to cut away from violence.
      • Speculative fiction of the strange and uncanny that resists both natural explanation and standard genre categories.
      • Fiction organized around solving a crime or puzzle, typically following an investigator toward the identification of a culprit.
      • A puzzle-first mystery that lays out clues so the culprit's identity can be deduced before the reveal.
      • Crime fiction of moral ambiguity, fatalism, and hard-edged style, set among the corrupt and the doomed.
      • A mystery following the realistic routines of police work — forensics, interviews, and case-building.
      • A gentle mystery with an amateur sleuth, a small community, and violence kept off the page.
      • A mystery set in a past era, where the investigation works within that period's methods and society.
      • Fast-paced fiction driven by imminent danger, pursuit, or high-stakes conspiracy, built to sustain tension.
      • A thriller of espionage — agents, tradecraft, and intelligence services in conflict.
      • A thriller centered on lawyers and the courtroom, where litigation carries the suspense.
      • A thriller driven by detailed contemporary or near-future technology, often military or scientific.
      • A thriller whose tension comes from mental states and manipulation between characters rather than external action.
      • Fiction whose central plot is a romantic relationship and its development toward an emotionally satisfying resolution.
      • Romance in which one or both partners are supernatural beings, blending fantasy elements into the love story.
      • A fantasy-romance hybrid in which the romantic arc and the fantasy plot carry equal weight.
      • Romance set in a past era, with courtship shaped by the period's society and manners.
      • Romance set in the present day, without supernatural or historical elements.
      • Fiction set in a real past period, where the historical setting materially shapes characters and events.
        • General and literary fiction emphasizing prose style, character interiority, or formal ambition over genre plot conventions.
        • Fiction in a realistic world where magical events occur and are treated as ordinary, in the tradition of Latin American literature.
        • Fiction that ridicules people, institutions, or society in order to criticize them.
        • Fiction of dreamlike, irrational imagery and logic that breaks from realistic representation.
        • Fiction that plays with narrative convention through metafiction, fragmentation, and self-reference.
        • Fiction propelled by journeys, exploration, and physical peril, where action and survival carry the plot.
        • Adventure fiction of ships and seafaring — naval engagements, voyages, and life at sea.
        • Fiction of the American frontier West — gunmen, ranchers, and lawmen, typically in the late nineteenth century.
        • Fiction centered on soldiers, campaigns, and the experience of warfare, historical or imagined.
          • Fiction written primarily to amuse, using comedic situations, wit, or parody as its organizing principle.
            • Multi-generational fiction following a family or dynasty across decades, with inheritance and kinship as the through-line.
              • Fiction whose world runs on explicit game mechanics — levels, stats, and skills that characters can see and exploit.
                • Fiction about costumed or superpowered heroes and their conflicts with comparable villains.

                Practical

                How long a commitment, whether it stands alone, and whether it has finished.

                Tap a chip to ask for it · tap again to rule it out · once more to clear. Numbers show what would be left.

                • Cover of All Souls
                  All Souls

                  series · 5 books · 2011

                  similar byvampirescontemporary+3 more

                  A Discovery of Witches is a 2011 historical-fantasy novel and the debut novel by American scholar Deborah Harkness. It follows Diana Bishop, a history of science professor at Yale University, as she embraces her magical blood after finding a long-thought-lost manuscript and engages in a forbidden romance with a charming vampire, Matthew Clairmont.

                • Cover of Black Dragon
                  Black Dragon

                  series · 2 books · 1983

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour world+1 more

                  R. A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon pairs Martha Macnamara, a folk musician searching for her missing daughter, with Mayland Long, a courtly stranger who reveals himself to be a dragon living in human form, as they investigate a computer-fraud scheme in 1980s San Francisco. Its low-key blend of contemporary mystery and gentle fantasy proved popular enough to spawn a sequel, Twisting the Rope, following the same pair into a new case years later.

                • Cover of Deception Point
                  Deception Point

                  Dan Brown · standalone novel · 2001

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour worldmurder investigation

                  Deception Point is a 2001 mystery-thriller novel by American author Dan Brown. It is Brown's third novel. It was published by Simon & Schuster.

                • Cover of Argeneau Family
                  Argeneau Family

                  series · 39 books · 2003

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldparanormal romancevampires+1 more

                  Lynsay Sands's long-running paranormal romance series follows the Argeneau family of vampires as different members find human partners across dozens of standalone-but-linked romances. An early entry, Single White Vampire, follows a romance-line editor determined to get a reclusive vampire author to a genre convention, only to discover his 'novels' are literal memoirs of his own vampire life.

                • Cover of The Mediator
                  The Mediator

                  series · 8 books · 2000

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldparanormal romance+1 more

                  The Mediator is a young adult paranormal romance book series written by American author Meg Cabot. The series debuted in 2000 with its first novel, Shadowland, and centers on a teenage girl who can communicate with ghosts and acts as a mediator to help spirits resolve unfinished business so they can move on to the afterlife.

                • Cover of Elixir
                  Elixir

                  series · 3 books · 2010

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldparanormal romance+2 more

                • Cover of The Unmaking of June Farrow
                  The Unmaking of June Farrow

                  Adrienne Young · standalone novel · 2023

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour worldromance

                  In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’sdecades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

                • Cover of Teardrop Trilogy
                  Teardrop Trilogy

                  series · 2 books · 2013

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldromance+1 more

                • Cover of Immortal Danger
                  Immortal Danger

                  Cynthia Eden · standalone novel · 2009

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldvampiresparanormal romancewerewolves

                  Being Bullet Proof Sucks—LiterallyOnce, Maya Black was a kick-ass cop patrolling the streets of L.A. She still keeps the city safe, but nowadays her bad guys of choice include demons, werewolves, and assorted nocturnal scum. Something Maya knows a thing or two about. She’s a vampire—and not thrilled about it. Payback meet bitch.Adam Brody hopes Maya is as dangerous as they say she is. He needs her to help rescue his niece Cammie from a ruthless band of vamps, and he’s willing to pay—in blood. Trusting her is another matter. Adam has never met a vampire who doesn’t lie. Then again, he’s never met anyone like Maya, who fills him with a desperate need that ignites into explosive, no-holds-barred encounters… “Highly sensual and definitely dangerous.” —Shannon McKenna on Hotter After Midnight

                • Cover of Moon Rising
                  Moon Rising

                  Lori Devoti · standalone novel · 2014

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldvampiresparanormal romancewerewolvesmurder investigation

                  "The discovery of lost treasure imperils the fragile peace between the vampire and werewolf populations. Especially when werewolf Cece Parks and vampire Marc Delacroix arrive at the remote site with the same agenda, to claim the loot. But when suspicious deaths begin occurring, the enemies must band together to solve the mystery. The truth proves far more complicated than either can imagine. Especially when Marc finds himself inexplicably drawn to Cece. For once in his long life he wants nothing more than to be with, and protect, the werewolf. Now loyalty to his race and his forbidden desire are about to collide." — quoted from the Harlequin's paperback's listing on Worldcat as of 2015-04-12.

                • Cover of In the Midnight Hour
                  In the Midnight Hour

                  Kimberly Raye · standalone novel · 2009

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour worldparanormal romanceromancemurder investigation

                  When Veronica Parrish buys an antique bed, she also ends up with the ghost of the man--Valentine Tremaine--who was murdered there long ago. Veronica agrees to help Tremaine solve the mystery of his murder and finds herself caught up in a steamy otherworldly romance.

                • Cover of Carpathian
                  Carpathian

                  series · 48 books · 1999

                  similar bycontemporaryparanormal romanceour worldvampires

                  Carpathian is Christine Feehan's long-running paranormal romance series about an ancient, near-immortal species who slowly lose color and feeling until they find a lifemate who restores both. Starting with Dark Prince in 1999, each book pairs a different Carpathian hunter with a human or gifted heroine, moving between the Carpathian Mountains and modern settings worldwide as the couple confronts vampires and other supernatural threats. It has grown to dozens of novels and novellas and is still being added to.

                • Cover of Embrace the Night
                  Embrace the Night

                  Amanda Ashley · standalone novel · 1998

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldvampiresparanormal romanceromance

                  Cursed by the darkness, he searches through the ages for the redeeming light, the one who can save him. She fears the handsome stranger whose eyes promise ecstasy while his mouth whispers dark secrets. Apart, they will face a destiny of despair. Together, they will share undying passion. Reissue.

                • Cover of Tantalize / Quincie, Kieren and Zachary
                  Tantalize / Quincie, Kieren and Zachary

                  series · 4 books · 2007

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldvampiresparanormal romance+2 more

                • Cover of Legion / Stephen Leeds
                  Legion / Stephen Leeds

                  series · 5 books · 2012

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour world+1 more

                  Legion, or the Stephen Leeds series, is a series of science fiction novellas created by American author Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson authored the first three stories : Legion, first published on August 31, 2012, Legion: Skin Deep in November 2014, and Legion: Lies of the Beholder in September 2018. Death and Faxes, co-authored by Max Epstein, David Pace, and Michael Harkins, was released in June 2022. The books have received favorable reviews.

                • Cover of Chocky
                  Chocky

                  series · 2 books · 1968

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporary+1 more

                  Chocky (1968) is John Wyndham's science fiction novel about an eleven-year-old boy, Matthew, whose parents grow alarmed by his conversations with an unseen presence that feeds him unsettling insights into mathematics and human progress, building toward the reveal of what, or who, Chocky really is. Mark Daniel's Chocky's Challenge (1986), published after Wyndham's death, is an authorized continuation that carries the story forward.

                • Cover of Fang-in-Cheek / Madison Rose
                  Fang-in-Cheek / Madison Rose

                  series · 2 books · 2010

                  similar bycontemporaryvampires+4 more

                • Cover of Ink Blood Sister Scribe
                  Ink Blood Sister Scribe

                  Emma Törzs · standalone novel · 2023

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour world+1 more

                  Two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection (taken from the OCLC/WorldCat entry for the first edition)

                • Cover of Goddess of Fate
                  Goddess of Fate

                  Alexandra Sokoloff · standalone novel · 2015

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour worldparanormal romancemurder investigation

                  "Fate had granted him twenty-four hours to solve his own murder. Not that undercover cop Luke Mars believed in fate. Especially when "fate" was supposedly a gorgeous goddess named Aurora, who claimed to be his guardian assigned from birth to watch over him. But there was no denying Luke was shot. Dead. And he's on borrowed time, a fact Aurora knows all too well. Her job is to protect her mortal charges, not fall in love with them. With Luke not believing who she is and time ticking away for his demise, Aurora has but a day to see if love really can alter fate." — quoted from this book's product page on Amazon.com as of 2015-06-03.

                • Cover of Southern Reach Trilogy
                  Southern Reach Trilogy

                  series · 4 books · 2014

                  similar bycontemporaryour world+1 more

                  The Southern Reach Series is a series of novels by the American author Jeff VanderMeer first published in 2014—Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, and Absolution. The series takes its name from the secret agency that is central to the plot. In 2013, Paramount Pictures bought the movie rights for the series, and a film adaptation of Annihilation was made with Alex Garland as writer-director. The film was released in 2018. The most recent book in the series, Absolution, was released on 22 October 2024.

                • Cover of Do You Believe?
                  Do You Believe?

                  Ann Lawrence · standalone novel · 2005

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour worldparanormal romance+1 more

                  Rose Early is searching for her missing sister Juan. The only clue she has is a horror novel with her sister's notes in the margins. The author of the book lives only a few minutes away and Rose can't resist seeking him out. She understands why the book affected her sister: the author creates an evil so palpable it shakes even skeptical Rose. Vic Drummond, the writer, knew Rose's sister and agrees to help Rose find her. Rose expected him to be reclusive and strange, but she didn't expect him to be quite so... attractive. As their search intensifies, Rose finds herself incurable drawn to Vic, but it seems to Rose that their feelings for each other are being influenced by some outside force - she knows love at first sight doesn't exist. As they come closer to finding Joan, Rose and Vic journey from the local church to a mysterious sex club whose members dress in demon costumes. The more they learn about what Joan was doing in the days before her disappearance, the more questions they have, until Rose must decide. Does she believe in real evil? And does she believe in real love?

                • Cover of The Visitors
                  The Visitors

                  Clifford D. Simak · standalone novel · 1980

                  similar bymysteriouscontemporaryour world

                  WorldCat: Intelligent, alien creatures arrive on Earth from outer space, threatening world stability and presaging the destruction of civilization.

                • Cover of Nursery Crimes
                  Nursery Crimes

                  series · 2 books · 2005

                  similar bycontemporarymurder investigation+2 more

                  In an alternate Reading, England, where nursery-rhyme and fairy-tale characters live as ordinary if eccentric citizens, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division investigates cases that keep colliding with their source material. The Big Over Easy turns Humpty Dumpty's fall into a murder investigation; The Fourth Bear follows with the Gingerbread Man as a serial killer. Jasper Fforde plays the premise for satire and wordplay as much as plot, in the same absurdist vein as his Thursday Next novels.

                • Cover of The Granger Brothers
                  The Granger Brothers

                  series · 1 book · 2012

                  similar bycontemporaryour worldvampiresparanormal romanceromance