Kiley Reid’s novels touch on pretty much everything we associate with Penelope. Her newest novel, Come and Get It, follows a large cast of characters lying and sleeping their way through a college town in Arkansas. The book is about secrets, identity, race, and money, three of which clearly fit Pen’s storyline of running a profitable clandestine gossip empire while her family fight to look like they still have money. Then of course, there’s the hooking up with her crush in the carriage. In some reviews, Reid has been called “a social observer of the highest order,” which really is reminiscent of our dear Lady Whistledown.

Bridgerton’s third season brought the steamy romance, but it also dug into an equally tumultuous set of relationships: the friendship triangle between Pen, Eloise and Cressida. Jazmina Barrera’s Cross-Stitch follows a similar set of friendships between Mila, Citlali, and Dalia, three young women growing up in Mexico City. The three women are connected by their love of fiber arts and embroidery, an important art form that connects them across continents and throughout history. This is a meditative novel that considers the fabric of these relationships across the protagonists’ lifetimes, and we can’t recommend it highly enough.

Chloe Brown is a plus-size, chronically sick, slightly reclusive British woman, and we know Pen would certainly identify with her overall mission to Get a Life. This adorable, inclusive romance novel from Talia Hibbert follows Chloe on a quest as she moves out of her family home and tries to check bold, new life events off her list. For better or worse, Chloe’s new building handyman, Red Morgan, who also happens to be an incredible painter, gets himself involved in Chloe’s adventure. If you loved Bridgerton, you’ll adore Hibbert’s books.

In this twisty thriller, Alix, the host of a popular true crime podcast, meets Josie, a woman with the same birthday. A mere coincidence, right? (You’ll have to read the book to find out!) As Josie starts spending more time in Alix’s life, she eventually convinces Alix that Josie’s story would be a great subject for the next season of Alix’s podcast. Alix agrees, and they start working on the new season together. But then, Josie disappears, and Alix finds herself the subject of her own podcast. To us, this reads like a thriller version of Penelope’s adventures as Lady Whistledown.

This odd little novel is exquisitely crafted. It’s an epistolary sci-fi novel made up of letters shared between Blue and Red, two intergalactic agents authored by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, respectively. Before they ever meet, the two see each other’s effects in the world around them, and their forbidden love blossoms. Now, Pen’s romance with Colin was more unlikely than forbidden, but we think she’d love the way letters drove this story, especially since her and Colin’s letters throughout his travels became so important to their future happiness.

While we may not have an officially titled landed gentry here in the U.S., we do have Hollywood — our own royalty. Eve Babitz’s spicy memoir is an insider’s look at the wild world of the wealthy and beautiful from a born-and-raised Angeleno. Penelope would absolutely be reading all the gossipy tales Babitz shares in her memoir Eve’s Hollywood. Babitz and Lady Whistledown certainly aren’t exactly the same — Whistledown, the anonymous observer, was a self-described wallflower, while Babitz was loudly in the middle of the action. Her writing paints a portrait of a hedonistic city as much as it does of Babitz herself, and she comes off as hilarious and exactly the type of person we’d want as a guide to L.A. We won’t spend too much time turning this into a double recommendation, but if you love this one and want a fictional version, check out Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Our second nonfiction book may feel like a random choice, but we’re making a case for it! Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination is a collection of literary criticism that traces whiteness through many American classics, and it’s deeply incisive. While Pen’s world makes the argument that it has solved racism, ours has, obviously, not, and we consider Morrison’s writing on writing an essential handbook for anyone yearning to be a wordsmith.

The Featheringtons are a secretive family. Penelope, her mother, her father, and briefly her cousin Lord Featherington are all out to deceive people for their own gain. (You can love Lady Whistledown and also acknowledge Pen is certainly writing for financial gain!) We think she’d love this fantasy about a family who have secrets to rival hers. What the River Knows follows Inez Olivera, a young 19th-century Argentine woman who wishes she could travel with her wealthy archaeologist parents. When they go missing on a dig in Cairo, Inez uncovers a web of mystical secrets that would make even Lady Featherington gasp in shock.

A novel about an author claiming work that isn’t hers? Pen would understand. The intersections in this one are different, as the main character is a white woman, June Hayward, who steals her friend Athena Liu’s manuscript after Liu dies in a freak accident. Cressida claiming to be Whistledown doesn’t have the same racial implication, but Pen would still get a kick out of this anxiety-driven ride through a thief’s guilty mind, and we’re sure she’d celebrate Hayward’s inevitable breakdown with us.

If you can’t get enough of the gossipy, backstabbing element of stories from the ton, try this perfect beach read. Bad Summer People has a whole host of semi-likable seasonal beach residents … and one dead body. It’s a bit of a thriller, a bit of a dark comedy, and a bit of a murder mystery. This novel is a pulpy look at the secrets behind the polished lives of a contemporary ton.

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Shelbi Polk is a Durham, North Carolina, based writer who just might read too much. Find her online at @shelbipolk on Twitter.

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