Girl Crushing on Taylor Jenkins Reid

And it all started with a basic question.

It started with a basic question.

“Have you read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue?” a colleague asked me.

I winced. “No.”

Which was embarrassing, considering we’d just spent twenty minutes gushing over our favorite books like two people in a very intense (and very nerdy) bookish speed date. When she insisted I had to read it and soon I gave the usual excuse: “I’ll try… after I finish this novel draft, two book club picks, and get my life together.”

But the truth? I was thirsty. Thirsty for inspiration, for fresh voices, for writing that made me want to help get me over this writer’s block.

I still had my Audible subscription, so I queued up Addie LaRue as an experiment. The genre wasn’t quite my usual, and the length intimidated me, but I gave it a shot and fell in fast. I devoured it in under two weeks, completely swept away.

But this post isn’t about Addie LaRue. It’s about the narrator who brought me to the book and the author I found because of her.

Julia Whelan’s voice is magic.

Calm, precise, emotionally resonant. She doesn’t just tell you the story; she seduces you into it. So naturally, I hunted down her other work and stumbled upon The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

And that, my friends, is where the real obsession began.

I adored Evelyn Hugo. It's a dazzling story about old Hollywood glamour, identity, sacrifice, and ambition and the cost of all three. Evelyn is the kind of character who feels more real than some people I’ve actually met. I found myself pausing to take notes not just as a reader, but as a writer trying to understand how Reid crafts tension and tenderness so effortlessly and sprinkling enough breadcrumbs to keep you engaged.

Then came Daisy Jones & The Six, a fictional oral history of a '70s rock band that reads like a behind-the-scenes documentary. It’s sexy, raw, chaotic, and full of characters who are as damaged as they are unforgettable. I still can’t believe it was fictional. I kept going back to Google to see if there was a historical figure like Daisy Jones. And although I read some of the inspiration came from Stevie Nicks, I actually believed this was a true story. The ending left me gutted in the best, most cathartic way.

Next was Evidence of the Affair, a short novella told entirely in letters. In just a few pages, Reid weaves a story of betrayal, intimacy, and unexpected connection. It’s proof that good storytelling doesn’t always need 400 pages, sometimes it just needs the right words in the right hands.

And most recently, I listened to One True Loves, a tale about love, loss, and the blurry, bittersweet spaces in between. What happens when the love of your life returns from the dead… after you’ve already moved on? (just the same kind of plot in Husbands on Hold Part II.. I digress back to Reid) The story is romantic but also deeply human and unflinchingly honest.

Yes, I’m officially a Julia Whelan devotee. If she narrates a cereal box, I’m probably listening.

But it’s Taylor Jenkins Reid who lit the creative spark I’d been missing. Her characters are flawed and complex and heartbreakingly real. Her writing makes me want to be braver with mine.

Turns out, the cure for writer’s block wasn’t more caffeine or a change of scenery. It was Taylor Jenkins Reid.

What books have you read by Reid?