Determined to make 2023 the year you transform your life? Want to mix things up and do something different? You’re in the right place, for we’ve compiled a selection of fabulous fresh-start fiction that might just inspire your own fabulous fresh start in 2023.

From romantic heart-melters that’ll give you all the feels, to “what if…?” thought-provokers that possess the power to change perspectives, read on to discover some of our fresh-start favourites. Oh, and if you’ve resolved to up your reading game in 2023, dive into our feature on new year, new reading resolutions. 

Let’s kick off with a story about something many of us might have dreamed of doing – jacking in the day job to run a bookshop in an idyllic rural setting, which is exactly what Nina does in Jenny Colgan’s The Little Shop of Happy Ever After. Just the ticket if you’re looking to uproot and do something new, or simply want to escape by proxy. Cathy Bramley’s Ivy Lane is also perfect if you’re hankering after a more bucolic way of life. 

Resolved to quit all those bad habits and turn over a new leaf in 2023? Want an easy-to-read novel that will make you chuckle while warming your heart? Try Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes’ (for “holiday”, read rehab centre…).

If you’re set on healing your heart in the coming year, try Rowan Coleman’s A Home for Broken Hearts – it’s a moving tonic for readers who have loved, lost and are on the verge of starting over.

Next up, a few personal favourites. One of our top picks of 2022, When We Were Birds is set in Trinidad and sees a young man move from the country to work as a gravedigger — against his mother’s wishes, and against the Rastafarian code he was raised to follow. In the city, he finds seeds of healing and hope for the future when he connects with a young woman with ancestral spiritual gifts.

Meanwhile, Fredrick Backman’s Britt-Marie Was Here tells a charming, cheering story of midlife transformations when a browbeaten housewife discovers her chauvinistic husband is having an affair. It’s an adorable, quirky, life-affirming joy.

Finally, for a story of ultimate, multiple reinventions, read Paterson Joseph’s The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, in which the protagonist moves from being born on a slave ship bound “straight to the heart of hell”, to becoming an acclaimed musician, meeting the King, and becoming the first Black Briton to vote. In a word — exceptional.