Are you in a massive reading slump? Sometimes, the best cure is to avoid the more literary works of fiction and pick up a lighthearted, vibey read—and I have just the picks for you. Here are three books that made reading fun again.
1. Can’t Look Away by Carola Lovering
Can’t Look Away by Carola Lovering (author of Tell Me Lies) is one of my all-time favorite books. Think: two artists—a writer and a musician—fall in love and embark on a deep, wild romance. (Now that I’m thinking about it, this sounds a lot like my boyfriend and me…)
Anyway.
In 2013, the two were truly living up their 20s in New York City. Molly was working on her first book while Jake was touring the country with his band, each pursuing their own passions while supporting each other’s.
But a decade later, Molly is now married to another man and raising her daughter in the posh Connecticut suburbs where she teaches yoga. Everything did not go as Molly and Jake originally planned—and through a series of flashbacks and one unsettling, blossoming friendship between Molly and a mysterious woman, reality will hit both the exes where it hurts most.
The story is part thriller, part romance (my favorite combo), and switches between the past and present. I was immediately hooked and continuously engaged. In fact, I’ve been searching for the same reader-high I got from Can’t Look Away ever since.
2. Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
Mary Jane is such a wonderfully light-hearted yet powerful read. The story follows a quiet, sheltered 14-year-old girl named Mary Jane, whose hobbies include cooking with her mother and singing in her church choir in 1970s Baltimore. However, when she accepts a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor, she is quickly exposed to an entirely different world.
While the doctor might be a successful medical professional, he and his family are far from ordinary. They’re free-spirited, rebellious, and extremely liberal, which is a stark contrast to Mary Jane’s uptight, conservative parents.
As she spends her summer nannying for the family, the teenager is also introduced to the doctor’s client, who is a recovering addict/rock star who’s spending the summer with them to safely sober up with his movie star wife. Needless to say, the environment is far from conventional—but perhaps they all can learn from one another.
As its synopsis explains, “Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.”
This was a super fun and engaging read, one I plan to revisit time and time again.
3. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han used to be my favorite book series. The young adult romance novel follows a high-school girl named Lara Jean, whose entire life is flipped upside down after a (hidden) box of her old love letters is accidentally sent out to all of her crushes—past and present.
Lara Jean never meant for those letters to actually be read; she was merely using writing as an outlet for her intense feelings. But now, each one of her crushes is confronted with her raw, unfiltered feelings. As the introverted, shy girl is forced to face each of her secret lovers head-on, she might just realize that sometimes, it’s worth speaking up and voicing your feelings.
The book series, which has been turned into an adorable film series, offers the perfect escape we all seek through reading. It will immediately welcome you back into your bookish tendencies, offering a safe and cozy place to land—and just in time for Valentine’s Day!
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