Light but heavy reads?

I’d say your brief is what I’m constantly looking for too, books I’ve loved are -

All of Lucinda Riley - maybe except the love letter, the rest were excellent.

Taylor Jenkins Read - especially Daisy Jones and the six

Home going - Yaa Gyasi

The idea of you - Robinne Lee

Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers

I also like a bit of crime now and again and love John Marrs’ books.

@Nearlyadoctor I come on just say: you must read Lucinda Riley! The whole Seven Sisters series was just miraculous. And in answer to your thought - I've just finished reading all of her other novels, and every one is just better than the last. I'm now bereft!

Oh and The Girl with the Louding Voice.

The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J Harris is excellent, intriguing but not specifically a whodunnit.

I also recently enjoyed How to Kill Your Family, by Bella Mackie.

The Impossible Girl, by Lydia Kang, was also good, but set in 1800s America so doesn’t fit the brief of contemporary.

Expectation by Anna Hope reminded me of Marian Keyes.

Second the Silent Patient. Shuggie Bain. All the Light We Cannot See (I recommend that to everyone) . Any Patrick Gale. Monica Lewicka - Short History of Tractors tickled me.

If you read short stories, Louise Kennedy’s The End of the World is a Cul de Sac is an excellent new Irish collection.

French and German fiction? I’m really enjoying Jenny Erpenbeck’s Going, Went, Gone. Annie Ernaux’s L’histoire d’une file? All my friends rave about Fred Vargas, but it’s not my genre.

If you like Sally Rooney, she has a new novel out next month. Ditto Colm Toibín, about Thomas Mann.

I know everyone saw the TV adaptation, but Normal People was a great read.

I am absolutely convinced that if Marian Keyes was a man she'd have a clutch of awards by now. Roddy Doyle has won the bloody Booker FFS and yet Marian Keyes covering very similar ground has got nothing.

As far as light but with a bit of something extra, how much foreign literature do you read?

I've loved the following recently:
The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod. Very readable story about the sugar trade in Suriname.
The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. Ten linked short stores that describe Nishino's love life.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Gentle time travelling tales.
Claudia Piñeiro's crime fiction is suppose to be very good but I've not read it.
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey won the Costa and is fabulous.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir which is well worth a read.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a sprawling family saga with magic realism.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Novella about a woman who works in a convenience store who probably has autism.

Secret History - Donna Tartt
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
Stolen - Deborah Moggach
Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans
When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman
One Day - David Nicholls
The Carer - Deborah Moggach
Remarkable Creatures - Tracey Chevalier
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Eight Months on Ghazza Street - Hilary Mantel
Black Water Rising - Attica Locke

I agree so much with the comment regarding the difference in the way female and male writers are categorised/reviewed. Male writers such as Nick Hornby, Tony Parsons, David Nicholls, etc, etc, write character-driven, easy to read stories but their writing still seems to be taken more seriously than female writers who have a similar style and who cover the same sort of ground.

I quite enjoy Rhys Bowen books.

rhysbowen.com/in-farleigh-field/

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

I love The Spies by Michael Frayn.

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

I was also going to suggest Barbara Kingsolver — start with The Bean Trees and its sequel Pigs in Heaven, also Prodigal Summer and Animal Dreams. Seconding Barbara Trapido — start with Brother of the More Famous Jack and its sequel The Travelling Hornplayer.

Have you read much Irish fiction? The inevitable Sally Rooney? Deirdre Madden. Anne Enright? Kevin Barry’s short stories or Night Boat to Tangier.

The Silent Patient.

Have you read The Secret Life of Bees?

books.google.com/books/about/The_Less_You_Know_The_Sounder_You_Sleep.html?id=GOluDQAAQBAJ

This is based on a true story so not fiction. It's heavy in terms of the subject matter but light in terms of ease of reading.

I’ve just read all of Lucinda Riley’s The Seven Sisters over the past month and don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a series of books so much.
In fact just about to start a thread as to whether to read her other books or what others who have read them would recommend.

I'm yet to read a bad book by Liane Moriarty. They're all a similar style and would fit the bill.

Have you read the crawdads? That probably ticks the box too.

I loved all of Barbara Trapido's novels as well as the Cazalet books by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Also like all the St Mary's books which are not my usual thing at all

Have read and enjoyed all of @Blackcountryexile recommendations! Also William Boyd, he has plenty to choose from. Others I’ve read recently that sprung to mind -Taylor Jenkins Reid Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
And I loved The Eighth Life but it’s a monster of a book at 1000 pages! About a Georgian family through the 20th century, hey day and collapse of the USSR and beyond.

Not a novel but Dear Reader by Catherine Rentzenbrink. Few hours to read, excellent book especially if you love to read.

I notice that all the examples of books you have enjoyed are by British authors with the exception of Liane Moriarty.
If you are happy to try books by American authors these might be to your taste
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Clare Lombardo
or Love After Love by Ingrid Persuad set in Trinidad and New York