Blind Date With A Book: 9 Brilliant Novels You Are Sure To Love
A blind date with a book is always a good idea! Blind dates with people? Now that could be dicey…
But a book blind date — well, there’s no stress, no uncomfortable silences, no worries, and you don’t even need to dress up! The best part? If it’s a good match, you’ve got a friend for life. If not, you can make a clean escape. 😉
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What is a Blind Date With A Book?
Blind Date With a Book is a much more comfortable version of the stress-inducing blind date with a person: a friend introduces you to someone (in this case, a book! 🤩) you may like based on your interests, but without the thorny risk!
This phenomenon began at Elizabeth’s Bookshops in Australia in 2012 and has since become crazy popular. Librarians and bookstore owners the world over adopt their own versions of this bookish matchmaking every year. Always one to enjoy a little romance, I’m here with my own take on this literary dating game.
How do you meet your bookish blind date?
It couldn’t be easier (or less risky!).
- Read the “profiles” and decide who you want to meet first.
- Download the “directory” of contenders.
- Select your best match and click to meet your “date” (or dates!) and get to know them better.
- Decide on a meeting spot (your local library, favorite brick and mortar bookseller, or my very own Bookshop storefront 😍).
- Get comfy and get to know your “date”!
It’s time to meet the contenders!
Blind Date Book #1
WHEN YOU WANT SOMETHING BADLY ENOUGH, IT’S EASY NOT TO CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES.
- Debut Novel & GMA Book Club Pick
- Historical Fiction — a little-known aspect of a larger topic often addressed in fiction
- Dual timeline, multiple POVs
- A woman’s family, and indeed her country, is living with the consequences of choices she made a decade earlier
- Flawed, realistic characters; devastating experiences and losses
Blind Date Book #2
can Grief and resentment really be turned to hope in the hands of a curmudgeon?
- Read with Jenna Book Club Pick
- Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominee for Best Fiction 2022, Nominee for Best Debut Novel 2022
- Unconventional first-person narration
- Lonely recent widow whose son mysteriously vanished over 30 years ago
- Magical realism
- Pacific Northwest, the beauty of Pugent Sound (and its secrets!)
- Unlikely friendships between people and creatures
Blind Date Book #3
i have a wonderful life…but is it really mine?
- Goodreads Choice Awards, Winner Best Historical Fiction 2017, Winner of the Southern Book Prize
- Historical fiction based on one of America’s most notorious scandals
- Poor children, wealthy adults, broken families
- Long hidden family stories
- Heartbreaking discoveries may lead to hopeful choices
Blind Date Book #4
sometimes the salve for all the heartbreak can be found in the pages of a book
- Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominee for Best Fiction 2021
- Debut novel
- London and surrounds
- Lonely grandfather
- Anxious teenager
- Books bringing together very different people, forging connections and community, and infusing unexpected joy into everyday struggles and grief
- Will add to your TBR!
Blind Date Book #5
she’s 17 and she’s dying, yet she experiences 100 years.
- Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominee for Best Fiction 2021
- An extraordinary and unlikely friendship between a terminally ill teenager and an 83-year-old woman
- A lifetime of stories
- Heartbreaking and heart-affirming in equal measure
- Glasgow
Blind Date Book #6
few forces on earth are as powerful as a subversive woman.
- GMA Book Club Pick
- Inspired by a magazine article in a doctor’s waiting room after an overly long wait
- Maine, late 1700s
- A brutal winter
- Murder, rape, greed, one woman’s determined quest for justice
- Based on a remarkable woman who remains little known to this day, but whose legacy helped change the course of history for women in medicine
Blind Date Book #7
The stakes have never been higher.
- Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominee for Best Fiction 2023
- A little fantasy, a little mystery, a little romance
- A young orphaned boy
- A single teacher’s aide with little money but a world of love for one little boy
- A reclusive children’s book author
- The most sought-after book in the world
- A life-changing contest that could make them a family
Blind Date Book #8
is she your friend…or your stalker?
- Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller 2023
- London
- Mystery, psychological thriller, suspense
- Well known online personality becomes the subject of her own true crime podcast
- What has she done…?
- Latest release from a popular and prolific author
Blind Date Book #9
her world is shattered. how does she move forward now?
- Zibby’s Book Club Pick, December Indie Next Pick, Book of the Month Selection, Washington Post Noteworthy Book
- A young widowed mother devoted to her child
- Witty and insightful writing
- A romcom but with all the feels — deep grief, raw emotion, tears, and laughter
- Aurora lights and a house full of notes
- Australia
And there you have it — nine possible contenders for a cozy date night with a book!
My wish for you: many bookish first dates and forever friends in your future. ❤️
Pin this to your bookish boards!
Are you stuck in a reading rut and need a little inspiration?
