100 books like An Island Princess Starts a Scandal

I was drawn to this book by the cover. Set in New York, famous erotica writer Eva Mercy is a single mom with a depilating auto-immune disease. Eva’s experiences of the writing life as a Black woman and how she managed her health drew me to her.

However, the unexpected connection between Eva and Shane, the award-winning literary writer she reunites with during a literary event, was my favorite part of this book. I loved how each writer’s trauma-informed the stories they told. I found myself encouraged to write about my own traumas in my stories. But what I loved the most about this book is how the sensual scenes between Eva and Shane were more about connection than sex.

I was inspired by Eva’s resoluteness in making a life for herself and being the mother she never had for herself and her daughter.

I loved Delilah!

Salty, spicy, funny, and totally relatable, the main character, Delilah, became the most memorable character of the year for me. The story was funny, touching, and very, very (did I mention very) sexy. It dove into family dynamic complexities and explored what being an outsider is like.

I laughed out loud multiple times, rooted for the MC even when she was making terrible decisions, and wanted to read it again the moment it ended. Super fun read and so hard to put down.

This is billed as a modern When Harry Met Sally tale of frenemies who meet over the years and eventually become friends then lovers. But this book is so much more than that.

I loved the heroine, Ari, so much in this book. She is a comedian, so she’s hilarious, but she’s also a mess. And I love my messy women. This book is incredibly fun and filled with so much tactile New York goodness that it instantly became a favorite I know I’ll read over and over.

I’d read anything Kate Clayborn writes but Georgie is truly special.

She’s a searching soul, who can’t seem to find her place and will do anything to jumpstart her life. When she accidentally ends up staying at home with a family friend, Levi Fanning, they start to put each others’ pieces back together. This book is so emotional and beautiful and really doesn’t give easy answers where other books would. I love it if you need a tender, internal book. 

Simone de Beauvoir met Nelson Algren in Chicago in 1947.

A couple of years later, his novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award, and a few years after that De Beauvoir won the prestigious Prix Goncourt for her novel The Mandarins, which featured a character based on Algren. They became famous literary lovers, involved in a complicated triangle with De Beauvoir’s long-time partner Sartre.

But Cowie’s novel brings to life the ordinary intimacies and misunderstandings of their love affair – the title comes from de Beauvoir’s confusion about the time difference between Paris and Chicago. Caught up in the details of day-to-day life, people, even brilliant writers, don’t always have the time or vision to make real decisions about how they want to live, or who they want to love. It’s a brilliant book. 

The first time I went to Paris, I found a copy of this book at a bouquiniste on the Quai de la Tournelle. I can honestly say it has never left my bedside. Colette, born Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette in 1873, was a ferocious talent, a novelist, memoirist, journalist, and colossal French cultural figure until her death in 1954. Earthly Paradise is an autobiography in essays, and hers is an extraordinary story. Born in small-town Burgundy, she was a showgirl at the Moulin Rouge, a traveling performer, was married twice, lived as a lesbian for a decade, had a facelift in the 1920s and at the height of her literary fame, opened a beauty salon in Paris. She was to the core a sensualist and though she claimed to dislike feminism, she was a tower of female strength. But the reason this book—just one of her fifty-five—endures is her achingly gorgeous writing.… show more.

When Bill (William John) Cunningham (1929-2016), son of an Irish Catholic family from Boston, moved to New York at the tender age of 19 in 1948, it became the life-defining step in his career as probably the most famous fashion photographer in the metropolis. He had been interested in fashion from an early age and sold his first hats. After returning from military service in Korea in 1953, he began photographing fashion and writing articles for Women's Wear Daily and the Chicago Tribune.

It is no exaggeration to say that Cunningham's fashion sense and photography quickly shaped a new style of fashion journalism. His "street style" brought fashion, no matter how expensive or luxurious, into the world of everyday life. Cunningham made fashion interesting again only through his point of view and photographs. The quiet, always curious and meticulous Cunningham also became known for his commitment to the gay… show more.

I can still remember so much from this book. A great stat Hawes included was that in the year 1870, 90 percent of upper-class New Yorkers lived in townhouses or other types of single-family homes. By 1930, 90 percent lived in apartment buildings or “French flats,” as they were sometimes called. Basically, almost alone among American cities, New York chose to emulate Paris in its model of urbanism rather than London.

New York developers built and sold “French flats” that were large and ostentatious, like the Ansonia and the Dakota, which are still there today. These iconic apartment buildings were built along the streetcar and subway lines. Hawes was a writer for The New Yorker, so this is very readable.

This novel focusses on the murder of two children by a nanny. Based on a true case, in NYC of a nanny who kills two young children, Slimani weaves themes of racial and social injustice into her story, told through the eyes of the narrator. Despite the horror of the crimes, readers will gain a understanding of how and why the nanny, Louise, ends up taking such extreme action. Though fictionalised, it offers an accurate psychological portrait of profound disturbance and the internal logic that drives fatal assaults.

To begin with, I was immediately drawn to this novel because (bless the author) it is located in my own hometown. For those in New York or Paris, this may not be a big deal; but if you live in a relatively small Canadian city, that’s quite exciting. The main character, Joanne Kilbourn, was also named for me. And yes, I have thanked Gail Bowen for this gift. 

All right, that’s not actually true, but one can dream. Joanne is a strong but gentle cozy detective with intense motherly instincts and an extremely sharp mind. I adore her.