An Incomplete Book List for Ormdale Readers

With Caveats

When readers tell me they want more books to read that are like mine, I never know how to reply.

In one sense, there are no books “like mine,” and that’s why reviewers tend to mash together multiple titles when they try to describe them.

Real examples: It’s Anne of Green Dragon Stables! — Little Women with dragons. — Pride and Prejudice with dragons. — Emma M. Lion with dragons! (You are getting the idea now.) And the one that still haunts me: Little House on the Prairie with Lizards.

The fact is, I’m not sure what readers are wanting exactly when they want “more,” except for more books from me, which I am doing my best to supply.

Recently, in my author newsletter (which you should definitely subscribe to, especially if you want a pretty colouring page, a delicious recipe, and my undying gratitude) I talked about the false burden of Originality.

You see, I am under no illusions that my work is particularly original. I have swum happily in the waters of classic literature since cognition. Some of my earliest memories are cassette tapes of Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, Narnia, and Jane Austen. I watched the badly-lit BBC A Midsummer Night’s Dream on VHS over and over as a child. (I also watched Disney movies and 1940s screwball comedies, which I’m sure have left a mark as well.)

I’m certain that some of the books I have loved will also be books that some of my readers will love. I am also sure that some will be despised and rejected.

So, humbly, and with trepidation, I present a book list—with caveats.

This is not a list of my favourite books. That list would be longer and stranger, and would include nonfiction and poetry.

This is a list of books that I think may have enough in common with Ormdale that a reader might find something to enjoy. Some of them have found their way into my writing DNA.

Before you race to put them all on your Goodreads TBR because “Christina recommended them,” please ask yourself what you liked about my books and what you are looking for more of.

For instance, if you what you enjoy about my books in a chatty first-person POV from a young Victorian woman who makes literary references, you might like The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, but you may not enjoy the darker Gothic books I’ve recommended here.

To help you, I have separated the titles under themes or moods.

Some readers have written to tell me they appreciate my minimal use of fantasy elements because they consciously avoid books with overt magic use. Others love nothing more than a magic system. I’ve put the books with the most magic elements into a category I’ve called Deeply Magical.

Since many of my readers share books with their children, I’ve marked books I consider suitable for a family audience with an asterisk. If the book is not marked with an asterisk, that does not necessarily mean it is inappropriate. It may have mature content or just be best appreciated by adult readers (for example, I’d listen to an audiobook of The Enchanted April or A Room with a View with children in the room, but these are books certainly not intended for a family audience). Families and readers vary, and I have neither the time nor the calling to make exhaustive content warnings. Check your favourite review sites with content warnings to make an informed choice for you as an individual reader.

One more thing! I confess I did enjoy all of these books tremendously.

Comforting/cozy/whimsical

*The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

*What the Sea Brings by Beverly Twomey

*When Marnie was Here by Joan G. Lindsay

*The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

*The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

*The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden

What Comes of Attending the Commoner’s Ball by Elisabeth Aimee Brown

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

A Room with a View by EM Forster

A Coup of Tea by Casey Blair

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (I’m not sure it fits very well in this category but it is a comfort read for me!)

An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden (actually this isn’t any of those things but I love it and I could not figure out which category put it in—imagine The Secret Garden in Postwar London)

Deeply Magical

*The Oakenwylde/No Ordinary Faerie Tale books by Rebecca J Anderson [this series has been published under several titles, but the first book is always titled Knife]

*The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

*The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones

*The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones

*House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

*Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit

Masque by WR Gingell

Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Tea & Wizardry by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

The Bells of Paradise by Suzannah Rowntree

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Memorable heroines

The Legendary Inge by Kate Stradling

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower

The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

*Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Rich language, feels timeless

Pendragon’s Heir by Suzannah Rowntree

Lady of Weeds by WR Gingell

Chalice by Robin McKinley

The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Families working together

*When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

*Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

*The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit

*The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Gothic/dark/suspenseful

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

*Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White

The Wheel Turns by Ethel Lina White

Miss Sharp’s Monsters by Suzannah Rowntree

The Heir and the Spare by Kate Stradling

Rain Through Her Fingers by Rabia Gale

Ghost Light by Rabia Gale

The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Historical fiction

*The Armourer’s House by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge

The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

Victorian Mysteries by Robin Paige (I've only read the first two so far)

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet by Edith Pargeter

Epic fantasy that digs deeply into historical themes

The Shadow Histories by HG Parry

Watchers of Outremer by Suzannah Rowntree