With it being March and warmer spring days starting to appear more frequently, now is a good time to explore new books to add to your TBR pile, whether you feeling overwhelmed by emotions – positive or negative – and go to’s that you can turn to when your feeling your feelings is hard – love, loneliness, heartbreak or anxiety.
Are you are book lover? A colourful, busy bookshelf = pure joy!
Books To Read When Your Feeling Anxious
Conversation on Love by Natasha Lunn
After years of feeling love was always out of reach, journalist Natasha Lunn sets out to understand how relationships work, shapes us and involves. It’s a good read for days when your anxiety is peaking and a slice of connectedness is what you’re seeking to feel truly grounded, Conversations on Love touches on vulnerability, accepting change, loneliness in loss, redefining romance and more.
‘A celebration of love in all its forms, featuring conversations with: Philippa Perry on falling in love slowly * Candice Carty-Williams on friendship * Alain de Botton on the psychology of being alone * Dolly Alderton on vulnerability * Emily Nagoski on the science of sex * Diana Evans on parenthood * Lisa Taddeo on the loneliness of loss * Esther Perel on unrealistic expectations * Stephen Grosz on accepting change * Roxane Gay on redefining romance * and many more‘
Trigger and Themes: grief, heartbreak, friendship, sex, loneliness.
The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent
This romantic, witty read will have you hooked withe every page that your turn, with the beautiful Scottish settings and endearing naivety of Birdy as a protagonist keeping you captivated from start to finish. Your will find yourself being transported out of any anxious periods that you’re feeling and into the Scottish Higlands with this refreshing and related read.
‘Birdy Finch hasn’t felt anything other than unnspiried for as long as she can rememebr, so when the opportunity arises to step into someone else’s life and earn some extra money over the summer, she thinks why not? The life she’s run into, you ask? Her best friend, Heather’s The only problem is, she hasn’t told Heather. Actually, there are a few problems too…….‘
Trigger and Theme: Love, alcohol, friendship, quarter-life crisis
Books To Read If You Need A Good Cry
Sorrow and Bliss By Meg Mason
This book touches on a heavy subject matter with a lightness. The book follows the story of Martha Friel – someone whose loved ones see as clever, beautiful and a brilliant writer – she wonders why with seemingly ‘nothing wrong’ she finds being alive harder than most. It’s both heart-shattering nd beautiful all at the same time, Meg Mason touches on the hardest part of long-term mental illness – the brutally honest – in a way that will help others feel finally ‘seen’.
Trigger and Themes: depression, dysfunctional famil dynamics, mental illness, love and hope.
All My Children By Joanna Glen
From the author of the Costa shortlisted debut, The Other Half of Augusta Hope, comes the story of one girl’s journey to find her birth mother, and her realisation that mothers – and family – can be discovered in the most unexpected of places…
‘London, 1980s. Though she has a comfortable, privileged life, Eva Martínez-Green is deeply unhappy. The only child of an emotionally absent mother and a physically absent father, Eva has grown up in a cold, unloving house. But Eva is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why are there no baby pictures of her? Why do her parents avoid all questions about her early years?‘
Triggers and Themes: friendship, motherhood, neglect and coming-of-age.
Booka For When You Need Pure Escapism
Days of Distraction By Alexandra Chang
This book is about a wry, tender portrait of a young woman – finally free to decide her path, but unsure if she knows herself well enough to choose wisely from a captivating new literary voice.
‘The journey begins with a writer at a prestigious tech publication, the 24-year-old Days of Distraction who reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaire and insufferable start-up founders while her request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. When her long-term boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run. Moving is supposed to show her commitment to J by way of a grand gesture, but in the process of uprooting, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship.’
Trigger and Theme: identity, culture, interracial relationships, love and loss.
Breathless By Amy McCullouh
This high-altitude thriller, that will take the readers breath away. Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above the sea level, but the elements are nothing compared to one chilling truth – there’s a killer on the mountain.
‘Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She’s come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She’s given up everything for this story–her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she’s made with her climbing failures in the past–but it’s a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.‘
Trigger and Themes: mountaineering murder, deceit and personal struggle.
Books For When You’re In Love
The Kiss Quotient By Helen Hoang
This heart warming and refreshing novel that proves one thing – there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.
This book is about a women ‘Stella Lane’ who thinks maths is the only thing that unites the universe, so she comes up with an algorithm to predict customers purchases – a job that has given her more moeny than she know what to do with and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
Triggers and Themes: autism, dating, comedy, sex.
The Hypnotist’s Love Story By Liane Moriarty
‘Ellen O’Farrell is a professional hypnotherapist who works out of the eccentric beachfront home she inherited from her grandparents. It’s a nice life, except for her tumultuous relationship history. She’s stoic about it, but at this point, Ellen wouldn’t mind a lasting one. When she meets Patrick, she’s optimistic. He’s attractive, single, employed, and best of all, he seems to like her back. Then comes that dreaded moment: He thinks they should have a talk. Braced for the worst, Ellen is pleasantly surprised. It turns out that Patrick’s ex-girlfriend is stalking him. Ellen thinks, Actually, that’s kind of interesting. She’s dating someone worth stalking. She’s intrigued by the woman’s motives. In fact, she’d even love to meet her.’
Triggers and Themes: stalking, dating, tumultuous relationships, romance, drama
Love to read books? I would like to know what book are you loving at the moment?
