Recommended Sense & Sensibility Readalikes

The Great Jane Austen Read Along 2025

I’m back again with more Austen readalikes, to go along with The Great Jane Austen Read Along hosted by The Austen Connection. We finished reading Sense and Sensibility, so now I am here to list book recommendations if you are looking for something similar.

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Do you feel reserved like Elinor? Or maybe you are passionate and throw yourself to the wind like Marianne? You have finished reading the trials and tribulations of the Dashwood sisters and you are probably looking for more books that explore a sister relationship. Or maybe you want books that dive into family secrets and drama…maybe murder on the side? Murder in an Austen-inspired read might be a stretch, but don’t let that shock you. Although some are genre blends, the following titles are guaranteed to quench your appetite after reading Sense and Sensibility:

The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott may be more well known for her popular classics such as Little Women and Little Men. But we shouldn’t count out other works, including the first novel she wrote at the age of 20, The Inheritance. This novel, which wasn’t published until 1997, was compose under the “gothic novel” formula. And although it would be a perfect readalike for Northanger Abbey, I feel the same way for Sense and Sensibility. In The Inheritance, a poor Italian orphan girl works at an English countryside estate for a wealthy family, but soon discovers that she is the true heiress. The themes of rags to riches, inheritance, and succession can also be seen in Sense and Sensibility, which makes this title a great read-alike.

Get It At: Your local library | Bookshop.org

The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

Book Description:

In Osaka in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women try to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. As told by Junichiro Tanizaki, the story of the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family–and an entire society–sliding into the abyss of modernity.

Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature. (Credit: Vintage)

Get It At: Your local library | Bookshop.org

No Name by Wilkie Collins

Collins is credited with creating the foundations of the detective novel with popular hits such as The Moonstone and The Woman in White. But Collins also established his prominence in Victorian literature with sensational novels, which include what could be seen as a thriller by today's standards, No Name. A book that 19th-century critics rejected as immoral and indecent, No Name finds two sisters, Magdalen and Norah Vanstone, who, unfortunately, discover that they are deemed illegitimate, due to their recently departed parents never being legally married. Disinherited and ousted from their beloved home, these two sisters must either resign to their fates or try to recover their wealth by any means. Like Sense and Sensibility, this novel touches on the themes of disinheritance, social stigma and sister relationship.

Get It At: Your local library | Project Gutenberg| Waterstones | Thrift Books

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

When readers ask me what other books they can read after finishing Jane Austen, one of the authors I always recommend is Elizabeth Gaskell. Like Austen, her works offer social commentary on Victorian life and give readers insight into English families. So, for this week, I recommend Wives and Daughters.

Molly Gibson’s mother dies when she is young, but she has a very close relationship with her father. However, her father remarries when she is 17 to a woman who causes unhappiness for Molly and only cares about improving social status. This comprehensive novel is perfect for readers who want a story that dives into social life and customs, but also into family relationships, as well as family secrets.

Get It At: Your local library |Project Gutenberg | Librivox | Bookshop.org

And if you are looking for either retellings or contemporary titles, why not give these a try:

Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne

There’s never a good time to learn you are your father’s secret child—especially not at the reading of his will. With their father’s affairs laid bare and Nora’s sensible reputation in tatters due to a viral video scandal, she and her free-spirited sister have nothing left but a rustic inn in the middle of nowhere and each other. What’s more, they need to revamp the inn before Labor Day or they lose it all. Nora hasn’t even knocked the traveling dust off last season’s designer boots when she’s confronted with three problems:

1. She really should have watched more HGTV.
2. She hasn’t seen another Black person for miles.
3. A tall, dark stranger has already staked a claim on their property.

Native Abenaki eco-tour guide Ennis “Bear” Freeman has seen hapless tourists come and go. When he spots two pampered city girls at his unofficial headquarters, he expects them to catch a flight out of the inhospitable coastal Maine backwoods within a week’s time. But Nora, turns out, is made of sterner stuff. And as she rolls up her sleeves to breathe new life into the inn, she unwittingly reignites a flood of emotions inside of Bear that he had very intentionally suppressed.

Their connection is electric, their desire palpable. But Bear’s silence about his mysterious past might turn out to be the one thing that sends Nora packing. (Credit: Berkley)

Get it At: Your local library | Bookshop.org | Libro.fm

Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev

Yash Raje, California’s first Indian-American gubernatorial candidate, has always known exactly what he wants—and how to use his privileged background to get it. He attributes his success to a simple mantra: control your feelings and you can control the world. But when a hate crime at a rally critically injures his friend, Yash’s easy life suddenly feels like a lie, his control an illusion. When he tries to get back on the campaign trail, he blacks out with panic.

Desperate to keep Yash’s condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trust—his sister’s best friend, India Dashwood, California’s foremost stress management coach. Raised by a family of yoga teachers, India has helped San Francisco’s high strung overachievers for a decade without so much as altering her breath. But this man—with his boundless ambition, simmering intensity, and absolute faith in his political beliefs—is like no other.

Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed, including their one magical night ten years ago—a too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now. (Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks)

Get it At: Your local library| Bookshop.org | Libro.fm

Ladies of the House: A Modern Retelling of Sense and Sensibility by Lauren Edmondson

No surprise is a good surprise. At least according to thirty-four-year-old Daisy Richardson. So when it's revealed in dramatic fashion that her esteemed father had been involved in a public scandal before his untimely death, Daisy's life becomes complicated--and fast.

For one, the Richardsons must now sell the family home in Georgetown they can no longer afford, and Daisy's mother is holding on with an iron grip. Her younger sister, Wallis, is ready to move on to bigger and better things but falls fast and hard for the most inconvenient person possible. And then there's Atlas, Daisy's best friend. She's always wished they could be more, but now he's writing an exposé on the one subject she's been desperate to avoid: her father.

Daisy's plan is to maintain a low profile as she works to keep her family intact amid social exile, public shaming, and quickly dwindling savings. But the spotlight always seems to find the Richardsons, and when another twist in the scandal comes to light, Daisy must confront the consequences of her continued silence and summon the courage to stand up and accept the power of her own voice. (Credit: Graydon House)

Get it At: You local library | Bookshop.org | Libro.fm

Sense and Second-Degree Murder by Tirzah Price

Part of the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries Series!

When eighteen-year-old aspiring scientist Elinor Dashwood discovers her beloved father slumped over the desk of his office study, she knows his death means dire straits for the Dashwood women. To make matters worse, an outdated will entails his estate—including Norland & Company, the private investigation firm where her younger sister Marianne worked as her father’s partner and protégé—to their half-brother and his haughty wife, who waste no time in forcing the Dashwoods out of their home and into a cramped apartment on London’s Barton Street.

But before they go, the Dashwood sisters make a startling discovery: a suspicious substance in their father’s teacup—one that can only be described as poison. And poison, as Marianne’s father taught her, always points to murder.

It could be dangerous; it could ruin their reputations; and most importantly, it won’t bring back their father. But if the Dashwood sisters can combine their talents and bring their father’s murderer to justice, it may bring them all some comfort—and it might even lead to love. (Credit: Storytide)

Get it At: Your local library | Bookshop.org | Libro.fm

Manga Classics: Sense and Sensibility adapted by Stacy King and illustrated by Po Tse

I usually recommend graphic novels to teens, children, or adults who I know are comic book fans, but I really wanted to highlight these editions because I feel like readers of classics and comics will highly enjoy them. Manga Classics is a series of books that take classic books and adapt them into a manga format. They are a great tool to introduce readers who are intimidated by the original format, but they also show how classics that we love can be told in different forms. This manga is beautifully illustrated and keeps true to the story, and makes it both accessible and entertaining for the contemporary audience.

Get it At: Your local library | Bookshop.org

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That’s it for the Sense and Sensibility readalikes! Is there a book you think would make a perfect readalike? Share in the comments below!

Make sure to continue with the read-along for more book recommendations. Check and bookmark the post below to have the full schedule of the read-along!

The Great Jane Austen Read-Along Schedule