Hi everyone,

I'm a 32-year-old woman and am back to reading for pleasure again after having spent more than four years completing a law degree (oh, my goodness, why did I think that was a good idea?! ), but am finding myself at a bit of a loss when it comes to finding books with protagonists and other characters around my own age which are not detective/crime books or thrillers.

I'd just really love to read some novels featuring women in their 30s. And not just detective solving violent homicides. (Although I do love Jessica Jones!) But I'm having real trouble finding them. I don't mind reading about people in their teens and 20s, but I want a bit of variety!

I was hoping you lovely people may be able to provide some recommendations for me, please?

I tend to have a bent towards sci-fi and fantasy, and I really like a lot of novels which are marketed as YA fiction. Growing up, of course, I loved the Animorphs and Harry Potter series. I love time travel, alternate universes/timelines, supernatural beings and themes (including witches). I love Vikings as well, and mythology, and I have a terrible love for novels about Hollywood and associated industries.

And, as someone who had a terrible run with relationships in her teens and 20s, I'd love to read about another woman who found her first real love around 29/30, or even into her 30s or 40s. (She doesn't have to be someone who never dated or anything like that, just someone else who took way too long, in her own opinion, to find the right one.)

It might be of some assistance to provide some books I've read that I liked:

The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde;

The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett;

The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman;

Landline by Rainbow Rowell;

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Any and all recommendations very much appreciated! Thank you so much!

[Dendra]

Try Better Off Without Him, by Dee Ernst. The heroine is in her early 40's, is a successful romance novelist, and is dumped by her husband in the opening scene. It's a screwball comedy in some ways, and a traditional romance in others. I re-read this book at least annually for the bits with her older relatives. They're loving but nuts!

Congratulations on completing a law degree. Even if you decide not to pursue becoming a practicing lawyer, knowledge is power.

If you enjoy military science fiction, the following four series have a woman as the central character.
HAYDEN War series written by Evan Currie
HONOR HARRINGTON series written by David Weber
CASSANDRA KRESNOV series written by Joel Shepard
VATTA'S WAR series written by Elizabeth Moon


I would characterize the following two series as urban fantasy with a woman as the central character.
THE OTHERS series written by Anne Bishop
MERCEDES THOMPSON series written by Patricia Briggs

If you like romance as main dish with quality urban fantasy world building: nalini Singh - guild Hunter. If you like fun fantasy sci-fi, miniscule romance: Michael anderle - the kurtherian Gambit. Female mc`s, age and love conditions meet yours.

Sounds like you may want to read some books by Lois McMaster Bujold. She started writing books in her thirties. She got married in her twenties during college, but the marriage fell apart and they divorced after two children. She found herself middle-aged with two young children and no means to support herself except through writing books.

Many of her characters have a theme of failing to find love in early relationships and only finding true love when they are older in their 30's or 40's after a troubled past.

She even created a new series once because she wanted to write from a much older character's perspective, although her catalogue has many youthful POV books as well. She says that such older character books may be rarer because the authors have to have lived more in order to inform such perspectives, in contrast to youthful coming of age books. Coming of age books are about creating a new adult identity and the formation of self, while older character books are about the re-invention and change of one's identity, something that younger writers don't necessarily have the life experience to approach.

She eventually went on to win multiple Hugo's and Nebula's and recently got a lifetime achievement award as Grand Master of SF, so seems to fits with your preference for science fiction or fantasy.

As a lawyer, you may appreciate the elegance of her prose, no wasted words but yet beautifully and perfectly phrased. Very quotable. Her writing is looked on as an example to aspire to by other popular writers in the field (Jim Butcher of Dresden Files says he wants to have her babies, other writers have called her a goddess).

She is one of the rare writers who is able to blend both humor and pathos together, sometimes even in the same sentence. There is a thoughtfulness and underlying humanity to her works, accompanied by lots of witty banter and character development. The most powerful chapter I have ever read was only a few paragraphs long, detailing the mental breakdown and dissolution of a personality, because anything longer would have been too heartbreakingly painful.

She can have you laughing hilariously or crying. If you like Terry Pratchett's Discworld, you will like her humor.

Try the omnibus volume Cordelia's Honor (omnibus volume containing Shards of Honor and Barrayar). It is an early work and not as well written as later books, but it has characters in their 30's and 40's. The two books in this omnibus are good thematic complements that form a complete story, and the author comments in the omnibus tie them together and make the volume special.

You can find Cordelia's Honor here:
viewtopic.php?f=1293&t=358189

Edit: the download links don't seem to work there, but you can use this other site till mobilism gets around to fixing them:
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/fiction/?q=Cordelia%27s+honor

If you like it, I highly encourage reading the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga. Cordelia's Honor is the story of the parents of Miles Vorkosigan, the main protagonist of the series. The early books of the series are from a youthful perspective (very different from Cordelia's Honor), but he grows and changes throughout the series and eventually also hits your requested sweet spot of being in his thirties and seeking love from a similarly aged woman who has also had a difficult life. The series is an amazing one with tons of character growth for everyone involved over the years, including side characters. There is also a book near the end of the series that picks up the story with Cordelia again as a protagonist, but from the POV of an old woman who yet again redefines her life's course.

Next, I would recommend Bujold's Curse of Chalion and its sequel Paladin of Souls. Curse of Chalion has a protagonist who is a war-weary mid to late 30's veteran returning after his stint as a slave in enemy lands. Paladin of Souls fits your request with an older female protagonist, as she tries to find new purpose and rebuild her life from the wreckage of the previous book (where she is only a minor character).

You can find The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls here:
viewtopic.php?f=1293&t=1295413

James S. A. Corey tends to write just about the most readable SciFi you could ask for.

In Death series by J.D. Robb (sci-fi light)
October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price
Dorina Basarab by Karen Chance
Ditto on the aforementioned fantasy Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh and urban fantasy Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

If you want to try contemporary, Fatal series by Marie Force.

And congrats on the degree.