What to read after “The Iron Duke” by Meljean Brook: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.
In an alternate 1914, the Great Powers fight with two kinds of technology: the Clankers' diesel walkers and the Darwinists' genetically engineered beasts. Prince Alek, on the run after his parents' assassination, and Deryn, a girl disguised as a boy in the British airship service, meet when the whale airship Leviathan crashes in the Alps.
Nora Grey keeps her head down until her biology partner, the aloof Patch, starts appearing wherever she goes. He knows too much, says too little, and seems to want her for reasons he will not name. Falling for him means choosing a side in a fallen angel's ancient struggle.
Alexia Tarabotti is a spinster with no soul, which makes her immune to the supernatural. When a rogue vampire attacks her in steampunk London and a werewolf lord is sent to investigate, the two uncover a plot against the city's vampires and werewolves—and a mutual attraction neither of them expected.
An early mining machine called the Boneshaker shattered Seattle and released a gas that kills people or turns the dead into rotters. Sixteen years later, Briar Wilkes enters the walled ruins after her son Zeke, who hopes to clear his father's name, goes in. She finds the ruined city ruled by a masked inventor and his followers.
In Victorian London, Tessa Gray is kidnapped by the Dark Sisters and learns she is a shape-shifter. Rescued by the Shadowhunters, she is drawn into a fight against a powerful enemy while navigating her feelings for two brothers, Will and Jem.
In an alternate 1878, Karen Memery works at a brothel in Seattle. When a badly injured woman arrives with a ruthless man on her trail, Karen is pulled into a hunt for a serial killer, a corrupt election and a mess of dangerous inventions.
A traveller from the future changes 1840 and leaves behind an England divided between steam-driven Technologists and Eugenicists who reshape living things. Sir Richard Burton, an explorer whose reputation has been ruined, is sent to investigate the attacks of Spring-Heeled Jack and other strange events in London's East End.
Edinburgh, 1844. Aileana Kameron hides a secret: she hunts the fae who murdered her mother, using her own inventions and a training she never speaks of. Her closest ally is Kiaran, a fae warrior who teaches her to fight, and the trail she follows leads toward something far older and more dangerous than she expected.
In an electric-powered Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll works as a crime-scene investigator while hiding Lizzie Hyde, the reckless second self freed by her father's elixir. A killer is mutilating women across the city, and the case pulls Eliza into London's magical underworld as she tries to keep her secret and control Lizzie.
Thousands of years after a war destroyed civilization, cities move on giant wheels and hunt smaller towns for fuel and parts. Apprentice historian Tom Natsworthy is thrown out of London after a girl named Hester tries to kill a powerful official, and the two must survive the wastelands together while a larger scheme takes shape inside the city.
Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a luxury airship that crosses the oceans. When a pirate raid and a storm leave the ship stranded on a remote island, Matt and a rich passenger's daughter, Kate, search for the flying creatures her grandfather claimed to have seen before the pirates close in.
Wrath, the vampire king of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, never planned to care for a mortal. When he promises a dying comrade to watch over the man's half-human daughter, Beth, their growing bond pulls them both into the Brotherhood's hidden war with the slayers hunting their kind.
Irene is a professional spy for the Library, an institution that collects books from alternate worlds. Sent with her new assistant Kai to a chaos-infested version of London where airships, vampires and fey exist, she must recover a dangerous book that has already been stolen, and the mission quickly turns into a struggle over the nature of reality itself.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is sent to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy, where proper young ladies learn dance, dress and etiquette, and also lock-picking, information gathering and the quieter arts of espionage. A stolen prototype and a plot against a schoolmate pull Sophronia and her new friends into danger.
Tate Collins moves in with her older brother in San Francisco and meets Miles Archer, his best friend and a reserved airline pilot. Their attraction becomes a no-strings arrangement with strict rules, but Tate wants more while Miles is held back by grief he refuses to discuss.
Lady Felicity Faircloth was once the toast of London; now gossips have left her a spinster wallflower. A chance encounter with Devil, a powerful Covent Garden criminal, leads to a bargain: he will help her catch a duke if she helps him settle an old score. Neither expects the attraction that follows.
Bella Swan moves to the rainy town of Forks and is drawn to Edward Cullen, who is beautiful, distant and not human. As she learns he is a mind-reading vampire, the danger of loving him becomes impossible to ignore.
Abby Abernathy arrives at college determined to avoid bad boys, but a bet lands her living in Travis Maddox's apartment. Their instant attraction turns into a volatile friendship and then something more, as Abby tries to keep her past and her feelings under control.
Win Hathaway has loved Kev Merripen, the brooding Romany boy taken in by her family, since childhood, and has spent years recovering from illness for his sake. Kev believes he is too dangerous to deserve her, and keeps his distance even as she decides to make him hers.
MacKayla Lane travels to Ireland after her sister is murdered and finds she can see the fae, a power that makes her a target. To find the killer and stay alive she turns to Jericho Barrons, a secretive man whose help comes at a price and whose motives she cannot read.
Half-vampire Emmaline travels to Paris to learn how her parents died and is abducted by Lachlain, a werewolf king freed from a century of torture. He is sure she is his mate, but she wants nothing to do with the werewolves' war, even as the bond between them grows.
Rae hunts ghosts in the small town of Abelaum, where old occult secrets are stirring. A summoning binds her to Leon, a demon assassin who was ordered to kill her and chose not to. As a cult closes in and monsters wake in the woods, Rae must decide how far she trusts the demon who wants her soul.
Gabrielle hides in Boston, painting by day and avoiding the vampires who killed her family. When she witnesses a battle between the Breed warrior Lucan and his enemies, she is pulled into the Midnight Breed's hidden war and a dangerous attraction to an assassin sworn to hunt his own kind.
Half vampire Cat has spent years hunting the creatures her father belonged to. When she meets Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, he offers to train her in exchange for help with his own list of targets, and the partnership draws her into a world she cannot leave.
Start with “Leviathan”, “Hush, Hush”, “Soulless”: they are the closest to “The Iron Duke” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “The Iron Duke” these are Steampunk, Forbidden Love, Forced Proximity), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “Leviathan”, “Hush, Hush”, “Soulless”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
