Books that CHANGE your life!

One Saturday I was flipping through TikTok and saw a short video where a popular booktoker was talking about a novel that changed her life, so much so that she got an image from the cover tattooed on her arms. Her passion for reading and telling why she connected with this specific novel inspired me so much and really made me want to find this book.

So I took a trip to good 'ole Barnes and Noble and found THE book on one of the Summer Reading Tables along with 6 other books that I "definitely" needed!!! As soon as I got home I began reading Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren and was hooked immediately. I connected with this book on a deep level. The book is about Macy and her first and only love Elliot that reconnect after a decade apart. I connected to this book in a way that I never have with any other novel that I've read. It was like a warm comforting hug that reminded me of falling in love with my husband when I was a teenager. We might not have experienced the same exact trials as Macy and Elliot, but we did overcome some of the same obstacles and emotions for sure.

This book bounces from the past and the present, but is done in a way that creates a perfect image to the reader of what went wrong and why communication is everything in a relationship. This story had devastating moments as well as heartfelt sweet memories that kept you strapped in for the entire rollercoaster of emotions that this novel evokes from its reader. I cried and laughed throughout this entire story, start to finish. It has been about 7 months since I have read this book, but I still think about this story at least once a week and hope to hear that a movie or TV adaptation gets announced soon.....fingers crossed.

So my obsession with this book lead to me reading MANY novels from the creative minds of Christina Hobbs & Lauren Billings. I have found their writing to be witty and fun and I am always waiting for that twist that will make me either get so angry I throw my book across the room or reach for the box of tissues on my night stand because I am sobbing. These wonderful ladies that created SO MANY beautiful stories helped create a safe space for me within my own crazy world of anxiety and teacher burnout.

The past 3 years of teaching has gotten me into a negative headspace and finding an outlet that helped me with the stress and anxieties of the day was life changing. They are comfort reads for me, and I will usually start them one Saturday morning and have the novel finished by dinner. I am grateful that I found a way to help manage my stress without diving too deep into tiktok and other apps that seem to suck the life out of me. I am truly enjoying my new journey of finding what makes me happy through reading different genres that are outside my typical comfort zone. I am beginning to think that this might one day lead to me writing my own story to share with the world. Who knows Cait...maybe we could be the next Christina Lauren (Shout out to my wonderful friend who should start writing her own novel!).

Visit my amazon link to purchase your own copy of the book today!