Books like “The House in the Cerulean Sea”

What to read after “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by T. J. Klune: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Assistant to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy” and “Whimsical”
Out of work and desperate, Evie Sage takes a job as assistant to the kingdom's most feared villain. Her boss is grumpy, the work is murder, and someone close to him is betraying him. Evie's sunny good cheer may be exactly what his gloomy fortress was missing.
2
The Spellshop
Sarah Beth Durst · 2024
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
After fire wrecks the Great Library, librarian Kiela escapes with crates of spell books to her late family's island cottage. To help the struggling villagers she secretly sells spells, and slowly lets her guarded heart make room for friendship, community and love.
3
Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones · 1986
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy” and “Whimsical”
Cursed by a witch into an old woman's body, Sophie takes shelter in the moving castle of the vain wizard Howl. Amid a fire demon, a scarecrow and Howl's tangled contracts, she finds a home and a way to break her own spell.
4
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Sangu Mandanna · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
Mika Moon hides her magic and never lets herself grow close to anyone. When a strange house asks her to teach three young witches, she meets a prickly librarian, a house full of secrets and the possibility of a place that finally feels like home.
5
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Brandon Sanderson · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy” and “Whimsical”
Tress lives on an island where the seas are made of deadly spores. When the man she loves is taken by the Sorceress, she leaves her ordinary life, gathers an unlikely crew and sails toward the midnight sea to bring him home.
6
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy
Megan Bannen · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
- Cozy Fantasy
- Grumpy Sunshine
Hart is a lonely marshal who hunts the undead; Mercy runs her family's funeral home and finds Hart insufferable. After a bitter week, each writes an anonymous letter to a stranger, and a warm correspondence begins without either knowing who is on the other end. Meanwhile, real life keeps forcing them together.
7
Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
- Cozy Fantasy
- Found Family
Viv, a battle-weary orc, trades her sword for an espresso machine and opens the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. With a hobgoblin carpenter, a reformed succubus and a skeletal latte artist, she builds a warm new life -- but her old mercenary crew has not finished with her yet.
8
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Heather Fawcett · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
- Cozy Fantasy
- Grumpy Sunshine
Emily Wilde, a prickly scholar of faerie folklore, travels to a frozen northern village to finish her encyclopaedia. Her charming colleague Wendell follows, and the two must bargain with the hidden folk whose mischief binds the village -- and Emily herself -- to an old tale.
9
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Whimsical”
- Whimsical
A black-and-white circus arrives without warning and opens only at night. Behind its rivalry of illusions stand two young magicians, Celia and Marco, bound by a contest neither chose. As they fall in love, the circus and everyone in it becomes the stakes.
10
The Goblin Emperor
Katherine Addison · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
- Cozy Fantasy
- Found Family
Maia, the exiled half-goblin youngest son, is unwanted and forgotten until an airship crash makes him emperor. He arrives at a hostile court with few allies and must learn whom to trust while trying to rule with kindness and stay alive.
11
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Becky Chambers · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Hopepunk”
- Hopepunk
- Found Family
A tea monk who serves travellers on a distant moon meets a robot that has spent centuries in the wild. The two travel together while the monk tries to answer a question the robot asks: what do people need?
12
Caraval
Stephanie Garber · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Whimsical”
- Whimsical
Scarlett has dreamed of Caraval, a magical game held once a year, as a way to escape her island home. When her sister is taken by the game's master, Scarlett must enter the show to find her, where nothing is real and the price of losing is high.