A hot new bookshelf just entered the villa.
Just kidding — but wouldn’t that be great? Did you know that, along with cell phones and watches, Love Island contestants aren’t allowed to bring books during their six- to eight-week stay in Fiji? Not even a magazine, a diary, or a crumpled-up piece of gum-wrapping paper with a writing utensil where they can air out how their new connection has avocado toast breath. Yet as we end the seventh season of Love Island USA, it’s fair to say that smuggling a book under piles of bikini tops and cargo shorts-filled suitcases could’ve gone a long way for our islanders, either for entertainment or sanity’s sake. Some islanders this season needed to find their hideaway in fiction before being pulled for yet another chat about exploring other connections, while others most definitely needed to pick up a self-help book before they turned Love Island into a Lord of the Flies hellscape.
From pancake crash outs to twerking mishaps, here are the six books for our six stand-out islanders we’d recommend to make their stay a little bit lovelier (or worse).
Huda: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
From the moment she stepped into the villa, Huda had the darkest secret a young, hot, reality-TV contestant could possibly ever have: She’s a mother to an actual, real-life, human child. Gasp.
But of course, revealing this to her original couple-mate, Jeremiah, put their connection at risk and accelerated her attachment to him, leaving plenty of room for miscommunication, possessiveness, and feelings of utter betrayal. I mean, after all, Jeremiah didn’t even cook her pancakes all the way through or give her any protein (she’s a gym girl, for God’s sake).
Huda needs a book like Gone Girl that she could’ve flipped through while secretly watching Jeremiah pull Iris or Andreina for a chat in Soul Ties. While Amy Dunne isn’t exactly her twin, I believe that Huda would find comfort in knowing that her trust issues, eavesdropping, and brief spiraling episodes haven’t reached their ultimate potential.
Ace: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
A lot of viewers are concerned about what could possibly make Ace better, but isn’t it just greater television to make Ace worse? He might be the youngest in the villa at only 22 years old, but he is a leader by nature and the ringleader of the Ed, Edd n Eddy posse (the viewers’ official name for his, Taylor, and Nic’s tight friend group).
From Pancakes and Pingpong with Chelley to preparing her a makeshift yoga class on the villa turf, Ace knows what he wants, and he does whatever he can to make it clear. Ace even played a large hand in getting Jeremiah voted off by calling out his “bullshit” love-bombing moves, standing a proud 5 ’10 (or so he claims) on his claims that Jeremiah is scamming to win that $100k prize.
I would love to drop The 48 Laws of Power down into the Fiji Islands like a Shinigami dropped the Death Note in the middle of Light Yagami’s high school, just for Ace to pick it up and decide how to use his people skills for evil. I mean, he earned the loyalty of Taylor and Nic with just a few jokes and Chelley’s favor with a smirk, who knows what else he can do once he masters Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions.
He could even let Taylor take a peek.
Amaya: The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron & The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Oh, Amaya, our certified “Sensitive Gangsta.” We adore her authenticity as she navigates multiple failed connections without ever giving up hope on finding true love. The men just aren’t able to handle how she wears her heart on her sleeve and isn’t afraid to call out when she isn’t receiving that raw, emotional, and energetic love that she’s ready to give. They don’t deserve you, babe!
I would recommend Amaya two books at once (she can handle it, she’s literally a registered nurse working in the cardiac unit): The Highly Sensitive Person and The Notebook. Amaya needs to begin by resetting her stress levels with Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and research psychologist.
The villa can feel like a prison sometimes when you’re constantly forced to couple up with men who disappoint you and don’t live up to your expectations, which could make anyone go insane. Amaya just needs that extra push of understanding how to respond to confrontations about her intense personality, or at least steer in the right direction when negotiating social and romantic boundaries.
But Amaya should never stop being Amaya. She needs a book that takes her away from the dissatisfaction of Love Island men who aren’t giving her that fairy tale spark that she’s looking for, something cheesy, bold, and fearlessly lovey-dovey like The Notebook.
Yes, Amaya Papaya, your passionate kiss-in-the-rain moment does exist somewhere out there, if not on TV, and so does your Noah, who will literally build a house with blue (or pink) shutters and a wraparound porch for you. Keep faith!
Chelley: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Chelley matches energy. Period. She doesn’t want to chase; she wants to be chased, and she lets Ace and every man pursuing her know that. But being the oldest in the villa and reaching the end of her journey with a rocky foundation with Ace, Chelley’s mix of maturity and indecisiveness works against her.
I would recommend she make friends with Jane Austen heroines like Anne Elliot, who is also 27 years old, mature, but allows herself to be persuaded to break off her engagement to Captain Frederick Wentworth due to his social status. She regrets her choice and is constantly in her head rethinking the what-ifs that linger chaotically and passionately in her mind, just like how Chelley is second-guessing herself in the confessionals and deep chats with her fellow island girlies.
Chelley still explored new connections and refused to close things off with Ace, even when there were only a few days left of her stay at the villa, but maybe it’s time she realized that she had the best match in front of her the whole time.
Olandria: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Olandria loves herself a country man. She’s said this time and time again, even wearing cowboy hats around the villa to make sure every man who’s never been on a horse before stays at least three feet away from her at all times. She found an early connection with Taylor from day one, finding his Oklahoma City and rodeo roots the most attractive thing about him.
But Taylor left Olandria for the vultures when he took a new interest in Casa Amor’s Clarke, causing Olandria to be single and up for elimination two times over. Although Olandria wanted to win Taylor’s favor by taking sexy pictures in the photobooth and asking him what she could do to take their relationship to a better place, their moment (and spark) never came back.
Olandria needs to become detached from her country type and branch out to men that will appreciate her effort, loyalty, and respect, and what better way to do that than totally traumatize herself from the country and the men in it completely? Cormac McCarthy is a master at depicting the evil nature of the human condition, especially in the background of the American West. In No Country for Old Men, a drug deal goes wrong near the Texas-Mexico border, and Llewelyn Moss finds a briefcase of money in the desert, becoming the target of hitman Anton Chigurh.
The book questions the human capacity for violence and mercy, along with the struggle between good and evil. It has enough blood, sweat, and tears between the pages that would make Olandria want to move to the city for good, which is just what she needs after Taylor’s shady moves and suspicious betrayals.
Nic: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Come on. Maybe Nic will rip a page out of Ace’s The 48 Laws of Power to make a paper airplane or boat, but he’s having a blast in the villa. He was the first to lock in with his couple-mate Cierra, closing things off and sailing smoothly in their world of love without worrying about elimination threats. And after Cierra went home, he got together with his bestie/situationship/villa soulmate Olandria. Easy peasy.
Nic might get bored when his other single friends try to impress their ladies, so touching the fun little fruit and vegetable shapes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar will keep him entertained for 40 seconds until Olandria comes to bed, which will also last another 40 seconds… if he’s lucky this time.
The Love Island USA season 7 cast are all just as complex and entertaining as characters in books — I mean, you need to be a little whimsical if you’re willing to share a bed/bathroom with over 15 horned-up Americans. Hey, maybe even one of the Islanders can write a book about it once they get out into the real world.
Did Love Island leave you completely faithless and skeptical about finding true love? We still got you covered with our Not-So-Romantic Recommendations.
Or, are you interested in romantic story recommendations to fill that Love Island-shaped hole in your heart? Click here for our Bookshop shelf recommendations.
