This post is about the four best fictional self-love books you need to add to your TBR(to be read) list! Quarter-life crisis anyone? These characters will inspire empowerment, self-discovery, and self-compassion.
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Is anyone else going through a quarter-life crisis? 🙋
Growing up and then living well into our twenties, we tend to do what we’re “supposed to.” Whether that’s a preconceived notion from our parents or society, it’s easy to fall into that trap. However, if you’re living your life based on others’ expectations, you burn out and lose yourself.
Essentially, life has to fall apart in order to unlearn every unhealthy thing that others have tried to push onto you and make you question things. Necessary change only happens when we’re uncomfortable.
Although it can be brutal, ugly, and challenging, it’s what leads us to learn our values, choose ourselves, and live our most authentic lives.
These books would be perfect for your Book Club!
Although the characters and settings are all different, they’re all relatable. We’re all on different self-love journies, but self-discovery is an important tool for finding who you truly are. We can only love ourselves, find who we are, and live our most authentic lives when we dig deep, break down, and put our pieces back together how we want to mold them.
The 4 Best (Fictional) Self-Love Books for Empowerment and Self-Discovery
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1. Honey Girl: A Novel by Morgan Reeves
When becoming an adult means learning to love yourself first.
With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.
This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her parent’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.
In New York, she’s able to ignore all the constant questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.
I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone on their self-love journey. This book is especially relatable for perfectionists, perfectionism molded from demanding parental figures, and anyone in a weird limbo of their lives trying to figure out what they want to do next.
In your late twenties, life has a way of challenging your preconceived thoughts and feelings about yourself and the world for you to learn, grow, and become your most authentic self. Sometimes parts of your life need to break and break you down, for you to stop certain self-sabotaging behaviors. Although painful, it’s necessary to learn your core beliefs, learn what is best for you, and unlearn every unhealthy thing that others have tried to push onto you.
It can be a brutal time in your life, so reading literature that captures that time in your life can be comforting and healing. I know it was for me. Maybe writing this post has inspired me to read it again…🤔
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2. On Rotation: A Novel by Shirlene Obuobi
Ghanaian-American Angela Appiah has checked off all the boxes for the “Perfect Immigrant Daughter.”
- Enroll in an elite medical school
- Snag a suitable lawyer/doctor/engineer boyfriend
- Surround self with a gaggle of successful and/or loyal friends
But then it quickly all falls apart: her boyfriend dumps her, she bombs the most important exam of her medical career, and her best friend pulls away. And her parents, whose approval seems to hinge on how closely she follows the path they chose, are a lot less proud of their daughter. It’s a quarter life crisis of epic proportions.
Angie, who has always faced her problems by working “twice as hard to get half as far,” is at a loss. Suddenly, she begins to question everything: her career choice, her friendships, even why she’s attracted to men who don’t love her as much as she loves them.
And just when things couldn’t get more complicated, enter Ricky Gutierrez—brilliant, thoughtful, sexy, and most importantly, seems to see Angie for who she is instead of what she can represent.
Unfortunately, he’s also got “wasteman” practically tattooed across his forehead, and Angie’s done chasing mirages of men. Or so she thinks. For someone who’s always been in control, Angie realizes that there’s one thing she can’t plan on: matters of her heart.
It’s incredible to read books that illustrate strong, hard-working, and relatable characters who also struggle, make mistakes, and have to learn how to love themselves and discover who they are.
Due to Shirlene Obuobi’s remarkable writing, you can’t help but feel like you’re in the thick of it with Angie, the main character. Learning your values and beliefs and then having to set boundaries to uphold said values and beliefs can be challenging during this time in your life.
However, when you live life authentically, the right things (and relationships) will have a way of working themselves out.
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3. Breaking All the Rules by Amy Andrews
Sometimes you gotta toss your whole life into a burning dumpster to find what’s most important…
Beatrice Archer has always done everything she’s supposed to ―worked her ass off, ignored her non-existent personal life, and kept her mouth shut. Now she’s over it. The rat race, respectability…the underwire bras. She’s taking her life back. Starting with moving to Nowhere, Colorado to live life on her own terms.
Now Bea gives exactly zero forks. Beer for breakfast. Sugar for everything else. Baggy sweats and soft cotton undies FTW. Then a much younger and delightfully attractive cop is called to deal with her flagrant disregard for appropriate clothing outside the local diner (some folks just don’t appreciate bunny slippers) and Bea realizes there’s something missing from her little decathlon of decadence…and he might be the guy to help her out.
When it comes to breaking rules, Officer Austin Cooper is surprisingly eager to assist. He’s charming, a little bit cowboy, and a whole lot sexy. But Bea’s about to discover that breaking the rules has consequences. And all of the cherry pies in Colorado can’t save her from what’s coming…
Not going to lie, you can’t help but think “You go girl” when Bea, the main character, just does not give any shits anymore. It is hilarious and relatable. We have all been there.
A wonderful representation of the importance of choosing yourself first and taking back your life. When we do what we’re “supposed to”, we realize that it’s expectations that others or society has thrust upon us.
This is your life to live. Don’t lose yourself, your happiness, or your contentment to people who don’t have your best interest at heart. You have the power to change your story whenever you need to.
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4. Happy Place by Emily Henry
Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?
Emily Henry’s novels are always a fun read. Happy Place shows the difficulty of self-discovery and trying to live a more authentic life when you’ve been in a relationship for an extended period of time.
Developed expectations within a romantic relationship and the fear of hurting someone you love can make trying to grow and change into a more authentic version of yourself incredibly difficult. You’re different than you were at 25 compared to when you’re 30, for example. Sometimes a relationship has to break or crack in order to allow change.
Or, you had this idea of what you wanted to do with your life and the career you want, but then you’re in the thick of it and realize you’re miserable. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to live it to learn that.
At the end of the day, you need to do what is best for you. It can be incredibly excruciating at times, but it’s necessary. And in the end, the people who truly want the best for you too will stay in your life.
Also, Warning: You will likely crave lobster rolls when reading this book lol. I know that I did.
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There you have it, the 4 Best (Fictional) Self-Love Books for Empowerment and Self-Discovery
Self-discovery may come with growing pains and takes accepting and loving yourself completely, but living your most authentic life is always worth it.
You are stronger and more resilient than you think. Never forget that.
Do you have a favorite self-love book? Have you read any of these books yet? Which one are you going to read first? I’d love to hear all about it, leave a comment below!
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