100 books like Love in Catalina Cove

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.

Honestly, I first picked up this novel because of the abundance of recipes within its pages!

I also enjoyed the fanciful idea that food can have power over emotions. And Like Water for Chocolate is a tale full of feeling, offering me a roller coaster experience as I journeyed with Tita, hoping for love and redemption for her in the end. Esquivel also wrote about strong ties to family and tradition, which resonated with me. 

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. 

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.

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 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.  

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.

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.

What do you do when you find out that the man you thought was your father, really isn’t? Well, you begin to question everything. If a mystery man is your real father instead of the man who raised you, then what does that make you?

When Marcela, a Latina animator learns that her father might be a white friend of her mother’s, she tries to prove that she is still Latina enough as she goes in search of her biological father.

Part of what makes us who we are is what we believe about ourselves, and in this book the character’s entire identity comes into question. My book is about a man’s search for the American Dream; however, to achieve success, you have to believe in yourself and have a clear understanding of who you are.

Immigrants, in many ways, leave their old identity behind to become a new version… show more.

I first read The Sheltering Sky on a train to New York. I was so caught up in the book, I hated to get off at Penn Station.

It feels as if the novel sprang directly from the author’s subconscious,  and it has an eerie way of burrowing into the reader’s thoughts and dreams. An American couple (modeled on Bowles and his wife Jane) embark on a journey deep into the North African desert. To say they have a complicated marriage is an understatement.

The murky sexuality of the characters, the astonishing descriptions of the landscape and the sky, and the truly shocking events make this a journey no reader can ever forget, even if you’d like to.