This collection of books about love and life will inspire, touch your heart, and make you believe in the power of love!
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We all know that love makes the world go round. People often say life is too short to waste on anything but love. And while that may be true, let’s face it, love is also complex and messy.
When it comes to love and relationships, we can all use a little help. The great thing about books is how they can provide guidance, comfort, new perspectives, and insights.
If you’re looking for a reading list that’ll make you laugh and cry, look no further than this list of the best books about love and life. Whether you’re looking for something lighthearted, like a romance book with a happily ever after, or more serious, like bell hooks’ All About Love, these reads will remind you that love is always worth fighting for.
What are the best books about love and life?
Bestsellers in Love & Romance
What are the most popular books on love and romance? I’ve rounded up a few choices that have topped the list recently!
8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go by Jay Shetty
You want to go on a journey with someone, not to make them your journey.
Jay Shetty
Does love have rules? Maybe it does!
Jay Shetty, host of the “On Purpose” podcast and author of the book “Think Like a Monk,” shares his eight rules of love to help us find it, keep it, and let it go.
Before the January 31st release date, Shetty already has some rave reviews from well-known names like Deepak Chopra, Shawn Mendes, and Russell Brand – not that I’m name-dropping!
Never Marry Your Brother’s Best Friend by Lauren Landish
A kiss is the physical meeting of two souls, sharing time, heat, and space. Their breath becomes one as their bodies react to one another.
Lauren Landish
Luna’s brother’s best friend (still with me?) asks her to marry him because, for some reason, it helps him secure a business deal. (Just go with it. You’ll be glad you did!)
If the title is meant to be relationship advice, Luna doesn’t take it. Instead, she’s beginning to have feelings for Carter (a.k.a. the brother’s best friend) and proving that opposites really do attract.
This humorous romance has a happily ever after and is book one in a series – win-win!
A Long Time Coming by Meghan Quinn
You’re in love with your best friend, and you just finally realized it.
Meghan Quinn
Described as “a witty take on a romantic comedy classic, My Best Friend’s Wedding,” A Long Time Coming is a steamy romantic comedy.
Breaker and Lia have been long-time friends when Lia asks him to be “man-of-honor” at her wedding. Only, as the wedding planning endures challenges like a controlling future mother-in-law, Breaker notices he’s falling in love with Lia. Uh-oh!
You have to read what happens next!
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.
bell hooks
In her book, All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks offers a fresh and hopeful look at love. She believes that love is the most powerful force in the universe and that it can transform our lives.
hooks presents a new vision of love, one that’s based on equality, respect, and compassion. She challenges us to examine how we have been taught to think about love and open our hearts to new possibilities.
Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by Dr. Sue Johnson
When we feel safely linked to our partners, we more easily roll with the hurts they inevitably inflict, and we are less likely to be aggressively hostile when we get mad at them.
Dr. Sue Johnson
Dr. Sue Johnson presents a revolutionary new approach to creating and sustaining intimate relationships in her book, Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love.
Based on the latest research, this book offers advice for building strong, secure relationships with the people we love. By learning to express their needs and fears, couples can learn to connect with each other in a deeper, more intimate way.
Hold Me Tight is an essential guide for anyone who wants to create a lifetime of love.
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman
Love doesn’t keep a score of wrongs. Love doesn’t bring up past failures.
Gary Chapman
Dr. Gary Chapman first introduced The 5 Love Languages in his 1992 book. Since then, Chapman has sold over 20 million copies – so, it’s fair to say, he’s onto something that works!
When it comes to love, we all have different ways of expressing and receiving it. And while there’s no one “right” way to love, expressing love to your partner in a way that is meaningful to them is a surefire way to fill up their love tank and keep your relationship strong.
What’s your love language? Find out!
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir by Dolly Alderton
More often than not, the love someone gives you will be a reflection of the love you give yourself. If you can’t treat yourself with kindness, care, and patience, chances are someone else won’t either.
Dolly Alderton
Journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton offers a candid and funny memoir about her journey to find love. From her early teenage years to her thirties, Dolly chronicles the ups and downs of her search for The One, interspersing her own stories with advice and wisdom from her mother, friends, and the occasional celebrity.
Funny and relatable, Alderton has a writing style that’s engaging and easy to read. She offers a fresh and humorous take on the often frustrating and confusing world of dating, and her insights will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled to find love.
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find – and Keep – Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
If you want to take the road to independence and happiness, first find the right person to depend on and travel down it with them.
Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
Some people think love is an art. While other people, namely psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller, believe love (and relationships) is a science.
What’s your attachment style? Is it anxious, avoidant, or secure? Read this guide to help you figure out which camp you belong to and what to do about it to bring more fulfilling, stronger connections into your life.
Bestsellers in Romance
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
Preventing your heart from forgiving someone you love is actually a hell of a lot harder than simply forgiving them.
Collen Hoover
Why can’t readers get enough of Colleen Hoover? Maybe it’s because her writing is beautiful and heartbreaking, with a story that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
Lily Bloom thought she knew what love was – until she met Atlas Corrigan. Atlas is Lily’s first love and first heartbreak. Eight years later, Lily is in a relationship with Ryle, a sexy neurosurgeon, but she can’t stop thinking about Atlas.
When Atlas suddenly reappears in Lily’s life, she’s forced to confront her past. Can Lily let go of her first love, or will Atlas have a second chance at her heart? (Spoiler alert: Keep scrolling down to book 2!)
It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover
My choice helped me realize that sometimes the hardest decisions a person can make will most likely lead to the best outcomes.
Colleen Hoover
Oh, hey there! Are you wondering what happens to Lily, Ryle, and Atlas? You’re in the right place!
In It Starts With Us, we learn more about Atlas’s past and Lily’s second chance at love while navigating Ryle’s emotions as a jealous ex-husband.
Another winner by writer-phenom Colleen Hoover!
Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
There’s a difference between taking care of someone because you love them and taking care of someone because you want them to love you.
Lucy Score
Naomi isn’t having a good day. On the run from her own wedding, she decides to help her sister. Unfortunately, her sister steals Naomi’s car and leaves her with her eleven-year-old daughter.
Stranded, Naomi seeks help from a handsome stranger, Knox, who doesn’t like drama and doesn’t want to get involved. Too bad his heart says otherwise!
Reviewers shared that they laughed and cried – always a good sign for a book!
Best Books About Love and Life (of All Time!)
When I put together this list of best books about love and life, there were a few things I took into consideration. For starters, what’s “best”? Books that’ll make you laugh, cry, or both? Books that teach you something new about love and life? Or books that reaffirm your existing beliefs?
I decided, why not include all of them? So, here you go – in no particular order – a rather comprehensive reading list of the best books about love and life. (Of course, I had to add my book at the top!)
Have you read any of these? If not, add them to your “want to read” list!
- Until Next Sunday by Audry Fryer
- The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
- One Day by David Nicholls
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.
- The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.
- The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
- Heartburn by Nora Ephron
- How to Be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- Plainsong by Kent Haruf
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
- Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke
- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
- My Life in France by Julia Child
- What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey
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