Play 2026 Book Bingo
Books With Characters In Their 30s
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you found this list searching for relatable 30-something main characters or as a participant in the Lifetime of Reading Challenge, we hope you’ll find a perfect read on our list.
One of our main goals for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge is to foster understanding and reinforce an appreciation for our fellow humans at different life stages. As a result, in researching books to recommend for this month, we’ve focused primarily (but not exclusively) on contemporary stories with protagonists in their 30s. These current stories can help us all understand what it is to be thirty-something in today’s society, with its unique challenges, pressures, and opportunities.
Our recommended books showcase a wide range of life experiences during this decade of life. While many of these titles feature female characters in their 30s, the list also includes a number of wonderful male characters, and the protagonists vary in race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, class, background, lifestyle, and more.
Novels with 30-Something Characters
The Sideways Life of Denny Voss
Book Summary
This poignant novel takes you into the life of Denny Voss, a thirty-year-old man who lives with his Nana-Jo and his best friend, George, a blind Saint Bernard. He has a job with his cousin, who lives next door, picking up roadkill for the city. Denny just barely misses the cut-off of being officially “developmentally challenged,” but struggles to clearly communicate and recount stories succinctly. And that difficulty has led to some problems for him, including his recent arrest for the murder of a mayoral candidate in his small Minnesota town.
As Denny awaits his trial, he works with a court-appointed therapist. It takes many sessions (and most of the book) for the therapist to get the full story of Denny’s three arrests over the past year without Denny shutting down. Along the way, you’ll also be trying to figure out if Denny was involved in the murder. Plus, you’ll laugh as certain things are revealed, you’ll be angered by the way he is treated, and your heart will melt with some of his stories.
Why This is a Great Pick
The author does an amazing job taking us into Denny’s mind and telling the story from his unique POV. You’ll want to shake some of the people he encounters, while others are so kind. Don’t miss the author’s note at the end after reading!
After you both laugh out loud and tear up as you read, you’ll be ready for a rich discussion about both the mystery aspects of the story and about how Denny and others like him are often misunderstood.
This book is perfect for fans of Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life, The Collected Regrets of Clover, and Forrest Gump (there’s even a Tom Hanks reference in the book!)
The Collected Regrets of Clover
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Clover had an unusual childhood, with her Kindergarten teacher passing away during a reading of Peter Rabbit. Then, her parents passed away while traveling, and she started a new life with her grandfather in New York City. She continued to be fascinated by death and was studying different cultural traditions abroad when she received the terrible news that her grandfather had passed away alone in his office.
Now, at age 36, Clover is committed to preventing others from dying alone by becoming a death doula. She only takes one patient at a time, so she can be more present for her clients than hospice workers. Whether she’s only holding their hand or hearing their regrets about life, she is present to honor them in their last moments. Her only friend is actually her grandfather’s friend, Leo, who is very concerned that when he is gone, Clover will be alone. Between his friendship-matchmaking and a feisty new client, can Clover shift her life focus outside of work from the dying to a new life of her own?
Our Thoughts On This Book
Melissa highly recommends this book for anyone who loves the heart of Fredrik Backman and characters like Eleanor Oliphant or Albert Entwistle, who have been loners for much of their lives.
While the book’s concept sounds heavy on death and grief, the novel is very much about life. It’s a rare book that Melissa wanted to read again immediately, while also wanting to give it a hug.
The One Euro Fix
Book Summary
After losing her long-term boyfriend and high-stress tech job, thirty-year-old Freya Anderson buys a crumbling Italian house online for one euro. Armed with optimism and zero renovation skills, she arrives in the tiny village of Montefiore expecting her “Under the Tuscan Sun” fantasy. Instead, she gets no running water, collapsing ceilings, and a grumpy neighbor who looks like he belongs in an espresso commercial.
Her new neighbor, Cyrus, didn’t expect chaos in a sundress to knock a hole through his kitchen wall. When Freya learns her new house must pass a strict inspection in ninety days, or she’ll lose it, Cyrus reluctantly agrees to help, strictly to protect his property value. As plaster dust flies and tempers flare, their partnership becomes something neither planned for.
Between bureaucratic disasters, nosy villagers, and a wild boar crashing through his kitchen, they discover that sometimes you have to rebuild more than a house.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Melissa listened to this audiobook and loved the total escape to a small Italian village. It has important themes, but without being heavy, so it is truly perfect when you’re looking for a distraction read that transports you out of your own daily life.
While there is a romance subplot, more of the focus is on the character’s personal development and her new friendships with the great side characters.
Another Great Home Renovation Option
For another great novel with a 30-something lead working on a home renovation, pick up The Restoration of Celia Fairchild by Marie Bostwick.
The Sweetness of Forgetting
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Hope once dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but at 36, her life doesn’t look anything like how she imagined. Her mother died of cancer, her husband left, her bank account is almost empty, her family bakery on Cape Cod is failing, and she’s raising a troubled preteen on her own.
Now, she’s losing her beloved French-born grandmother, Mamie, to Alzheimer’s. But in a moment of clarity, Mamie is eager to share the secrets of her past before they are gone forever. She reveals mysterious bits and pieces of her tragic history in WWII Paris. With little more than a list of names, Hope sets out for France in hopes of piecing together a seventy-year-old mystery.
A Bonus for Bakers!
Each chapter begins with delicious recipes for the famous pastries from the Cape Cod bakery.
Home of the American Circus
Book Summary
Thirty-year-old Freya had been working as a bartender in Maine, but after an emergency left her short on cash, she headed back to her hometown of Somers, New York. In Somers, she could at least stay in the house she inherited from her estranged parents without worrying about rent.
She’s shocked to learn that her 15-year-old niece, Aubrey, has been living secretly in the derelict home. While she intended to lay low in Somers, Freya is not only reconnecting with Aubrey, but also encounters childhood friends, familial enemies, and old flames around town.
Throughout the story, Aubrey and Freya begin to repair both the home and their relationship, and readers slowly learn the difficult reasons Freya initially fled from Somers.
Our Thoughts on This Book
From the first chapters of this novel, Melissa was invested in Freya’s life and deeply curious about her backstory, along with Aubrey’s, which are slowly unveiled throughout the novel. It walks the line perfectly between being a character study and a page-turning read.
In addition to the characters’ lives and determination to stop generational trauma, there is also an interesting side story woven into the novel. You’ll learn the history of Somers’ most famous resident in the early 1800s, “Old Bet,” an elephant owned by Hachaliah Bailey, co-founder of Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Good Material
Book Summary
Andy is 35 and has just been dumped by longtime girlfriend, Jen. He doesn’t really understand what went wrong and thinks that if he could figure it out, maybe she’d come back to him.
Most of the story is told from his point of view as he realizes that everyone around him has grown up, and he has been stagnant, waiting for his stand-up career to take off. He’s doing his best to figure out his life, which includes finding a 78-year-old roommate.
While most of the book is told from Andy’s perspective (he’s funny but not always likable), readers really love the switch to showing Jen’s side later in the book, as it gives you a more complete understanding of the relationship.
Another Good Option from This Author
Dolly Alderton also has a 2020 novel that is a great fit for this prompt. In Ghosts, successful food writer Nina expected her 30s to be liberating, but at 32, she’s finding life quite stressful. She’s been focused on her career and enjoying her younger years, but now it seems everyone is moving on without her. From ex’s finding new love to best friends having babies and leaving London for the suburbs, she feels like her own opportunities for a family are slipping away.
On top of that, her parents are becoming more of a concern. Her dad is slipping into the grasp of dementia, and her mom is having her own identity crisis.
What Alice Forgot
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Alice Love is 29, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with her first child. At least, that’s the last thing she remembers. When Alice comes to on the gym floor and is whisked off to the hospital, she discovers that it’s actually 2008, not 1998, that she has three kids, and that she’s getting divorced. As she tries to reconstruct what she’s forgotten about the past decade, she also hopes to reconstruct the life she remembers. Ultimately, she’ll have to decide whether she really wants her old life back.
Thoughts on This Novel
This book provides an intimate look at life in your 30s from the perspective of a woman who has forgotten hers. If you woke up with no memories of the past 10 years, what would surprise you? How have your relationships changed? Would you have any regrets? Like Liane Moriarty’s other books, this one will have you laughing, but it will also really make you think.
The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
At thirty-two, Lolly still reflects on how her life is different from what she planned each day as she whips up lemon meringue pies. Ten years ago, her mother died and she had to abandon her dream of opening her own restaurant. Instead, she assumed care of her younger sister, grieving father, and their struggling Seattle diner.
As her birthday approaches, Lolly’s quirky great-aunt gives her three lemon drops, each of which allows her to live a single day in a life that might have been hers. Each experience helps Lolly reconcile her life and what could have been, but also gives her the courage to embrace her current life.
Happiness for Beginners
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Helen is recovering from two unfortunately common losses that so many women deal with in their 30s – miscarriage followed by divorce. Her younger brother wants to help her heal, so he convinces her to attend a wilderness survival course in the Absaroka Mountains of Wyoming (pronounced “Ab-soar-kas”). She’s ready to take the time out to pull herself together, but then she finds out that her brother’s annoying best friend will also be on the trip.
In a period of three weeks, she’ll have to face both fears and annoyances, but through those experiences, she also learns more about herself and how to be brave.
About This Book
This novel blends contemporary romance with a story of personal growth and discovery. Readers describe this book as an uplifting read. Author Katherine Center based this book (including the mid-summer blizzard) on her experience doing a month-long survival course in Wyoming while she was a college student at Vassar (in upstate New York).
While we also enjoyed the Netflix version of this book starring Ellie Kemper, we were disappointed that it was not set in Wyoming.
Note: A few of our readers reported what they thought was a geographical error in this book, but after reading it ourselves, we realized it’s not an error at all. The novel states that the distance between Boston and Evanston is 1,001 miles. Some readers thought this was a mistake because there is a town in Wyoming named Evanston that is 2,284 miles away from Boston. However, the characters are really referring to the first leg of their road trip, which takes them from Boston to their hometown of Evanston, Illinois. They spend the night at Helen’s grandmother’s house there before driving another day and a half to reach Wyoming.
For the Love of Friends
Book Summary
Lily is a great writer, has a reliable job, and has great friends. But she’s also 32 and single… which is all her mom can seem to focus on. It’s especially hard to ignore her relationship status when everyone else around her is getting married – she’s scheduled to be a bridesmaid in five weddings in a period of six weeks.
She’ll go to any length for the love of her friends, but she also needs a place to vent. Lily starts an anonymous blog called Bridesmania where she dishes on mom-zillas, wicked bridesmaids, body-shaming dress clerks, and even her 88-year-old Granny (who she’s recently been deemed the guardian of), who prefers to enjoy her morning mimosas in the nude.
Of course, we all know that secrets are hard to keep on the internet…
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Alice Island bookstore owner A.J. Fikry is having a terrible year. His wife has died, the store isn’t making enough sales, and his beloved book of Poe poems has been stolen. As a result, he’s cranky and pushing those around him away more than ever. Luckily, he has a few people who look past his curmudgeonly attitude.
His depression reaches the point that he no longer enjoys books. But sometimes, life gives you second chances in unexpected ways. For A.J., it’s a small, but heavy, mysterious package that arrives at his shop. And as he begins to see the world around him in a new way, those around him can see him in a new way, too.
Movie Adaptation
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry was also released as a movie. It would be fun to read with a friend and then watch together.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
From the outside, thirty-something couple Nick and Amy seemed to have a picture-perfect marriage. But on their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing from their rented McMansion in the fictional town of North Carthage, along Missouri’s Mississippi River. Nick quickly becomes the prime suspect. Under the microscope of the resulting police investigation and media frenzy, it becomes apparent that their happy marriage might not have been so happy after all and that Nick – the town’s golden boy – might not be so squeaky clean.
Even as Amy’s fiercely doting parents put more pressure on him, Nick stands by his innocence. But if he didn’t do it, then where is his wife? And what’s in that gift box hidden in the back of Amy’s bedroom closet? Gone Girl combines sharp-edged wit and chilling prose to make reading this book feel like an addiction.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Although Angela isn’t usually drawn to domestic thrillers, she couldn’t put this book down! One of her friends described it as “dark and morally ambiguous,” and that’s really the perfect summary for this psychological suspense novel. If you love this genre, also consider reading Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (the protagonist, Camille, is also in her 30s).
Although Angela usually loves audiobooks, she wasn’t a fan of the female narrator of Gone Girl at the beginning – or maybe it was just influenced by her feelings about the female protagonist. But once she got further into the story, she enjoyed listening to it. If you’re considering the audiobook, we’d recommend listening to the sample on Amazon before committing to this format.
Writers & Lovers
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Writers & Lovers is a classic coming-of-age book about the struggle of an in-debt 31-year-old. She works as a waitress to pay the bills while trying not to give up her bigger dream of writing a novel.
The book is a mix of literary fiction and reality TV as the book follows the main character through every aspect of her daily life as she struggles to find her way as an adult.
Our Thoughts on This Book
After reading so many reviews from people who found this book boring, we went in skeptical, but we both fell in love with Writers & Lovers. Specifically, we think fans of the movie Reality Bites will enjoy this book!
On Fire Island
Book Summary
As a thirty-seven-year-old book editor, Julia thought she had a long life ahead of her. But then the unthinkable happens, and she passes away after a cancer diagnosis. While Julie could have followed the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, she instead had the opportunity to observe her family one final summer at their Fire Island home.
She’ll see how her novelist husband Ben and neighbor Shep navigate grieving as new widowers, along with the lives of their other friends and neighbors.
The Book Girls Say…
While we wish this weren’t true, too many families have to deal with an unexpected diagnosis and loss. Instead of focusing on Julia’s decline, this character-driven novel gives us a unique perspective of seeing a summer she would have been a part of on Earth. While the pages are full of grief at times, you’ll also find plenty of humorous moments throughout the captivating writing.
This is a great pick if you enjoyed Eliza Starts a Rumor, also by Jane L. Rosen, or Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand. Readers also enjoy the Jewish representation throughout.
Book Summary
While Emily dreams of making a living as an artist, at 35, she’s still working at her grandmother’s Vermont inn. She tends to play it safe and is the only one in her friend group who hasn’t tried to summit the mountain in their hometown of Crescent Falls, Vermont.
Diana is a go-getter and so close to being next in line as CEO of her father’s hotel chain. Everything in her life is following her careful plans…until she meets an alluring artist on a Vermont mountain.
Emily and Diana’s passion for each other grows quickly…until they realize that Diana is in town to buy Emily’s grandmother’s beloved inn.
The Next Thing You Know
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Nova is a 33-year-old end-of-life doula, and her job is to help terminally ill patients make peace with their impending death. Unlike her business partner, Nova doesn’t shy away from difficult cases – including those with challenging personalities or those who are young.
Mason is one of the heartbreakingly young. He’s a 36-year-old indie-favorite singer-songwriter who recently vanished from the public eye. He tells Nova that his condition is getting worse, and with limited use of his hands and arms, it’s becoming impossible for him to do the thing he loves most. Life as he knows it is over, but he doesn’t know how to say goodbye.
Nova knows that helping Mason will be her biggest challenge yet, especially because she’s finding it hard to maintain a professional distance. Before long, Mason’s mom comes knocking at Nova’s door… and reporters are not far behind.
What to Expect in This Book
This novel has been described as A Star is Born meets Me Before You, and the musical component is said to really help to tie the whole story together.
A number of states have passed Death with Dignity Laws in recent years that allow “medical aid in dying” under very specific guidelines. End-of-life doulas, on the other hand, can’t provide medical intervention or assist in the death process. Their role is to care for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of a terminally ill patient. End-of-life doulas can also help with planning for things like hospice and funerals. While this is a fairly new concept in the United States, in many cultures this type of support has always been an integral part of the dying process.
With Love from London
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
When Valentia was a teenager, her mother, Eloise, abandoned her and her father to start a new life in London. Now in her 30s, Val is a librarian and recently divorced. As she reevaluates her life, she realizes that the lack of closure with her mother is still nagging at her. But in a bittersweet twist of fate, Val learns that her mother has passed away before they’ve had a chance to reconcile.
Val is surprised to discover that Eloise left her a Primrose Hill apartment and the deed to a bookshop that Val never knew her mom owned. Determined to piece together a better understanding of Eloise’s life, Val decides to leave Seattle for a fresh start in London. It doesn’t take long for her to fall in love with the pastel-colored flat in a cozy neighborhood, not to mention the quaint bookstore. Unfortunately, she soon learns that The Book Garden is in financial trouble.
Told from a dual-timeline perspective, this book explores Valentia’s new life in London, as well as her mother’s past and what happened when she left her daughter behind.
Thoughts on This Book
Although the cover of this 2022 release says “sweet rom-com,” this is actually more of a feel-good story about mothers and daughters.
Another Sarah Jio book, Goodnight June, is also perfect for book lovers, as it tells the fictionalized origin story of a best-selling children’s book.
In Our Readers’ Words
“Loved this book, thought it might be just a light rom-com, but it was so much more. Loved the bookstore, and it is truly integral to the story.”
“It’s perfect, cozy, and oh-so-heartwarming!”
American Dirt
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Lydia has a comfortable life in Acapulco as the wife of a journalist and the mother of an 8-year-old boy. However, when her husband publishes a story about the newest drug lord bringing trouble to town, they become targets of a cartel. After hiding while many family members are massacred, they have to get out of the country for any hope of safety.
Lydia and Luca begin a harrowing journey to the US that will leave you on the edge of your seat. You’ll feel their fear along the way, making the book both suspenseful and heartbreaking as they make the journey of their lives.
Thoughts About This Book
When this book was published, it came with understandable criticism because it was not written by an OWN voices author. The author received significantly more money and publicity than books written by authors with Mexican heritage and first-hand experience of the journey.
Much of the criticism was aimed at the publishing industry versus the author’s writing, and the story has deeply impacted many readers. Readers often say their eyes were opened to aspects of immigration they hadn’t previously considered, which increased their empathy, so we are including it. However, we recommend combining your reading of the fictional American Dirt with an OWN memoir, such as A Dream Called Home by Reyna Grande.
The Life List
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Brett seems to have it all – a good job, a spacious loft, and a handsome boyfriend. Her life checks all the boxes of where she thinks she’s supposed to be at thirty-four years old. But according to who?
When her mom passes away, Brett is surprised to learn that her inheritance comes with one major stipulation. She must first complete the list of life goals that she penned at the young age of fourteen. She can’t understand what her mom was thinking. Her teenage goals certainly don’t line up with her adult ambitions, and some of them seem downright impossible.
How can she have a relationship with her father, who passed away seven years ago? And how can she become an awesome teacher when she picked a completely different career path?
She reluctantly sets out on the journey her mother has laid before her, and along the way, she’ll discover that sometimes the best things come from unexpected places, and it’s never too late to reinvent your life!
Film Adaptation
Angela really enjoyed this 2025 movie adaptation of this book, which reached #1 on Netflix. She felt that while some of the story had to be condensed for film, it stayed true to the novel’s heartfelt message about pursuing dreams and finding yourself.
Finlay Donovan is Killing It
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Struggling novelist and divorced mom of two, Finlay Donovan is BARELY holding things together. Each day has new challenges, like her ex-husband firing the nanny with no warning right before an important meeting.
Money is running out, and her next novel is way behind schedule. While meeting with her agent and attempting to buy more time, she receives a mysterious envelope with an offer of quick cash in exchange for a job.
Desperation and intrigue lead her to follow up with the number on the note, and before she knows what’s happening, she’s kind of agreed to be a contract killer for a woman with a truly terrible husband. Whoops.
What to Expect in This Book
While the synopsis sounds pretty dramatic, this book is definitely witty and hilarious versus gory or scary. It’s filled with twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages and unable to put it down!
Keep in mind that this isn’t intended to be a realistic crime book, and you have to suspend your disbelief at points and just enjoy the ride. It’s perfect for fans of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Nora has decided she is done. Done with the way her life is going. In a moment of darkness, she attempts suicide, but she finds herself in the Midnight Library between life and death. The shelves go on and on, and inside each book is a life that she could have lived, had she made just one different choice somewhere along the way – from following dreams to pursuing different careers to undoing old breakups.
Each time she opens a book, she finds herself living that alternate life, and she is faced with the decision of whether she wants to permanently exchange her life for a new one. As she visits these alternate realities, she’ll have to decide not only which life she wants, but also what makes life worth living in the first place.
Thoughts on This Book
Some find this book to be too predictable – and it’s true that the synopsis of the book tells you exactly what to expect. However, this is a book that will really make you think – not just about Nora’s choices and regrets, but also about your own.
As mentioned, this book does deal with suicide contemplation. However, we believe by the end, you’ll be left positively contemplating life.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Neighbors Celeste and Wendy are both moms. As far as they can tell, that’s the only thing they have in common – other than their mutual disdain for each other!
Celeste is a stay-at-home mom who spends her days volunteering and creating a Pinterest-worthy life that makes other moms despise her. Wendy is a career-driven working mom who lives by her minute-to-minute schedule as she balances her business and keeps things afloat at home.
After a bit too much sangria at a softball potluck, Celeste and Wendy wake up in each other’s bodies – Freaky Friday style. Soon everything they thought they knew about the other is turned upside down. Their messy lives are about to get a whole lot more complicated, but along the way, they’ll discover they might not be so different after all.
Theme of This Book
This book is a heartwarming reminder – presented in a laugh-out-loud funny package – that we shouldn’t be so quick to judge one another and that parenting and adulting are easier when we have each other’s backs.
An American Marriage
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Artist Celestial and young corporate executive Roy are newly married, and all signs point toward them having a happy, successful life. However, everything goes wrong one night in a hotel when someone accuses Roy of a crime that Celestial knows was impossible.
Despite their protests, Roy is convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In the beginning, she holds strong to their love. After five years, Roy’s conviction is overturned and he returns to Atlanta, ready to pick up right where they left off. However, Celestial’s life has been moving forward while he was away, leaving everyone in a tough situation.
After I Do
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Lauren and Ryan were college sweethearts. They’ve been together for 11 years and married for six, but now, in their early 30s, they’ve grown apart. Their marriage is at a breaking point, but they aren’t ready to call it quits. Instead, they’ve come up with a plan – they’ll take one year apart in hopes that at the end of the year, they’ll find a way to fall in love again. There is just one rule – during their year off, they cannot contact each other. Other than that, anything goes.
Told from Lauren’s perspective, you’ll join her for her year of self-discovery. Her friends and family all have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. As the year goes on, she questions everything she thought she knew about love and lust, loyalty and commitment.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
Before Taylor Jenkins Reid became a household name with books like Daisy Jones & the Six, she wrote a number of excellent and nuanced books about relationships and marriage.
One of our readers said, “This book is a real tearjerker. I learned so much about what people go through when a marriage may or may not work out in the end. My heart felt broken for both spouses throughout the book.”
Southern by Design
Book Summary
After her husband sent an unsolicited personal photo to another woman that quickly went viral among every mom group in Charleston, thirtysomething Magnolia “Mack” Bishop is facing divorce and single motherhood. But she’s determined not to let her personal life get in the way of her professional interior design ambitions.
Mack is close to securing the prestigious Historic Preservation Design Fellowship, but after a series of calamities at a house tour, her shot at the fellowship goes up in flames. Her mom – the original Magnolia Bishop, who enjoys her perch at the top of the Southern social ladder, swoops in with a lead on a big project to save Mack. But it comes with strings attached, which is of no surprise to Mack, given how much her mom likes to control her life.
Mack dreads working for her mom until a television network puts out a call for local designers, and she sees the opportunity to pitch the project and potentially win the renovation and historic preservation TV pilot of her dreams. But she’ll have to keep it secret to avoid her mother’s interference.
Just when she’s starting to get her professional life back on track, the man who got away starts unloading a moving truck next door. Fifteen years earlier, she had a summer romance with Lincoln Kelly, but then he followed his dreams to New York and left Mack broken-hearted.
Why We Think You’ll Love It
This debut novel has a good mix of mother-daughter drama and second-chance romance, and it completely transports you to Charleston, where the streets and homes come alive like characters. If you enjoy audiobooks, the narrator’s accent definitely adds to the story.
We are both huge Gilmore Girls fans, and while Angela didn’t start making the connections until later in the novel, it definitely gives Southern “Gilmore” vibes. As the grandmother-mother-daughter storyline continues to unravel, you’ll start to see more and more similarities.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Bea is a plus-sized fashion blogger tired of watching casts full of size 0 models. After a drunken post about the unrealness of the reality dating show, Main Squeeze, she gets a shocking call asking HER to be the next star of the show.
Can she trust the male contestants with her heart, or is it safer to remember she’s on the show for her career?
Why We Loved This Book
We both loved this one and enjoyed that the story alternated between the actual narrative/standard book format and epistolary snippets of podcast dialogue, emails, etc., about the show as fans watched. All the aspects came together to serve as a great way to help your brain fully engage with the story.
The storyline blends reality TV, blogging, and the push to stop judging based on traditional beauty standards. It is fun and an excellent representation of the 2010s!
The Magic of Found Objects
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
At 36, Phronsie is running out of time to create the family she longs for. So when her childhood friend suggests that they both give up on romance and marry each other, it’s a tempting offer. But, as fate would have it, the moment they announce their engagement, another possibility enters the picture.
Phronsie’s always been a mix of genes that came from her hippie mom and rational dad. Which side will win out when it comes to love?
Another Great Option
Maddie Dawson’s novel Let’s Pretend This Will Work also features a thirtysomething main character longing for love.
All Together Now
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Robbie is a 35-year-old math genius and well-known philanthropist who is also quite reclusive. When he gets a terminal diagnosis, he doesn’t want the world to know. As Robbie considers his remaining time on Earth, he begins planning how to change the lives of his three oldest friends – Blair, Cat, and Wade.
To share his news, he invites them to Fenwick Island, where he plans to fill them in on his plans for their lives. However, Robbie isn’t the only one of these high school friends with a secret. Can Robbie’s plans really help once he knows more about each situation?
What to Expect in This Book
While the concept of his book and the main character’s impending death sounds depressing, readers actually describe it as witty, touching, uplifting, and funny.
Other Books to Consider
If you are specifically interested in reading books with 30+ characters that are set in a different part of the world, we recommend taking a look at our Book Voyage reading lists, which are organized by region. Additionally, if you’re looking for a book that provides a historical perspective, our Decades Challenge reading lists, which cover the 1910s through the present, are a great place to start!
Sign Up for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge
Sign up for our email list below to receive a free printable tracker for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge. Our weekly email newsletter helps you stay on track with friendly reminders while still allowing you the flexibility to read at your own pace.
Printable Version of the Challenge Booklists
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site as Inner Circle or BFF members can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update the Lifetime of Reading Challenges throughout the year according to the challenge schedule, the lists will become available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
If you have a suggestion for a book that you think would be a great addition to this list, please fill out this form.
Book Lists By Character Age
Links to our book recommendations for all twelve of the Lifetime of Reading challenge prompts can be found below:
- Books With Characters in Their 40s
- Intergenerational Novels: Books that Connect Generations
- Books With Characters in Their 50s
- Books With Characters in Their 60s
- Books With Characters in Their 70s
- Books With Characters in Their 80s
- Books With Characters in Their 90s and 100s
- Books with a Child Protagonist (Bildungsroman Novels)
- Books Spanning a Character’s Lifetime
- Books with Teenage Main Characters
- Books with Characters in Their 20s
- Books With Characters In Their 30s
Modern Adulthood in Your 30s
In today’s society, many view your 20s as a dress rehearsal for adulthood, which makes your 30s the real performance. While your twenties may come with a sense of comfort knowing it’s ok to make mistakes and restarts as you determine who you want to be and where you want to go in life, once you enter your thirties, there’s an expectation to achieve many of the traditional milestones of “adulthood” – including building a more impressive resume, settling down with a life partner, starting a family, and buying a home.
While the baby boomer generation typically started their families younger, the average age for first-time parenthood is now between 31 and 32 in many major cities. And the average age of first-time homebuyers is nearly 40, pushed later by factors like increasing college debt and incomes that are lower relative to those that boomers and Gen Xers received at the same point in their lives.
Of course, no two experiences are the same, and this traditionally laid out path of homeownership, marriage, and family isn’t for everyone. But those who decide to go a different route, or who simply haven’t settled on their direction yet, often feel immense pressure from older generations to explain themselves when they don’t conform to societal expectations by the time they are in their 30s.
Despite its challenges and pressures, the thirties are also a very good time of life for many people! By our thirties, we know ourselves better and often feel more comfortable in our own skin. Your 20s may have been spent slaving away with long hours and low pay, but by your 30s that hard work is often starting to pay off – allowing for more optimism and less stress. One study found that people begin to find true happiness in life around age 33 due to a combination of still living in the moment, but also worrying less.
I heartily endorse “When Breath Becomes Air.” I would appreciate having a feature when your readers had comments/endorsements on books they have already read from the list
@Charlene, we agree that it’s so helpful to have feedback from other readers! We invite readers (via our email list and our Facebook group) to fill out a book log (survey) about the books they read from our lists and provide us with their rating as well as their comments. We then update the book descriptions on our lists to include reader comments (typically within the “Book Girls Say…” you’ll see notes like, “readers say this book starts a bit slow, but it’s totally worth sticking with.”)
Once we’ve compiled the ratings from the book logs, we also come back to update the lists to include the overall reader rating and percent who recommend the book to a friend. The Lifetime of Reading challenge is new this year, so we don’t yet have the reader ratings yet when the lists are first published, but we will come back and add that info over time. If you look at the book recommendation lists for our other challenges (The Decades Reading Challenge and the Book Voyage Challenge), you’ll see that many off the books have a rating in this format below the book description:
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Thanks again for a great list. Not overly weighted toward Rom-Com, which this age range could lead to, the list includes some really significant books that deal with important issues like immigration, trans-gender life, Autism, and end-of-life care.