"In my humble opinion, there’s nothing quite like being so entirely enthralled by a book that you can’t stop reading it. No matter what you’re doing, your mind is constantly yearning for a moment to break away from your to-do list and dive back into the pages. With certain books, I could be out with friends, and if Taylor Swift herself walked into the bar and invited me to join her girl squad, I’d still politely decline, knowing I’ve already planned my Irish exit in 15 minutes to return to my book.
As wonderful as it is to feel so connected to a book that it lives rent-free in your mind, finding a follow-up read can be challenging. After finishing a five-star book, many of us experience what every reader dreads: the reading slump. You just can’t muster the energy to read anything. The only cure is a fast-paced, page-turner you simply can’t put down. Whether you’re trying to escape a reading slump or reignite your passion for reading, here are 12 book recommendations that will have you hooked from the start.
Yellowface isn’t your typical thriller—there’s no mystery to solve or killer to catch—but R.F. Kuang masterfully builds suspense, making the stakes feel incredibly high. June Hayward and Athena Liu are two authors who attended college together, but only Athena’s career has taken off since graduation. She has everything June craves—critical acclaim, fame, and even a Netflix deal. When Athena suddenly dies, June impulsively steals her unfinished manuscript, completes it, and passes it off as her own. Athena’s book focuses on Chinese laborers during World War I, so June, a white woman, rebrands herself to be more ethnically ambiguous to sell a story that isn’t hers. The novel follows June as she desperately tries to keep up the illusion. Full of satire and thought-provoking discussions on cultural appropriation, Yellowface grips you from the first page.
In 1929, the Hope family’s brutal murder altered their small town in Maine forever. The only survivor, 17-year-old Lenora, immediately became the target of the town’s suspicion, but police never found enough evidence to charge her. Now, over 50 years later, Lenora, in her 70s, has never spoken about the murders and remains isolated in the mansion where they occurred. As her health deteriorates, Kit McDeere, her new nurse, moves in to care for her. Unable to speak due to strokes, Lenora uses a typewriter to tell Kit she’s ready to reveal what happened that night. As the story unfolds, Kit questions whether she’s safe in the house with Lenora. Riley Sager’s most recent novel lives up to the expectations set by his previous works. The atmospheric thriller will have you sleeping with the lights on, unable to stop turning the pages.
Thrillers aren’t the only genre to get you hooked, and this romantic comedy proves it. I Hope This Finds You Well follows Jolene, an admin at Superhops Inc., who is driven to the brink by her constantly infuriating coworkers. Her coping mechanism is writing out her frustrations at the end of her emails, then changing the text color to white so no one can see. Unfortunately, her secret is exposed, and she’s sent to HR for sensitivity training. During her training, an error gives her access to her coworkers’ private messages, and Jolene becomes obsessed with what she discovers—especially news of upcoming layoffs. As she schemes to avoid being let go, her obsession begins to backfire, the secret crushing her, especially when she realizes she might have feelings for Cliff, the HR guy. This laugh-out-loud novel is packed with humor and heart, poking fun at office culture in an irresistible way.
Whether your TBR shelf is full of Sci-Fi or you’re new to the genre, Sea of Tranquility has something for everyone. While not as fast-paced as traditional thrillers, its clear, modern writing, shifting timelines, and multiple points of view keep you captivated. The novel starts with Edwin St. Andrew, an 18-year-old exiled to Canada in 1912. Wandering through the forest, he experiences an out-of-body moment when he hears a violin and the sounds of an airship terminal, despite being alone. Two hundred years after Edwin hears the violin, author Olive Llewellyn is on earth doing a press tour for her book, which features a character standing in an airship terminal, hearing a loud violin, and seeing trees from a forest rise around him. In another timeline, detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is hired to investigate the anomaly in North American forests with similar reports. He must time travel to discover how these experiences are intertwined. I devoured this book in a few sittings, eagerly anticipating discovering how the three stories connect.
Fantasy lovers, this one’s for you. Unlike many other fantasies that take up hundreds of pages for complex world-building, Heartless Hunter is an easy-to-understand world that dives straight into the action, with a forbidden romance between enemies and plenty of twists. The story takes place after a revolution, where witches have been outlawed and are hunted. The protagonist, Rune, is a witch who lives a double life—posing as a socialite by day and secretly helping witches escape as the Crimson Moth by night. Rune starts a fake relationship with Gideon Sharpe, a ruthless witch hunter, to protect her identity and gain more information on the hunters. But little does she know Gideon is also playing his own game. What starts as a fake dating trope soon evolves into a gripping love story full of betrayal and action.
Charlie Colbert has the life people dream about. She’s an Editor-in-Chief at a famous magazine in New York City, about to get married to the heir of a publishing company, and she has everything in her life under control. That is until her college classmate decides to make a movie about a tragedy she was part of nine years earlier. Charlie is terrified of the secrets this film will dig up and how it could destroy everything she’s spent the past nine years building. As Charlie tries to recall the details of that night, her memories become increasingly unreliable, and the secrets she’s hidden for years begin to surface. Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is an intense psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator that keeps you guessing until the end.
If you haven’t dove headfirst into the fabulous world of Emily Henry, you are seriously missing out. Her books are beloved for a reason. Each one is an instant cure for a reading slump, but if I had to choose one, Beach Read would top the list. The story follows January Andrews, a romance writer reeling after the death of her father. She escapes to the beach house her father left behind, where she meets her grumpy neighbor Gus, a literary fiction author who was her enemy in college, also battling writer’s block. The two make a deal to swap genres—January will teach Gus how to write romance while Gus will introduce her to literary fiction. Their field trip “dates” for research bring them closer, shifting their feelings from hate to love. Beach Read is the perfect blend of sweet and heartfelt without being overly cheesy. You’ll fall in love with January and Gus and won’t want the story to end.
Reading The Naturals feels like reading the books from childhood that made me fall in love with reading, and sometimes a little nostalgia is just what a book slump needs to end. This YA novel brings the vibe of Criminal Minds—but with teens. Seventeen-year-old Cassie has a natural gift for reading people. Her talent catches the attention of the FBI, which brings her into a program of four teenagers with extraordinary abilities, like reading emotions, a human lie detector, and a computer whiz. As they work together to solve cold cases, Cassie soon learns they not only need to find a killer, but they also need to fight for survival. This fast-paced, thrilling book kept me up all night to finish it, and I immediately rushed to the library for the rest of the series.
If you’re a true crime enthusiast and haven’t read Tana French, let me introduce you to your next obsession. French’s Dublin Murder Squad series is a collection of interconnected crime novels, each focusing on different characters from the previous books. The Likeness follows Cassie Maddox, a retired undercover detective who is pulled back into the field when a body is discovered—a woman who looks exactly like her. Strangely, the victim’s identity is a false alias Cassie used during a previous undercover case. To solve the mystery, Cassie goes undercover, living as the victim and trying to uncover the truth among her housemates, who are all Trinity College graduate students. As she gets deeper into her false life, the lines between reality and her undercover role blur. This psychological thriller is an absolute must-read, and I wish I could experience it again for the first time.
If you want to be a fantasy girlie but haven’t been able to get fully on board, magical realism is the perfect stepping stone. It has the same mystical energy of fantasy but is set in a world that is still reminiscent of our own. Ninth House is a fantastic book for when you want something equal parts mystery and magical. Alex Stern is a freshman at Yale University who never expected to end up there. She had a difficult childhood surrounded by instability, drugs, toxic boyfriends, and more. After a horrible tragedy, she is the only survivor of a homicide that left multiple dead. As she’s recovering in the hospital, a man arrives and offers her a full ride to Yale. Unsure of the motivations behind this offer, Alex accepts and is swept into a world of secret societies, occult activities, and influential people. Alex uncovers dark secrets and unexpected dangers as she navigates this hidden reality. Ninth House offers a fascinating mix of mystery and magic, with enough twists to keep you engrossed from beginning to end.
Anxious People is a book about a bank robbery that turns into a heart-warming, poignant tale about human connection. I know that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but that’s what makes this book so interesting. When a bank robber accidentally takes a group of people as hostages, the group bonds over their struggles and insecurities, connecting unexpectedly, all while the media and police are in a frenzy outside. The writing is darkly hilarious, surprisingly tender, and makes you care deeply for every character in the book. You never know where the story will go, and it’s the definition of a page-turner.
When you need a light-hearted palette cleanser to get back into reading, Tessa Bailey is your girl. Her romances are so light, spicy, entertaining, and easily bingeable. Unfortunately Yours is a marriage of convenience trope where a Napa heiress, Natalie Vos, marries a man she hates to appease the terms of her trust fund after losing her job and boyfriend. August Cates was left a vineyard by his late best friend, and he’s set on honoring his legacy, but it proves difficult when he has no money or knowledge of wine. He agrees when Natalie approaches him to pitch a quick wedding, a few weeks faking a marriage, then splitting. Things don’t go to plan when the chemistry between the two is undeniable. Tessa Bailey’s sharp and funny writing and adorable romances make this the perfect, breezy book to help you fall back in love with reading.
Lauren Blue, Lifestyle Staff Writer
As a Lifestyle Staff Writer for The Everygirl, Lauren ideates and writes content for every facet of our readers’ lives. Her articles span the topics of home decor, delicious recipes, hobbies, travel itineraries—and everything in between. She’s also a huge bookworm and cinephile, and you can always find her browsing Goodreads and Letterboxd for her next read or watch.