book and glassesPur­pose­ful or not, titles with sim­i­lar sound­ing names can be con­fus­ing and annoy­ing. It has led to dupli­ca­tion of pur­chases in some instances. There’s noth­ing dis­tinc­tive about sound alike/look alike titles and not every­body does it either. Some titles sound cute, some not. I real­ize that some titles are meant to be deriv­a­tive or sim­i­lar but still. I’d pre­fer titles that stand out and are not so sim­i­lar to the other titles.

I real­ize that this idea of not hav­ing “sound alike/look alike titles” may have some pub­lish­ers or indus­try oth­ers think­ing that these titles might sound as if they are “stand alones” and that sim­i­lar sound­ing titles are indica­tive of being apart of a series. Some titles sound so much alike that some­times, read­ers like myself mis­tak­enly believe it’s not new or orig­i­nal. It took me just 10 min­utes to find these exam­ples below and please feel free to share your own. Notice that not all books are listed in a par­tic­u­lar series because not all books have sim­i­lar sound alike/look alike names. Imag­ine that. Some titles start off dis­tinc­tive then devolve into sound alike/look alike titles as if the well of cre­ativ­ity has run dry.

Kathy Reichs (Tem­per­ance Bren­nan Novels)

  • Bones
  • 206 Bones
  • Break No Bones
  • Bones To Ashes

Suzanne Brock­mann (Trou­bleshoot­ers series)

  • Hot Pur­suit
  • Hot Tar­get

Gena Showal­ter (Lords of the Underworld)

  • The Dark­est Night
  • The Dark­est Kiss
  • The Dark­est Pleasure

Emma Holly (Mid­night series?)

  • Catch­ing Midnight
  • Break­ing Midnight
  • Kiss­ing Midnight
  • Hunt­ing Midnight
  • Court­ing Midnight
  • Sav­ing Midnight

Lori Leigh (Nauti series)

  • Nauti Boy
  • Nauti Nights
  • Nauti Dreams
  • Nauti Inten­tions

JR Ward (Black Dag­ger Brotherhood)

  • Lover Eter­nal
  • Lover Awak­ened
  • Lover Revealed
  • Lover Unbound
  • Lover Enshrined
  • Lover Avenged
  • Lover Mine

Char­laine Har­ris (South­ern Vam­pire Series)

  • Dead Until Dark
  • Dead to the World
  • Dead As a Doornail
  • Def­i­nitely Dead
  • Dead and Gone

On the oppo­site side of the spec­trum, here are exam­ples of a series with­out the “look alike/sound alike” titles.

Julia Spencer-Fleming (Rev. Clare Fer­gus­son series)

  • In The Bleak Midwinter
  • A Foun­tain Filled With Blood
  • Out of the Deep I Cry
  • To Dark­ness and to Death
  • I Shall Not Want

Patri­cia Corn­well (Scar­petta Series)

  • Body of Evidence
  • All That Remains
  • Cruel and Unusual
  • Scar­petta
  • The Last Precinct

Patri­cia Briggs (Mercy Thomp­son Series)

  • Moon Called
  • Blood Bound
  • Iron Kissed
  • Bone Crossed

So, what’s your pref­er­ence? How do you feel about the titles of series books? Dis­like the trend? Like it and leave it alone because it’s work­ing for you? It might just be me who is flip­ping out about this trend. Guess the bot­tom line is that if you can keep up with it then it’s a go.

photo credit: Zitona