Emelie, you've gotten a lot of recommendations which are similar to Twilight and Harry Potter, but I thought I'd throw out a few which you might find similar to the Turnham Malpas "Village" series. A classic series available right here at MobileRead would be the
Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope. A
review at Victorian Web says
Quote:
|
Barchester is a cathedral town in imaginary Barsetshire of mid-nineteenth century England. Each of the six novels — beginning with The Warden, and continuing with Barchester Towers, Dr. Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington, ending with The Last Chronicle of Barset — takes us to a different part of the county. In each, we meet the local parsons and the parishioners, the wealthy and the poor, the titled and those without rank or fame, and in each reappear some of those whom we met before. In each, a heart-rending romance, a deserved or undeserved misfortune, a striking personality or downright politics, catches our interest and our sympathy, our contempt and even anger. And in the last novel, almost all of the important personages of the first five, are drawn together and allowed a final curtain call, and for almost all, in some way or other, the problems which so haunted them while their story was being told, are finally being solved, or, quite simply, their dreams come true. Yes, even Dr. Proudie, the henpecked bishop, finds unexpected relief.
|
A more contemporary series is the Mitford Series by author Jan Karon. The books feature an Episcopalian priest, Father Tim, and his small village in North Carolina. The series of nine novels --
At Home in Mitford,
A Light in the Window,
These High, Green Hills,
Out to Canaan,
A New Song,
A Common Life: The Wedding Story,
In This Mountain,
Shepherds Abiding, and
Light from Heaven -- have sold over 25 million copies. These books are available for the Amazon Kindle and may be available for other readers.
You might also enjoy two series by author Miss Read -- Fairacre and Thrush Green -- each a fictional English village. The principal character in the Fairacre books, "Miss Read", is an unmarried schoolteacher in a small village school. Thrush Green, nearby to Fairacre, is based on the small English town the author lived in during WWII. There are 17 books in the Fairacre series and 15 in the Thrush Green series; several omnibus editions combine 3 or more books into one publication. I did not find electronic versions of these books, but did not search any UK stores.
One other series that I can heartily recommend are the Miss Julia books by Ann B. Ross. Currently, there are ten volumes in this series, with the 11th due out in 2010:
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind,
Miss Julia Takes Over,
Miss Julia Throws a Wedding,
Miss Julia Hits the Road,
Miss Julia Meets Her Match,
Miss Julia's School of Beauty,
Miss Julia Stands Her Ground,
Miss Julia Strikes Back,
Miss Julia Paints the Town,
Miss Julia Delivers the Goods, and
Miss Julia Renews Her Vows. In the first book, we meet Miss Julia, a 60-ish new widowed woman whose husband has left her financially well off, but totally unprepared for much more than throwing the occasional tea party. The situations she gets into are hysterically funny and I've really enjoyed each of the books in the series. All but the first are available for the Amazon Kindle.