These three sequels are also very good as novels in their own right. In each case, I did not read the previous novel but caught on quickly.
Bloomsbury Girls Natalie Jenner (2022) In 1950 London, World War II still looms large, and the patriarchy is in full swing. Three bright women who work in lowly jobs in a bookstore try to see their way forward, both in their careers and in their love lives. This fast read has weaving through it a satisfying mystery about a rare book, plus cameo appearances by real-life characters such as Samuel Beckett and Daphne du Maurier. The story is a sequel to the author’s popular The Jane Austen Society (2020).
The House of Fortune Jessie Burton (2022) Burton transports us to 1705 Amsterdam, eighteen years after the time period of her award-winning novel The Miniaturist (2014). The backstory might be a little clearer if you’ve read The Miniaturist or at least seen the PBS series based on it, but The House of Fortune is nicely plotted and engrossing on its own. Thea, a young woman living in genteel poverty in a house straight out of a Dutch Masters painting, falls for a set painter at the city playhouse, but she’s pressed by her Aunt Nella to marry a wealthy lawyer. A touch of magic imbues the tale when exquisite miniature dolls and ornaments begin to appear.
The Air We Breathe Andrea Barrett (2007) In a public tuberculosis sanatorium in rural New York during World War I, well-drawn patients and caregivers are involved in romance, learning, mystery, and vigilantism, leading to a dramatic climax. The author is renowned for her incorporation of science into her fiction—not to be confused with the genre of science fiction! Here she ranges widely, from archaeology to x-ray technology. This novel continues the stories of families portrayed in Ship Fever (1996), winner of the National Book Award.