Books like 'The Painter of Signs'
Readers who enjoyed The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Princess Bride by William Goldman
58 ratingsWhat happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride...Categorized as:
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Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
48 ratingsAn alternative cover for this ISBN can be found hereSophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady...Categorized as:
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A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
26 ratingsMiles Vorkosigan has a problem: unrequited love for the beautiful widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson, violently allergic to marriage after her first exposure. If a frontal assault won't do, Miles thinks, try subterfuge. He has a cunning plan... Lord Mark Vorkosigan, Miles' brother, also has a problem: his love has just become unrequited again. But he has a cunning plan.. -
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
41 ratingsNabbing Maxine Nowicki, thief and extortionist, would be the answer to Stephanie’s prayers and monetary woes. The only trouble is that Maxine is no where to be found, and her friends have been mysteriously turning up dead. To make matters worse, Stephanie’s arch nemesis since grade school is also looking for Nowicki, hoping to cash in first.Stephanie’s mentor and tormentor, Ranger, needs her... -
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The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
24 ratingsAlong with Wit, Charm, Health, and Courage, Princess Amy of Phantasmorania receives a special fairy christening gift: Ordinariness. Unlike her six beautiful sisters, she has brown hair and freckles, and would rather have adventures than play the harp, embroider tapestries . . . or become a Queen...Categorized as:
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Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer
24 ratingsDuellist and gamester, the young Marquis of Vidal had fairly earned the sobriquet 'Devil's Cub' - a tribute to the wilder excesses of his father, the Duke of Avon.When Mary Challoner discovered Dominic's plans to run away with her lovely sister, she donned cloak and mask in a daring impersonation and found herself bound for France with the most notorious rake in Georgian London...Categorized as:
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Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters
18 ratingsThe fifteenth adventure for Amelia, Emerson and the whole Peabody-Emerson clan! At last the Great War is over. Amelia, her distinguished Egyptologist husband Emerson and their extended family are preparing for another season of excavation in Egypt. To everyone's great joy their son Ramses and his wife Nefret have become parents...Categorized as:
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The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters
20 ratingsAmelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season -- after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft...Categorized as:
historical historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure adult africa amateur-sleuth -
The Magic of You by Johanna Lindsey
25 ratingsAlso see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] ACE #1 ACE #2 As wild and reckless as the most incorrigible of her male cousins, Amy Malory has reached a marriageable age and has set her sights on a most inappropriate mate: the straight-laced American ship captain who once nearly had her Uncle James hung hanged for piracy...Categorized as:
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The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
26 ratingsWhen the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on business, he leaves his only daughter Sophia with his sister, Elizabeth Rivenhall, in Berkeley Square. Newly arrived from her tour of the Continent, Sophy invites herself into the circle of her relatives...Categorized as:
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A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
29 ratingsWhen a devilish lord and a bluestocking set off on the road to ruin... time is not on their side. Minerva Highwood, one of Spindle Cove's confirmed spinsters, needs to be in Scotland. Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne, a rake of the first order, needs to be... anywhere but Spindle Cove...Categorized as:
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Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
41 ratingsStephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick is back and she's having a bad hair day -- for the whole month of January. She's been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton's most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance... -
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
42 ratingsAlso see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] ACE #1 - ACE #2 - ACE #3 Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum debuted in Janet Evanovich's award-winning "One for the Money". Now she's back, packing a whole lot of attitude -- not to mention stun guns, defense sprays, killer flashlights and a... -
The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady by Gerald Morris
18 ratingsSquire Terence and Sir Gawain are off questing again, but this time their journey is overshadowed by their ultimate destination: Gawain is to meet up with the Green Knight in a contest that could easily lead to Gawain's death. Along the way the two have a slew of hair-raising adventures and encounter the usual odd assortment of characters, including the plucky Lady Eileen...Categorized as:
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Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
20 ratingsIn this delightful new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service, Georgie is plotting a trip down the aisle but finds herself embroiled in a murder that hits a little too close to home...Georgie is finally able to plan for her wedding in the summer...Categorized as:
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Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters
24 ratingsThe 1895-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Amelia Peabody, her dashing Egyptologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and their precocious (some might say rambunctious) eight-year-old son, Ramses. The long-denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor has finally been granted, and the much-coveted burial chamber of the Black Pyramid is now theirs for the exploring...Categorized as:
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To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
28 ratingsConnie Willis' Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Doomsday Book uses time travel for a serious look at how people connect with each other. In this Hugo-winning companion to that novel, she offers a completely different kind of time travel adventure: a delightful romantic comedy that pays hilarious homage to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat...Categorized as:
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The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
42 ratingsThe first and most successful in the Baroness’s series of books that feature Percy Blakeney, who leads a double life as an English fop and a swashbuckling rescuer of aristocrats, The Scarlet Pimpernel was the blueprint for what became known as the masked-avenger genre...Categorized as:
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The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
20 ratingsMiles from anywhere, Darracott Place is presided over by elderly Lord Darracott. Irascible Lord Darracott rules his barony with a firm hand. The tragic accident that killed his eldest son by drowning has done nothing to improve his temper. For now, he must send for the next heir apparent--the unknown offspring of the uncle whom the family is never permitted to mention...Categorized as:
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These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
24 ratingsUnder the reign of Louis XV, corruption and intrigue have been allowed to blossom in France, and Lord Justin Alastair, the notorious Duke of Avon, known for his coldness of manner, his remarkable omniscience, and his debauched lifestyle. Society believes the worst of Justin, who is clearly proud of his sobriquet, 'Satanas'...Categorized as:
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The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
24 ratingsAt the age of five-and-thirty, Sir Waldo Hawkridge, wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as the nonesuch for his athletic prowess, and when he comes north to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom hall in the West Riding, his arrival leads to the most entertaining of ramifications. When they learned that Sir Waldo was coming, the village gentry were thrown into a flurry...Categorized as:
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Sylvester by Georgette Heyer, Joan Wolf
24 ratingsWhen the news went out that Sylvester Rayne, the elegant, impeccable Duke of Salford, was seeking a wife, all England was aflutter! Lord Sylvester is a polished bachelor who has stringent requirements for his future wife -- she must be well-born, intelligent, elegant and attractive. And of course she must be able to present herself well in high society...Categorized as:
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How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior
28 ratingsA curmudgeonly but charming old woman, her estranged grandson, and a colony of penguins proves it's never too late to be the person you want to be in this rich, heartwarming story from the acclaimed author of Ellie and the Harpmaker.Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to...Categorized as:
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Les Liaisons Dangereuses a Play by Christopher Hampton
10 ratings"Les Liaisons Dangereuses", A Play by Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos. Produced on the Broadway Stage by James M. Nederlander, The Schubert Organization, Inc., Jerome Minskoff, Elizabeth I. McCann and Stephen Graham in association with Jonathan Farkas...Categorized as:
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The Warlock in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff
19 ratingsBack in Print: the novel that launched the epic Warlock series. In an interstellar romp that proves science and sorcery can mix, only hard-headed realist Rod Gallowglass can save the people of Gramarye from their doom by becoming--The Warlock in Spite of Himself--if only he believed in magic... -
The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer, Anne Stuart
20 ratingsShe could disguise everything -- except her love for him . . .The capricious politics of the eighteenth century made it necessary for Robin & Prudence Merriot to engage in a charming deception - one which became more & more fraught with danger..Categorized as:
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An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
20 ratingsPatrick Taylor first charmed readers with An Irish Country Doctor, a warm and enchanting novel in the tradition of James Herriot and Jan Karon. Now Taylor returns to the colorful Northern Ireland community of Ballybucklebo, where there's always something brewing beneath the village's deceptively sleepy surface...Categorized as:
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Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
24 ratingsTo Kitty Charing, the conditions of her guardian's will were intolerable. She had to marry one of his nephews before she could inherit a farthing of the old man's fortune. And the only nephew she wanted was handsome Jack Westruther. Jack, however, made it quite clear he was not ready for marriage...Categorized as:
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Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse
24 ratingsOne thing that constantly disrupts the peace of life at Blandings is the constant incursion of impostors. Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice. Now there are two of them – both intent on a dangerous enterprise...Categorized as:
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Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
25 ratingsThe national bestselling author of Royal Blood whisks her heroine away to the French Riviera for fun-and danger. Lady Georgiana Rannoch has once again been called into service by Her Majesty the Queen. This time she's sent to Nice on a secret assignment that's nothing to sneeze at-recover the Queen's stolen snuff box...Categorized as:
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The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen, Katherine Kellgren
25 ratingsAudie Award Finalist, Solo Narration—Female, 2013She may be 35th in line for the throne, but Lady Georgiana Rannoch cannot wait to ring in the new year—before a Christmas killer wrings another neck…On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me—well, actually, my true love, Darcy O’Mara, is spending a feliz navidad tramping around South America...Categorized as:
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Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
35 ratingsAmelia Peabody inherited two things from her father: a considerable fortune and an unbendable will. The first allowed her to indulge in her life's passion. Without the second, the mummy's curse would have made corpses of them all...Categorized as:
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Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
24 ratings"First published in the U.S.A. 1941 under the title Beau Wyndham"--Title page verso...Categorized as:
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Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, Book One by C.D. Payne
21 ratingsSix months in the life of the world's most dangerous teenager.Youth in Revolt is the journals of Nick Twisp, California's most precocious diarist, whose ongoing struggles to make sense out of high school, deal with his divorced parents, and lose his virginity result in his transformation from an unassuming fourteen-year-old to a modern youth in open revolt...Categorized as:
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The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer
20 ratingsThe Talisman Ring is one of Heyer's funniest and fastest-paced romantic comedies, telling the story of a fugitive heir, a tempestuous Frenchwoman, and the two sensible people who try to keep them out of trouble.Neither Sir Tristram Shield nor Eustacie, his young French cousin, share the slightest inclination to marry one another. Yet it is Lord Lavenham's dying wish...Categorized as:
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The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer, Karen Hawkins
20 ratingsGervase Frant finally returns to his father's estate to claim his title as the new Seventh Earl of St. Erth at Stanyon. Unscathed from glory at Waterloo, Gervase expected a hero's welcome - instead he's given a frigid cold shoulder...Categorized as:
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Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
18 ratingsRoger Mifflin is part pixie, part sage, part noble savage, and all God's creature. With his traveling book wagon named Parnassus, he moves through the New England countryside of 1915 on an itinerant mission of enlightenment. Mifflin's delight in books and authors is infectious--with his singular philosophy and bright eyes, he comes to represent the heart and soul of the book world...Categorized as:
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A Change of Fortune by Jen Turano
18 ratingsLady Eliza Sumner is on a mission. Her fortune was the last thing she had left after losing her father, her fiancé, and her faith. Now, masquerading as Miss Eliza Sumner, governess-at-large, she's determined to find the man who ran off with her fortune, reclaim the money, and head straight back to London. Mr...Categorized as:
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Mrs. Tim Christie by D.E. Stevenson
12 ratingsTenth May, 1934. At this moment I look up and see the Man Who Lives Next Door standing on his doorstep watching my antics, and disapproving (I feel sure) of my flowered silk dressing gown. Probably his own wife wears one of red flannel, and most certainly has never been seen leaning out of the window in it - The Awful Carrying On of Those Army People - he is thinking...Categorized as:
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One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
49 ratingsYou've lost your job as a department store lingerie buyer, your car's been repossessed, and most of your furniture and small appliances have been sold off to pay last month's rent. Now the rent is due again. And you live in New Jersey. What do you do?If you're Stephanie Plum, you become a bounty hunter. But not just a nickel-and-dime bounty hunter; you go after the big money... -
A Touch of Flame by Jo Goodman
6 ratingsUSA Today bestselling author Jo Goodman returns to the gunslinging outlands of A Touch of Frost with a sizzling new romance where the new town doctor learns there's nothing she likes better than a run-in with the law. Dr. E. Ridley Woodhouse is like no physician Ben Madison has ever met—she's a woman...Categorized as:
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Brighter Than the Sun by Julia Quinn
25 ratingsWhen Charles Wycombe, the dashing and incorrigible Earl of Billington, toppled out of a tree and landed at Ellie Lyndon‘s feet, neither suspected that such an inauspicious meeting would lead to marriage. But Charles must find a bride before his thirtieth birthday or he’ll lose his fortune. And Ellie needs a husband or her father’s odious fiancée will choose one for her...Categorized as:
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Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen
25 ratingsAs thirty-fifth in line for the throne, Lady Georgiana Rannoch may not be the most sophisticated young woman, but she knows her table manners. It's forks on the left, knives on the right, not in His Majesty's back. Here I am thinking the education I received at my posh Swiss finishing school would never come in handy... -
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
24 ratingsMiss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies...Categorized as:
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Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer, June Barrie
24 ratingsIt is in regrettable circumstances that beautiful Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine first meet Julian St John Audley. The man, they both agree, is an insufferably arrogant dandy. But unfortunately for them, he's also the Fifth Earl of Worth, a friend of the Regent and, their legal guardian...Categorized as:
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Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer, Eve Matheson
20 ratingsThis story of mistaken love is a romantic fiction set in the English Regency period. It centres on Lord Sheringham who has been rejected by the woman he loves but the woman who has secretly loved him since childhood is waiting...Categorized as:
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The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer, Daniel Hill
18 ratingsCaptain John Staple’s exploits in the Peninsula had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack among his fellow Dragoons. Now home from Waterloo, life is rather dull. But when he finds himself lost and benighted at an unmanned toll-house in the Pennines, his soldiering exploits pale away besides an adventure — and romance — of a lifetime...Categorized as:
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The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
18 ratingsFrom the author of The Personal History of Rachel Dupree , shortlisted for the Orange Award for New Writers and longlisted for the Orange Prize. 1900. Young pianist Catherine Wainwright flees the fashionable town of Dayton, Ohio in the wake of a terrible scandal...Categorized as:
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If I Only Had a Duke by Lenora Bell
17 ratingsAfter three failed seasons and a disastrous jilting, Lady Dorothea Beaumont has had more than enough of her family's scheming. She won't domesticate a duke, entangle an earl, or vie for a viscount. She will quietly exit to her aunt's Irish estate for a life of blissful freedom. Until an arrogant, sinfully handsome duke singles her out for a waltz, making Thea the most popular belle of the season...Categorized as:
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Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
35 ratingsThere is an alternate cover edition here.Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching neck, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her...Categorized as:
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