100 books like The Good Life

This book is in a similar vein as Oona finds herself time jumping within her own life, suddenly living it out of sequence as she jumps to a different period in time with each birthday, forcing her to look within and realize what is important and worth holding on to and worth fighting for. I am a sucker for books where characters get the opportunity to experience alternate versions of their personal realities, and I could not put this one down. I’m all about my characters understanding that the choices they make create their ultimate realities. The ultimate messages about the importance of love and family and the choices we make really resonated with me.

Tara Sivec is flipping hysterical, and if you haven’t discovered her yet, I highly suggest you dive into her entire book catalog immediately. Seduction and Snacks was my first read from her, and I noticed so many similar pop culture references in our writing that I messaged her to introduce myself and find out if we’d been separated at birth. S&S is crude, silly, and thoroughly entertaining. Oh, and also—according to the warning on her book’s sales page—not to be taken seriously. You should probably go in with an open mind (and a bottle of Tequila). 

Like, omigod! What a blast from the past! This adorable teen romance takes place in 1984 in southern California. It was a totally awesome 80s flashback that reminded me of Pretty in Pink (never a bad thing, amirite?). Granted, I felt that too many of the pop culture references were awkwardly crowbarred into the narrative, but it was still a fun ride nonetheless. I love stories like this, ones where the average girl lands the school’s most popular guy. Throw in a makeover, and I’m one-clicking every time. Does that make me shallow? I don’t care. Plots like that always give good butterflies, and MWY is no exception. If you’re looking for a totally rad romance that won’t gag you with a spoon, Melt With You will like, totally stoke your 1980s heart.

Gah! Virgins! I should mention that this book was actually written in the 80s and flashes back to the 50s, but in the spirit of this list (and simply because I flipping love it), I’m including it here. Peggy and Sean are two good little Catholic teens navigating their senior year of high school. Sean is slated to enter the priesthood upon graduation, testing the limits of the pair’s carnal restraint in the final days of their relationship. I don’t think there’s a book in the world that has influenced my storytelling more than this one. It’s hot, hilarious, and heartbreaking… and pretty much serves as the blueprint for my own book. Highly recommend.

I’m a huge fan of Sarra Manning’s brand of smart, witty romance with a bit of an edge. In Unsticky Grace enters into a "Pretty Woman" type relationship with wealthy art dealer Vaughan, and it has everything you could want in a romance - a relatable heroine, a hot alpha male hero, and great chemistry between the characters. Both characters are flawed and damaged, but they bring out the best in each other and it’s a joy to watch their relationship change from a business transaction to something much more, until, in classic Pretty Woman fashion, they end up rescuing each other. It’s all handled with Sarra’s trademark wit and intelligence, and it’s also very sexy! 

The sweeping views of Stargazer Springs Ranch are enough to make me want to visit! It certainly helps that we are first introduced to the ranch through an FMC who is also a photographer and her enthusiasm for the vistas shines brightly. Quaint little cabins, horses, wide-open spaces, and a fishing river set the mood for sweet romance so well. I could spend ages on the ranch discovering each little nook and cranny as the author drops little tidbits for the reader. The ranch house sounds like such a fun place to hang out after a hard day’s work, and with more pies at Thanksgiving than people, you can count me in! I do wish we got to see a bit more of the animals, but I suspect that the more of the series I read, the more will be revealed. I need another trip to Stargazer Springs ASAP!

I’m a huge fan of Slaughter, both her Will Trent police procedurals and her stand-alone thrillers, which are deliciously dark and propulsive.

This novel goes deep into some shadowy corners of existence with its story of Claire Scott, an Atlanta woman who’s confronted with a shocking personal tragedy in the opening pages when her husband is murdered in front of her.

Compounding her devastation, Claire stumbles upon ugly secrets of her husband that help her solve the decades-old disappearance of her believed sister Julia. It’s impossible not to admire Claire’s resilience in the face of the horrors she uncovers and her will to survive them.

Even while pursuing the nastiest criminals Detective Lucas Davenport and his sardonic sense of humor make me laugh. A deranged man wants to punish the female psychiatrist who once put him in a mental hospital. When he kidnaps the woman and her two young daughters, Lucas focuses on who stands to benefit. The combative resentful husband she's divorcing, her business partner, and her elderly father's trophy wife who will inherit his fortune if his daughter dies. 

The kidnapper inflicts harsh punishment on the psychiatrist and plays mind games with Lucas. He telephones Lucas, taunts him and threatens to kill his captives. Lucas has no idea where they are, but he can play mind games too. An emotional roller-coaster ride until the last page of this gritty suspense thriller.

Where the Girls Are is about a particular generation of women growing up in post War America, and the impact popular media had on their lives, both for good and for bad. It weaves wonderfully smart, often funny, always engagingly written discussions of pop music, movies, and television shows with Douglas’s own experiences at the time. It’s unabashedly feminist—but it isn’t a speech or a political manifesto. It’s an exploration of the push-pull of growing up female at a transitional time, a time in which attitudes toward women were changing, unevenly, and how pop culture reflected the tensions of the times. This book is history, memoir, sociology, media studies, all at once – immensely informative and very entertaining.

Daniel Boorstin’s The Image is an amazing study by the former Librarian of Congress that first set in place many of the ideas about celebrities that are still with us today.

“The celebrity is a person who is known for [their] well-knowness,” Boorstin wrote. He describes “pseudo-events”, the manufactured illusions that we mistake for reality in a media-saturated world.

Drawing on examples like Charles Lindbergh, Boorstin shows how we come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety. Thus, the heroes of the past are blurred before our eyes and eventually disappear.

The Image is the first book I read about celebrity and it remains one of the best.