My favorite books about star-crossed soul mates

Talk about star-crossed soul mates! Hazel and Augustus meet at a cancer support group for young adults. What unfolds between them is authentic, never maudlin, and beautiful. 

The Fault in Our Stars taught me about writing. But more importantly, through an unflinching look at death, John Green taught me about life. 

I strive to have my writing move people in this way. 

5 unreserved stars, no fault at all.

John Green is right. Gabrielle Zevin's novel is spectacular on multiple levels.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is an incredible 5-star accomplishment. 

Zevin's work is nuanced, not cliched. The ending is not neatly wrapped, but messy like real life. No cringeworthy romantic sentences, nothing maudlin.

She makes everyday activities and the passage of time where little happens interesting through quirky and authentic details. The imagery of a Clownerina statue whose foot can't move is a nod to main character Sam's disabling accident and echoes my own protagonist's dilemma. 

At one point, the novel says that art doesn't tend to come from people who are happy. Yet by creating her art, she's made readers satisfied, and curious, and if my reaction is any indication, more alive.

The Next Thing You Know resonated with me on several levels. First, main character Mason grapples with a disabling injury that hampers his career as a musician. Second, the death doula that works with him to heal emotionally is faced with the difficult decision whether she should cross professional client lines to share her true feelings. 

There are beautiful scenarios that reminded me of my series. In moving scenes, Nova shows Mason that there are other ways to create music other than performing. And he realizes that he has a lot to live for. 

This is an emotional story told with heart and insight!

Could there be more star-crossed lovers? Pollux must arrest Tookie after she's tricked into driving a man's body over state lines, inadvertently transporting drugs as well. 

After she serves her time, they connect through kindness and care, and marry. She works in a bookstore, haunted by annoying customer Flora. Tookie's convinced that Flora was killed by a powerful sentence in the last book she'd read. The word "sentence" becomes a clever device, connoting Tookie's incarceration, as well as being implicated in Flora's demise.
There are many layers to The Sentence, with themes of indigenous people, marital love, mothers who are linked to us by biology and circumstance. Through the backdrop of the pandemic, she paints a story of Pollux and Tookie's love, one that saves them both.

V.E. Schwab’s premise is brilliant. Her writing is stunning.

In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, “The Darkness” grants Addie LaRue immortality but in return, no one can remember her for more than a day and she can’t even say her own name. For centuries, she travels through distant lands and historical events, growing more solitary and despondent until she meets Henry, the first human to remember her. Alas, their meeting isn’t mere fate. “The Darkness” has tricked them.

Addie LaRue’s perseverance reminds me of my own fierce female protagonists. Can her cleverness outsmart the star-crossed dilemma he’s devised? Don’t miss this unforgettable tale!