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These titles are all first in a series, but in various genres: mysteries, romance, science fiction, and more. All of them are also very, very funny.
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by Ben Aaronovitch
This is more than just an excellent "police procedural" set in London. Probationary Constable Peter Grant is resigned to being assigned to the Case Progression Unit after graduation, the most-hated and boring department of all of the London Metropolitan Police departments. But then a rather routine witness interview turns out to be an encounter with a ghost - and gets him assigned to "The Folly" - a clandestine police unit charged with investigating paranormal events.
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by Douglas Adams
Earth is going to be destroyed to make room for an inter-galactic freeway. Arthur Dent, Earthling, is saved from the annihilation by Ford Prefect, who is a researcher for the upcoming revision of a travel guide called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. What follows is a hilarious romp. Take a towel (they're massively useful in space!) and most of all ... Don't Panic.
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by Rhys Bowen
When one is 34th in line to the throne, there is virtually no chance of ever becoming Her Majesty, but that does not mean one can dabble in ... trade ... no matter how much one needs money. Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenia -- Georgie to her friends -- pretends to be her own former maid, with a a glowing reference from her royal self, and becomes an upper class housekeeper..
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by Alan Bradley
Flavia de Luce is eleven. She's often kind of bored and lonely -- teased by her older sisters and mostly ignored by her widowed and befuddled father. Their crumbling estate includes a laboratory built by some de Luce predecessor. Flavia is intrigued by the long-unused room and becomes a self-taught chemist, with an expertise in ... poisons..
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by Simon Brett
After an early (and somewhat forced) retirement, widowed Carole Seddon moves to the English seaside town of Fethering ("not too far from Tarring"). She and her new neighbor Jude (no last name offered!) are as different as chalk and cheese, but join forces after Carole literally stumbles upon a corpse on the beach.
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by Janet Evanovich
Introducing Stephanie Plum, our divorced (but not bitter) plucky heroine looking tor her place in the universe. She finds work as a somewhat hapless bail bondsperson, has terrible luck with cars, and rekindles a high school romance while also flirting with a hunky guy who has a mysterious past.
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by Jasper Fforde
Set in an alternate Great Britain, 1985. Time travel is hum-drum. Folks love their resurrected and cloned pet dodo birds. The Crimean war is still raging. Literature is taken very, very seriously. And Thursday Next is a Literary Detective -- tasked with retrieving the stolen original manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit.
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by Sarah Gailey
In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan.
Gailey imagines a bayou overrun with feral hippos and an odd lot of mercenary hippo wranglers hired to clear the swamps.
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by Charlaine Harris
Sookie is just your average roadhouse waitress, with one teensy difference. She can read minds. Which really is not all that great, because most people's thoughts aren't worth listening to, especially in a roadhouse. She falls for a vampire named Bill - he may be Undead and only available for dates after dark, but he is handsome. And she can't read his thoughts.
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by Talia Hibbert
Chloe is a plus-sized computer geek with a chronic illness. She is a workaholic with a goal, a plan, and a seven-item list to help her "get a life". She's moved out of the family home, and now she's ready to have some ... adventures. But shedding her Good Girl persona is turning out to be harder than she anticipated, so she turns to her new neighbor for, uhm, assistance.
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by Helen Hoang
Khai Kiep doesn't feel things the same way other people do. He thinks he's defective, and steadfastly avoids relationships. His mother returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride. She finds Esme Tran, a mixed-race girl who jumps at the chance to come to America.
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by M. R. C Kasasian
It is 1882 and the orphaned March Middleton moves from the country to London where her new guardian lives. Sidney Grice is a garrulous, one-eyed, famous (or infamous?) detective who is just not sure what to do with a smart, resourceful, and awfully grown up ward.
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by Kevin Kwan
ABC (American-born Chinese) Rachel Wu knows her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, comes from a well-off family. But when she agrees to spend the summer with his family in Singapore, she is gob-smacked to find out that he is an heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia.
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by Sophie Littlefield
After years of abuse, Stella Hardesty killed her abusive husband with an over-sized wrench. It was deemed self-defense, and Stella uses her new freedom to become a champion for other downtrodden victims of Very Bad Men. Her methods are unorthodox, and maybe just a teensy bit illegal.
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by Julie Anne Long
After her "dear dull Derring" husband dies, Delilah Swanpoole is shocked to learn that he not only left her penniless, he left a mistress who had expectations. Their only inheritance is a ramshackle house known as "The Rogue's Palace" in the bad section of town. So, obviously, the two women decide to join forces to turn the building into a comfortable (and hopefully profitable) boarding house.
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by Christopher Moore
Tommy has moved to San Francisco to find his fame and fortune. Until then, he's working nights at Safeway. Then he meets Jody and is totally smitten. It's L-O-V-E. She's perfect. Well, almost perfect. She can't go out during the day, and she has a rather distressing tendency to want to drink human blood, since she is, after all, a vampire. But, surely they can get past their small differences and have a Happily Ever After.
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by Richard Osman
The members of a murder mystery book group in a peaceful retirement village harbor secrets of their own, and become embroiled in solving a real-life murder in their midst.
Included because more titles are planned in this series, although not yet published (as of March 2021) in the U.S.
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by Julia Quinn
Daphne Bridgerton is not exactly against marriage. She knows her chances of finding a love match are slim, but surely she should be able to find a nice husband. But after two seasons, and four repugnant offers, Daphne is finding the thought of spinsterhood more and more appealing. Then Simon Bassett, the Duke of Hastings, makes her an offer. Not marriage. No, he has no plans to get married. But if the ton think he and Daphne are engaged, he will be safe from marriage-minded mamas, and Daphne will have the cachet she needs to find a good husband. What could possiby go wrong?
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by Spencer Quinn
Chet washed out of the K-9 police academy ("let's just say there was a cat involved"). He ends up with Bernie, a divorced and down-on-his-luck private eye who needs a wise (and wise-cracking) canine partner.
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by Graeme C. Simsion
Don Tillman is a socially awkward professor of genetics. He doesn't really get dating. He's never been on a second date, or even a successful first date. He designs a sixteen page scientific survey to find the perfect wife. Science has always worked for him; obviously, the methods should transfer to finding a mate. What he finds is Rosie, who is everything he does not want, but who might be just what he needs.
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