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 Danegeld

anchored on:historical romancebritish islesmedievalforbidden loveemotional

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 centered on vampires — blood-drinking undead — whether as predators, love interests, or protagonists.
  • 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 Kiss of the Moon
                  Kiss of the Moon

                  Lisa Jackson · standalone novel · 1994

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish islesmedieval

                  Determined to rescue her kidnapped sister, Sorcha of Prydd, a stunning beauty born with a legendary birthmark foretelling her role as the savior of Prydd, matches wits--and unexpected passion--with Lord Hagan of Erbyn, the scion of her family's sworn enemies, in a romance set against the backdrop of medieval Wales.

                • Cover of Mordred Trilogy
                  Mordred Trilogy

                  series · 1 book · 2006

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish islesmedievalhistorical fantasy

                • Cover of The Isle in the Silver Sea
                  The Isle in the Silver Sea

                  Tasha Suri · standalone novel · 2025

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish islesmedievalhistorical fantasy

                  In a Britain fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes. Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen's court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other? As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them. But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?

                • Cover of Guenevere
                  Guenevere

                  series · 3 books · 1999

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalmedievalbritish isleshistorical fantasy

                • Cover of A Rose in Winter
                  A Rose in Winter

                  Shana Abé · standalone novel · 1998

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancemedievalbritish isles

                  Solange and Damon are childhood soulmates separated by the political machinations of two men, each of whom have their own agenda in controlling the fate of Solange. Her father is determined to wed her off to his enemy, the Earl of Redmond, to broker peace. Redmond, however, wants her for a much darker purpose. Forced to pretend an aversion to the man she loves, Solange is finally reunited with Damon in the most unexpected of ways. She is now a widow, a haunting version of the girl he once knew, and seems to be hiding something that Damon cannot discover. All he knows is that she is determined to flee the estate of her dead husband, and he is helplessly drawn with her on the journey. Along the way each rediscovers the flame that once united them, slowly, reluctantly, until once again they admit their love for each other. All cannot be well, however, until the secret of Solange's past is uncovered and banished.

                • Cover of The White Raven
                  The White Raven

                  Diana L. Paxson · standalone novel · 1988

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish islesmedieval

                  This haunting retelling of the tale of Tristan and Iseult (here called Drustan and Esseilte in accordance with Celtic legend and language) goes back to early versions, before Mallory and Wagner, to explore the nature of love, duty and loyalty. The story is told by Branwen, cousin and companion to Esseilte, daughter of the High King of Eriu (Ireland). The two young women save the life of a badly wounded harper, later discovered to be Drustan, who had killed Esseilte's beloved uncle and Branwen's father, Morholt, in battle. Drustan seeks Esseilte's hand for his uncle, Marc'h, King of Kernow (Cornwall), an alliance arranged for political reasons. On the way to Cornwall, Esseilte tries to poison Drustan, but the potion they both drink turns out to be a love filtre prepared for Esseilte and Marc'h. Thus the tale is set in motion, with passion and hate binding the lovers together. With Branwen's aid, they are able to deceive Marc'h on the wedding night: Branwen, close in appearance to the queen, sleeps with the king and falls in love with him. For a while Esseilte and Drustan escape detection, but eventually they are caught in circumstances that cannot be ignored, leading to the tragic denouement. This is a complex tale, interweaving the political and religious conflicts of the sixth century, when the ancient Druid religion still had a strong hold. Paxson ( The Paradise Tree , White Mare, Red Stallion ) breathes life and wonder into one of the most romantic of the CelticGermanic legends.

                • Cover of The Grey Horse
                  The Grey Horse

                  R. A. MacAvoy · standalone novel · 1987

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish isleshistorical fantasy

                  Publisher's description: "Set against the colorful and magical backdrop of Ireland. It chronicles a time when the Irish people suffered under harsh English overlords who sought to destroy their culture and way of life. Into the Irish town of Carraroe, a magnificent, completely grey stallion appears. The horse brings with him the promise of better times and magical happenings, for he is actually the shaped-shifted form of Ruairi MacEibhir, journeyed to such a time of danger in order to win the hand of the woman he loves."

                • Cover of Thomas the Rhymer
                  Thomas the Rhymer

                  Ellen Kushner · standalone novel · 1990

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalmedieval+1 more

                  Thomas the Rhymer is a fantasy novel by American writer Ellen Kushner. It is a fairytale based on the ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, a piece of folklore in which Thomas Learmonth's love of the Queen of Elfland was rewarded with the gift of prophecy. The novel won the 1991 World Fantasy Award and Mythopoeic Award.

                • Cover of Heart's Blood
                  Heart's Blood

                  Juliet Marillier · standalone novel · 2009

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalmedievalhistorical fantasy

                  Juliet Marillier is a New Zealand-born writer of speculative fiction, predominantly historical fantasy.

                • Cover of The Beautiful Ones
                  The Beautiful Ones

                  Silvia Moreno-Garcia · standalone novel · 2017

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancehistorical fantasy

                  323 pages ; 24 cm

                • Cover of Knights
                  Knights

                  Linda Lael Miller · standalone novel · 1996

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish islesmedieval

                  In medieval England, Gloriana, Lady of Kenbrook, awaits her husband, Dane St. Gregory, whom she has not seen since childhood. She is stunned to discover that he has returned with a betrothed; beautiful Gloriana is to be cast into a nunnery. Dane's mysterious sister-in-law, Elaina, counsels her to win Dane's heart or see the entire Kenbrook line imperiled.Entranced by her passionate will, he cannot resist Gloriana's potent charm, while she falls ever more deeply in love with Dane, her valiant swordsman. But their newfound happiness is brief -- suddenly, Gloriana is swept across the chasm of time to a dazzling future. Trapped centuries apart, Gloriana and Dane suffer the torment of their longing, knowing that only their love for one another and the strength of their desire can reunite them at last.

                • Cover of Dangerous
                  Dangerous

                  Monica Burns · standalone novel · 2009

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish isles

                  "His love could be the death of her. When Constance Athelson, Viscountess Westbury, hides her face to attend the Black Widows Ball, she never expected to find erotic passion in a masked stranger's arms. The torrent of lust isn't enough to drown out her dubious "gift" for seeing visions and talking to the dead. Terrified of being found out, she secures a position cataloguing archaeological artifacts for the Earl of Wyndham—where she encounters a ghost begging her to break a curse plaguing his family. Before his mysterious lover disappeared, Lucien Blakemore was tempted to throw caution aside. Yet he knows one taste of love will unleash the curse that drove his father and brother to murder their wives. When he returns home empty handed and empty hearted, he's shocked to discover his new assistant is the goddess who fled into the night. But could her presence be part of a murderous plot to unearth the location of a secret Egyptian tomb? The answer—or his doom—lies behind the desire shining in his seductress's eyes." – from this book's product page on Samhain's website as of 2016-11-06.

                • Cover of St. Leger Legacy
                  St. Leger Legacy

                  series · 3 books · 1998

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish isles+1 more

                • Cover of Miss Betty
                  Miss Betty

                  Bram Stoker · standalone novel · 1898

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish isles

                  Miss Betty is a romance novel by Bram Stoker, written and published in 1898 in London by Arthur Pearson. It was published one year after the release of Stoker's Dracula.

                • Cover of Lady Athlyne
                  Lady Athlyne

                  Bram Stoker · standalone novel · 1908

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romance

                  "Joy Ogilvie, the beautiful young daughter of a Kentucky colonel, plays a joke with her friends, pretending to be "Lady Athlyne", after hearing a story about the dashing Irish nobleman Lord Athlyne. Little does she know that half a world away, the real Lord Athlyne is a prisoner of war in a South African camp, where word reaches him that a woman in America is impersonating his wife. Upon his release, he decides to investigate the situation and travels to New York, where a near-fatal accident introduces him to Joy and her father. Athlyne and Joy fall instantly in love-but a series of misadventures and dangerous obstacles threatens to prevent their marriage. And when Colonel Ogilvie learns of their affair and challenges Athlyne to a duel to the death, their love just may end in tragedy!" --quoting the Amazon product page for the 2007 Valancourt Books edition as of 2017-08-29

                • Cover of Highlands
                  Highlands

                  series · 4 books · 2008

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish isles+1 more

                • Cover of The Man
                  The Man

                  Bram Stoker · standalone novel · 1905

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish isles

                  The Man is a 1905 Edwardian novel by Bram Stoker. A Gothic novel, it features both horror and romance. The Man has also been published as The Gates of Life. It was released eight years after Dracula.

                • Cover of Sevenwaters
                  Sevenwaters

                  series · 7 books · 1999

                  similar byemotionalmedievalbritish isleshistorical fantasy+1 more

                  The Sevenwaters series is a historical fantasy series by New Zealand-born author Juliet Marillier, first published as three novels between 1999 and 2001, and then later extended. The series includes six novels: Daughter of the Forest (1999), Son of the Shadows (2000), Child of the Prophecy (2001), Heir to Sevenwaters (2008), Seer of Sevenwaters (2010), and Flame of Sevenwaters (2012).

                • Cover of The Night Side
                  The Night Side

                  Melanie Jackson · standalone novel · 2009

                  similar byforbidden lovebritish isleshistorical romancehistorical fantasy+1 more

                  As a spy for Henry VIII, Colin Mortlock is sent to Scotland and finds himself called upon to break the curse hanging over his alleged enemy, the beautiful yet haunted Frances Balfour.

                • Cover of The Chattan Curse
                  The Chattan Curse

                  series · 3 books · 2012

                  similar byemotionalhistorical romancebritish isles+2 more

                • Cover of The Wolf Hunt
                  The Wolf Hunt

                  Gillian Bradshaw · standalone novel · 2001

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalmedievalhistorical romance

                  When Marie Penthièvre of Chalandrey is abducted from her Norman priory and taken to the court of Brittany, she vows never to dishonor her family by marrying a Breton brute. There is only one man who might change her mind: Tiarán of Talensac, a handsome, skilled, and noble knight indeed. But Tiarnán does not love her, and when he marries a slip of a girl instead, Marie vows to become a nun as soon as she is able. But Tiarnán has a secret, and that slip of a girl betrays him once she learns of it. When Tiarnán disappears and is presumed dead, his widow marries his onetime rival and assumes title to his land, which steadily begins to decline under her unskilled, merciless rule. Marie knows something is wrong, and only she is clearheaded enough to rescue Tiarnán and return him to his rightful status. But can she do it before it is too late? (from the back cover)

                • Cover of The Queen's Man
                  The Queen's Man

                  Terri Brisbin · standalone novel · 2000

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalhistorical romancebritish islesmedieval

                  "Cast back in time to fourteenth-century England, textiles expert Sharon Reynolds finds herself falling for Richard Granville--half-brother of Queen Elizabeth and an illegitimate son of Henry VIII." (source: Amazon.com)

                • Cover of The Midnight Witch
                  The Midnight Witch

                  Paula Brackston · standalone novel · 2014

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish isleshistorical fantasy

                  "When the sixth Duke of Radnor dies, his hapless son, Freddie, takes on his title, but it is his daughter, Lilith, who inherits his role as Head Witch of the Lazarus Coven. Raised as a witch, instructed in the art of necromancy, Lilith faces a daunting future, for the coven is threatened by a powerful group of sorcerers, the Sentinels. Nicholas Stricklend, a powerful force in the British government, is the Sentinel charged with wresting the Elixir from Lilith, and he cares not who he must crush in order to succeed. As a society beauty, engaged to another titled witch, and with a grieving mother and an unstable brother to look after, Lilith struggles to maintain her two very different existences. When she meets and falls in love with the talented artist Bram Cardale, she can no longer keep her life as a witch hidden, and she must choose between her loyalty to the coven, her duty to her family, and her love for Bram, or risk destroying everything she holds dear. Paula Brackston's debut novel, The Witch's Daughter, was the little book that could--with a captivating story, remarkable heroine, and eye-catching package, it has sold more than 130,000 copies in all formats. The Midnight Witch is another enchanting tale of love and magic, featuring her signature blend of gorgeous writing, a decadent and intriguing historical backdrop, and a headstrong and relatable heroine for which readers will cheer"--

                • Cover of The Bride of Time
                  The Bride of Time

                  Dawn Thompson · standalone novel · 2008

                  similar byforbidden loveemotionalbritish isleshistorical romancehistorical fantasy

                  When a scullery maid from 1903 is transported back in time to the English Regency, she learns that the handsome, tormented artist who wants to paint her has been commissioned by the Prince Regent to paint the "ultimate woman"-;and that he is suspected of having been bitten by a werewolf!