100 books like Birthday Girl

The main characters in this book were the first relationship goals for me as a teenager. I loved their relationship; the story flow was vividly in my mind as I read it.

I really shouldn’t have seen the movie because often, it doesn’t follow the same storyline, but I will forever love this book and love the main characters' relationship. It was and still is golden to me.

This book isn’t a romance. It’s too real – and too devastating – for that. It’s part of a series and I read this book first and the prequel story afterward so if you’re planning to read this one, I recommend reading the first one too, and in advance. There are some references I feel I’d have understood better if I’d read the books in order.

The main characters are all relatable in that they’re flawed and not always aware of it. The protagonist seems the most aware, but I think that’s just because we get the whole story from her perspective. This feels like a slice-of-life novel and I don’t usually enjoy those. I can say, the writing is excellent and it’s a satisfying read.

I first picked this book up because of the setting—New York during a blizzard—but also because I love impossible situations.

Here we have Christmas-loving, hopeless-romantic Eva who has agreed to housesit an amazing penthouse on Fifth Avenue, and to have it decorated in time for the owner’s return for Christmas. There’s just one problem, the owner never left. Unaware of his grandmother’s meddling machinations in hiring Eva, Christmas Grinch and crime writer Lucas has isolated himself in his penthouse due to a looming deadline, and the impending anniversary of his wife’s death.

However, when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva stranded in Lucas’s apartment these two opposites discover they have more in common than they first thought. This is a beautiful fairy tale of a book. 

This is one of those books that a reader doesn’t forget.

I can discuss the sweeping story of a young woman who flees her home during the American Civil War and the trial and tribulations she encounters for years. It was first published in 1979 and is still a top seller. The fact it was written in the 70’s is one of the reasons it provides so many subjects for discussion. 

The author did a great job with the characters, but also with the settings and secondary characters. The end has an unexpected, but welcome, surprise.  

I remember my grandmother and her friends discussing this book when it was first released, and is one I’ve read more than once.

Scientist Levi Ward, in this enemies-to-lovers trope set in the world of science, is a compelling character.

With startling green eyes that I felt myself drowning in, a strong work ethic, and always determined to do what’s right, I found myself suddenly wishing I’d stuck with studying science at school. It would’ve helped if I’d been any good at science, though.

This is another book I have read over and over again.

The hero is a powerful, intelligent, and rakish Duke. To a modern reader, it quickly becomes clear that the hero, Jervaux, suffers a stroke. But the author shows how medical understanding of the time results in him being confined to an asylum for the insane. 

There, the heroine, a devout Quakeress receives an enlightenment that he is not mad, but maddened. Patiently, she sets about rescuing him. I just love how powerfully the author shows the inner struggles of a hero with limited ability to communicate, as well as the heroine’s own determination to cling to her vision.  

Laura Esquivel’s delicious love story is chock full of cooking and magic realism. When protagonist Tita first sees Pedro, a forbidden passion ignites and burns bright. It consumes and almost devours the young lovers at the center of this novel.

When I set out to write my book, I wanted to include elements of magic realism and lots of cooking. Growing up Italian in New Jersey, the magic of food was a huge part of my upbringing. Like Tita in Like Water for Chocolate, I learned very early in life that great cooking is the best way to capture and keep anyone’s heart.

I love to read about artists in Paris in the 1930s. And this book is about a woman who tries to leave the world of modeling to become a photographer, and then she morphs again into one of the only WW2 journalists.

Lee Miller was a real person and she fell in love with Surrealist Man Ray in Paris. 

This intricately plotted semi-comic, semi-tragic novel, riffing off Much Ado about Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, keeps the reader guessing to the end.

Simon and Axel are the best gay male couple in fiction, for my money, quirky; adorable; absolutely believable characters whose relationship the villain tries to destroy as he does several other relationships.

I love the story of how they first met, their erotic banter, their clothes, their food and wine, and the way they move towards being more open about their relationship.

This book was THE book that made me want to write a marriage in trouble.

It features characters to absolutely hate in the first few chapters, but then they turn it around and become lovable by the end of the book. I love the idea of a married couple (or engaged one) sleeping in separate rooms because of their distance and then they slowly move back into the same room.

This book also features a terrible mom who gets owned by her kid who’s finally had enough of them, which is always my favorite part of any book. This is a novel to get hooked on, and the ending scene where she finds their wedding invitations in the trash had my jaw on the FLOOR!