Feel Good Books to Read This Spring
The white lifeless color of the winters is shedding away, giving way to pretty and warm colors all around us. “Spring Has Sprung!” will be chanted around, and the jittery cold will be replaced by a warm, comfortable hug. Amidst the blooming flowers, alluring smells, green trees, merry butterflies, and the warm sun peeking through the clouds, the idea of reading a light, the fluffy, feel-good book sounds so very appealing. So find yourself a comfortable spot, around blooming flowers, bubbly wind with quiet surroundings illuminated once in a while with sweet birds chirping, and pick any of these books to have some good laughs, butterflies in stomach feeling, and a peek into fictional sweet lives and their hilarious crises!
The Baby Group – Rowan Coleman
The Baby Group is a fun and a heartwarming story about six parents, living six completely different lives in their own ways. The author takes us into the lives of a single parent, a teen parent, a stay-at-home husband, a mother with four children and her sister-in-law, and a mother always anxious about how she’s doing as a mother. It’s a complicated web of different lives that share one thing in common: parenting. Rowan Coleman navigates the clumsy, tired yet hard trying protagonist, named Natalie, (who, by the way, has lots of secrets) living a difficult phase of her life as a single mother. Through her electrician, she meets a teen parent Tiffany who introduces her to an informal baby group.
The Baby Group is a novel about friendships, mothers, parenting, husbands, and daily trials and tribulations. Rowan Coleman infuses sensitive topics in a realistic manner and depicts characters who’re as ordinary and with flaws as us. We also find our complex characters trying to make sense of midlife crises, broken marriages, love, and friendship. Rowan does justice to all of her characters, and the book has a holistic figure to it.
While reading the novel, the different situations the characters find themselves in are both hilarious and interesting. Reading along the way, you might find yourself connecting relationships with these characters.
It’s a great book with funny instances of both old and new parenthood, instances to cry and ponder over, and slight twists and tales to keep you hooked.
Can You Keep a Secret? – Sophie Kinsella
Emma is in an aeroplane. The aeroplane has turbulence. Panic and Fear seize Emma. What follows is Emma spluttering out all her deepest, darkest secrets to a complete stranger sitting next to her, because what’s the worst that could happen? The plane is about to crash, and the secrets, along with her, will also get buried by the stranger next to her. But what turns out is that the plane doesn’t crash, and the secrets she spills to is someone she will come to know soon, and plain embarrassment flushes over Emma when she comes face to face with him.
The book can be categorized into comedy where you’ll experience second-hand embarrassment and cringe for Emma and light romance with the tight-mouthed CEO who needs a bit of help in communication.
Sophie brings us a loveable character. Emma keeps us entertained throughout. She takes us through her silly and often wrong decisions, but along the way lessons also do come pouring in. The book, therefore, becomes a quick and light read. You may find rooting for her, because in reality we are all a bunch of people who make clumsy decisions, have a few laughs for ourselves, have a closet of secrets, and learn lots of lessons from them.
The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella
Another fun masterpiece by Sophie Kinsella is The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. One can agree that when it comes to wittiness, light comedy, realistic scenarios, and light romance, Kinsella exceptionally nails it. Her books are fluffy, cheerful, and light, and instantly make you feel a little lighter through the stories she navigates. This book has a few sequels too.
The story follows the life of Financial Reporter Rebecca (called Becky) Bloomwood, who in all the ironies of irony, doesn’t know how to handle her own finances. In all honesty, Becky loves shopping. Absolutely loves shopping, so much so that she falls into serious debt while shopping for everything that catches her eyes, and we’re not talking about just clothes here, but furniture, makeup, crockery, deco, just about anything that savors Becky’s taste and vibe. Becky’s justifications for shopping more, or falling into debt traps, running away from her bank manager, her everyday adventures as she stumbles into dumb situations, all make her an adorable heroine.
The entire book is a rollercoaster of amusement and excitement. There is friendship, cooking trials, boyfriend problems, part-time jobs, every page, every chapter keeps you hooked, and this is all on Sophie Kinsella’s exceptional talent on novel writing and spinning stories.
What I Did on My Holidays – Chrissie Manby
The back description of the book reads, “Callum dumps Sophie the night before they were meant to go to Majorca together….. in a show of bravery and independence, Sophie says she’ll go to Majorca alone, but actually, she hides in her London flat”. A mirthful and comical book like this should definitely be in one’s TBR, especially because some days one really needs a good feel, hilarious book with a clumsy, all wrong decision-maker protagonist and a unique plot.
Chrissie Manby is a great and witty writer. She navigates a protagonist who’s lying to her entire family, ex-boyfriend, her officemates, just to keep herself above the pity eyes of people, which is both hilarious and scary and the kind of story one should definitely try out to know at what lengths the protagonist goes to protect herself in this ludicrous crisis, and does she go at lengths! There are some exceptionally intelligent and mind-blowing instances Chrissie knits, which makes you think about the possibilities of some and about the executions of others.
Chrissie makes the readers realize Sophie’s plight, and therefore the hilarity of every trick to fool people that she is indeed in Majorca. The author keeps her promise of keeping the reader hooked, because lying about vacation while you’re ugly alone crying in your dry four-wall flat doesn’t sound so promising, but Chrissie is one brilliant and fast writer.
The Love Hypothesis – Ali Hazelwood
Disclaimer: If you don’t like the idea of romance between a professor and student, then this might not be for you.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is about fake dating between a closed mouth, unapproachable, one of the most hated professors in the department, and a Ph.D. student. This is where all the fun and slow romance begins from, because what can go wrong while predicting fake dating, in front of the entire university, in such power relations? Olive Smith, a third-year Ph.D. student finds herself in this hilarious situation, all owing to her own clumsiness and spontaneous decision. To make her best friend completely believe that she has indeed moved on from her ex-boyfriend, she kisses the first person she sees, and it turns out to be Professor Adam Carlsen.
The book has a good number of chapters, each one with something new to ponder over and laugh along, sometimes sympathizing and empathizing too. Most importantly, Ali Hazelwood didn’t forget the plight of women in the sciences. This is a great rom-com against the backdrop of women in STEM. For a reader not from a STEM background, this book can be really insightful.
All in all, if you find the idea of fake dating entertaining and light-hearted, all the more because the protagonist did it for her best friend, then this is the one for you.