Here are 100 books that Purple Hearts fans have personally recommended if you like
Purple Hearts.
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Too many women experience trauma and a lot of these rely on fiction as a means of escape. The more realistic, flawed, diverse characters we have in books, the more real women feel heard and accepted. Life after trauma can be bumpy and unpredictable, especially when it comes to romance and relationships. Allowing readers to explore this in a safe space is not only great storytelling, but meaningful.
Bree is a fantastic female character, defined by her kindness, taking a break in a small town after the violent death of her father. In her search for peace, she is drawn to Archer, the village mute and recluse.
This story is heartbreakingly sweet, and Bree’s openness is something fresh and uplifting. It shines a spotlight on realistic emotional healing through both characters, forcing the reader to question judgments we often make as a society around disability.
A Goodread's "Top Romance Novel of All Time" A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller
I wanted to lose myself in the small town of Pelion, Maine. To forget everything I had left behind. The sound of rain. The blood. The coldness of a gun against my skin. For six months, each breath has been a reminder that I survived -- and my dad didn't. I'm almost safe again. But the moment I meet Archer Hale, my entire world tilts on its axis . . . and never rights itself again.
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I’m a survivor of childhood and domestic violence who grew up and still lives in South Africa. We don’t talk about abuse much, but it's everywhere. It’s a beautiful place to live, and a hard and heartbreaking place, as well. I wanted to write my books to make sense of my experiences, then also to extend hope and possibility to others dealing with similar things. I admire hard-headed female characters who are making their way on their own terms, and I'm a believer in the power of love. I hope that readers will see themselves in Iris, and even though they might want to shake her at times, they’ll cheer for her through it all!
After Ever Happy is a poignant and well-written book about family betrayals, and the possibility of healing from those deep wounds. A reader going through some difficulties with her parents will appreciate the strong bond between Hardin and his mother, and will grieve along with him when he learns later in life that his father isn’t really his father, and that bond is broken. Anna Todd’s descriptions of scenes pull you in, letting you live through her characters’ lives right beside them. That’s not always easy, and some truly terrible things happen to Hardin and his mother, but learning how they deal with it all, and with each other, was a powerful experience for me.
Book Four of the After series-now newly revised and expanded, Anna Todd's After fanfiction racked up 1 billion reads online and captivated readers across the globe. Experience the Internet's most talked-about book for yourself! Tessa and Hardin have defied all the odds, but will their fairy tale ending be turned on its head? After Ever Happy...Life will never be the same. #HESSA It's never been all rainbows and sunshine for Tessa and Hardin, but each new challenge they've faced has only made their passionate bond stronger and stronger. But when a revelation about the past shakes Hardin's inpenetrable facade to…
I’m a survivor of childhood and domestic violence who grew up and still lives in South Africa. We don’t talk about abuse much, but it's everywhere. It’s a beautiful place to live, and a hard and heartbreaking place, as well. I wanted to write my books to make sense of my experiences, then also to extend hope and possibility to others dealing with similar things. I admire hard-headed female characters who are making their way on their own terms, and I'm a believer in the power of love. I hope that readers will see themselves in Iris, and even though they might want to shake her at times, they’ll cheer for her through it all!
I am always interested in stories about women surviving and overcoming abuse, and Easy depicts that sort of violence in a careful and mature manner, but never downplays the seriousness of it all. Tammara Webber doesn’t avoid the issue, but she doesn’t let it be a book of darkness and despair, either. Jacqueline is a great character, complicated and maybe even messy, who faces a lot of difficult choices. The storyline is mostly about her own search for hope and love. Maybe even forgiveness. There’s plenty of sweet and sometimes steamy romance, too!
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Easy is the New York Times Bestseller by Tammara Webber and first novel in the Contours of the Heart series, for fans of Colleen Hoover!
Rescued by a stranger. Haunted by a secret. Sometimes, love isn't easy...
He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior...
The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he'd worked so hard to overcome, and the future she'd put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.
Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth-and find the unexpected power of…
Sine, a professor of creative writing, accompanies Sam, a neuroscientist, on a conference trip to a Hotel Castle. Sam wants to present a new device, the "monitor." Sine hopes to recover from tending to her mother who just passed away.
When they arrive, Sine is in a dream-like state. Real…
I’m a survivor of childhood and domestic violence who grew up and still lives in South Africa. We don’t talk about abuse much, but it's everywhere. It’s a beautiful place to live, and a hard and heartbreaking place, as well. I wanted to write my books to make sense of my experiences, then also to extend hope and possibility to others dealing with similar things. I admire hard-headed female characters who are making their way on their own terms, and I'm a believer in the power of love. I hope that readers will see themselves in Iris, and even though they might want to shake her at times, they’ll cheer for her through it all!
Will and are wonderful characters, childhood lovers who try to make a go of it again as adults. Since I am very much interested in how our past choices shape our current lives, I was drawn to this book right away. From first love to the pain of lost love, and then its possible return, NS Perkins does a great job showing the past vs present and how suffering has changed Will and Violet, and how the passage of time has perhaps healed some of that suffering. It’s all here; complicated and often painful family dynamics, mental health trouble, and the melodrama of high school romance!
Eighteen years of summers spent in a beach house in Ogunquit, Maine, have brought Violet Mitchell and Will Seaberg together. For two perfect, beach-filled months every year, they spent every waking minute together. First as friends, until one summer changed everything.
But before the two even had a chance to claim the love they’d spent their entire lives creating, disaster struck, tearing the two lovers—and their families—apart.
Heartbroken and haunted by the memories of that fateful summer, Violet struggles to move on from the past. Still, she promises herself to never contact Will again. But five years later, when Violet…
My name is David Seow, I’ve been a huge entertainment fan since I was a child and met Jack Lord when he came to Singapore. I’ve been fascinated by celebrities and what drove them to succeed. Since then, I’ve amassed a collection of over 400 celebrity autographs. My passion for the entertainment scene and celebrities led me to work as a freelance entertainment journalist and a sitcom scriptwriter. For the past 26 years, I have followed my other passion of writing children’s picture books, and I have published 48 books to date, some of which I’ve gifted to some of my favourite celebrities.
I was lucky enough to meet Taylor, so I dove into this book with gusto. It’s an easy and highly engaging read. I love how the author emphasizes the importance of Taylor’s values: hard work, perseverance, and love of a supportive family. What I found particularly appealing was the adorable description of how an 11-year-old Taylor had the gumption to hand out CDS of her music to record execs in Nashville! Five years later, she released her first album and it was a hit!
I love how this talented young lady has used her life experiences—both good and bad—to build a bridge to success. This is a well-researched, inspirational, and enjoyable read.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Celebrate global superstar Taylor Swift with this collectible Little Golden Book, which tells her inspiring life story alongside gorgeous original illustrations!
“A must-have for any Taylor Swift collection.”—Rolling Stone
Taylor never lets anything hold her back from creating music she loves.
With full-color illustrations on every page, Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography brings her story to life—from her childhood living on a Christmas tree farm, where she discovered her passion for songwriting, to her early days on Nashville’s Music Row and her rise as one of the biggest stars in pop music. When you’re…
I’ve been thinking about and researching obscured narratives for a long time, now. As a lawyer, I learned about how systems and structures marginalize and hide important voices because of overt discrimination and implicit biases, and I took that knowledge with me while I earned a PhD in literary studies. I’ve learned — and am still learning! — that if we want to remedy exclusions from cultural histories, we’ve gotto learn to think about what voices are missing and why. I hope reading my book and those recommended here will give you a chance to learn with me. Let’s change the ways we think about so-called “definitive” histories of music.
This is a book about the power of one musician to reimagine the shapes of identity and power in the face of centuries-long violence and pervasive discrimination against Black individuals and communities, and the ability of song and text to create new histories and futures.
I don’t think my words could possibly be better than Stephanie Phillips’s, so I’ll quote from her book here: “To watch Solange is to see a version of unapologetic Blackness many Black people aspire to—one that doesn’t subscribe to previous notions of what it means to be Black, one aware of self-preservation, one that doesn’t give a f*** about what Becky in the back thinks Black people should do.”
Whether you’re a fan of Solange’s music or not, you’ll find Phillips’s writing completely inspiring.
The dramatic story of Solange: a musician and artist whose unconventional journey to international success was far more important than her family name.
'Why Solange Matters is a significant and sober treatise on popular music . . . This book is more than necessary.' THURSTON MOORE
'The author's prose sparkles . . . This is a book about what freedom could look like for Black women.' CALEB AZUMAH NELSON, OBSERVER
'Invigorating . . . much more than a dry thesis and at times something nearer to personal reverie.' IAN PENMAN,…
In an age of splendor, a heretic king strips Egypt bare—forcing his queen to quell rebellion and plunging his children into a conspiracy against the crown.
Salvation in the Sun follows Nefertiti as she ascends the throne beside Pharaoh Amenhotep—soon to become Akhenaten—just as he declares war on Egypt’s ancient…
I love reading about life experiences, however raw or unflinching they get. Many of the books on this list inspired me to be just as honest in my own creative work. While writing Alligator Meat, which began as my English honors thesis and became my memoir, I kept coming back to these books for guidance.
As a lifelong Britney Spears fan, I was first in line for The Woman in Me.
The book became a pivotal reference point during a semester I later wrote about in my memoir. Despite Britney’s iconic status and once glamorous life, her experiences felt heartbreaking, tragic, and deeply relatable on a human level.
The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice-her truth-was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey-and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.
Written with remarkable candour and humour, Spears's ground-breaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love-and…
As an author of a dual-timeline thriller series set in Venice in the present-day and 16th century, I’ve spent countless hours researching the world’s most mesmerizing city. I’ve been there three times, including on a research trip. I’ve worked with historians and experts on various aspects and have explored the ancient streets and buildings first-hand. I’ve also read dozens of books set in Venice.
There’s a reason why so many books set in Venice revolve around death, heaven (aka Paradise), mystery, and love lost & found. There’s a story lying in wait around every alley corner, under every bridge, and at the bottom of every canal. It’s no surprise that Anne Rice, the queen of Vampire lit, set Cry to Heaven in Venice. Her novel is impeccably researched and written, bringing to life the castritiof the 18th century—men who were castrated to become sopranos for the opera houses and royal courts. Beneath the decadence of the surface of Anne Rice’s Venice lies a dark underbelly.
In a sweeping saga of music and vengeance, the acclaimed author of The Vampire Chronicles draws readers into eighteenth-century Italy, bringing to life the decadence beneath the shimmering surface of Venice, the wild frivolity of Naples, and the magnetic terror of its shadow, Vesuvius. This is the story of the castrati, the exquisite and otherworldly sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices win the adulation of royal courts and grand opera houses throughout Europe. These men are revered as idols—and, at the same time, scorned for all they are not.
I am a writer and an Arabic to English translator, with a PhD in Arabic Theatre from the University of Edinburgh. In recent years, I have gravitated towards the history of popular culture and the demi-monde in the Middle East. The stories of singers and dancers say much more to me than the conventional subjects of histories of the Arab world – politicians, soldiers, etc. Through them, we can see the Middle East in a way that we seldom see in the West means much more to a lot of the people who live there.
The essential biography of Umm Kulthum for the English reader. Danielson tells the story of the Arab world’s most famous singer, one of the greatest performers of the 20th century. This book charts her life from the small village in the Nile Delta where she grew up to the heights of global superstardom. It also paints a picture of the world that she moved through, which intersected with the world depicted in Midnight in Cairo. This is a necessary read for anyone interested in Arabic music.
Umm Kuthum was a celebrated musical performer in the Arab world, and her songs still permeate the international airwaves. This, the first English-language biography, chronicles her life and career. In particular, it examines her popularity in a society which discouraged women from public performance. The text examines the careful construction of Kulthum's popularity; from childhood her mentors honed her abilities to accord with Arab and Muslim practice, but ultimately, she created her own idiom from local precedents and traditions, and developed original song styles from both populist and neo-classical traditions. Danielson seeks to show how Umm Kulthum's music and public…
Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…
I am all about support, and support is a big part of Black Girl Magic. I believe that every woman should have a support system and community that values each and every person in it. Many of these authors have been featured on my podcast Support is Sexy, an interview-based podcast that introduces dynamic women professionals and the stories of their journeys to my audiences around the world. I recommended the books of these women because I love their message of self-care, self-love, support, and nurturing a healthy community.
I have known the amazing author Danyel Smith for over 15 years. At first, I only knew her through her incredible writing, but I grew to know her personally when she hired me as a Managing Editor at Vibe magazine when she was the Editor-in-Chief. During that time, I was able to personally witness her knowledge of music and the entertainment industry, as well as her unwavering passion for storytelling behind the music.
Her new book, Shine Bright, which she has been writing for more than five years, seems so fitting as part of her journey. Described as “a weave of biography, criticism, and memoir” it’s a history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop.
American pop music is arguably this country’s greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country’s founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story—from “one of the generation’s greatest, most insightful, most nuanced writers in pop culture” (Shea Serrano)
“Sparkling . . . the overdue singing of a Black girl’s song, with perfect pitch . . . delicious to read.”—Oprah Daily
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, Esquire, Publishers Weekly
