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22 Must-Read Chick Lit Books Hitting Shelves In 2024
Looking for the perfect beach reads for 2024? Then you will love these chick-lit novels releasing this year. These are my absolute favorite books to read whenever I feel like to laugh, cry, or simply escape into a heartwarming story. So I am super excited to read all of them. Also I am so thrilled to see the new releases from favorite authors too. If you are new to this genre, check out my list of must-read chick lit authors.
Sisterhood by Cathy Kelly
As the waves crash on to a wild Atlantic beach, Lou is at a crossroads. For the first time ever, just giving up seems like an option. In just one night, at her own 50th birthday, her world has imploded. Her mother has kept a secret hidden all her life. And it changes everything. Before Lou can take another step, she needs to get to the bottom of the shocking truth that alters who she really is. Along with her sister, Toni, who is facing her own life crisis, the two women sets out on a life-changing journey – one that will take them through Ireland’s wildest coastline and to Sicily’s sun-baked rocky shores. It will also take Lou deep into her relationships with her mother, her sister and her daughter to figure out how to stop pleasing everyone else – and carve out who she really wants to be.
Island in the Sun by Katie Fforde
When Cass is asked by her father to take on an unusual photography project in the Caribbean Island of Dominica, she really can’t see a reason to say no.
But the remote island has just been hit be a severe hurricane, leaving destruction in its wake. Cass is travelling with Ranulph who is searching for the rare stone carvings her father wants her to photograph.
Their hunt leads Cass down a path of bravery and self-discovery, and she soon falls for Ranulph, who has been by her side every step of the way.
But does he feel the same way about her?
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The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne by Freya North
Eadie Browne is an odd child with unusual parents, living in a strange house neighbouring the local cemetery. Bullied at school – but protected by her two best friends Celeste and Josh, and her many imaginary friends lying six feet under next door – Eadie muddles her way through.
Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s, Eadie confronts a busy, gritty Victorian metropolis a far cry from the small Garden City she’s left behind. Soon enough she experiences a novel freedom she never imagined and it’s seductive. She can be who she wants to be, do as she pleases, and no one back home needs to know. As Manchester embraces the dizzying, colourful euphoria of Rave counterculture, Eadie is swept along, blithely ignoring danger and reality. Until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her with ramifications which will continue into her adult life.
Now, as the new Millennium beckons, Eadie is turning 30 with a marriage in tatters. She must travel back to where she once lived for a funeral she can’t quite comprehend. As she journeys from the North to the South, from the present to the past, Eadie contemplates all that was then – and all that is now – in this moving love letter to youth.
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The Memory of Us by Dani Atkins
If she had been found moments later, Amelia’s heart would have stopped and never recovered. Instead she was taken from the desolate beach to the nearest hospital just in time to save her life. When her sister Lexi arrives from New York, Amelia’s heart is beating, but the accident has implanted a series of false memories. These memories revolve around a man named Sam, and a perfect love story that never existed.
Determined to help her sister, Lexi enlists the help of Nick, a local vet who bears a striking resemblance to Sam. Together, Lexi and Nick recreate and photograph Amelia’s dream dates in the hopes of triggering her true memories.
But as love starts to stir between Lexi and Nick, they must navigate a complex web of emotions. How can Lexi fall for Amelia’s dream man without hurting her sister?
Filled with breathtaking romance, heart-wrenching emotion, the magic of destiny and the power of sisterhood, The Memory of Us is a must-read for fans of Holly Miller and Colleen Hoover.
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Welcome Home, Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss
In New York City, newly single Caroline Kline is stumbling her way through the recent implosion of her life. After a surprise breakup leaves her with no job, no apartment, and no backup plan, she’s unsure what to do next. That is, until her father, Leo, injures himself in a bad fall and asks her to move home to the Jersey Shore suburb she was always desperate to escape. But Leo doesn’t want his daughter to be his caretaker; he needs her to replace him as third baseman in his local men’s softball league. This isn’t just any season, he claims. This is the year they have a real shot at the World Series, the pride and joy of Glen Brook, New Jersey.
Caroline agrees to move home, concerned that Leo is hiding a more serious health condition than he’s willing to admit. As the first female player in a league full of old-school men, she’s up against more than a few challenges. And when a night gone wrong lands her in the path of her hometown crush—and first love—Caroline struggles to reconcile the life she thought she’d have with the life she might actually want.
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The Lost Letters of Evelyn Wright by Clare Swatman
Starting over can be hard to do… So when mum of two Beth moves out of her beloved marital home and into an unloved and unkempt cottage, she can’t help but feel demoralised. Faced with months of DIY and dust, her children Jacob and Olivia aren’t impressed either. But when Beth finds a box of letters while she’s clearing out the children’s room, things start to look up.
The correspondence is decades old, between agony aunt Evelyn and those in need of solace. Intrigued as to why the letters have been kept safe all these years, Beth can’t resist reading them, and as the wisdom and kindness of Evelyn falls off the pages, so Beth starts to feel she has a friend and champion in this woman she has never met.
Good advice doesn’t age, and as life starts to look brighter, Beth begins to wonder if she could track down Evelyn and thank her for her help. But as Beth uncovers more about Evelyn’s story, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. And now Beth is determined to bring peace to Evelyn as she has to her.
A spell-binding, heart-warming story of friendship, love and being brave enough to be yourself.
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Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy? by Rachael English
In the early 1980s, The Diamonds – Ireland’s trailblazing all-woman rock band – were on the brink of international success. Their debut single ‘Too Much Not Enough’ was soaring the British charts. Then, as suddenly as they’d arrived, they vanished. It was the last anyone would hear of songwriter, guitarist and legend-in-the-making Birdy Troy.
Stacey Nash, host of the popular podcast ‘Whatever Happened To…?’, becomes fascinated with the band that broke up before she was born. How could four young women with so much promise just disappear?
As problems mount in her own life, Stacey is drawn deeper into unravelling the mystery. But, after forty years, and with the band’s members reluctant to cooperate, is it too late for the truth to emerge?
Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy? is a rollercoaster journey through the rise and fall of four unforgettable friends and bandmates, in a music scene where darkness lurks beneath a veneer of glamour.
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A Greek Island Escape by Kate Frost
Can a Greek escape be the start of something special?
Xanthe Fox has it all: a famous, drop-dead gorgeous boyfriend, a dream career and bright future – until heartbreak sends her life into a tailspin.
So when Xanthe’s Greek godmother unexpectedly leaves her a villa on the sumptuous island of Kefalonia Xanthe jumps at the chance to put her life in London on hold and escape to the island hideaway to rethink her future.
The break allows Xanthe the time to explore her passions, sift through her feelings and discover more about her estranged Greek family while renovating her godmother’s enchanting Villa Aster.
But not everyone is happy to see her. Unfazed by her hostile neighbours and after making a mortifying mistake with a sexy builder, Xanthe is equally charmed by Kefalonia and a handsome, brooding gardener.
Chasing dreams, taking chances and saying ‘yes’ has the potential to turn Xanthe’s life upside down, but will a summer escape allow her to sparkle once more?
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The Holiday Escape by Heidi Swain
Her dream holiday is his everyday life. His dream holiday is her normal life. What happens when they collide? Ally and her dad, Geoff, run the family business, a creative retreat, from their home Hollyhock Cottage in picturesque Kittiwake Cove. They give their guests their dream break, but Ally hankers after glamourous city living, fancy restaurants and art galleries. Ally’s survival strategy is to escape out of season, take a break abroad and pretend to be the person she always imagined she would be. She meets Logan while she’s away and he turns out to be exactly the kind of distraction she’s looking for. With her spirits restored, Ally returns home, picks up the reins again and sets her sights on another successful season, but when Logan unexpectedly arrives on the scene, she soon realises she’s in for a summer that’s going to be far from straightforward.
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An Ideal Husband by Erica James
The Langfords are a perfectly happy family. Louisa and Kip, happily married for nearly forty years, have raised their children and are now just settling into a new phase of life where they’ll have more time for themselves. Everything seems perfect. But then, one Boxing Day after a lovely family Christmas, Kip tells Louisa that their marriage is over. It’s not something Louisa saw coming. And what he tells her next is even more he’s fallen in love with their son’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe, the woman who broke Angus’ heart. So just like that, Louisa’s marriage is over… and her new life can begin. A gorgeous, gossipy family drama of a couple navigating a divorce, a woman on a journey of self-discovery, and an older man getting his just deserts.
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The Island Cottage by Jane Lovering
When Brid Harcus is sent to the Orkney Islands, in the far reaches of Scotland, she has high hopes for her trip being short, straightforward and lucrative.
Her mother has inherited a cottage from her Great Aunt Jennet which has been unlived in and unloved for decades, and the time has come to make it habitable and saleable. Easy, right?
But Midness Cottage has other ideas. For one thing it’s rather more ‘fixer upper’ than Country Living, with a resident goose and her goslings who have made themselves at home. And Brid definitely hadn’t planned for the strongly-held local belief that the cottage is meant to be the home of the Orkney Witch, and whomever lives in it must fulfil this role. Not the best message for the estate agent brochure and of course Brid doesn’t believe in magic, let alone have healing powers.
But Orkney does have healing powers. Its beauty and peace are enchanting, its people welcoming, and Brid’s handsome new friend Magnus is rather charming too. When her life back in York starts calling her home, will Brid sell up and ship out? Or did the last Orkney Witch cast a spell and leave a legacy of love if only Brid believed in magic
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A French Adventure by Jennifer Bohnet
When your old life ceases to exist, it’s time to build a new one… It’s early summer on the French Riviera when Vivienne Wilson arrives for a one-woman writers’ retreat after her philandering husband informs her that their 30-year marriage is over.
There to collect the shell-shocked Vivienne is recently widowed Maxine Zonszain, who is struggling to come to terms with her empty life following the sudden death of her husband.
Florist extraordinaire, Olivia Murray, shares the Villa that Vivienne is renting. She’s pretty content with life – but longs to meet ‘The One’.
Life under the summer sun in Antibes becomes a challenging time for all three women. Secrets are shared, problems are halved as they forge new and unexpected friendships and embark on new adventures.
Sometimes life’s surprises turn out to be unwanted but just sometimes the ‘new normal’ makes for a happier life than the one lost.
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Family Reservations by Liza Palmer
A powerful mother. Three daughters. And a fast-paced, cutthroat culinary legacy up for grabs in a darkly witty novel about a family on the edge by the bestselling author of The Nobodies and The F Word.
Maren Winter is a world-renowned restaurateur who has built an empire. No one heeds the whispers of her retirement more closely than her three daughters, all in service to their mother’s legacy.
On the night of Maren’s annual New Year’s Eve party, a line is crossed, and word of a humiliating family meltdown spreads like a Northern California wildfire through the culinary elite. It’s a golden opportunity for one of them to step into power—and a trigger for a spiraling descent into paranoia and blind ambition.
As the Winter family’s dissolution begins, so does a journey of competition, love, loyalty, self-preservation, and the need for three women to forge a path of their own.
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The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
From bestselling author and award-winning journalist Jo Piazza, comes a transporting novel rooted in the author’s own family history about a long-awaited trip to Sicily, a disputed inheritance, and a family secret that some will kill to protect . . .
Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered.
Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and prove her birthright. Flashing back to the past, we meet Serafina, a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly it isn’t long before a woman challenging the status quo finds herself in danger.
As Sara discovers more about Serafina she also realizes she is coming head-to-head with the same menacing forces that took down her great-grandmother. At once an immersive multigenerational mystery and an ode to the undaunted heroism of everyday women, The Sicilian Inheritance is an atmospheric, page-turning delight.
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The Finders Keepers Library by Annie Rains
This heart-warming second chance love story about hope and healing from USA Today bestselling author Annie Rains is perfect for fans of Raeanne Thayne and Jenny Hale!
For a gardener blessed with a green thumb, Savannah Collins’s life sure seems like it’s all thorns, zero roses. She has no job, no relationship, and no place to live. With nothing but a car full of plants and her new rescue kitten, Savannah heads to Bloom, North Carolina, to spend the summer with her beloved Aunt Eleanor, a retired librarian.
Her aunt shares her love of literature with the Finders Keepers Library, located in her beautiful garden, where anyone can stop by to pick a book or leave a book. When a sudden summer storm destroys the library and many of the roses, it will take a village to get everything ready for the garden wedding that is planned there in just three weeks.
As the entire town joins in to make the necessary repairs, Savannah bonds with their neighbor Evan Sanders over the books that Eleanor has handpicked for each of them, helping them both find healing and self-discovery. Savannah only intends to stay through the summer, but when an unexpected job offer, a sudden health crisis, and a wayward pre-teen push her future in new directions, she has to wonder whether this is the place that she is meant to be—and the family she’s meant to be with.
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Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman
Just when she thought she’d gotten far enough away . . . a life-changing phone call throws an antisocial scientist back into her least favorite place—the spotlight. A hilarious and insightful new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.
After a tumultuous childhood, Christa Liddle has hidden away, both figuratively and literally. Happily studying sea snails in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christa finds her tranquil existence thrown into chaos when her once-famous father—long thought dead after a plane crash—turns out to be alive, well, and ready to make amends. The world goes wild, fascinated by this real-life saga, pinning Christa and her family under the spotlight. As if that weren’t enough, her reunion with an old childhood friend reveals an intense physical attraction neither was expecting and both want to act on . . . if they can just keep a lid on it. When her father’s story starts to develop cracks, Christa fears she will lose herself, her potential relationship, and—most importantly—any chance of making it back to her snails before they forget her completely.
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Love Story by Lindsey Kelk
She’s a small-town schoolteacher.
He’s a hotshot marketing director.
Together, it’s hate at first sight.
Sophie Taylor has a secret and Joe Walsh thinks he knows it (all). He’s devilishly handsome, incredibly hot – and far too sure of himself.
Unfortunately, Sophie desperately needs his help. She has lost her laptop – and her sequel to the sensational, spicy romance that everybody’s talking about.
Because Sophie is not just hiding something small. She is Este Cox, the mysterious romance author the entire world is desperate to unmask.
When a trip to Sophie’s home town leads to the disgruntledpair sharing a one-bed cottage, it’s a short step to sharing a whole lot more besides… Can Sophie trust Joe with the truth – and be herself?
Under a Summer Skye by Sue Moorcroft
The moment she arrived on the Isle of Skye, life changed for Thea. Running from a succession of wrong turns, she comes to the island in search of blue sea, endless skies, and mountains that make the heart soar. Here, she feels at peace.
As head gardener at Rothach Hall, life is exactly how she wants it, with her days spent working in the glorious clifftop garden and her evenings in the cosy local village.
But an encounter with a stranger from the mainland brings with it an unexpected turn – and only time will tell if he is friend or foe.
It seems that even on Skye, life can catch up with you, and Thea is soon faced with the past she left behind – and with it, the family she’s never met.
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
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Second Chance Romance by Carol Mason
Hate at first sight. Love at long last?
Moira and Frank are the perfect enemies. At forty-two, newly single Moira’s life is a mess. And now – thanks to their barely-adult children supposedly falling in love – she’s been thrown together with the incredibly rich, incredibly attractive, incredibly arrogant Frank as they agree on a pact: to split up their impulsive kids.
Moira and Frank just need to show how they’re too young to be so serious about a relationship. It’s a fool-proof plan. That is, until their frustrated kids decide to elope. To Greece. Without inviting their parents…
Chasing after them, Frank and Moira frantically search every cobbled street and sparkling beach. It would actually be the perfect setting for Moira to fall in love – if only she didn’t find her present company so irritating.
But days spent competing on jet skis and stubbornly sitting on separate taverna tables, followed by unexpected nights in steamy hot tubs, lead to an undeniable chemistry neither of them can ignore – as hard as they might try…
Will Moira and Frank find their love-drunk offspring in time to speak some sense into them and finally go their separate ways? Or has their unexpected trip brought them together for the second chance at love they didn’t even know they needed…?
Name Your Price by Holly James
In Holly James’s newest rom-com, sparks ignite as a pair of broke exes get locked in a house together on a reality show for a chance to win a million dollars, a second-chance romance that perfectly captures the absurd sincerity of made-for-TV love. Olivia Martin and Chuck Walsh have chemistry. Too much chemistry, perhaps. Their every interaction as a couple either lights the house up with sexual tension or burns it down with anger. After one huge, very public fight, they finally break up for good. Or so they think. Someone was filming their dramatic argument in the street and—because Olivia’s parents were Hollywood royalty, and because Chuck’s an actor whose star is on the rise—the video goes viral. When Name Your Price, a reality game show, sees the footage, they invite Olivia and Chuck to shoot a very unusual Live locked in a house together for one month and they will be paid a million dollars. Each. Olivia really needs the money if she’s going to keep her beloved grandmother in her nursing home, and Chuck is desperate for any chance to win Olivia back. So the game is on—even as the show tries to pluck every nerve with only one bed, one bathroom, and a set of rules that will lose them money if broken—including no touching. With stakes that have never been higher and their explosive chemistry at a fever pitch, can Chuck and Olivia keep it together (and their hands off each other) for one month
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Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent
I love, love, love Lizzy Dent.”—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Olive Stone is about to spend four weeks in Italy with the most beautiful man she’s ever hated.
When Olive Stone and her Italian pseudo-celebrity chef father fell out fourteen years ago, annoyingly handsome Leo Ricci slipped right in as his surrogate son and sous-chef. No one is more surprised than Olive when her father wills her his beloved (and now failing) restaurant. Or that his dying wish was for Olive and Leo to complete his cookbook…together.
She’s determined to sell the restaurant. Leo is determined to convince her not to. As they embark on four weeks in Italy, traveling from Sicily to Tuscany to Liguria, they’ll test each other as often as they test recipes. But the more time Olive and Leo spend together the more undeniable their attraction grows. Olive finds herself wondering whether selling the restaurant might be running away, and what it might be like to try Just One Taste of Leo Ricci. Because he isn’t who she expected, and this trip might reveal more about who Olive is than she’s ready for.
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Conclusion
Excited to read these feel-good books in 2024? Let me know what other new releases you would like to add to the list.
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Stephy George
