Emotionally Gripping Women’s Fiction about Mothers and Daughters

I adore Sonali Dev’s warm, witty stories, and this novel is perfect for readers drawn to mother-daughter relationships — not to mention grandmothers!

Despite her lack of romantic experience, Cullie is desperate to make her new dating app a success. Her mother, Aly, still lives with her ex-husband’s mother — Cullie’s grandmother, Bindu — but needs a fresh start at work. And Bindu herself is at a loss after inheriting money tied to a secret from her past. All three women help each other out in life and love in this heartwarming intergenerational book that will keep you smiling.

You might have seen the Hulu mini-series adaptation of this bestselling novel starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, but it’s still worth reading for its rich characters and complex questions surrounding motherhood.

Elena has a seemingly picture-perfect life in the planned community of Shaker Heights when she rents a home to single mother Mia and her teenage daughter. At first, the women and their children become friends, but soon secrets from Mia’s past — combined with a local controversy over a couple wanting to adopt a Chinese-American child — ignite in shocking events.

I enjoy a good epistolary novel, and this one told through emails, notes, FBI documents, bills, and other messages kept me entertained.

It follows the story of Bernadette, a brilliant architect who has never quite fit in with Seattle’s elite private school community. After one hilarious mishap too many, Bernadette disappears, and it’s left to her 15-year-old daughter, Bee, to follow the paper trail and find her.

You’ll be laughing and guessing along the way in this quirky mother-daughter tale that became a 2019 film starring Cate Blanchett.

New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah delivers the story of a fraught relationship between an adult daughter and her mother in this moving tale.

After being estranged for a decade, budding comedienne Ruby reunites with her mom, Nora, a talk show host and columnist who left Ruby and her sister when she divorced their father. What Ruby doesn’t say is that she’s been offered money to write a tell-all about the famous Nora. As the two repair their relationship on the beautiful island where Ruby was raised, long-buried secrets, feelings, and the possibility of forgiveness rise to the surface.

Abby, the main character in this Jennifer Weiner novel, is already dealing with leading her first group bicycling trip, feeling ambivalent about her boyfriend, and reuniting with a past one-night stand. But it’s the arrival of her mother on the trip that’s the icing on the cake. A plus-sized woman, Abby has struggled with her mother’s dieting and comments about her weight for years, and the cycling trip brings all their issues to the forefront.

You’ll be engrossed reading how mother and daughter make peace amidst a trip filled with unexpected revelations, romance, and gorgeous scenery.

Hannah, a widowed young mom trying to be better than her own mother, loses her daughters to foster care in this book club perfect novel. As she works to get her daughters back, two other women fight for custody of the girls: Elaine, Hannah’s mother and the girls’ grandmother, who yearns for a second chance after an estranged relationship with her own daughter; and Julie, the compassionate single foster mom currently caring for the girls.

This is a book that will make you think deeply about motherhood, raising questions about parental rights and what’s really best for children.

Get out the tissues for this poignant New York Times bestseller tinged with magic.

Katy and her mother, Carol, were best friends planning to take a trip to Italy’s Amalfi Coast when Carol died. Still grieving, Katy takes the trip alone, hoping to feel closer to her late mother in the place where she once spent an incredible summer. And somehow her mother is actually there, in the flesh — yet it’s her mother at 30, before marrying and having a daughter. Now Katy has a chance to get to know her mother as a young woman in this unforgettable journey.