What is the last book you read that made your heart swell?

[AnotherEmilee]

I have been feeling really miserable recently and I want to read something that will fill me with a warm glow. The kind of heart swelling feeling I get when Mr Knightly is telling Emma that if he loved her less he might be able to talk about it more or Mr Darcy is telling Elizabeth how much he ardently admires and loves her.

I have already read all of Georgette Heyer's regency romances along with most books that come up when you Google what should I read if I like Jane Austen.

It doesn't have to be historical, I am happy with any time period or setting but I do prefer no or very little sex. I have read a lot of YA fantasy romance as YA books generally don't contain sex but they do all have love triangles and annoying teenage characters.

I am looking forward to reading The Hallmarked Man but I am waiting for my reservation of it to come in at the library.

What can I read in the meantime?

The Man I think I know by Mike Gayle.

Different genre to the above but it's a really lovely book about friendship.

I just finished Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink. It's about a less than enthusiastic vicar's wife who meets an interesting man on a trip to London. It has excellent reviews and I loved it.

Perhaps try Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly by Joanna Glen

The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Absolutely loved it.

My favourite ❤️

A bit of Maeve Binchy?

Little Women does this for me. It's just lovely.

Thanks for the replies. It is always great to hear about books that other people have enjoyed even if they don't sound like books I would like😃
The library have Ordinary Time and Atmosphere so I have reserved both of those. They are available at other branches so I should be able to pick them up tomorrow or on Saturday.
I am now number 2 in the queue for The Hallmarked Man. I am very excited about reading that one but am avoiding all reviews and discussions on it until I do.

Frank and Red by Matt Coyne. Lovely story about the friendship between a young boy and a grumpy old man.

The Secret Garden and very different, but Project Hail Mary.

Precious Bane by Mary Webb.

Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection. Literary fiction, a relationship between a shy engineer come to replace an old wooden bridge with a new concrete one in a small town in rural Australia and the gruff museum curator who opposes the scheme. Beautifully written, warm-hearted and clever.

I love Precious Bane! Though I also then immediately go on to read Cold Comfort Farm every time I read it.😀

Jude Morgan has written several novels very much in the style of Georgette Heyer. Try '"Indiscretion"

Three days in June by Anne Tyler. I loved every single word, I didn't want it to end!

I Capture the Castle
The Shell Seekers

Rosamunde Pilcher gentle heartwarming stuff. Love it.

Demon Copperhead - just such a satisfying ending to a totally engrossing story.

The Secret Life of Bees

The giver of stars by jo jo Moyes is a really beautiful story. Me before you is another one but I always cry at the end 😭

Also, if you like Austen, I actually very much like Joan Aiken’s sequel to Mansfield Park, Mansfield Revisited — it’s lightly done, but has a very good sense of Austen’s moral toughness, lightness of touch and humour. It gets Fanny and Edmund offstage to Antigua, and has Susan Price as the protagonist, Julia Bertram as a comically awful replacement for Aunt Norris, and reintroduces the Crawfords, Lady Bertram and Tom Bertram.

(She has also written other Austen books, one about Jane Fairfax and another about the daughter of Willboughy’s cast-off mistress, which includes some of the later lives of Elinor and Marianne, but I haven’t read either. And a number of Regency romances, of which I’d recommend Deception.)

I tried reading Cold Comfort Farm many years ago and didn't really get on with it. But, in the light of this comment, will give it another go!

Try it after Precious Bane or other Mary Webb type books — have you read Gone to Earth? I think CCF is an affectionate parody, and it’s possible to both love PB and similar ‘soil and gloom romance’ books and also enjoy them being mocked.

Frank and Red by Matt Coyne features a grumpy old man named Frank and a six-year-old boy named Red who becomes his unlikely friend and neighbour.