Books like

Books like Like Water for Chocolate

12 books with a reading profile close to Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Inward-looking and thought-provoking; an easy read.

1

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

by Emily M. Danforth

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · romance, narrative

After her parents die in a car accident, Cameron Post moves to rural Montana to live with her conservative aunt and grandmother.
2

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Salva, a Mexican-American teenager raised by his adoptive gay father, begins his senior year of high school feeling an unfamiliar, simmering anger.
3

Memorial

by Bryan Washington

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · romance, narrative

Benson, a Black daycare teacher in Houston, and Mike, a Japanese American chef, have been together for a couple of years and are unsure about their relationship.
4

HEART THE LOVER

by Lily King

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Decades after the height of a complex romantic entanglement involving two different men, a woman reconstructs the timeline of her early adulthood to understand the lasting impact of her decisions.
5

Tin Man

by Sarah Winman

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · romance, narrative

Ellis and Michael are two boys who become friends as teenagers in Oxford in 1960s England, where Ellis' working-class father works at a car factory.
6

The Paper Palace

by Miranda Cowley Heller

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Elle Bishop, a middle-aged woman, spends twenty-four hours at her family’s summer camp in Cape Cod, known as The Paper Palace.
7

In Memoriam

by Alice Winn

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

In 1914, Gaunt and Ellwood are students at Preshute College, an elite English boarding school where they hide their romantic feelings for one another behind a shared obsession with epic poetry.
8

Evenings and Weekends

by Oisín McKenna

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Set during a sweltering weekend in London, the narrative follows a group of interconnected friends navigating the precariousness of the modern city.
9

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

by Akwaeke Emezi

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Five years after the car accident that killed her husband, Feyi Adekola is finally re-entering the dating scene in Brooklyn.
10

Swimming in the Dark

by Tomasz Jedrowski

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Set in early 1980s Poland during the decline of the communist regime, the story follows Ludwik Glowacki, a university student who falls in love with the charismatic Janusz at an agricultural summer camp.
11

The Island of Missing Trees

by Elif Shafak

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · romance, narrative

In 1974 Nicosia, teenagers Kostas and Defne meet secretly at a taverna to navigate their forbidden relationship across the Greek-Turkish partition.
12

Open Water

by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · romance, narrative

Set in South East London, the story follows an unnamed Black photographer and an unnamed Black dancer who meet at a pub and fall in love.

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