Books With Spring Vibes: My Recs (And My Spring Reading List For This Year)

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams

The spring vibes it brings: hopefulness, gardening elements, connection with people/the world around you, renewal & rebirth

This book is quiet and meandering as it unfolds — definitely a more character driven book — but as I read it this Spring it had all the Spring vibes I was looking for. Even the tears I did shed in some sadder moments felt like more of a refreshing Spring rain than a downpour — especially in light of the hopefulness that chases the clouds away by the end.

I loved how the garden and the characters blossomed right before our eyes — just a great reminder of the cycle of seasons in our life and nature with Spring just bursting forth in a big way for the characters and the story after we watch them come out of their autumnal/winter funk.

What it’s about: Warring neighbors come together to bring a shared garden back to life after learning about the garden’s beautiful past and what it meant for the neighborhood. It slides back and forth from the garden in the 70’s through the 90’s and then present day storyline.

If Spring brings out your lost-in-the-clouds romantic daydreamer side as much as it gives you motivation to tackle projects and big dreams

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

The spring vibes it brings: new beginnings/fresh starts, major spring cleaning/renovation, heart-warming romance, Spring setting (April & May), nature aspects, big dreams and taking action on them

I just finished this one and it totally is what kick-started me actually writing this post. It was a slow starter for me but I’m glad I was patient! It is a great Spring escape that is heart-warming, light and very low-conflict.

This one is for my people who drop everything on the first Spring feeling day to grab a blanket and daydream in the sun and then using all the Spring energy to burst forth and take action on one of those dreams.

It is the most SWEET and slow burn romance and I loved how their hard work chipping away to make the house into something great reflects a lot of their own relationship that starts off very rocky but they slowly start to see something beautiful emerge when they tend to it with care and tenderness.

What it’s about: A woman, feeling stuck in life except where her vivid & romantic daydreams are concerned, finds herself with a new fresh start when she inherits her Great Aunt’s home and land after her passing.

She also finds, upon arriving at this new beginning for her, that she inherited the seemingly grumpy caretaker who also was named as co-inheritor — a disagreeable man who has dreams and plans for the neglected property that conflict with her own.

If you appreciate the physical and metaphorical feeling of that hard-won first Spring kiss of sun after a long & dark Winter

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

The spring vibes it brings: birds chirping, renewal & moving forward, the beauty in the light/warmth of Spring after a long dark Winter, a dose of magic, the hope Spring brings

I love Sarah Addison Allen so much (I wanted to put several books of hers on this list) and this book just FEELS like Spring to me — particularly the feeling of that first hard-won sunny & warm day of Spring after a long winter. You feel that hard-won hopeful feeling by the end as you read about this story of grief and loss.

You’ll also be transported to Mallow Island and be filled with warmth with all the found family goodness that happens as they clear out and clean this condo after a community member passes. I loved learning about their stories and truly felt these characters in my soul.

What it’s about: A young woman has a fresh start before college when she moves into the condo she inherited from her mother (who passed when she was younger) on a tiny little island with beautiful birds.

Once there she finds there’s quite some interesting & quirky characters in her new community and, after the death of one of the residents, this group of misfits finds themselves coming together and find just what they all need to move forward.

If the first day of Spring feels like a dose of magic has been infused in your otherwise ordinary day:

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

The spring vibes it brings: a magical romance that feels refreshing and warm, moving forward after being stuck in grief

I had a hard time choosing between this or Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics but since I read this one more recently — decided to go for this one.

It just felt like Spring to me when I read this one — perfectly heart-warming (albeit sad at times) and refreshing for a rainy Spring day huddled inside or a sunny one spend reading outside.

What it’s about: An overworked book publicist, grieving for her beloved aunt while trying to keep her life plan together, finds a strange man claiming to live in the apartment she inherited from her aunt. Soon she realizes he’s not lying and he does in fact live in the apartment — seven years in the past while she is seven years in his future. A new roomie is hard but even harder is realizing maybe your soulmate lives seven years in the past.

If reading about fresh starts & new beginnings are your ideal Spring read (with a good romance involved too!)

The Suite Spot by Trish Doller

The spring vibes it brings: new beginnings and fresh starts, a warm and gentle read, rebuilding (physically and metaphorically)

I love Trish Doller so much and, while I think Float Plan could fit the bill for a good Spring read too, I think this one felt much more Spring-y to me. It does start in April, too, though it goes through the Summer and Fall as well.

I mean what says “new beginnings and fresh starts” like completely uprooting your stagnant life from Miami Beach to the midwest to take on a new career adventure as a manager at a boutique hotel & brewery.

Only to show up (with your kid in tow) and realize the hotel doesn’t quite exist yet physically and she will be building a this lakeside hotel from the ground up with a man who knows nothing about the hotel aspect of his dream and is dealing with his own life rut.

The characters are just so wonderful and the romance is gentle and soft. And all the rebuilding — of lives and the hotel — gives off Spring energy.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

The spring vibes it brings: new beginnings and starting over, charming romance, coming out of a life hibernation, releasing yourself from the past

I’ve recommended this a lot for good summer/beach reading but this book also really firmly is a good Spring read if you want great stories about new beginnings and coming out of a bit of hibernation in life.

What It’s About: A middle-aged widow who rarely leaves her house after her husband’s accident and a MLB player in a rough spot career-wise end up in a tentative friendship when he moves into the apartment attached to her house in an attempt to sort himself out and ride out the media frenzy.

Stepping carefully around each others’ past and not asking questions, the tentative friendship turns into something more but both must reckon with the weight of the things they carry and propel themselves forward out of it before they can truly let one another in.

If the first whiff of Spring has you ready to spend all your free time in a garden (whether its your own or a grand garden on an estate)

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

The spring vibes it brings: gardening/beautiful gardens, found family/friendship, rebirth

This was a surprise for me and ended up being one of my favorite books of 2021 when I read it (in Spring actually!). The garden element of this one is STRONG and I loved how the different storylines (in different eras) converged around this garden.

Julia Kelly, one of my favorite historical authors, really knows how to transport you to this garden in its every iteration.

What It’s About: This is the story of different women — spanning different decades — who all have ties to the garden at Highbury House and become bound by its secrets.

Spanning from its creation in 1907, to it seeing darker days during WW2 when the house is housing wounded soldiers, and the present day when the garden is being restored by a woman who admired the woman who designed it so many years ago.

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

The spring vibes it brings: all things florals (flower shop), Spring weddings, second chance romance

This was one of my absolute favorite romcoms/romances from last year. I loved everything about it and second chance romance is NOT my favorite trope.

This one really worked for me and I loved the two characters so much — such good grumpy/sunshine chemistry. Plenty of good banter too with a perfect blend of angsty pining and lightness.

I loved how their history and what led to their breakup is unraveled alongside their reunion and working together.

But the Spring vibes? I could see the flower shop and all the arrangements so vividly. Like really transported me to that flower shop and I got swept up in all the wedding stuff.

What it’s about: A sunny wedding planner on the brink of a career takeoff must work on the huge wedding with the grumpy florist she has history with years after their relationship ended.

If your Spring vibes are all things whimsical and fairytale-like

Half A Soul by Olivia Atwater

The Spring vibes it brings: cozy fantasy romance, Regency & Ton season (which always screams Spring to me), fairytale vibes, faeries, Jane Austen-vibes

I find myself reaching for Regency romances a lot in the winter and Spring and this one could really fit either season really well but I think if I had to pick I’d say SPRING.

This is the first book in the Regency Fairytale series and it is such a fantastic romantic cozy fantasy book. If you like non-steamy Regency romances but also are a fantasy girlie — this is for you!

What it’s about: It’s about a young woman who, after an encounter with a faerie who cursed her as a child, she only has half a soul and has been quite the outsider because of the way it changed her personality.

She’s reluctantly whisked off to London for the season to help her beloved cousin find a husband (though her cousin has some of her own motives for this trip) and she meets the grumpy and not-well-liked Lord Sorcier.

The Lord Sorcier is powerful and eventually decides to help her figure out her condition once he finds out more about it. But as their connection grows, so does the danger when they get close to answers about the condition as well a mystery the Lord Sorcier has been seeking answers to.

On my own personal Spring reading list:

Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell

The spring vibes it brings: cottagecore cozy fantasy

I have heard mixed things about this cozy cottagecore fantasy but I am still eager to read this book about a girl with uncontrollable magic who accidentally harms someone she loves and, in order to reverse it, she must get the help from an old childhood friend — a friend who has his own conditions for helping her and secrets of his own.

Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle

The spring vibes it brings: flowers/florist, magic, light and fun second chance romance, cozy small town vibes

I love Sarah Hogle and her latest looks like a perfect Spring read!! I mean — a magical florist, second chance romance, a magical town??

What it’s about: A woman, a witchy florist trying to save her flower shop, crosses paths with her high school sweetheart at a wedding where — in GREAT timing — she is embroiled in a fake-dating scheme to secure financing for her shop. Even worse? The dad of her faux-beau is marrying his mother (yay new stepbrothers!) and that’s why he’s in town.

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

The spring vibes it brings: the cover gives NYC in Spring, heart-warming romance, literal new life

This seems like the romance book of the Spring unexpectedly! I can’t confirm whether or not it truly brings the Spring vibes beyond the cover but it seems like a heart-warming romance about a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy as well as friends-to-lovers romance.

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

The spring vibes it brings: flower farm setting, cozy romance

We love a good forced proximity romance over here and this sounds DELIGHTFUL. A woman uproots herself and buys a failing flower farm with her lottery winnings and when she gets to her new flower farm a woman claiming to be the rightful owner is there and NOT HAPPY and refuses to leave leaving the women figuring out how to co-exist as they sort things out.