Big-Hearted Novels for Fans of 'Starstruck'
Image Courtesy of HBO
Starstruck is a romantic comedy series starring and created by Rose Matafeo, a New Zealand comedian. Matafeo plays Jessie, a millennial in London juggling two dead-end jobs and navigating the awkward morning-after-the-night-before when she discovers the complications of accidentally sleeping with a film star, the charming and thoughtful Tom, played by Nikesh Patel. It’s a fun, heartwarming story that leaves viewers wanting more.
If you love Starstruck and other stories of odd couples and star-crossed lovers, check out these joyful stories of people who just can’t be together...until they can.
Flatshare
by Beth O’Leary
What if your roommate is your soul mate? A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of ways. Entering a flatshare arrangement with a man on an opposite work shift, a heartbroken woman begins exchanging notes with the roommate she has never met and becomes his best friend, and possibly soulmate, through their correspondence.
Writers & Lovers
by Lily King
Lily King’s Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
Early Morning Riser
by Katherine Heiny
Katherine Heiny’s Early Morning Riser is a wise, boundlessly joyful novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family. Jane moves to Boyne City, Michigan, and easily falls in love with Duncan, a charming, good-natured, and handsome woodworker. He is also the town’s most prolific seducer of women, and she wishes she didn't have to share him quite so widely. Not to mention that most of the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.
Royal Holiday
by Jasmine Guillory
Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie's work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can't refuse. She's excited to spend the holidays taking in the magnificent British sights, but what she doesn't expect is a holiday romance with the queen’s charming private secretary.
Exciting Times
by Naoise Dolan
Ava is newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin and spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker who likes to spend money on Ava, but can’t say that he loves her. Edith is a Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and buys her flowers. Ava wants to be her, and wants to be with her. When Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong, will she return to the easy compatibility of Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert and funny, Exciting Times is attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love.
