This is a monthly link-up hosted by KateW at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain. The rules are:

• Link the books together in any way you like.
• Provide a link in your post to the meme at Books Are My Favourite and Best.
• Share these rules in your post.
• Paste the link to your post in the comments on Kate’s post and/or the Linky Tool on that post.
• Invite your blog readers to join in and paste their links in the comments and/or the Linky Tool.
• Share your post on Twitter using the #6Degrees hashtag.
• Be nice! Visit and comment on other posts and/or retweet other #6Degrees posts

This month’s starting book is the classic (and in celebration of the forthcoming film) – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I read this many years ago, but can’t recall much, if anything, of it. I had hoped to reread it in time for this post, but I just didn’t have time.

My first link is my favourite novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I have 19 copies of this novel, the oldest is from 1954, I have my eye on a couple of new editions, but would really like more old ones.

A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets. Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane’s natural independence and spirit – which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall’s terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions – even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman’s search for equality and freedom.

Because of my love for Jane Eyre, my next link is to a witchy retelling, Salt and Broom by Sharon Lynn Fisher. I own this one on Kindle and on audio, and I listened to this on audio and enjoyed it.

A gifted healer unravels the mysteries of a cursed estate—and its enigmatic owner—in a witchy retelling of Jane Eyre. Trunks packed with potions and cures, Jane Aire sets out on a crisp, clear morning in October to face the greatest challenge of her sheltered girls’-school existence. A shadow lies over Thornfield Hall and its reclusive master, Edward Rochester. And he’s hired her only as a last resort. Jane stumbles again and again as she tries to establish a rapport with her prickly new employer, but he becomes the least of her worries as a mysterious force seems to work against her. The threats mount around both Jane and Rochester—who’s becoming more intriguing and appealing to her by the day. Jane begins to fear her herb healing and protective charms may not be enough to save the man she’s growing to love from a threat darker and more dangerous than either of them imagined.

My third link is another retelling, Jane and Edward by Melodie Edwards. This is a modern retelling and is on my TBR list, and maybe once my book-buying ban is over, I will buy myself a copy.

This powerful reimagining of Jane Eyre, set in a modern-day law firm, is full of romance and hope as it follows the echoing heartbeats of the classic story. A former foster kid, Jane has led a solitary life as a waitress in the suburbs, working hard to get by. Tired of years of barely scraping together a living, Jane takes classes to become a legal assistant and shortly after graduating accepts a job offer at a distinguished law firm in downtown Toronto. Everyone at the firm thinks she is destined for failure because her boss is the notoriously difficult Edward Rosen, the majority stakeholder of Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield LLP. But Jane has known far worse trials and refuses to back down when economic freedom is so close at hand. Edward has never been able to keep an assistant–he’s too loud, too messy, too ill-tempered. There’s something about the quietly competent, delightfully sharp-witted Jane that intrigues him though. As their orbits overlap, their feelings begin to develop–first comes fondness and then something more. But when Edward’s secrets put Jane’s independence in jeopardy, she must face long-ignored ghosts from her past and decide if opening her heart is a risk worth taking.

Surprise, surprise, my fourth link is another retelling, this one with magical elements, Jane Fae by H.D. Reavis. This is another one on my TBR list. It is on Kindle Unlimited, but if I like it, I will buy a copy to put with my copies of Jane Eyre.

In “Jane Fae”, author HD Reavis takes the Gothic romance struggle of Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” and breathes magical elements into the world. Touching on matters of birth and social status, convention verses law, and the innate human desire to be loved, the story of “Jane Fae” offers many levels of enchantment. Born into a world where magic makes you one of the elite, orphan Jane Fae must learn how to navigate and survive without magic, as a normal. Fleeing the abusive restrictions of her school’s headmaster, she takes on the position of governess to a halfling (part human, part sprite) girl at the stately and remote Thornfield Hall. Jane soon learns her new home is frequented by the magical and illusive creatures known as the Fair Folk. Her life seems to settle into a predictable routine of mutual teaching and learning, safe from any magician who might mean her harm. With the arrival of the master of the house, a Mr. Edward Rochester, a wealthy magician whose philosophy is considered counter culture, she begins to question her narrow perception of the world. Are all normals bad and destined for hard work? Are all magicians superior simply because they poses magic? What makes an individual good and what makes one bad?

My fifth link is another retelling, this time from Edward’s POV, Mr Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker. I own a copy of this and started reading it ages ago, but for some reason, it’s still unfinished. I will make an effort to pick it up and start from the beginning soon.

Uncover the secrets of Edward Fairfax Rochester, the beloved, enigmatic hero of Jane Eyre, as he tells his story for the first time in Mr Rochester. On his eighth birthday, Edward is banished from his beloved home, Thornfield Hall, to learn his place in life. With the help of friends, enemies and a series of eccentric mentors, he discovers more than he might have wished about the ways of the men – and women – who will one day be his peers. Edward’s journey takes him to the warm, languid shores of Jamaica, where he becomes entangled in the beguiling, unchecked lifestyle of the island, and with a certain enticing heiress. But the choices he makes there will haunt him desperately. It is only when he is finally able to return home, and encounters one stubborn, plain, young governess, that Edward can see any possibility of redemption – and love. Rich and vibrant, Edward’s evolution from tender-hearted child to Charlotte Bronte’s passionately tormented hero will completely, deliciously, and forever change how we read and remember Jane Eyre.

My final link is a biography, The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: Her Last Years and the Scandal That Made Her by Graham Watson. I own this one on Kindle too but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

Novelist, sister, celebrity, wife, daughter: Charlotte Brontë played many roles. As the beloved author of Jane Eyre, she is one of the most radical talents of the nineteenth century. And one of the most mysterious. Based entirely on rarely seen private letters, this radical and moving biography sheds new light on the dramatic events of Brontë’s turbulent last years of grief, fulfilment and tragedy – and exposes the astonishing media scandal that followed her early death, when her friends and family battled to control how history would remember her.

So, as you can see, I have a Jane Eyre Obsession. Do you have a favourite novel?

Next month (April 4, 2026), we will start with The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

I look forward to seeing other chains.

Until next time, happy reading.