Please recommend a novel that will distract me from being anxious and intrusive thoughts

[Washinginthetimeofcovid]

I love Peter James and those kind of books but since covid I've had terrible insomnia and nightmares. I usually read before bed.

I have kindle unlimited and have really enjoyed detective/crime type stuff but I had a horrific dream last night involving the stuff I'd read about. Anyway - I need to change the topic.

So - Id really like something engaging but nobody dies a gruesome death!

Maybe jojo moyes or Joanna Trollope type stuff would work?

Thanks for any suggestions

Hi hope the nightmare stop with a change of book. Jojo Moyes is really good gentle but gripping

Thank you. I've just got the Rosie project on a recommendation too.

Sorry not about books but there's a really good free website I've used for intrusive thoughts it's called CBT4PANIC. Com I think google it. It's changed my life honestly

Ill have a look now. Thankyou

The new Marion Keyes is an easy read with a setting of luxury hotels to escape to.

Oh I used to love Marian Keyes! Totally forgotten about her. Thankyou.

The corner shop on cockleberry bay is a really good lighthearted read. Also would second the Rosie Project. And a brilliant book is The Unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

Hope your anxiety fades!

Thanks so much everyone.

It's like nothing I've had before. Proper terrifying nightmares involving really disgusting stuff and people I haven't seen or thought about in years. So odd.

Completely frothy escapism - the Lindsey Kelk I Heart Series (first one is I Heart New York)

The Agatha Raisin (by M C Beeton) books are easy to read and not gory murder mysteries

Marian Keyes books are fantastic but not always the cheeriest

I hope your insomnia improves soon

Anything by mhairi mcfarlane should distract you! I suppose they are classic chic lit but well written, genuinely funny and decent characters.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, what an amazing series of books to get lost in

Try:

Marian Keyes
Jenny Colgan
Sophie Kinsella
Cecelia Aherne
Lucy Diamond
Katie Fforde
Milly Johnson
Erica James

None of these authors wrote books that are going to educate you in any way, but nether will the make you anxious or give you bad dreams!

Always my go to for bedtime reading when I just want to switch off.

Ugh, so many typos. Sorry! 🙄

The switch and the flat share both by Beth o Leary are really good

Some gentle escapism , Lucinda Riley is good author .

Alexandra Brown

The GreatChristmas knit off
The Great Village Show

Both lovely. Total escapism.

Thanks a million everyone. So many lovely suggestions

Anthony Horowitz's three murder books - Magpie Murders, The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death - not gory or disturbing, just really well-written, easy to read, page turning mysteries. They are like modern Agatha Christies, but better.

Really @larklight ? I would have swerved anything involving murder right now

Washing ah, maybe not a good suggestion then. It’s just that I can’t cope with ‘proper’ thrillers at any time, but I enjoy a straightforward whodunnit. I saw someone suggested Agatha Raisin too - more about the puzzle & the characters than the horror & detail of the murder.

Thankyou

I am re-reading Little Children by Tom Perrotta. I have also recently re-read The Interestings by Meg Wollitzer and plan to read a Kate Morton book next. Also second Marian Keyes.

Ps if you like crime fiction but don't want gratuitously violent how about Morse or Agatha Christie? Also I liked The Dry by Jane Harper, and I have heard the Shetland books are really well written.

I would second Agatha Raisin.

Try Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series - about a pretty incompetent bounty hunter with two very hot men in her life