Good Books to Read - ChickLit/Romance

Chick Lit addresses the issues of modern women often humorously and lightheartedly and in chick lit the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be just as important as her romantic relationships.
Romance n0vels have a story involving a relationship and romantic love between two people. The story will have an emotionally satisfying (often optimistic) ending.
Both novel types are incredibly popular and have spawned many movies.
Below are our 10 classics and latest recommendations: If any of the books interests you, buy it now, by clicking on its image.
Romance n0vels have a story involving a relationship and romantic love between two people. The story will have an emotionally satisfying (often optimistic) ending.
Both novel types are incredibly popular and have spawned many movies.
Below are our 10 classics and latest recommendations: If any of the books interests you, buy it now, by clicking on its image.
10 Classic ChickLit and Romance novels
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Bridget Jones diary by Helen FieldingBridget Jones is on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement. Cheered by feminist ranting with friends Jude, Shazzer and 'fag-hag' Tom, humiliated at Smug Marrieds' dinner parties, crazed by parental attempts to fix her up with a rich divorcee in a diamond-patterned sweater, Bridget is convinced that if she could just get down to 8st 7lbs, stop smoking and develop Inner Poise, all would be resolved. In this brilliantly funny ChickLit tale, Fielding shows us a year in the life of a girl determined to 'have it all' - the second she's finished this cigarette and phoned Shazzer.
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Watermelon by Marian KeyesAt twenty-nine, fun-loving, good-natured Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to her first baby, James visits her in the recovery room to inform her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a beautiful newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a body that she can hardly bear to look at in the mirror. So, in the absence of any better offers, Claire decides to go home to her family in Dublin. To her gorgeous man-eating sister Helen, her soap-watching mother, her bewildered father. And there, sheltered by the love of an (albeit quirky) family, she gets better. A lot better. In fact, so much better that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise.
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Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell'Bushnell's beat is that demi-monde of nightclubs, bars, restaurants and parties where the rich come into contact with the infamous, the famous with the wannabes and the publicity-hungry with the gossip-peddlers' EVENING STANDARD Wildly funny, unexpectedly poignant, wickedly observant, SEX AND THE CITY blazes a glorious, drunken cocktail trail through New York, as Candace Bushnell, columnist and social critic par excellence, trips on her Manolo Blahnik kitten heels from the Baby Doll Lounge to the Bowery Bar. An Armistead Maupin for the real world, she has the gift of assembling a huge and irresistible cast of freaks and wonders, while remaining faithful to her hard core of friends and fans: those glamorous, rebellious, crazy single women, too close to forty, who are trying hard not to turn from the Audrey Hepburn of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S into the Glen Close of FATAL ATTRACTION, and are - still - looking for love
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Good in Bed by Jennifer WeinerSmart plus-sized reporter Cannie never wanted to be famous and was happy writing for her local newspaper. She could deal with her mother charging out of the closet and her father dropping out of her world and could even feel OK about ending her relationship with her boyfriend, Bruce. But then Bruce writes in a national women's magazine that 'loving a large woman is an act of courage' and this plunges Cannie into misery - and the most amazing year of her life. A fresh, funny debut novel from an author to watch.
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The Big Love by Sarah DunnThis is a sassy, fresh and hilarious debut novel for anyone who's ever lost a man, discovered great sex or found the perfect romance. When Alison sends her boyfriend Tom out in the middle of a dinner party to buy Dijon mustard, the last thing she expects is his phone call telling her that he isn't coming back, not now, not ever. While Alison tries to figure out where she went wrong with Tom, she realises she has some serious catching up to do and that when freedom beckons, you'd be mad not to follow. After all, of the two men she's slept with, one was gay and one was Tom. She's got a handsome new boss, decades of evangelical guilt to offload and an urge to have undefined-yet-presumably-meaningless sex with the aforementioned boss. But is this enough? And if Tom isn't the Big Love, who on earth is?
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenElizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous, sensible, incapable of jealousy or any other major sin. That makes her sound like an insufferable goody-goody, but the truth is she's a completely hip character who ,if provoked, is not above skewering her antagonist with a piece of her exceptionally sharp, yet always polite, 18th-century wit. The real point of the book though, the critical question which will keep you fixated throughout, is: will Elizabeth and Mr Darcy hook up? Read this genuine all-time classic and discover the answer while enjoying a story that has charmed generation after generation.
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Jane Eyre by Charlotte BronteOrphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty, and at a charity school with a harsh regime. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane’s natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds a position as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre (1847) dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman’s search for equality and freedom.
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Wuthering Heights by Emily BronteLockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before: of the intense passion between the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
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Gone with the wind by Margaret MitchellScarlett is infatuated with Ashley Wilkes, who, although attracted to her, marries his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, who has a reputation as a rogue. As the Civil War begins, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, who soon dies of disease in training. Scarlett's main concern regarding his death is that she must wear black and cannot attend parties. After the war, Scarlett inherits Tara and manages to keep the place going. She marries her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, takes control of his business, and increases its profitability with business practices that make many Atlantans resent her. Frank is killed. Remorseful after his death, Scarlett marries Rhett, who hopes that one day she will come to love him. Scarlett eventually comes to realize that she does love Rhett, but only once the couple has been through so much that Rhett has fallen out of love with her.
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Persuasion by Jane AustenWhat does persuasion mean - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? Anne Elliot is one of Austen's quietest heroines, but also one of the strongest and the most open to change. She lives at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a time of accident, adventure, the making of new fortunes and alliances. A woman of no importance, she manoeuvres in her restricted circumstances as her long-time love Captain Wentworth did in the wars. Even though she is nearly thirty, well past the sell-by bloom of youth, Austen makes her win out for herself and for others like herself, in a regenerated society.
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