Top Book Recommendations
Whats a book you recommend?
Yeah I think every reader has been asked that question by family or friends. These are my top recommendations and have made the list by just having memorable quotes, invoked a thought that has never left my find since or just gave me feeling I hadn't experienced before from a book or story.
Never by Jessa Hastings
Fantasy Romance
Peter Pan Retelling
Growing up and Maturity
Never is a fantasy romance retelling of the classic Peter Pan. In Never Hastings keeps Peter Pan as the same boy just a little bit grown up who comes for Daphne Wendy’s granddaughter. Our main character is Daphne her entire childhood has been in preparation for Peter to come take her around her 13th birthday. Years go by with nothing when Daphne is accepting she won’t be met or picked up by Peter he shows up months before her 18th birthday and whisk her off to Neverland. Using some of the same tropes about growing up but looking at that through the lens of Daphne's idea of relationships and also how she handles them.
This book convinced me to read Peter Pan. I love the way Jessa Hastings writes and that’s what drove me to pick up this book when it released and every year since I reread it. Daphne, Peter and Jamison are our three main characters. Daphne is the great grand daughter of Wendy, Peter is Peter Pan the boy from Neverland who never grows up and Jamison is the son of Captain Hook, Peters nemesis. When Peter finally comes for Daphne she is older and a bit wiser than her grandmother was when Peter came for her. When Peter ultimately acts the way he always does (like a dumb boy) Daphne is LITERALLY dropped right in front of Jamison Hook and thus begins to look at what her fate in Neverland is actually meant to be ( to be with the boy who never grows up or someone who sees her for who she is)
This book reminded me what it was to be 18 and how unaware of your emotions you can be and even though sometimes we can feel so grown up we are still immature. There is also a love triangle going on in this book which makes it sometimes feel anxiety inducing. Daphne feels as if her fate is to be with Peter but her heart is truly connected to Jamison. I feel like this showed that sometimes we choose the love and relationships that can be easy because we don’t want to be hurt but the people we love deeply can hurt us the most. We as humans make decisions based on our hurt which may not be the right choices for our heart but ultimately we try to protect and not surrender.
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Fiction
Love
Growth
In One True Loves our main character Emma marries her high school sweetheart and on their one year anniversary he is in a plane crash over the ocean and his body is never found. As the years go on we see Emma heal and move back to her home town and eventually find love again with a friend from before she met her late husband. On the night of her engagement she receives a call that her husband is still alive and has recently been found. This makes Emma evaluate if she wants to continue her relationship with her Fiancée or her husband.
This was the first book that made me feel like an adult. Emma has a difficult and complex decision to make. Ultimately her decision is made based on her own personal journey and growth. This book made me see that love can be complex and difficult to handle sometimes and that we might not always know or feel like we have the answers and that’s okay but we have to know what’s in our hearts to make a decision we feel we can live with and be confident in.
Soon after completing this book I dove right into all of Taylor Jenkins Reids other books and became a huge fan of hers.
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Fiction
Addiction
Documentary Style
Daisy Jones and The Six is about a fictional band in the 70’s inspired by Fleetwood Mac the book is written in an interview style broken up into different parts of the bands history. It is being told by band members and people close to the group like brand members partners, managers and music industry associates. Daisy Jones and the Six haven’t done anything together in years since their last concert that ended their world tour and our interviewer is trying to understand why the band never performed together again after the abruptly canceled their tour after their night in Chicago. As a reader you get the see how this band comes together and everything leading up to the end of this group. Our two main characters Daisy and Billy are the two leads of the group who have a connection that is undeniable. Billy is married to Camila and who he has two daughters with. He feels a responsibility to his family but can’t deny his connection with Daisy. After his struggles with addiction it is also hard to be with Daisy who also has her own issues and struggles with substances. These characters were messy and chaotic which is what makes them feel real and human because of the complexity of their characters. They made bad decisions that made me as a reader confused and root for them but also not.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Fiction
Betrayal
obsession
documentary style
The Favorites by Layne Fargo is written in a documentary style following the rise of Caterina as an olympic skater. The documentary portions are told from interviews with her former teammate and other Olympians in the figure skating world. After each documentary portion we get Caterina’s own accounts of what happened and what she was going through at the time. Starting out the book we know Caterina has been labeled as everything negative. I really liked this because it felt like some of the same aspects we get in Daisy Jones and the Six but in a different way. There is so much drama in this story that it feels addicting and as a reader it’s hard to put down. I think about this all the time and when I was reading it I remember trying to do other things but not being able to because all I could do was wonder what was going to happen with these characters. These characters kept me on edge the whole time. This was my only 5 star from last year I read that truly stood out to me. I also believe because the material is inspired by the classic Withering Heights by Emily Bronte.
These are just a couple of my top recommendations. For beginners Taylor Jenkins Reid books are great to start if you’re in a slump The Favorites by Layne Fargo has so much drama that it's a binge and lastly Never puts you in a truly magical world for some escapism. Feel free to share your thoughts about these recs!