One of our absolute favorite sub-genres has to be books about books… go figure. Whether it’s an agent-author forced proximity situation, rival authors who fall in love, MC’s who are working writers or a brainy critique on publishing itself, we just can’t get enough main characters who work in the book world.
Bad Words by Ríoghnach Robinson
Parker’s debut should have been his big breakout moment, but his author career is brought to its knees by a searing review from Selina, a book critic. Now, he has a second chance with his sophomore novel, but once again, Selina is there for another takedown. When their feud goes viral, the public watches as the two square off on social media. However, a quiet conversation between the two starts to form that reveals a whole new dimension to their relationship.
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Story of My Life by Lucy Score
Formerly successful romance novelist Hazel Hart is failing miserably to deliver her new manuscript. Suffering from a bad breakup and terrible writer’s block, she runs away from her life in Manhattan to a run-down, historic home in Story Lake, PA. But things start to look up when Hazel hires grumpy contractor Campbell Bishop to restore her new home. With Cam by her side, Hazel finds herself more inspired than ever. But when Story Lake faces possible bankruptcy, can Hazel’s small-town fairytale survive?
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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
When June Hayward’s literary competition, Athena Liu, dies in a freak accident she steals her unfinished manuscript. Athena was a literary darling, while June is a struggling writer who thinks no one will read her stories. She submits Athena’s just-finished masterpiece about the contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I to her agent as her own. Letting her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song, she justifies this with: Doesn’t the story deserve to be told no matter who the author is? But she can’t escape Athena’s legacy, and evidence starts to surface and threaten the success June stole. She’ll do anything to keep what she thinks she deserves.
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How to Write a Love Story by Catherine Walsh
Ciara Sheridan has inherited three things from her father after he passed away–beautiful, sprawling property on the coast of Ireland, the outline for the final book in his epic fantasy series that she must finish, and writer’s block. This is where Sam Avery, hotshot editor and Frank Sheridan superfan, comes in. He’s been sent from New York to help Ciara finish. After they get over butting heads with one another, Ciara and Sam have just a few weeks to get along, write a novel, and finish Frank’s legacy series. As they are forced to spend everyday together, tensions begin to rise, but maybe they can figure out how to write the perfect ending.
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I’m Not Done with You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Jane hasn’t seen her best friend Thalia since that one bloody night at Oxford. Now she’s existing as a midlist author, unhappy and buried in debt. She needs Thalia, but she disappeared without a trace until Jane spots her name on the New York Times bestseller list. Now Jane is determined to reunite and this time, she won’t let Thalia get away.
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Writers & Lovers by Lily King
Casey Peabody is holding on to something all of her friends have let go of— the determination to live a creative life. Writers & Lovers follows Casey after the sudden death of her mother and the end of a messy love affair. Now, spending the summer in Massachusetts, she works in a moldy room on the novel she’s been writing for six years. But when she falls for two different men, her world becomes more complicated. Lily King writes about the last days of youth and the struggle to keep creativity and ambitions alive in this smart and vulnerable novel.
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Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Best-selling authors Eva Mercy and Shane Hall appear to meet for the first time at a literary event. But 15 years ago, they spent a week madly in love. Now reunited, they discover that they’ve been secretly writing to each other throughout their books. Over the next seven days, they reconnect, and the questions they’ve kept to themselves for years are finally answered. Seven Days in June is a fun and steamy romance that also offers sharp observations about creative life in America.
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Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus
In New York City in 1982, Batter Gray is fearing for his future. Though he has a sharp ear for poetry, he is stuck folding shirts at the Gap, and drowning in student loan debt. That is until he gets his dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, where his life hits the accelerator. He is now in the midst of the two Editors in Chief, the Peck brothers themselves, who are both twins and enemies. He also finds himself aware of the secrets of thirty-nine editors who are on the sole mission to find originality. It’s a cut throat world at Peck & Peck, where “good” isn’t enough, “interesting” is boring and those that don’t make the cut are burned.
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Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
A young boy dies, his family ravaged with grief, but his name lives on in one of the most celebrated plays. Agnes is a wild woman with a talent for healing and potions. When she marries her husband, a young playwright, she becomes a fiercely protective mother to his son Hamnet. But, when Hamnet dies from a sudden fever, the two are thrown into overwhelming loss. Maggie O’Farrell paints a beautiful portrait of a marriage and how writing and creativity can give grief an outlet.
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Beach Read by Emily Henry
At its core, Beach Read is a book about writer’s block. Two writers, January Andrews, and Augustus Everett, are former college rivals who find themselves in neighboring cabins on the shores of Lake Michigan. Both are trying to write their next novel, but neither is having any luck. That is until they make a bet. January, who usually writes romance, will try and come up with a groundbreaking literary novel, and Gus, who was working on a book about a death cult, will try to write a happy ending. In this funny and honest romcom, Emily Henry captures the torment of losing a creative spark and the frustration of having books listed as “Women’s Fiction” just because the author herself is a woman.
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Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn 50. He receives a wedding invitation from his ex-boyfriend of nine years who’s about to marry someone else. He doesn’t want to reply yes or no; he wants to skip town. So instead, he replies to the invitations to literary events all around the world that are piled up on his desk. From Paris to the Sahara desert, he faces mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings, and mistakes. While also confronting his first and last love.
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Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel
Arnie Tenderton has spent his life trying to write the perfect book and now he has finally finished it. His next step is finding an agent who can put his masterpiece in the hands of a publisher, and he wants the best. Specifically, he wants Claudia Conley, but she has rejected him before. Instead of moving on, Arnie has found where Claudia is spending her holiday vacation–a remote cabin in the Catskill Mountains where he will do what it takes to convince her. Arnie won’t take no for an answer because his book is about her, and he knows how he wants this story to end.
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Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Alice is a novelist, Felix works in a warehouse, and they met on a dating app. Eileen is Alice’s best friend who is just getting over a breakup and has started flirting with Simon again, a man she has known and loved since she was a kid. Alice and Felix wind up in Rome after days of knowing each other. Meanwhile, Eileen and Simon start a new rocky relationship in Dublin. They are all young—but not so young, and life is starting to catch up with them. In this sharp and poignant novel, Sally Rooney talks about class, friendships, and the ever-darkening state of the world and how to find the beauty in it.
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The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
Art imitates life. Authors Emily and Austen are a real-life couple who wrote a romance about Katrina and Nathan, who are also best-selling authors. But, at the height of their careers, they have a falling out and are no longer speaking to each other. Still, the literary world has its demands, and the two are forced to write one last book together. Stuck in a small town, they confront their feelings, failures, and a possible future.
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The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Florence Day is a ghostwriter who can see ghosts. She’s also a romance writer who no longer believes in love. After putting off her latest book for months, unable to write meet-cutes and happy endings, her new editor won’t give her an extension. She’s at a low, thinking she will have to give up her career, when she gets a late-night phone call telling her her father has died. When she returns to her Southern hometown for the first time in a decade to bury her father, she’s greeted by a ghost. It’s not her late father but her new editor. As she works to figure out what unfinished business he left behind, she starts to question everything she knows about love stories.
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