TikTok Made Me Read It!
TikTok Made Me Read It!
During the pandemic, book publishing had a boost from the unlikely source of social media app TikTok. As readers shared the books they loved in short videos, books old and found new audiences, creating new global bestsellers. Here’s a list of the most popular books on #BookTok right now!
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
If there is a #BookTok cinderella story, it’s that of romance author Colleen Hoover. It Ends With Us, first published in 2016, entered the bestseller lists in 2021 thanks to her TikTok account and rave reviews.
Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
With this bold and deeply personal novel, It Ends With Us is a heart-wrenching story and an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.
Read it and loved it? Try Verity by Colleen Hoover
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
An international sensation, and the winner of the 2012 Orange Women’s Prize for fiction, this historical fiction masterpiece has become a bestseller once again.
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess.
But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
A love story for the ages, this captivating retelling will capture your heart.
Read it and loved it? Try Mythos by Stephen Fry
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The entrancing story of a reclusive starlet as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.
Reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship and a great forbidden love.
Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.
Another breakout author beloved by TikTok, this book transports you to the glamourous and cutthroat world of Hollywood.
Read it and loved it? Try Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
The mesmerising adult debut from bestselling YA author Leigh Bardugo.
Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. A dropout and the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved crime, Alex was hoping for a fresh start. But a free ride to one of the world's most prestigious universities was bound to come with a catch. Alex has been tasked with monitoring the mysterious activities of Yale's secret societies—well-known haunts of the rich and powerful.
Now there's a dead girl on campus and Alex seems to be the only person who won't accept the neat answer the police and campus administration have come up with for her murder. Because Alex knows the secret societies are far more sinister and extraordinary than anyone ever imagined. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And sometimes they prey on the living.
A pageturning tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite.
Read it and loved it? Try The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Two writers, one holiday. This is a romcom waiting to happen…
January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she's the lead in a blockbuster movie. Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.
But January and Gus have more in common than you'd think. They're both broke. They've got crippling writer's block. And they need to write bestsellers before summer ends.
The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first. The risk? In telling each other's stories, their worlds might be changed entirely...
He doesn't believe in happy endings. She's lost her faith that they exist. But could they find one together?
Read it and loved it? Try The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
A love story with a difference—an unforgettable tale of life, loss and making each day count.
On September 5th, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: they're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: there's an app for that. It's called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
Another beautiful, heartbreaking and life-affirming book from the brilliant Adam Silvera, this book is TIKTOK famous, clocking up 60 million views and counting!
Read it and loved it? Try Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
A wedding. A trip to Spain. The most infuriating man. And three days of pretending. Or in other words, a plan that will never work.
Catalina Martín, finally, not single. Her family is happy to announce that she will bring her American boyfriend to her sister’s wedding. Everyone is invited to come and witness the most magical event of the year. That would certainly be tomorrow’s headline in the local newspaper of the small Spanish town I came from. Or the epitaph on my tombstone, seeing the turn my life had taken in the span of a phone call.
Four weeks wasn’t a lot of time to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic—from NYC and all the way to Spain—for a wedding. Let alone, someone eager to play along my charade. But that didn’t mean I was desperate enough to bring the 6’4 blue eyed pain in my ass standing before me.
Aaron Blackford. The man whose main occupation was making my blood boil had just offered himself to be my date. Right after inserting his nose in my business, calling me delusional, and calling himself my best option. See? Outrageous. Aggravating. Blood boiling. And much to my total despair, also right. Which left me with a surly and extra large dilemma in my hands. Was it worth the suffering to bring my colleague and bane of my existence as my fake boyfriend to my sister’s wedding? Or was I better off coming clean and facing the consequences of my panic-induced lie?
Like my abuela would say, god help us!
The Spanish Love Deception is an enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, SLOW-BURN romance. Perfect for those looking for a steamy slow-burn with the sweetest happily ever after.
Read it and loved it? Try The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
A biting tale of race and class.
When Emira is apprehended at a supermarket for 'kidnapping' the white child she's actually babysitting, it sets off an explosive chain of events. Her employer Alix, a feminist blogger with the best of intentions, resolves to make things right.
But Emira herself is aimless, broke and wary of Alix's desire to help. When a surprising connection emerges between the two women, it sends them on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, each other, and the messy dynamics of privilege.
Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege.
Read it and loved it? Try Luster by Raven Leilani
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The million copy bestseller, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.
When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.
Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
A novel of extraordinary intelligence and heart, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark and haunting examination of the tyranny of experience and memory.
Read it and loved it? Try To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazlewood
Contemporary romance's unicorn: the elusive marriage of deeply brainy and delightfully escapist.
When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. As a third-year PhD candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive on her way to a happily ever after was always going to be tough, scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting woman, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when he agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend.
But when a big science conference goes haywire and Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support (and his unyielding abs), their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. Olive soon discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
Feel the chemistry!
Read it and loved it? Try The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Graceling by Krsitin Cashore
Action-packed fantasy with elegant, evocative prose and unforgettable characters.
Katsa, who is smart and beautiful and lives in the Seven Kingdoms where selected people are born with a Grace, a special talent that can be anything at all. Katsa's Grace: Killing.
As the king's niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his brutal enforcer. Until the day she meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, and Katsa's life begins to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away… a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
A thrilling, action-packed fantasy adventure that will resonate deeply with anyone trying to find their way in the world.
Read it and loved it? Try Only a Monster by Vanesssa Len
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
In glittering Shanghai, a monster awakens…
The brilliantly imaginative fantasy retelling of Romeo and Juliet is set against the immersive backdrop of 1920s Shanghai. A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city in the grip of chaos. At its heart is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette's first love… and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can't stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
Filled with romance, intrigue and betrayal, this heart-stopping debut is deliciously unputdownable.
Read it and loved it? Try She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel by Casey Mcquiston
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals.
What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?
Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
Read it and loved it? Try Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The award-winning YA bestseller that TikTok can't stop talking about!
A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense that will leave you reeling.