Jenna Bush Hager chose an epic, and heartbreaking, love story for her February 2025 Read with Jenna pick. “This Is a Love Story” by Jessica Soffer gives away its sweeping themes in the title.
“It’s February, which means it’s the month of love, and I have the best, most epic love story for you to fall in love with this month,” Jenna told TODAY.com.
Speaking to TODAY.com, author Soffer said she hoped the story of Abe and Jane's long marriage made readers think about their love stories.
“I hope that readers wonder about the role that love plays in their own lives and the way that that’s so essential. It keeps us alive,” she said.
While Valentine's Day might be over, Soffer recommended six more books about love and, more specifically, the complications of marriage to pick up after you're done with her book.
"Oh William!" by Elizabeth Strout
In "Oh William!," Elizabeth Strout returns to the world of Lucy Barton for the third time. While mourning the death or her second husband, Lucy accompanies her first husband, William, on a trip and is forced to revisit a past that she never truly left.
"The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Set in the 1980s, "The Marriage Plot" follows an Ivy League love triangle that develops at school and continues after graduation. The novel is also a meditation on love stories themselves. Madeline, our heroine, is writing a thesis on the marriage plot and its relevance.
"Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett
In Read With Jenna author Ann Patchett's latest, a woman looks back at a formative summer in her life, and tells the story to her three daughters. Lara, in her 20s, has a summer romance with a man who would one day become very, very famous. Her own life takes a different course.
"Hello Beautiful" by Ann Napolitano
Read With Jenna author Ann Napolitano writes a story about four sisters and their various entanglements. This is what happens when Julia Padavano, the eldest of four daughters, decides she is going to marry William Waters, setting off years of an intractable family conflict that tests everyone's relationships.
"Fates and Furies" by Lauren Groff
Like "This Is a Love Story," Lauren Groff's novel "Fates and Furies" takes a look at a long-term relationship, and features multiple perspectives. The novel begins with husband Lotto's view and ends with wife Mathilde's tale. There are two sides to every marriage; here, we get closer to a complete picture.
"The Wife" by Meg Wolitzer
"The Wife" explores a marriage built on secrets and resentment, taking the reader back to where it began. Joan, a writer who gave up her career for her husband, cleverly narrates the story of the challenges faced by an ambitious woman in a world catered to men.