A Girl's Bookshelf

Once you find yourself on the book obsessed side of TikTok, your money is going to start disappearing. 

Maybe not. You may have more self control than I do or you may not even pay attention to book recommendations on TikTok. 

However, we can’t deny that BookTok is super influential. There’s even a section at Barnes & Noble titled “BookTok.” 

So, here is a list of the books I was very much interested in after seeing them all over my “For You” page on TikTok. 

1. “Icebreaker” by Hannah Grace 

This book was all over my TikTok feed for a while because girls were freaking out about how shocking some of the book is. The cover looks incredibly innocent and geared towards younger audiences. 

The cover depicts the two main characters, Anastasia and Nate, on the ice. She is a figure skater and he is a hockey player. This definitely threw me off when I kept reading.

However, this book contained way more crazy intimate scenes than I expected. That’s all I’ll say about that! 

The story was cute and definitely swoon-worthy, but it was not my favorite of all time. I am not sure if I’d categorize this one as overrated or not. My thoughts are in the middle for sure. 

I loved the enemies-to-lovers element, the competitive sporty nature of the characters, and the banter between Anastasia and Nate, but some sections threw me off. 

You’ll have to check it out for yourself and see whether this BookTok recommendation is over or underrated!

2. “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood

I first read this back in 2021 after seeing it on all the romance lover’s book lists. 

This book has the classic fake dating trope that just gets me every time, even though it can be unrealistic at times. 

Olive and Adam are the best characters – I fell in love with both of them! I also had not read very many books that are based around academia, so this was a new twist on the classic rom-com characters I know and love. Adam is a professor and Olive is a STEM graduate student.

The build-up before the classic confession of feelings takes a while, but not in an annoying, get-to-the-point kind of way. 

There is also some good drama with a colleague of Adam’s that hooked me. 

I classify this book as a successful BookTok recommendation because I loved it! 

3. “Verity” by Colleen Hoover 

The first line of this book is, “I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of the blood reaches me.” 

Safe to say I was hooked right away and wanted to know more. 

This book is wildly different from Hoover’s normal romance style, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page. 

The story follows Lowen, a struggling writer, who is hired to continue writing a piece for a famous author, Verity Crawford. Verity was in a tragic accident. When Lowen begins her work at Verity’s house and learns more about her family and life, things get wild. 

This was a great suspense read for someone who sticks primarily to cheesy love stories!

4. “Picking Daisies on Sundays” by Liana Cincotti

I will not lie to you; I bought this book purely because the cover is what dreams are made of! The light pink and pretty drawings drew me in right away and persuaded me to buy it. 

I enjoyed this sweet friends turned lovers, “second-chance romance” story. It was everything a hopeless romantic could need! 

However, it did throw me off that it took SO long for the main characters to realize they were in love and needed to be together. They missed so many years because of a misunderstanding from their prom night in high school. 

Also, the main male character, Levi, was too perfect. 

Don’t get me wrong, I loved him. When I say this, I mean I could immediately tell that he was written by a woman. This is not a bad thing, but I was just hyper aware that his traits were what all women want!

5. “Archer’s Voice” by Mia Sheridan 

I hate to say it, but this book disappointed me more than any other. Yes, there were beautiful aspects about the story and important themes, but I think BookTok hyped it up a bit too much. 

Bree moves to a small town and starts to discover all kinds of things about a well-known family in town. Archer, a member of this family, is an outcast because he does not talk or engage with anyone in town. 

Archer’s story is incredibly sad, and the love that grows between these two is beautiful, but something about the story left me feeling unsatisfied. 

BookTok never fails to provide me with more book recommendations than I can keep up with! I could also just be easily influenced by people online. There’s always that!

Next week, I am going to talk about my favorite book to movie adaptations!