Spring has arrived and with it a glimpse of sunshine that invites you to enjoy some much-needed relaxation. We have compiled a list for you of unforgettable novels written by unforgettable women, thrillers that chill, smart love stories, memoirs too powerful to put down, and sagas that sweep you away. Read them in the backyard, read them on the back deck—or just read them under the covers instead of getting to work in your flower bed.
Dances, by Nicole Cuffy
A striking debut that centers on Cece Cordell, a Black rising star of the New York City Ballet, as she questions whether she will ever find fulfillment within the stern, ultra-white fortress of classical dance. Cuffy’s prose pours into Cece—head, heart, and body—and creates a moving portrait of an artist seeking to know herself and stretch the boundaries of her craft.
The Five-Star Weekend, by Elin Hilderbrand
Hungry with Hollis is one of the internet’s hottest sites, but when Hollis’s husband dies in a car crash, her peppy posting flags. To cheer herself up, she curates the perfect house party with five close friends. Well, four close friends—and one follower she’s made a special connection with. Wait till she finds out just how special their connection is. If you aren’t already addicted to Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels, there’s no time like the present.
Hedge, by Jane Delury
Maud travels to New York’s Hudson Valley for a summer of hard work: restoring the ruins of a 19th-century garden and relinquishing her crumbling marriage. She is not expecting to meet Gabriel, a charming archaeologist who becomes entangled in her life—and the life of her troubled tweenage daughter. With language as lush as the setting, Delury pulls readers into a thicket of lust, responsibility, and betrayal that they won’t want to escape.
Pieces of Blue, by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Left alone with three children and a life insurance payout from her husband’s sudden death, Lindsey Hill impulse-buys a run-down motel on a stretch of pristine Hawaiian coast. The Hills must rapidly adjust to the new geography, both of the small, sun-soaked town and of their newly cleaved family. Bursting with humor, chaos, and raw tenderness, Sloan’s portrait of grief is as refreshing as it is unflinching.
My Husband, Maud Ventura
In this wry, psychologically complex debut, a meticulously manicured wife is obsessed with her husband. For the past 13 years, she’s made a science of meeting his needs, putting them before her own or even their children’s. Her love is a stranglehold; something’s gotta give. The winner of France’s First Novel Prize, this riveting emotional thriller requires serious willpower to not devour in a single sitting.
The Guest, by Emma Cline
In this dark summer’s tale by the author of The Girls, a 22-year-old call girl named Alex lucks into a relationship with a “civilian” who invites her to spend August at his house in Long Island. When she crosses a line and he kicks her out, she drifts and grifts her way for another week, playing one person after another with her uncanny ability to seem like “one of us.” But her mistakes pile up, and her plan has a major flaw.
Beware the Woman, by Megan Abbott
On Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula, Jacy, 32, is feeling uneasy. Are her new husband, her father-in-law, and their friends being oddly overprotective of her pregnancy? Almost as if they don’t see her body as hers? Are they plotting something? With this bewitchingly creepy tale, thriller queen Megan Abbott keeps readers questioning whether this family getaway is the stuff of anxiety dreams or Bluebeard nightmares.
The Only One Left, by Riley Sager
“At 17, Lenora Hope hung her sister with a rope.” When Kit is hired as a caregiver for the lone survivor—and prime suspect—of a decades-old family massacre, she discovers that the morbid schoolyard rhyme she grew up with may not tell the whole story. Another vivid female narrator from bestseller Riley Sager—a male author with a gender-neutral pseudonym—whose signature corkscrew plots keep twisting until the last cutting sentence.
When in Rome, by Liam Callanan
Claire arrives in Rome on a work assignment and feels promptly jolted awake. The coffee is zesty, the vegetables have verve, and Claire’s midlife questions about living a life of meaning feel more urgent than ever. Still, what follows Claire to the Eternal City is not just her old attraction toward the simplicity of convent life…but an old flame. Callanan’s Claire is a soulful seeker, and his Rome, a sensory pleasure.
Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfeld
Sittenfeld’s latest is a love letter to a certain Saturday night sketch-comedy show, here called The Night Owls. For Sally Milz, being a writer on TNO is like winning the lottery every day. But when a celebrity guest host falls for her, her insecurity won’t let her accept his affections. It takes a pandemic to bring her around. Packed with A-1 comic banter and hilarious behind-the-scenes accounts of pitch meetings, run-throughs, and after-parties.
Happy Place, by Emily Henry
The author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation turns the classic rom-com trope of forbidden love on its head with this tale of heartbreak. For one final trip to coastal Maine, Wyn and Harriet decide to keep their recent breakup secret from their close-knit friend group. With tender insight and quick wit, Henry delivers prosecco and sea breezes alongside startling meditations on friendship, loss, and adulthood.
Hestia Strikes a Match, by Christine Grillo
Imagine the challenges of midlife dating just a smidge in the future…in an America torn by a second civil war. Hestia works at a retirement village, where the bawdy wisdom of her 80-something best friend keeps her going through travails on the apps, at the bar, and on the troubled streets. As she learns, UN peacekeepers “know how to party,” and tai chi instructors don’t always go with the flow. Steamy, smart, and hilarious.
Meet Me at the Lake, by Carley Fortune
At 32, Fern Brookbanks has escaped the family-owned resort on Lake Muskoka where she grew up and has a dream of opening a coffee shop in Toronto. Then her mother suddenly dies, leaving Fern the resort, which comes complete with two former boyfriends involved in its management. One of them stood her up 10 years ago and has been on her mind ever since. This witty Canadian romance is an escapist pleasure.
The Great Reclamation, by Rachel Heng
In 1940s Singapore, young Ah Boon goes out fishing with his Pa—and leads him to a mysterious island where the fish run denser than their nets can carry. This ushers in a time of prosperity for the village, and great happiness for Ah Boon and his beloved friend Siok Mei. Then war arrives, the Japanese occupation begins, and nothing—not even the land itself—is ever the same.
Hula, by Jasmin `Iolani Hakes
Dedicated to preserving the heritage of the people of Hilo, Hawaii, family matriarch Hulali is troubled when her runaway daughter, Laka, comes home with a pale newborn. Later, this baby grows up into a child who longs to heal the family’s rifts through the rituals that her mother once loved. This debut novel moves with graceful power and sings with a voice as spellbinding as the rolling surf.
American Ending, by Mary Kay Zuravleff
It’s small acts of inventiveness, generosity, and love that keep individuals going when hard times close in. This is the wisdom and warmth of American Ending, which resurrects a community of immigrants from a century ago in magical, living detail to tell a story that rings true in the present. Zuravleff’s fiery heroine, Yelena, is especially unforgettable, as she builds a life in a country that feels by turns inhospitable and rich with untapped promise.
The Dead Are Gods, by Eirinie Carson
The author and her best friend, Larissa, were a magical pair—gorgeous, super-smart Black models who shared a London flat, a dazzling nightlife, and a zillion loving texts and emails. But somehow, Eirinie had no idea Larissa was involved with heroin, and now she can’t stop wondering how she missed it, striking a deeply resonant chord for anyone who has experienced the obsessive self-searching that often accompanies a sudden loss.
Getting Out of Saigon, by Ralph White
In April 1975, 27-year-old White was working as a banker in Bangkok when he received orders to close the Chase branch in Saigon. One little problem: The city was about to fall to the North Vietnamese, meaning terrible things for employees of American companies. Lucky for the 113 locals involved, White was crazy enough to think he could save them. An edge-of-your-seat, too-insane-not-to-be-true story.
Don't Call Me Home, by Alexandra Auder
The author’s mother was the larger-than-life Warhol superstar Viva, and this memoir of her roller-coaster childhood, growing up at the Chelsea Hotel, making the scene as a teen in ’80s Manhattan, regularly visiting her mother’s wealthy, bickering family in Quebec, is the best kind of train wreck. This near-mythic past is intercut with scenes from the present, as the aging diva descends on the author’s family in Philadelphia.
