r/whatsthatbook • • 11h ago

SOLVED Romance book about a bookshop owner with a magical book that “writes” her friend back to Regency era to marry a Duke

13 Upvotes

I read this about 10 years ago.

The main characters Dad dies unexpectedly just before she turns 16 (or maybe it was 17).

Years later she owns and runs Dad’s bookstore and sorts through an old box that belonged to Dad and finds a wrapped gift for her 16th birthday for her. Her dad wrote that this was a family heirloom passed to the first child each generation (when they turn 16 or 17) and is a magical book and stuff she writes comes true!
Little things she writes in there actually happen!

She writes about the perfect boyfriend for her and he comes in the bookshop! She ends up marrying him and having a baby!

Her best friend is lonesome since her husband passed a few years before and she has no other family. This friend loves the regency era and is finishing her masters degree at U of Virginia in English literature and history. This friend asks her to write her a Duke from the regency era with all of her requirements, physical, personality traits, etc.

They throw a Regency themed costume party on New Year’s Eve and it is written that the Duke shows up in the storage room and sees the friend and is confused but instantly attracted to her (as it’s written in the magical book), the confusion is from the sounds outside (cars going by) and she grabs his hand and takes him back to the storage room and ends up on his English property 200 years in the past.

The Duke initially introduces her as a distant cousin, whose luggage got lost, and they build a life together. She ends up meeting Jane Austen and advising her Duke husband on what to invest their money in. He was already interested in new inventions. One scene he needs stitches and she makes sure the doctor sterilizes the needle and does not allow bloodletting.

This is all in 1 or 2 books. Then in the next book, the Dukes sister is shamed after kissing a man at a ball and is miserable. The friend (Dukes wife) writes her bookseller friend through her attorney (leaving instructions for her attorney’s grandson to mail the letter in the future) and the sister goes to the same rock she arrived near at a specific time and date and the sister time travels to modern day and experiences electricity and driving and living alone!

I don’t remember the title or author but would love to read it again!


r/whatsthatbook • • 11h ago

UNSOLVED DESPERATE to find a book series, been looking FOR YEARS and nobody seemed to remember it... books about a girl with special powers that lives with her aunts? And fights other witches. The books have colorful thin inserts that look like old book

10 Upvotes

it's a series of books about a girl with special powers, like witchy powers. I think 6 or 8 books, every book was really colorful and cute on the outside. the thing I remember most is that inside each book there was an insert, like a thinner little book bound in The end or beginning. it had different, glossier, more colorful pages and it was made to look like an old book with pictures and additional information about witche’s family or other things. it was related to the book but it wasn't part of the story. the first chapter of the first book opens with birds (geese or swans i think) flying in the sky and gossiping about what's new in the witch world.

I read them around 2012–2016 in Russian or Ukrainian, but I'm pretty sure it was translated from another language (maybe German or Swedish?)

can’t remebet any names at all :((. The books are about the life of young witch and she often fights with bad witches over some old book (I think). In the last book there is an ice or snow kingdom that might be on the cover. I read a few of them electronically but others I had hard copies, my mom gave them away and I’m desperately trying to remember other details. I think it’s meant for kids 8-13 by the way in was written. Also she lived with her aunts or female relatives that might’ve been hairdressers, but it’s all really vague in my memory…


r/whatsthatbook • • 10h ago

SOLVED Dystopian boarding school for girls with overnight hypnosis tracks and attractiveness rankings

9 Upvotes

I can't remember a whole lot about this book, just some scattered plot points, so here goes:

-It's a boarding school for girls in a standard, handmaids tale-ish society.

-Every night, mantras are piped into their rooms as they sleep, though I can't remember what they say.

-Theres a throwaway line about the bedrooms being kept uncomfortably warm? I think?

-Every morning, the girls are rated on their attractiveness, and I think the protagonist is either #1 or #2 in her class.

-The girls are being raised with the intention of marrying them off? To wealthy powerful people.

-One of the girls is scouted specially by a Very Powerful Man. The plot revolves around her attempts to not let this happen.

-unscouted girls are aged out, and taken downstairs to have their uteruses removed and become teachers at the same school

-I think there's themes of bulimia? Or at least one paragraph about it.

I think I read it around 2014-2015, but I don't remember it being new at the time.

Thank you for any insights at all!


r/whatsthatbook • • 10h ago

SOLVED Kid wants a Mohair Suit for the holiday

7 Upvotes

We had a book in my house when I was a kid and I don't know how it came to our possession. The story is a Jewish mom and her son go shopping for a new suit for Yom Kippur??. They leave at the crack of dawn collecting other boys from the neighborhood so they could all go buy new suits. She knew they had to be the first customers of the morning according to shopkeepers' superstition. Her son can't take his eyes off an expensive blue mohair suit.

I've tried web searches off and on but most Jewish children's stories on lists are from recent years and this book was old, approx from the 50s or 60s with the setting being maybe even pre WWII.

Thank you for any help.


r/whatsthatbook • • 16h ago

SOLVED Book where friend kills friend.

8 Upvotes

I’m looking for a book I read in high school about 2013 and in the beginning the narrator lets you know he died but not how.

The main characters of the book are two boys and 1 girl. They are all high school students I believe. One of the boys is good and you can tell his friend and the girl can be bad influences. As far as his friend being violent and him and the girl also doing coke.

A specific scene I remember: spoiler warning:

The friend was driving with the narrator and they got into a heated argument ended up crashing and the narrator ended up telling his friend off. The friend flipped and started smashing the narrators head against the dashboard and I guess a piece of metal sticking out from the accident pierced the narrators neck killing him.

The book then goes on to do a timeskip and show how people are doing after his passing.

It was a book that really stuck out to me especially the scene with rage.

Would love if anyone can help me find it. Thanks.


r/whatsthatbook • • 20h ago

UNSOLVED Scholastic Book about a family with Djinn

6 Upvotes

few years back in a school (okay around 15 years back) this was in a scholastic book fair. I read a book in a series about a Djinn family set America. it a was kids book (maybe preteen). any leads


r/whatsthatbook • • 21h ago

SOLVED 90s book about a guy who turns into a fly

5 Upvotes

Kinda just the title. It was a book about a losery kind of guy who discovered that he could turn into a fly and back at will. It was set in the 90s alt/punk/grunge scene, and at one point this guy gets a gf and turns into a fly and walks around on her boob. I think she decides to make a super hero alter ego for herself as well? That's all the details I can remember from 30 years ago, even though it was one of my favorite books at the time. Any ideas welcome, thanks friends!


r/whatsthatbook • • 9h ago

UNSOLVED Villain Traps People in a Vegetative State Where They Become Fixed on the Colour Green

6 Upvotes

I need help finding this graphic novel that I read in my childhood. Here is what I remember:

-I believe that I read the book sometime in the early-mid 2010s when I was maybe 8-11 in the school library.

-The villain hypnotizes their victims in some way that puts them in a vegetative state.

-While in this state, gazing upon anything the colour green fills the victim with joy. If there is nothing green for the victim to stare into, they become confused and anxious.

-I'm pretty sure the book is in primarily black and white except for a few panels that contain green to signify the hypnotism.

-Also, if I recall correctly, I think the villain's motives are altruistic in that they believe they are freeing the minds of the people they hypnotize, as just viewing green gives the victims fulfilment, and the villain wishes to hypnotize the whole world.

-The book was written for children, but I remember it really freaking me out when I was younger

-I remember very little about the main characters themselves, except that they were maybe young children around the ages of 12.

I know that this is not much to work with, but regardless, thank you all for any insights!


r/whatsthatbook • • 7h ago

SOLVED teen/tween book about a boy who's mom dies, but his sister finds a secret door to the attic where there's an alternate universe where their mom is alive in it

4 Upvotes

pretty sure the boy's name was charlie, but might be mistaken. i remember that his sister was younger than him, and he was very protective of her. it was sort of a mystery book at first, then kind of lightly horror as we find out that the mom in this alternate universe is stealing/eating their memories? i would have read it around 2012-2019. that's all i can remember of it rn unfortunately :(

ETA: just remembered that the book cover had a kid holding a red balloon on it in a sort of watercolor-y style?


r/whatsthatbook • • 7h ago

UNSOLVED Children’s Poem Book from 1980s-1990s

4 Upvotes

Im looking for a book I had as a child, it had a bunch of different poems in it and whimsical illustrations to go with them, I can only remember one poem that was featured in the book and it was Jellicle Cats by TS Elliot, but he did not write this book. The illustration to go with his poem were cats playing with a ball of yarn down the side of the page. The book was a tannish color and I think there was a drawing of a girl with long hair on the front doing something playful? If I remember correctly there’s one poem about an old couple who would do silly things to each other or something like that. I just wanna buy it to read to my kids, please help!


r/whatsthatbook • • 7h ago

UNSOLVED Short stories about dave and mauralee and their kids

4 Upvotes

​

It was by a male Canadian author who died. But there was a whole series of short stories. It used to come on the radio and he would read one. He did have physical books well.


r/whatsthatbook • • 8h ago

UNSOLVED Children’s or Young adult book/series, read probably mid-80s, orphans(?) in an old house

4 Upvotes

For some reason I’ve been thinking of a few young adult books lately that I read ages ago. I managed to find one book/series on my own, but this one I don’t remember enough key details.

I read at least one of the books, and think it skewed toward young adult although it may have also been for older kids. There was at least a little girl, and may have been a boy as well. For some reason the name Penny is coming to mind, but that may be a complete red herring. They were novels, but of course may have been shorter than I remember.

The story I remember parts of involve the kids (I think) being in some old house. I seem to remember there may have been an inheritance involved, and people related to the deceased showing up. I also seem to remember the kids or at least one of them being held prisoner in a room and then tapping on pipes to get attention/send a message, but that may be me mixing it up with another story. Heck, the other details could be that as well - it’s really hazy.

I do also remember that the book was part of a series that I’d wanted to check out more of, but somehow never did beyond maybe one book. I remember reading about the kid(s) on some train, with some other children they may have met during the first book, and something happening to them. I just don’t remember if this was another book from the series I had, or if it was one of those previews that you get for the next book in the series at the end of the one you’re reading.

Thanks muchly to anyone who can figure this out!


r/whatsthatbook • • 11h ago

UNSOLVED Philadelphia police novel 1990s maybe?

3 Upvotes

I’m trying to remember a book from my youth. I think it was called city of brotherhood or badge of brotherhood something like that. Main detail I remember is the main characters romantic interest was a violin player. I think there might have been a protest or riot or something at the climax?


r/whatsthatbook • • 11h ago

UNSOLVED A young adult crime? Or mystery novella

4 Upvotes

I read this book in school, I'm 22 and I probably read this between 11-15, so it was a book that was around in the 2010s. The protagonist was a teenage girl and she sneaks into this house and finds out something that's going on, then has to escape. The scene that is burnt into my memory is that she had to walk barefoot in the snow, and I think she counts her money at some point.

The main thing I have to go on is the cover was a shiny purple hardback and it was very short, around 100 pages.

I'm also from the UK if that helps, but I can't remember where the book was set, more just in case anyone else remembers it in their schools

Sorry if there isn't enough Information but this is killing me, thank you for everyone's time!


r/whatsthatbook • • 11h ago

UNSOLVED 1960s/70s teen fantasy set in Kew Gardens Pagoda

4 Upvotes

Strange hairy/furry creatures, rooms created from tree roots, teenage humans, trees used as computers?

I loved this book as a teenager and would love to find it again.


r/whatsthatbook • • 11h ago

UNSOLVED 1970’s? sci-fi novel or short story?

4 Upvotes

Sci-fi, read in the 1970s (possibly published 1950s–70s).
Scientists or explorers on an alien ship solve progressively harder math problems to move deeper into it – starting with addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division, then algebra, then calculus. I believe the equations were printed in the text. The aliens were using the puzzles to gauge how advanced the solving species was. Novel or short story in.


r/whatsthatbook • • 13h ago

UNSOLVED Childhood picture book where a group of characters mistake something behind a hill for a monster during a storm [1970s-2000s]

3 Upvotes

I’m trying to remember a children's picture book my dad used to read to me when I was little, and I haven’t been able to find it!
When I read it: I was born in 1999 and remember it from around 2003–2007, growing up in South Africa. My older sisters were born in the early 1990s, so it could have been a book we already had from their childhood. It might date from the late 1970s, 1980s or 1990s, or possibly the early 2000s.
Where it might be from: My best guess is that it’s British, but it could also be South African. I grew up bilingual, so I can’t completely rule out the possibility that the book was originally in Afrikaans or was translated between Afrikaans and English. Almost certain it's English and most likely British author.
The plot and the scene I remember:
The main characters have a very childlike feel, as if they’re children around 4-10 years old. I think they’re animals who walk upright and wear ordinary human clothes, possibly shoes, but I could be wrong and they might actually be children or another type of character.
I know a lamb is involved somehow, although I can’t remember for certain whether the lamb is one of the main characters or the character behind the hill.
The story starts in nice weather, and I think the characters may be planning to go on a picnic.
At some point, the weather turns into a storm. I’m certain the storm is part of the story.
There’s a grassy hill, and something frightening appears to be on or just behind it. The characters are scared of what they think is a monster.
The frightening shape involves a forked stick with something like a bag, T-shirt, piece of cloth or makeshift flag attached to it. I think someone innocent is behind the hill, possibly a friend who is holding it up to get the others’ attention because they’re stuck or need help.
From the other side of the hill, the material on the stick looks like a frightening monster, perhaps resembling a crocodile or a dinosaur-like creature, especially in the stormy weather.
The characters discuss who is going to approach the frightening thing because they’re scared of it.
Eventually, they approach the hill, and the illustration reveals what’s actually behind it. I remember the perspective changing so that we see behind the hill and discover a frightened, innocent character. I think this character might be a lamb, but I’m not certain.
I’m not sure whether the characters are following the apparent monster, whether the friend is trapped, or exactly how the stick and material create the frightening shape. Those details are a little hazy, but I’m very sure about the storm, the hill, the apparent monster, the discussion about who will approach it, and the reveal behind the hill. The monster misunderstanding feels like the main punchline of the story.
The illustrations: I remember simple, flat, two-dimensional cartoon drawings with somewhat muted or pastel colours and a childlike feel. They weren’t highly detailed or realistic. The closest comparison I can think of is the general drawn style of Foxy Fables, although I don’t remember the characters having the same exaggerated animated eyes. It was a picture book with one main story, probably a fairly large, thin hardcover, rather than a collection of stories.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? I’d be grateful for any suggestions, especially older British or South African picture books, including books that may have had English and Afrikaans editions. Even a possible title or an illustrator whose style sounds similar would be really helpful!


r/whatsthatbook • • 13h ago

UNSOLVED Mid-century survivalist adventure - kids fend for themselves through the winter in wilderness

3 Upvotes

I'm looking for a title and author of a book I read in the early 2000‘s in translation and must've been a couple decades old even then.

The story is set in the mid 20th century (The Famous Five vibe and clothes and technology/gear descriptions) in northern American wilderness, most likely in Canada.

The protagonist is most likely a pre-teen or maybe early-teen child, possibly a sister-brother duo, that embark on a short camping trip with their father. They travel in a canoe, until the accident happens, that renders the canoe unusable and the father incapacitated or possibly even fatally hurt.

The kids take refuge in an empty cabin and take advantage of the provisions stored there. They strive to brave the dropping temperatures and maintain a healthy and adequate diet. The plot thickens when an outlaw (or a couple of them) stumbles on the cabin and attempts to rob them. He takes all of the grease and flour in the cabin and leaves the kids to starve to death. They improvise with potatoes or maybe even chestnuts, I'm not sure, and they hunt small prey, so they survive. The outlaw returns and is startled to see them alive and well and suspects them of hiding some flour. When he learns of potatoes, robs even those. The kids are harassed by a hungry bear, and they decide to shoot him. They melt lead from pellets they use to shoot small prey and they make a big lead slug to hunt the bear. After they kill the bear, they use it for food. Don't remember how the story ends.


r/whatsthatbook • • 16h ago

SOLVED Help find the book - teenage girls who find a book that makes them prettier

4 Upvotes

Has anybody read this book about a group of girls wishing to be pretty and then the entity who is granting them this slowly drains them and I think the girls wish Lydia gets possessed or something. I don’t remember much from the book other than the girl being named Lydia and she gets taken over by the entity because she continued to wish she was more pretty or something like that.


r/whatsthatbook • • 17h ago

SOLVED The fourth of fifth book in a YA series about a boarding school for girls with special abilities

4 Upvotes

I started reading this book back in March but then accidentally deleted it from my phone, and for some reason, I cannot for the life of me remember the title. Here are the things I do remember:

• It's either the fourth or fifth book in a YA series about a boarding school for girls with special abilities

• Each book in the series focuses on a specific girl in a group that attends the school, and the book I'm looking for focuses on a girl called Seraphina, Serafina, Seraphine, or Serafine (it's one of those names, but I can't remember which) whose special ability is something like being able to see other people's emotions as colors/patterns.

• One of the other girls in the group that the series focuses on is called either Georgia or Georgie

• The boarding school trains the girls to be spies, as I remember Seraphina/Serafina/Seraphine/Serafine talking in the first chapter about a​ mission in the previous book where one of the girls either went missing or was captured by an enemy

• The series' name might be "Mrs/Miss (Name)'s School for Gifted Girls/Talented Young Ladies" or something along those lines.

The series that the book I'm looking for is in is NOT:

• Serafina by Robert Beatty

• Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

• Finishing School by Gail Carriger

• The Network by Katie Cross

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


r/whatsthatbook • • 19h ago

UNSOLVED handbook of most the plants and animals in cyprus

4 Upvotes

That is all


r/whatsthatbook • • 20h ago

UNSOLVED a Short story about a comical ghost

4 Upvotes

This story was about a guy who is haunted by a ghost which is not particularly good in scaring people and they talk and decide to join together and rob a bank, but they get caught while escaping and the guy is arrested and ends up jail and the ghost goes on to find another guy. it was short story which I read in short story compilation book and was a very comical one. would appreciate any lead about this story.


r/whatsthatbook • • 1h ago

UNSOLVED Book involving theatre people (playwright?), takes place in one day, in a cottage in the UK

• Upvotes

About 10-15 years ago I read a novel. The entire story took place in one day. The protagonist worked in theatre (playwright, maybe?) and, for a reason I don't recall, was staying alone in a house/cottage belonging to someone she had worked with. The homeowner may have been an actress (or another theatre professional?) who was away working.

Although I'm not 100% sure, I recall the book having a pale yellow cover, and it may have won or been nominated for some sort of award.

I'd be so happy to be able to rediscover this novel!

edited to add: The novel is set in the UK.


r/whatsthatbook • • 2h ago

UNSOLVED Kids with mental powers

3 Upvotes

I swear I remember reading a book about these kids that got taken away or were sent to a special school because they had mental powers or something like that. And I think one of the main characters was a boy and he like breaks out of the school I think. I’m also remember a green gem, like maybe an emerald. Maybe that was on the cover.

I’m also almost 100% positive that I read this in elementary school but I don’t know anyone else who remembers it.

Anybody have any ideas??

Edit: I live in the US, this was in Texas specifically. And it was somewhere around 1995ish. I don’t believe it was required reading. I read the usual in high school, The Pearl, The Hatchet, Animal Farm and so on. This book was definitely before that.

It was also a chapter book and I do not recall any illustrations. But for some reason in my head I picture a mostly red cover and something green, like the gem I talked about before. I know that doesn’t really mean anything because books can have any number of different covers.


r/whatsthatbook • • 6h ago

UNSOLVED Looking for a book about guy who moves into a haunted house.

3 Upvotes

This was an old horror novel

Hey ive been trying to find this book that I started reading in high-school but never finished. I just turned 18, and i remember being captivated by the cover and thats the big thing I remember. It was about a man who moved into an old house but alot of supernatural stuff happens to him. It was an old book. I read it in 2017 but it was an old book with yellow pages. It had alot of sex in it. But definitely wasn't considered an erotic novel.

The cover is like the big thing I remember because it was a man I think holding onto a light in fear. With a bunch of demon looking faces around him. That why i originally picked up the book because i remember the cover standing out. The ghost in the book started out as a older woman that slowly starts turning into a demon. I think it was around 500 pages. That's the best I got. If anyone needs anymore information please dont hesitate to ask. Ive been trying to find it for a while because I never got to finish it.