Here are 100 books that Kiss the Girl fans have personally recommended if you like
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When I was a kid growing up in Canada, many of my classmates didn’t know about Korea. They’d guess I was Chinese or Japanese, and when I’d tell them I’m Korean, they’d say, “What’s that?” Things have changed since then and now Korea is well-known all around the world, and that’s reflected in our bookshelves too. I’m delighted to see that there are more books out there today that reflect my culture and heritage, in a wide range of genres, age groups, and settings! Speaking of setting, here are some young adult novels that take place in South Korea that I enjoyed, and I hope you will too.
XOXO is the perfect read when you want something sweet, fun, and lighthearted.
I read this on the airplane and it made time fly by so fast. Following the story of Jenny, a cello prodigy, and Jaewoo, a K-pop star, this book had me smiling from page one. I loved the arts academy setting in South Korea, the personal character arcs, and of course, the swoony love story!
Jenny's never had much time for boys, K-pop, or really anything besides her dream of being a professional cellist. But when she finds herself falling for a K-pop idol, she has to decide whether their love is worth the risk. A modern forbidden romance wrapped in the glamorous and exclusive world of K-pop, XOXO is perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Maurene Goo.
Jenny didn't get to be an award-winning, classically trained cellist without choosing practice over fun. That is, until the night she meets Jaewoo. Mysterious, handsome, and just a little bit tormented, Jaewoo is exactly the kind…
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with pop music since I was a kid singing Britney Spear’s “Lucky” with my friends. Eventually, I evolved into a punk-ass cynical teenager who disavowed my love of pop, but the fascination remained. In college, I started a pop star romance that would–many, many years later–become my debut book Love in the Liner Notes. In the process, I read an obsessively large number of books touching on music, celebrities, musicians, and the entertainment industry. I hope you enjoy a selection of my favorites, mostly romances (what can I say, I have a type) that brought me the kind of joy only a pop star can.
Getting back to the fluffy–and the steamy–I’m not a huge holiday romance reader but this was delicious!
A plus-sized adult film star accidentally getting cast in a squeaky clean Christmas movie and her co-star is an ex-boy band bad boy trying to rehab his image? *chef’s kiss* Add in the fact that they're fans of each other’s work? Perfection.
I felt that the characters being huge fans of each other helped offset the sometimes parasocial power dynamic of a fan dating/banging a star they’ve idolized for years. That plus them both needing to keep Bee’s porn career a secret put them on even ground, which allowed me to really enjoy their delightful banter, chemistry, and hot sex scenes.
Cowritten by #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone-a steamy plus-size holiday rom-com about an adult film star who is semi-accidentally cast as a lead in a family-friendly Christmas movie, and the former bad-boy pop star she falls in love with.
Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star. With a huge following and two supportive moms, Bee couldn't ask for more. But when Bee's favorite producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie he's making for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee's career…
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with pop music since I was a kid singing Britney Spear’s “Lucky” with my friends. Eventually, I evolved into a punk-ass cynical teenager who disavowed my love of pop, but the fascination remained. In college, I started a pop star romance that would–many, many years later–become my debut book Love in the Liner Notes. In the process, I read an obsessively large number of books touching on music, celebrities, musicians, and the entertainment industry. I hope you enjoy a selection of my favorites, mostly romances (what can I say, I have a type) that brought me the kind of joy only a pop star can.
This is a darker, more realistic take on former child stars.
I don’t normally enjoy non-linear timelines, but the way the story jumped back and forth, from the heyday of the TV show, where the characters played in a fictional teen pop band to present day, where they are trying to pretend they’ve moved on from the scandalous ending, was compelling.
The central mystery of what went wrong and why kept me hooked while the details of the behind-the-scenes conflicts and pressures fascinated me. As someone who grew up in LA, close to the orbit of these kind of wildly popular teen shows, I appreciated the stark look at what these productions do to their young stars and the sometimes creepy attention underage girls get.
I also appreciated that it didn’t get so dark I couldn’t finish it.
A deliciously entertaining novel about the stars of a popular teen show from the early 2000s—and the reunion special, thirteen years after their scandalous flameout, that will either be their last chance at redemption, or destroy them all for good.
Back in 2004, The Daydreams had it all: a cast of innocent-seeming teenagers acting and singing their hearts out, amazing ratings, and a will-they-or-won’t-they romance that steamed up fan fiction forums. Then, during the live season two finale, it all imploded, leaving everyone scrambling to understand why.
Afterward, the four stars went down very different paths. Kat is now a…
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with pop music since I was a kid singing Britney Spear’s “Lucky” with my friends. Eventually, I evolved into a punk-ass cynical teenager who disavowed my love of pop, but the fascination remained. In college, I started a pop star romance that would–many, many years later–become my debut book Love in the Liner Notes. In the process, I read an obsessively large number of books touching on music, celebrities, musicians, and the entertainment industry. I hope you enjoy a selection of my favorites, mostly romances (what can I say, I have a type) that brought me the kind of joy only a pop star can.
I love reading about pop culture history and this was a technicolor burst of educational joy.
Written by a fan, this book was not a critical examination on the boy band industry but it was a delightful high-level look at male vocal groups from the Beatles to BTS. As someone with a fascination with fan culture, celebrity culture, and pop music, this book filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge, made me giggle, and brought back memories of my neighbor’s Tiger Beat posters.
The music, the fans, the choreography, the clothes, the merch, the hysteria... the hair. The pop phenomenon that dominated the 1990s and 2000s has left a long-lasting mark on culture, yet no book has fully celebrated them. Maria Sherman has a deep love of boy bands and has written extensively on them for Jezebel, where she currently works, as well as in Rolling Stone, Vulture, and more. In this book, her first, she celebrates the boy band revolution with a mix of serious fandom and a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Larger Than Life begins with a brief look at the history of…
I’ve been fascinated by musicians almost my entire life, but I always wanted more than the slick on-screen video, profile on the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, or interview. I wanted to know the whys and hows: why they wrote a certain way, what made them want to be a musician first, and where the inspiration and determination came from. What are they like when they’re hanging out at home, not in the spotlight? This research led me to the music and musicians of Laurel Canyon in particular and how one small area of Los Angeles has managed to create music still influential today.
I love this book because it honestly sets the scene of the early 1970s rock world with such heart and passion for the music, the musicians of the time, and the challenges they faced in the industry and even from their peers.
I wanted to shake the main character sometimes, but the world she builds is so realistic and engaging that I felt like I was in it with her. When I found out that it was loosely based on an actual romance of a popular 70s singer/songwriter couple, I was even more intrigued. It paints a vivid picture of love, friendship, and relationships, centered around the 70s rock music and lifestyle I love.
'Emma Brodie perfectly channels the languorous romance of the time . . . I got chills' Kevin Kwan, No.1 bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians
Behind every greatest hit, is an even greater love story.
The summer of 1969
From the moment Jane Quinn steps barefoot onto the main stage at Island Folk festival, her golden hair glinting, her voice soaring into the summer dusk, a star is born - and so is a passionate love story.
Jane's band hits the road with none other than Jesse Reid, the musician whose bright…
As a child, I loved singing and acting and fantasized about what it might be like to be a famous movie star. Though the practical side of my brain led me to become a lawyer instead, my fascination with Hollywood never waned. When I set out to write my first novel, I finally had the opportunity to explore celebrity culture. But I'm just a regular person, living a very normal life. The books I’m recommending lift the curtain on fame and explore the ultimate fantasy: what if a beloved, uber-famous actor or actress actually fell in love with you?
The very opposite of my last recommendation, this book was wildly spicy!
The main character is a mom who has a love affair with a famous and very young pop star, and rumor has it it’s based on the author’s crush on Harry Styles. It was really easy to lose myself in the fantasy; I, too, am a mom in her forties who finds pop stars attractive and certainly wouldn’t mind taking a little vacation from reality.
I got so sucked into this one that I stayed up for hours past my bedtime reading it multiple nights in a row!
When Solene Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of a prestigious art gallery in Los Angeles, takes her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favourite boy band, she doesP so reluctantly and at her ex-husband's request. The last thing she expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. But Hayes Campbell is clever, winning, confident, and posh, and the attraction is immediate. That he is all of twenty years old further complicates things. What begins as a series of clandestine trysts quickly evolves into a passionate relationship. It is a journey that spans continents as…
My research and writing about music, particularly country and other Southern genres, began with the "Louisiana Hayride", a radio barn dance in the post-World War II era that launched both Hank Williams and Elvis Presley to prominence. From there, I turned to the long-running PBS music showcase Austin City Limits, which now names a huge music festival as well. In both projects, understanding music encompassed larger contexts of region, media, and meaning, all of which bear on understanding Dolly Parton as a musician and songwriter; as Appalachian; as a recording, TV, and movie star; and as a global cultural icon. I’ve never known life without Dolly Parton in it. Of this, I’m glad.
In 2022 she teamed with best-selling thriller author James Patterson on a novel about an aspiring country musician with a troubled past. AnnieLee hitchhikes her way to Nashville, but just as her musical career starts to gain traction, the demons from her past start to catch up.
Knowing Dolly co-wrote the story makes it hard to avoid reading her voice into the experiences of the youthful main character, but also into the voice of the older country music legend Ruthanna, who takes the struggling newcomer under her wing.
This book reminds you that Dolly, at her core, is a skillful storyteller.
From America’s most beloved superstar and its greatest storyteller—a thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive.
Every song tells a story.
She’s a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her.
She’s also on the run. Find a future, lose a past.
Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny. It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might find her. And destroy her.
Run, Rose, Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire—a story that…
I am a musician and writer who has always loved mysteries. Main character-sleuths who are likable and sometimes get in over their heads are my favorites, both as a reader and a writer, especially if they contribute something positive to their world in addition to solving the crime. If their careers or hobbies – anything from the arts to small customer-service businesses – offer joy to themselves and to others, so much the better. Since I grew up in the New York area, I like books that are set there, but am open to a good story set anywhere in the world.
I loved Ella Shane who rose from Lower East Side poverty to success.
She directs and performs in her own opera company – most unusual for a woman in 1899, even in New York. Never forgetting where she came from, she is grateful for all she’s achieved. In this first of a three-part series, Ella turns sleuth after one of her young singers dies mysteriously onstage.
When the singer’s cousin (a Duke, no less) arrives to investigate, the promise of romance is definitely in the air. The contrast between late 1890s protocols versus the changing attitudes of the coming new century is fascinating. The main characters are beautifully and compassionately drawn, and the story has an action-packed finale.
On the cusp of the twentieth century, Manhattan is a lively metropolis buzzing with talent. But after a young soprano meets an untimely end on stage, can one go-getting leading lady hit the right notes in a case of murder?
New York City, 1899. When it comes to show business, Gilded Age opera singer Ella Shane wears the pants. The unconventional diva breaks the mold by assuming “trouser roles”—male characters played by women—and captivating audiences far and wide with her travelling theatre company. But Ella’s flair for the dramatic takes a terrifying turn when an overacting Juliet to her Romeo…
Well, truly, who doesn’t want to live inside of a magical castle? A few years ago, I was lucky enough to become the owner of a crumbling Victorian house. It was in bad shape—a hoarder had lived there before with lots of cats and also, somehow, rats?—but the place had “good bones.” My husband and I were determined to scrape away all of the rot and give it new life—all while I was writing my middle-grade novel. Now that both projects are done, I truly feel like I live in an enchanted space.
I am a huge fan of Roshani Chokshi’s work—but she outdid herself with this book. The writing is thickly luxurious, and the House of Dreams, where much of the story takes place, feels like it sits at the borders of a fae otherworld. The magic is palpable. And deliciously foreboding.
A sumptuous, gothic story about an obsessive female friendship cursed to end in tragedy, a marriage unraveled by dark secrets, and the danger of believing in fairy tales - the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Castenada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed…
My life is one of two halves; I spent the first half living in the industrial West Midlands, at school and then training to become a doctor, and the second half living in rural bliss in the southwest of England. For the day job, I’m an anesthesiologist, but my true passion, thanks to my mother being an English teacher, is reading romance and writing my own. I am well-travelled and spend a quarter of each year in France, so my books often have characters from all over Europe as well as characters working in the medical profession or overcoming/ living with a variety of health conditions.
I loved the uniqueness of this book, centred around the novelty of email in 1999. I love the idea of a nerdy guy whose job it is to read other folks' emails as he struggles with young adulthood approaching the dreaded Y2K. I loved how his POV is beautifully interspersed with cute epistolary exchanges.
From the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wayward Son, Fangirl, Carry On, and Landline comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about an office romance that blossoms one email at a time....
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now—reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to…
