Friendship & Serendipity Collide in 6 Feel-Good Novels

Samantha and Holly are nothing alike. But when their mutual friend Katie is hospitalized with cancer, these two former best friends reunite on a road trip to pick up Katie’s dog in Utah before driving to her home in Wisconsin.

Throw in a random celebrity who joins the trip, a little light crime, and romantic entanglements along the way, and you have the ingredients for a hilarious and moving story of three unlikely people coming together.

If you enjoy reading about female friendships, forgiveness, or road trips where anything can happen, it’s worth a spot on your to-read list!

It’s not just human characters that can form unlikely bonds. In this New York Times bestseller, it’s a giant octopus that strikes up a connection with Tova, a widowed woman who cleans his aquarium during the night shift.

Three decades ago, Tova’s son disappeared from a boat on the Puget Sound. Enter the clever octopus, Marcellus, who has figured out what happened all those years ago. But can he find a way to tell Tova?

The human-animal connection here will absolutely capture your heart. Read the book before the Netflix film adaptation starring Sally Field comes out.

On the surface, a teenage girl and an octogenarian have little in common. But when terminally ill 17-year-old Lenni and 83-year-old Margot meet at a Scottish hospital, they both want to live as much as they can in the days they have left. So, with the help of hospital staff members, the two decide to create 100 paintings for the total 100 years they’ve lived, illustrating the important moments of their lives.

You’ll be drawn into their world, their stories, and the art they paint, which beautifully shows how friendship can transform people and communities.

In this new release, Margaret is a married mother in 1960s Virginia. But she’s not exactly happy. So when Charlotte, a woman much different than her suburban neighbors, moves into the community, Margaret decides to start a book club to get to know her better. But the book club has unexpected results, as Margaret, Charlotte, and two other women read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and start thinking—and talking—about how they honestly feel in their lives.

You’ll feel like you’re part of the club as the deep bonds between these women support them through a tumultuous year.

Your heart will grow two sizes reading this story about 82-year-old Frederick. Though exceptionally kind, he is struggling to make ends meet—so when he’s mistaken for a nursing home resident who’s missing, Frederick takes the man’s place at the home. There his kindness sends a ripple through the community, and he forms a special bond with caregiver Denise, who is facing her own challenges, from a failing marriage to her daughter’s ill health.

The themes here of aging, friendship, and community will resonate, particularly if you’re a fan of shows like Netflix’s A Man on the Inside.

As children in 1950s Tehran, Ellie and Homa became fast friends. But when Ellie was swept away into a life of privilege, their connection was broken. Years later, these two young women at very different places in their lives—and their country simmering with civil unrest—enter each others’ orbits again. But as Ellie and Homa react very differently to the political turmoil and threat to women’s rights in Iran, their rekindled bond is tested once again.

You’ll keep turning pages to find out what happens to these two women and their complex, years-long friendship.