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15 Smashing Books Set in London
By Angela Erickson, published on June 08, 2023
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The city of London has captured the imagination of people around the world for generations. In that spirit, take a hop across the pond with us and dive into this smashing list of books! You’re sure to fancy our latest genre-spanning list of books set in London, featuring diverse settings and characters.
Queenie
Although Londoner Queenie Jenkins steadfastly embraces both her Jamaican and her British sides, it hasn’t been easy. She’s struggling to find her identity as it relates to her heritage, and it seems that she’s always bungling things when it comes to her job as a newspaper writer — not to mention her love life. Entertainment Weekly says, “The vibrant Queenie is a modern-day Bridget Jones’s Diary, and so much more.”
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Falling Hard for the Royal Guard
Many young women could only dream of living in a castle, but Maggie Moore has found that growing up in the Tower of London doesn’t mean her life is filled with eligible, charming princes. She has struck out for the last time on the relationship front, and worries her chances for romance have passed her by. But when Royal Guard Freddie catches her attention, she just might be willing to give love one more try.
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Fire Rush
Yamaye hasn’t had much of a relationship with her father since her mother left when she was a child, but she finds a sense of home at The Crypt, an underground reggae club just outside of London. It’s here that she meets Moose, a carpenter and fellow Jamaican. But when violence breaks out against people like her in Britain, she finds herself seeking safety as well as information about her heritage, and ends up back in Jamaica in search of answers. Booker Prize–winning author Bernardine Evaristo calls this read “an exceptional and stunningly original novel by a major new writer.”
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A Most Intriguing Lady
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, delivers a romantic mystery featuring a proper Victorian lady who is trying her best to flourish in society — and to solve crimes at the same time. Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott has grown up in the highest of social circles, with parents who are close friends with Queen Victoria. She’s known for her demure observations, which help her discover clues that others might miss, but she meets her sleuthing match in handsome British Intelligence Service officer Colonel Walter Trefusis!
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Daughter Dalloway
Fans of Marie Benedict will love this spin-off of Virginia Woolf’s classic Mrs Dalloway, a beautifully written novel that tells the story of Clarissa Dalloway’s only daughter, Elizabeth. The middle-aged Elizabeth fears that her life has been meaningless until she is given a medal with an inscription from her mother to a soldier named Septimus Warren Smith. Elizabeth’s quest to learn more about the medal alternates with flashbacks of her free-spirited teenage years, when adventure and romance were around every corner.
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Gigi, Listening
As much as she loves reading romance novels, Gigi Rutherford is more than happy to stay out of the relationship spotlight herself. After she strikes out in love repeatedly, the most attractive man on her radar is Zane Wilkenson, an audiobook narrator who has recorded many of her favorite books. When she wins a bus tour around the English countryside with none other than Zane as the leader, she’s convinced her dreams are coming true — but will her rowdy fellow travelers make it a vacation she’ll be happy to forget? Carley Fortune, author of Meet Me at the Lake, says, “It’s a sweet romance you’ll want to cozy up with. Completely charming!”
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Small Worlds
Caleb Azumah Nelson follows up his worldwide bestseller Open Water with a novel about generational bonds and emotional honesty. Stephen’s Ghanaian parents have created a new home in London for their family of four, but Stephen is still searching for his own identity. Traveling between London and Ghana over the course of three years, Stephen must find his own definition of family and purpose. The Times calls this novel an “uplifting symphony of a summer read.”
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Wandering Souls
Left orphaned in the Vietnam conflict, 16-year-old Anh and her younger brothers, Minh and Thanh, make their way through refugee camps and across the globe to establish a new life for themselves in London. As each of them assimilates to their new home in different ways, the strength of their bonds will be tested. Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, calls this read “a deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope.”
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Good Girls Die Last: the must-read thriller of the year
Em’s boss sexually harasses the women in his workplace, and her flatmate is having an affair — with Em — behind his fiancée’s back. She’s surrounded by men who escape all consequences for their poor behavior, and she’s tired of it. Having lost her job and her place to live all at once, Em is determined to fix her problems after she flies to Spain for her sister’s wedding… but this fateful day will alter the trajectories of Em’s life and London’s future in this gripping thriller.
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Queen Charlotte
The author of the Bridgerton novels teams up with the Netflix adaptation creator Shonda Rhimes for a spectacular new novel about Queen Charlotte and King George III’s romance. Married hours after their first meeting in 1761, the beautiful Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the newly crowned British king have a lot to learn about ruling a country… and about love. Dive into the pages of this powerful and romantic novel about a marriage that will weather dramatic highs and lows over nearly six decades.
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Ghost Girl, Banana
In 1966 Hong Kong, Sook-Yin is sent away from her family to train as a nurse in London. 30 years later, her biracial daughters, Maya and Lily, hold tight to their memories of a mother who died when they were young. When the sisters are notified that they are recipients of an inheritance from a stranger back in China, Lily sets off on an odyssey to learn more about their family’s mysterious past.
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The Three of Us
In a beautiful London neighborhood, a wife has a loving husband and a loyal best friend — but the two people she’s closest to can’t stand each other. On an otherwise uneventful day, an argument breaks out among the trio that will destroy their carefully balanced yet uneasy alliances. Library Journal says that in this funny and observant novel, “Agbaje-Williams brilliantly captures the toxic dynamics of an emotional train wreck that inevitably comes from the imbalance of a fragile marriage threatened by the presence of a conniving third party.”
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Double-Decker Dreams
Kat is a consultant who has been uprooted from her home in the US to work in London for six months, the perfect amount of time to achieve success in her job and land herself a wealthy Englishman. An instant attraction to a handsome man on a double-decker bus convinces her that they are soulmates… but real life proves to be much more complicated than the relationships in her cherished romantic comedies. Readers who love Emily Henry and Sophie Cousens will delight in this charming modern romance from the author of The Heart of the Deal.
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The Imposters
Dora Frenhofer was once an illustrious author, but now her mind is starting to go and aging has made her resentful. When the global pandemic hits, Dora is determined to use the time in her London home to finish her last book while she is still able. Dora’s imagination and her writing will take readers on an adventure around the world, as her purpose and passions reignite in this novel the Washington Post calls “deliciously ironic and deeply affectionate.”
Release date: June 27
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The Housekeepers
At first glance, Mrs. King looks the part of a discreet London housekeeper — but she’s holding back several juicy secrets, including her experience on the wrong side of the law. After being unexpectedly fired from her job, she recruits some friends in low places to get revenge during a Mayfair society costume ball. This novel is “rollicking fun and entirely original,” says author Sarah Penner, declaring, “Anyone who relishes a good party gone wrong will devour this.”
Release date: July 4
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Abycats' Thoughts 