Engaging Contemporary Chick-Lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• chick-lit
• engaging reads
• contemporary settings
• under 250 pages
• no strong language

My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend 
Elodia Strain
ROMANCE STRAIN
A romantic comedy in which Jesse, a sassy and intelligent young woman, must choose between two men--one a penniless writer, and the other a successful advertising executive. 217 pgs.

Wallflower in Bloom 
Claire Cook
F COOK
The story of a woman who emerges from the shadow of her overbearing family and finds herself voted on as a last-minute replacement on “Dancing with the Stars.” 260 pgs.

Austenland 
Shannon Hale
F HALE Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man-- perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy ... But when a wealthy relative bequeaths to her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, Jane puts reality aside and enters a world she’s only ever dreamed of. 196 pgs.

Modern, Urban Lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• chick lit
• urban lit
• modern settings
• some mystery

Still Life 
By Joy Fielding
F FIELDING
Casey Marshall had everything, a successful business, great husband, friends, until...a car smashes into hers. Waking up in a hospital unable to move or speak, she observes some curious things. Is it possible her "friends" are not whom they claim to be and maybe her accident was not actually an accident. Joy Fielding has the ability to create well defined relatable characters plus keep the plot twisting and the reader in suspense.

After All These Years 
By Susan Isaacs
MYSTERY ISAACS
Rosie Meyers, 47 is a high school English teacher. The day after her 25th wedding anniversary party, her husband announces that he is leaving her for another woman. Later Rosie finds him dead in the kitchen stabbed with a butcher knife. Rosie becomes prime suspect. In hopes of proving herself innocent, Rosie goes on the lam before police can arrest her. Friendships and characters are believable, especially the feisty and witty Rosie.

Crossing Places 
By Elly Griffiths
MYSTERY GRIFFITH Ruth Gal #1
Thirty-something forensic archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway lives in remote Norfolk, England along with her 2 cats. When the bones of a child are found in a marsh, Galloway is called in to help. Are the bones from the decade old cold case that the Chief still gets taunting letters about or are they ancient bones? Outspoken Galloway gets drawn into the case when another child goes missing.

Coldest Winter Ever 
By Sister Souljah
F SOULJAH
This urban novel is the first for Hip-hop star Sister Souljah. Laced with the ruthlessness and tragedy that the drug world can bring, it tells a rough coming of age story about Winter Santiaga and her family.

New Chick Lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• chick lit
• new releases (last 2 years)
• female characters

Great Aunt Sophia's Lessons for Bombshells 
By Lisa Cach
F CACH
Agreeing to be a companion to her elderly former actress great-aunt, frumpy Ph.D. student Grace becomes the center of her great-aunt's Pygmalion-style project to transform her into an empowered and desirable woman.

Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger 
By Elizabeth M. Harbison
F HARBISON
Running away with her fiance's brother after he convinces her that he loves her more and that the man she was about to marry has been unfaithful, Ashley Barton takes a job at a bridal shop when the ensuing relationship also fails, a situation that leads to an explosive confrontation 17 years later.

Beautiful Day 
By Elin Hilderrand
F HILDERBR
Gathering on Nantucket for a wedding planned to the letter by the bride's late mother, the Carmichaels and the Grahams hide their scandal-ridden, crumbling lives from the blissfully unaware, happy couple.

Don't Go 
By Lisa Scottoline
MYSTERY SCOTTOLI
Fleeing home from his military service in Afghanistan when his wife dies in an apparent freak household accident, Dr. Mike Scanlon struggles with the tragedy, his inability to bond with his new baby daughter and a downsizing in his medical practice only to discover a shocking secret that changes his understanding of everything.

Home Safe 
By Elizabeth Berg
F BERG
After the death of her husband, Helen Ames is shocked to discover that he spent their retirement savings before he died, but what he did with their money leads Helen and her twenty-seven-year-old daughter Tessa to embark on new adventures.

Chick-Lit and Fantasy with Happy Endings

Try these books if you're looking for:

• chick lit
• happy endings
• fantasy
• read like Jane Austen, Eragon, Sarah Eden

Eon 
By Alison Goodman
YA F GOODMAN
Eon has a secret, keeping it will result in either life or death. This coming of age novel takes place in feudal Asia, during a time when dragons still exist and men are the supreme rulers of everything. Could all of that be about to change??? With a strong protagonist, shrewd evil villain and unique supporting characters, this is a great fantasy in which to escape. Do not be discouraged if you think the beginning moves a bit slow. The adventure picks up quite nicely.

Persuasion: A Latter-day Tale 
By Rebecca H. Jamison
ROMANCE JAMISON
Eight years ago, Anne told Neil Wentworth she’d marry him. The next day, bowing under her parents’ disapproval and her own fear that she didn’t know how to have a happy marriage, especially after watching her parents’ marriage dissolve, she broke it off. Though they went their separate ways, Anne never forgot him or found anyone else. Now Neil’s back…This is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic.

The Apothecary’s Daughter 
By Julie Klassen
F KLASSEN
Set in England when society’s rules allowed women little advancement of the mind or spirit, Lilly Haswell tries to balance two worlds. Lilly is a sensible, intelligent, strong willed young woman who has had much family responsibility set on her shoulders. Her wealthy Aunt and Uncle offer her a “dream come true” when they invite her to stay with them in London. Sometimes life just does not work out like the fairy tales and she is suddenly called home. Strong characters, attention to detail describing the life and customs of England and the apothecary’s world plus a fun plot make this an enjoyable read.

Character-driven Chick Lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• chick lit
• focused on characters and relationships
• female protagonist between 20 and 40 years old
• published in the last 10 years

Take a Chance on Me 
By Jill Mansell
F MANSELL
Things are looking up for Cleo in the Mr. Right department… apart from one small problem with a rather large ego—Johnny LaVenture, sculptor extraordinaire and her personal childhood nemesis.

Twenties Girl 
By Sophie Kinsella
F KINSELLA
Entreated by the bossy ghost of her great aunt to track down a missing necklace, Lara finds her search challenged by her floundering start-up business, her best friend's defection, and her unfaithful boyfriend.

Austenland 
By Shannon Hale
F HALE
Because her obsession with Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," is ruining her love life, Jane Hayes is delighted when she gets the chance to take a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women.

The Next Best Thing 
By Jennifer Weiner
F WEINER
Believing she is realizing her dreams when her sitcom is bought, television writer Ruth Saunders finds her happiness threatened by demanding actors and executives as well as an unrequited crush on her boss and her septuagenarian grandmother’s upcoming wedding.

Something Borrowed 
By Emily Giffin
F GIFFIN
After a night of indiscriminate partying, Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan, sleeps with a close friend's fiancé and is consumed with guilt, until the intensity of her feelings forces her to make a difficult choice.

Teen Chick-lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen titles
• Chick-lit

I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend
By Cora Harrison
YA F HARRISON
In a series of journal entries, Jenny Cooper describes her stay with cousin Jane Austen in the 1790s, and her entrance into Jane's world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance.

I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You
By Ally Carter
YA F CARTER Gallaghe #1
Cammie Morgan, who attends the spy school The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, can speak fourteen different languages, hack CIA computer codes, and kill a man seven different ways, but she is ill-prepared when she falls in love with an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.

Cupidity
By Caroline Goode
YA F GOODE
When the gods of Mount Olympus send Cupid to an Ohio high school to help make the dreams of seventeen-year-old Laura Sweeney come true, things get a bit out of control when the old matchmaking tricks go awry.

How Not to Spend Your Senior Year
By Cameron Dokey
YA F DOKEY
After her father testifies against a major criminal and her family must enter the witness protection program, Jo O'Connor must begin living under a new identity, and finds something strange has happened to her old one.

Enthusiasm
By Polly Shulman
YA F SHULMAN
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.

Upbeat, Funny Chick-lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Humor
• Chick-lit

Sushi for Beginners
By Marian Keyes
F KEYES
Depicts the lives of three women in the fashion trade, exploring the trials and tribulations as well as the happiness and joy of true friends in the fast-paced worlds of love and career.

Queen of Babble
By Meg Cabot
F CABOT Queen of #1
Lizzie Nichols discovers that her inability to keep her mouth shut has landed her in hot water when she aggravates her unfaithful boyfriend, is stranded in London, and takes a job as a bartender for a catered wedding at a French chateau.

Faking It
By Jennifer Crusie
ROMANCE CRUISE
Matilda Goodnight and Davy Dempsey are both trying to get the upper hand with gold-digging Clea Lewis, but they forge a temporary alliance to take on an inept art collector, an exasperated hitman, and a seductive femme fatale.

Bridget Jones’s Diary
By Helen Fielding
F FIELDING
The daily chronicle of a 30-something single English woman who is convinced her life would be perfect if she could lose weight, stop smoking and develop "Inner Poise.".

Single Girl in the City

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-lit

Swept off Her Feet
By Hester Browne
F BROWNE
Enlisted by her straight-laced sister to value various objects in a friend's dilapidated Scottish castle, antiques dealer Evie Nicholson is swept up in plans for a romantic ball while uncovering scandalous secrets about an Edwardian woman and falling for her host.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
By Sarah Strohmeyer
F STROHMEY
Despairing of finding Mr. Right after years of tiresome dating, thirty-six-year-old Genie Michaels nevertheless falls for a best-selling author who proposes on national television to an anonymous other woman, a humiliating event after which Genie pretends to be the man's fiancé.

Millie’s Fling
By Jill Mansell
F MANSELL
Novelist Orla owes her life to her friend Millie, whose rotten boyfriend has just left her. So Orla invites Millie to Cornwall, envisions Millie as the heroine of her next novel, and decides to find Millie the man of her dreams. Except the two women have drastically different ideas about what kind of guy that should be.

Sammy’s Hill
By Kristin Gore
F GORE
Working as a health-care analyst for Ohio Senator Robert Gary, idealistic young intern and hypochondriac Samantha Joyce struggles to balance her seventy-hour work week, a constantly shifting set of neuroses, and a new romance.

Jemima J
By Jane Green
F GREEN
Plus-sized Jemina Jones struggles with weight, dating, and work issues as she navigates a treacherous world dominated by thinner women.

Teen Chick-Lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-lit
• Teen books
• Clean reads
  

Enthusiasm
By Polly Shulman
YA F SHULMAN
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.

The Sweetheart of Prosper County
By Jill Alexander
YA F ALEXANDE
In a small East Texas town largely ruled by prejudices and bullies, fourteen-year-old Austin sets out to win a ride in the next parade and, in the process, grows in her understanding of friendship and helps her widowed mother through her mourning.

I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend
By Cora Harrison
YA F HARRISON
In a series of journal entries, Jenny Cooper describes her stay with cousin Jane Austen in the 1790s, and her entrance into Jane's world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance.

Fat Cat
By Robin Brande
YA F BRANDE
Overweight teenage Catherine embarks on a high school science project in which she must emulate the ways of hominids, the earliest ancestors of human beings, by eating an all-natural diet and foregoing technology.

Chick-Lit Mysteries

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-lit
• Mysteries

If Looks Could Kill
By Kate White
MYSTERY WHITE
When her boss's nanny is murdered, Bailey Weggins is persuaded to find the killer before the police, an investigation that takes her from New York City to the glamorous retreats of Bucks County, where everyone is a suspect.

Killer Heels
By Sheryl J. Anderson
MYSTERY ANDERSON
Tired of writing an advice column for the obscure magazine Zeitgeist, Molly Forrester is looking for the right story to propel her career in new directions, which she finds when she stumbles upon the bloody corpse of a co-worker and sets out to uncover the truth about the crime.

How to Murder a Millionaire
By Nancy Martin
MYSTERY MARTIN
Society columnist and former debutante Nora Blackbird gets back in high society's good graces when she discovers the murdered body of a wealthy Philadelphia art collector.

Not a Girl Detective
By Susan Kandel
MYSTERY KANDEL
Having idolized Nancy Drew throughout her childhood, mystery writer biographer Cece Caruso meets a collector of early edition Nancy Drew mysteries and attends a fan convention, but when a patron is discovered dead, she must identify the killer to keep from becoming the next victim.

Contemporary, Fast-Paced Chick-Lit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-Lit
• Contemporary titles
• Fast-paced books

Sammy’s Hill
By Kristin Gore
F GORE
Working as a health-care analyst for Ohio Senator Robert Gary, idealistic young intern and hypochondriac Samantha Joyce struggles to balance her seventy-hour work week, a constantly shifting set of neuroses, and a new romance.

Bidding for Love
By Katie Fforde
F FFORDE
Leaving behind her glamorous London life to join the family antiques business in the country, Flora Stanza is initially put off by her cousin's chilly reception and a very pregnant cat, challenges she eventually endeavors to transform in her favor.

Watermelon
By Marian Keyes
F KEYES
When her husband, James, leaves her after she delivers her first child, Claire retires to her family in Dublin, where she slowly recovers from the experience, giving James a big surprise when he shows up again.

I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You
By Ally Carter
YA F CARTER
Cammie Morgan, who attends the spy school The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, can speak fourteen different languages, hack CIA computer codes, and kill a man seven different ways, but she is ill-prepared when she falls in love with an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.

The Boy Next Door
By Meg Cabot
F CABOT
Mel, a young gossip columnist living in New York City, is bored with her life--especially with the lack of romance—until the elderly woman next door is nearly murdered, and Mel sets out to find the criminal responsible by investigating her neighbors, including the handsome but mysterious man who has come to dog-sit for his comatose aunt.

Contemporary Teen Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Chick-Lit
• Contemporary
• Romance
• Teen

Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras
By Cathy Hopkins
YA F HOPKINS
Looking young for her age, fourteen-year-old Lucy finds her friendship with Izzie strained when sixteen-year-old Nesta comes into the mix, in a coming-of-age tale about three British girls.

How Not to Spend Your Senior Year
By Cameron Dokey
YA F DOKEY
After her father testifies against a major criminal and her family must enter the witness protection program, Jo O'Connor must begin living under a new identity, and finds something strange has happened to her old one.

Squashed
By Joan Bauer
YA F BAUER
As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own. (This title isn't really chick-lit, but it's still a great book by a great author.)

Cupidity
By Caroline Goode
YA F GOODE
When the gods of Mount Olympus send Cupid to an Ohio high school to help make the dreams of seventeen-year-old Laura Sweeney come true, things get a bit out of control when the old matchmaking tricks go awry.

Pulling Princes
By Tyne O’Connell
YA F O’CONNELL
Hoping to become more popular at her elegant English boarding school, fifteen-year-old Californian Calypso Kelly invents a fake handsome boyfriend, until she realizes that her wit and skill at fencing may be enough to attract the attention of a real-life handsome prince.