Books with Characters in Their 20s

Book Summary

Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a 20-year-old nursing student who has been raised by her conservative parents to always do “the right thing.” But when her brother ships out for Vietnam in 1965, she begins to change her views of right and wrong. Frankie impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows her brother to Vietnam. As she tends to the green and inexperienced young men who have been sent to fight the war, she is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction. Returning home to a changed America doesn’t prove to be any easier.

Book Summary

Twenty-four-year-old Hana Khan is a young Muslim woman born and raised in Toronto, Canada, to immigrant parents. Like many 20-somethings, she works numerous jobs while trying to make her own dream a reality. Hana interns at a local radio station, anonymously runs a podcast, and works part-time at her family’s struggling halal restaurant. However, her true ambition is to have her own radio show where she can highlight her fellow Muslims’ life stories.

When a new family with a handsome son named Aydin, arrives in town with plans to open an upscale halal restaurant that threatens to put her family out of business, Hana is determined to do whatever it takes. In a You’ve Got Mail-esque storyline, she turns to one of her podcast listeners for advice.

Things are complicated further by a hate-motivated attack on the neighborhood and Hana’s growing attraction to her rival, Aydin.

Book Summary

For the last decade, Jubilee has lived in a world of solitude because of a rare allergy to human touch. Her last experience in the world lead to a major anaphylactic shock during her first kiss, so it’s safest at home. However, when she loses her mother, she decides to reenter the world. 

Now, at age 27, she finds employment as a librarian, and there she meets Eric. He’s a divorced father with custody of a troubled 10-year-old son, Aja, and a 14-year-old daughter who lives with her mom and won’t speak to him. Jubilee, Eric, and Aja bond over books at the library, and each begins to find their own healing.

Book Summary

Twenty-three-year-old Chanel Miller first took the world by storm in 2016 as Emily Doe after her victim impact statement in a sexual assault hearing against Brock Turner went viral. Her memoir goes into more depth about her life before, during, and after that night. She’s vulnerable and brave, sharing her struggles each step of the way.

While the prominent Me Too Movement started in 2017 with Harvey Weinstein, Chanel Miller’s bravery and beautiful writing in 2016 was a precursor and opened millions of eyes to the second assault women face in the courts and public perception.

Book Summary

Lucy is a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide hoping to adopt her student, seven-year-old Christopher. He tragically lost his parents, but she needs to be in a better financial situation for both the actual adoption process to be approved and to take care of Christopher long-term.

She’s always found comfort in books, especially the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. The author stopped writing and became reclusive years ago, but she still regularly re-reads his work. Just when Lucy is about to give up on adopting Christopher, Jack Masterson re-emerges and announces a new book. However, it’s not a standard release. Four contestants will get to come to the real Clock Island and compete for a chance to win the single copy in existence, which is worth at least six figures.

Book Summary

The book has alternating narration between two twenty-eight-year-old twin sisters, Fern and Rose. Fern thrives on routine and must avoid crowds and noise. She does all she can to avoid getting upset, which has led to tragedy in the past. 

Rose is her rock, so when Fern finds out Rose can’t have a baby, she decides to get pregnant and give Rose her baby to pay her back for always taking care of her. In her mind, this is a straightforward plan. But the plan ends up revealing layers of dark secrets along the way.

Book Summary

Cassie was one of the only female firefighters at her Texas firehouse, but she was welcomed as part of the family and loves her job. However, when an unexpected turn of events forces her to uproot her life and move to Boston at the age of twenty-six, Cassie finds that her new firehouse has never had a female firefighter.

With a lack of funding, poor facilities, and an old-school hazing culture, the firehouse is not happy to have a woman join their crew.

Book Summary

Every woman Justin goes on a date with seems to find their soulmate right after breaking up with him. It’s his curse, and now, thanks to a Reddit thread, EVERYONE knows.

However, his viral embarrassment may have a silver lining. Twenty-eight-year-old Emma has the same problem and has sent him a message. The solution is obvious. They’ll date each other, break up, and then destiny will bring them each their own soulmates.

Traveling nurse Emma finds a job in Minnesota and rents a cute cottage on Lake Minnetonka for her summer fling with Justin. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected. Will these challenges quickly rip them apart, or does fate have other plans?

Book Summary

Torre is a 25-year-old Australian writer planning a year in the US to escape a bad relationship at home.

On a night out in a San Francisco bar, she meets Ivan, a handsome Argentinian adventurer, and they have undeniable chemistry together. The only problem is that he’s leaving on a long trip alone across the ocean in his small boat. This sounds like a worst-case scenario to Torre, who gets seasick and has a fear of the water.

When her only options are saying goodbye to the deep connection she’s developed with Ivan or joining him on the boat, she chooses to face her fear of the water, and they set sail. This memoir chronicles the good and bad of their epic journey together as she embraces adventure in her mid-twenties.

Book Summary

Gabby’s dad abandoned her and her mother when she was just a baby. Twenty-nine years later, the last thing she expects is to meet him on the day of her mother’s funeral. Not only does he show up wanting to get to know her – he also wants to give her a house. Gabby is not ready to forgive him, but she really needs the money, so she accepts the house under two conditions. The first is that she can sell it whenever she wants. The second is that accepting the house doesn’t mean she accepts him.

Gabby hires a contractor to help her prepare the house for a quick sale, but things quickly get more complicated. As she becomes acquainted with the town and with these two new men in her life, she begins to learn more about herself than she thought possible.

Book Summary

Daniel lives in Athens, Georgia, but unlike most twenty-somethings in this college town, he’s confined to his home most of the time due to his Type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair. Nonetheless, he leads a full life. He has a couple of close friends, loves the excitement of college football, and works online for a regional airline. 

When Daniel (26) isn’t dealing with unhappy airline customers, he spends hours watching the world go by outside his window. One young woman passes by so often that she’s become part of Daniel’s daily routine. One day, he’s almost certain he sees her being abducted. He wants to tell the police what he knows, but he wonders if they’ll believe him. So Daniel decides to take the investigation into his own hands.

Book Summary

Anna and West didn’t have much in common in college. He was a buttoned-up heir to a grocery chain and she was a free-spirited artist. Their college marriage was a sham to get her access to subsidized family housing at UCLA. She thought their divorce was finalized at graduation.

Three years later, Anna is a twenty-five-year-old starving artist while West is a Stanford professor. He has little interest in joining the family business, which he views as a heartless corporation, but he is interested in receiving his inheritance.

When it turns out that a clause in his grandfather’s will requires him to be happily married for five years before receiving one hundred million dollars, Liam thinks his marriage to Anna puts him in the home stretch. But now his family is pressuring him to meet his mysterious spouse. First, Liam worries about how his family will react to paint-splatter, foul-mouthed Anna. Then he begins to worry that introducing her into his toxic world of wealth will corrupt his pure-hearted fake wife.

Book Summary

At 24 years old, Laura lacked direction and decided to quit her job to embark on a backpacking trip in Bolivia. She found herself at a wildlife sanctuary on the edge of the Amazon jungle. It was filled with over a hundred lost and hurt animals and an equally complex cast of employees and volunteers. Laura was assigned to work with a puma named Wayra.

Set against the backdrop of deforestation, the illegal pet trade, and forest fires, this memoir explores what happens when two creatures needing rescue find one another.

Book Summary

Queen Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British journalist living in London. She is constantly straddling two cultures without ever really feeling like she fits in anywhere. At work, she finds herself continually comparing herself to her middle-class white peers.

A nasty breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Tom, leaves her searching for comfort in all the wrong places, and she makes a lot of questionable and self-destructive decisions while trying to navigate the dating scene.

Like so many twenty-somethings, Queenie constantly asks herself “Who do you want to be?” This is never an easy question to answer, but it is made especially difficult when paired with racism, anxiety, and the challenges of social media and dating-app culture.

Book Summary

Molly has always been different from her peers. At 25 years old, she struggles in social situations and only communicates very literally, both in her understanding of others and in her verbal communication back to them. Thanks to her Gran, she’s still managed to have a good life. However, after her beloved Gran dies, she loses the one person who understood both Molly and the world. 

She’s still excellent at her job as a hotel maid, with her penchant for perfection making this the ideal role. One day, she’s shocked to find the wealthy and infamous guest, Charles Black, dead in his room. When the police question her, her unusual communication is interpreted as deception, and Molly becomes a prime suspect.  She knows that the only way to clear her name is to figure out what really happened before she is arrested.

Book Summary

In this moving memoir of illness and recovery, Suleika tells the story of nearly losing her life in her twenties and then learning how to live all over again.

The summer after graduating from college, Suleika was getting ready for her “real life” to begin. She moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent but found a different type of war waiting for her. Just before her 23rd birthday, she was diagnosed with leukemia and given just a 35% chance of survival.

She flew home to New York for treatment and spent the majority of the next four years in a hospital fighting for her life while writing about her experience in a column for the New York Times. Finally, after 1,500 days, Suleika was considered cured – but after being focused on mere survival for so long, she realized that she had no idea how to begin her life again. 

She decided to start with a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country to meet some of the many strangers who had written to her in the hospital over the years – among them, a teenage girl recovering from cancer; a teacher grieving the death of her son; and even a death-row inmate.

Book Summary

After years of struggling to make it as a writer, James has finally sold his first book in his late twenties – a semi-autobiographical novel about his dysfunctional relationship with his mother. He’s shocked to find out that the editor who has purchased his book is none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

After an embarrassing initial meeting, James and Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known around the office, form an unexpected friendship. By the time his book is finally published, his relationship with his editor has changed him as a writer and as a son.

Book Summary

This novel focuses on the intertwined relationship between Alix, a successful white woman, and Emira, her toddler’s 25-year-old black babysitter.

Emira is about to turn 25, is struggling to find direction in her career, and is about to be kicked off her parents’ health insurance. Babysitting for the Chamberlains provides the extra money that she needs to get by. One evening when Emira takes the toddler shopping at the high-end grocery store in Alix’s neighborhood, an overzealous security guard believes she kidnapped Briar. The encounter between Emira and the guard is filmed, making Emira both angry and embarrassed. Alix is also upset and determined to do something about it, but then the viral video brings something from her own past to light.

Book Summary

Jodie is the shy sister of a hugely successful outgoing influencer, Bree. While Bree seems to have life figured out, 20-something Jodie is anxious and unsure of what to do with her life. Sadly, Bree has Leukemia and prepares for her death by recording a series of videos for her sister. 

She asks Jodie to complete the final 6 items on her bucket list and let the world watch as she completes each item. The list includes terrifying tasks like flying over Antarctica and having a cameo in a Broadway musical. Jodie is compelled to agree by more than her sister’s dying wish. If she can keep Bree’s followers, a corporate sponsor will pay off the family’s medical debt. And if she can gain followers, more people will benefit by having their own medical debt covered. 

While this is largely a book about finding yourself, one of the bucket list items is to fall in love, so there is a romance thread as well.

Book Summary

This memoir is a follow-up to The Distance Between Us, which covers Reyna’s childhood as her family immigrated to the United States. In A Dream Called Home, she covers the next chapter in her life in her early twenties as she experiences college as a first-generation Latina student. 

Her parents aren’t helpful, and she has few resources, but her love of reading and writing provided the knowledge and skill she needed to attend UC Santa Cruz. However, she quickly learned that being accepted was only the first barrier. Often her progress was driven by the pure determination to become a writer. 

Read along as she defies the odds by transitioning from undocumented immigrant to college graduate and bestselling author.

Book Summary

Lillian and Madison were boarding school roommates and friends from very different backgrounds. However, they’ve barely spoken since a scandal forced Lillian to leave school.

A decade later, at age 28, Lillian’s life is not on the track she’d imagined for herself, so when Madison calls her asking her to help care for Madison’s twin stepchildren who are moving in, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose.

But there is a catch: both kids spontaneously burst into flames when they are agitated. Madison needs to keep this fact somehow a secret while her husband runs for public office. Despite knowing nothing about raising kids, Lillian agrees to take on the role, and throughout one summer, she and the kids learn together how to keep their cool – literally. It may even prove to be the start of a whole new life for Lillian.

Book Summary

After Lydia’s fiancé, Freddy, dies in a car crash on the way to her 28th birthday dinner, she wants nothing more than to be alone with her grief. But soon, she discovers that she’s not alone after all – in fact, she wakes up in bed next to Freddy, alive and well. But then she wakes up again, and he’s gone. In this alternate reality, her life with Freddy continues toward their impending wedding.

As Lydia leads these two parallel lives, a new relationship causes her to question where she really belongs. Weaving together grief, humor, and heart, this book will give you all the feels.

Book Summary

At only 22, Cheryl Strayed was in the midst of a crisis. Her mother passed away, and her marriage was already falling apart. At 26, after many bad decisions, she had nothing more to lose and impulsively decided to walk over 1000 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail.

She hadn’t trained or prepared but decided to set out alone anyway. This memoir shares her experiences on the trail and her reflections on what she learned along the way.

Book Summary

As April wanders the street one night, the last thing she expects to encounter is a new statue that looks like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor. So she does what any 23-year-old would do. She names him Carl and has her friend upload a video of her with the statue to his YouTube channel. 

When she wakes up the following day, her life is suddenly a viral video. Beyond that, her Carl is no longer the only one. Statues have appeared around the globe, and everyone wants to talk to her about them. She’s left trying to figure out what the Carls are and what they want. 

Book Summary

Five years ago, Kenna made a tragic mistake that sent her to prison and separated her from her daughter. She is 26 years old when her sentence is complete. She returns to town and finds that only one person will give her another chance. Everyone else has shut her out entirely and is determined to keep her away from her daughter. 

Bar owner Ledger is her only remaining link to her daughter, and as she gains his trust, they both know that they risk losing everything if the others find out they are talking. As their connection grows, Kenna must also continue growing as an individual to build a future and find forgiveness.