83 books like The First Wives Club

Cookbook author Rachel Samstat is seven months pregnant and finds out her husband is having an affair. Scorched to the gut, she suffers six weeks of intensive, understandable heartburn. 

It shouldn’t be funny, but it’s so snarky that I couldn’t help but laugh deeply and often. Therein lies the beauty of Nora Ephron’s writing—life is layered, and inside every aspect of woe and worry is also a kernel of hope, maybe even joy, where humor is given space to reside. 

I found myself cheering Rachel on, hoping she would wade through the emotional muck of her crumbling marriage on her terms. She may be worn out, but she’s not down. I miss Nora Ephron.

Flavor Pick: Rocky Road

As a white Jewish woman, I know I’m not the authority on the systemic issues inherent in romantic relationships in Black culture, but the good news is, this novel doesn’t require me to be. Bernadine, Savannah, Gloria, and Robin, four Black, thirty-something women navigating their way through love in the nineties, is a story that transcends race. 

As I read about their hopes and dreams, their disappointments and pain, I recognized myself. Through McMillan’s clear voice, I was able to step into each character’s shoes and feel my way through their experiences. I also learned that a cheating guy’s car is an easy target- memorable!

Flavor Pick: Cookies and Cream

Since I was old enough to say “cake,” I’ve been plagued by weight issues. Enter Cannie Shapiro, the protagonist, a Jewish, overweight journalist with low self-esteem and daddy issues, who has been publicly humiliated by her ex.

Though more about coming into one’s own and learning self-love and acceptance than an actual romantic relationship, I had to include this book because the impetus for Cannie’s growth is ultimately the result of her ex’s betrayal.

Though Cannie cuts loose differently than I chose to when my first marriage ended, I could still understand her desire to go bold. At the center of heartache, there’s always a wish for the resolution that can only come from the strength we find within—the old live-and-learn theory at work. I was moved to tears when Cannie eventually emerges more comfortable in her skin and ready to be happy.

Flavor Pick: Butter Pecan

No, this is not a throwaway or a joke. Cinderella is the ultimate template for modern romance. It was the first bedtime story I remember being read to me, and it immediately sparked my curiosity about romantic love. 

The protagonist is a young girl living in service to her wicked stepfamily. She must wait on them hand and foot just to have a roof over her head - talk about abandonment, rejection, and betrayal! But with it all, our girl stays sweet, charming, open, and optimistic.

I wanted to be Cinderella. I wanted to wear that ball gown, have all these little critters become my loyal friends, and eventually end up with a dashing prince. Admittedly, my dress shoes hurt my feet when I was little, but I would’ve been willing to endure a cramped sole to find my soulmate. And eventually, with my soles intact, I did.

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This book was like a big piece of literary chocolate cake. It was a blast from start to finish, set in the 1940s theater world of New York.

Ninety-five-year-old Vivian recounts her time in the theater, looking back on all the pleasure and pain of youth. The theater itself is another character within the novel, and like Broadway itself, the book is littered with eccentrics and phenomenal characters. An absolute jewel.

I heard Marilyn Monroe in everything Holly Golightly said. I heard her witticisms. Turned out Truman Capote wrote it using Marilyn’s voice.

Holly, a hooker, her protagonist (apartment neighbor) was an in-the-closet gay man. Holly would climb the fire escape and crawl into his room and snuggle in bed with him as if they were lovers. She never denied she was a hooker – but never hid that she had standards and would expect fifty-dollar tips for washroom attendants.

This novella, as does Grapes and Old Man, demonstrates to me the stage play of life we choose to be in is in acts—we know our assets, limitations and to survive we follow them—in Grapes pickers followed a dream to orange groves—in Old Man—a fisher needed to prove he could get his luck back—and in Tiffany—if she could find playgrounds of the rich, she’d survive.

Upmarket Women’s Fiction at its finest! Women’s Fiction isn’t, incidentally, fiction written by or necessarily for women.

It comprises rich stories in which the plot is driven by the protagonist’s emotional journey. You’ll always witness external events creating an interesting and lasting impact from beginning to end, changing our main character inside forever. 

In Five Years excels at that, and packs a devastating, shocking, powerful punch in the process. I cried, but experiencing this story was worth it.

Pamela Kelley makes historical fiction come to life on the page in this rags-to-riches story that empowers women during an unheard-of time, as Eliza Chapman, a lady’s maid, learns her father is actually one of the richest men in NYC, and this changes her whole world.

This book had everything a book lover loves…a story about a bookstore seller, a romance author, and enough secrets to keep you on your toes. I rarely read sapphic romance novels about secret identities, and I kept wondering when the truth was going to come out about one of the characters.

This book was also a light and easy read, and even though it dabbled in a few tough subjects, it felt warm, sparkly, and cozy the entire time.

Maya Rodale always writes strong, clever heroines, and this book features one of her very best. Beatrice Goodwin has been tossed around by life, but she’s come home to her first love: Goodwin’s, her family’s once-fashionable department store in Gilded Age New York City. The one person standing in the way of her plans to make it the finest store in New York… her other first love, Wes Dalton, whose heart she broke years ago. He wants revenge. She wants her store. They’re both smart, funny, and oh so good at their shared profession, you know they’ll be unstoppable together.