How to use this list to support your own journey reading more books in Spanish:

Why this list? This is not supposed to be a perfect list of the best books you could read in Spanish or that will suddenly make you fluent. It's a list of books that I have enjoyed and found accessible as someone who started learning Spanish as an adult (and now lives in Spain). I hope it will be helpful for you as you start your own journey reading in Spanish.

I created this list because when I started wanting to read novels in Spanish I kept seeing the same advice (and book recommendations). But I quickly got bored trying to read books in Spanish that I'd already read in English, and while The Little Prince is a sweet story, it's not for me.

Instead, I had a breakthrough when I started to read books written in Spanish that didn't have an English translation (or that I had never read in English). For me, the curiosity of wanting to know what happened was the motivation I needed to push through and start reading regularly in Spanish. (I also go to a local book group now, and having deadlines for my Spanish reading has been a game changer!)

How to use this list: If there's a book included in a genre that you love and know the tropes of really well, I'd recommend starting there. Otherwise, I'd use this list as a starting point for your own experimentation, so you can find a process for reading in Spanish that works for you. Think about the genres you love, your hobbies, and what books are accessible to you where you live. Good luck!

Here's a quick note about why each book is included in the list:

Las Pruebas de Unter por Mia Faraday. A dystopian fantasy novel with romance on the side. It's written in first person from the point-of-view of Nova Black, a 19-year rebel who's about to apply to take part in a Hunger Games-style competition to escape the underground bunker she lives in and move into the world of privilege above ground. This book is written in the present tense, so in that respect is probably the most accessible book on this list. Read if you enjoyed The Hunger Games or Fourth Wing, or have read a lot of books in the Games & Trials Quest.

Planeta por Ana Oncina - A sci-fi graphic novel featuring sapphic romance. On another planet, Valentina lives isolated with her partner, Ane, and is struggling with her mental health living in a world that's almost entirely virtual. On Earth, Valentina is a potter who lives in a cozy cabin with her dog, and meets a cute girl, Ane, who's visiting their small town. We're not sure what's real and what's a dream and what the timeline is. There's not too much slang. The illustrations are stunning, and I loved how much the colours change depending on whose story we're following at any given moment.

La clase de cómic por Mark Crilley* - A graphic novel about how to write a graphic novel. We follow the story of Emily, a girl who wants to write a comic and meets various people working in the industry who help her realise her dream. Since this is effectively a how-to guide, the illustrations (helpfully) tend to illustrate the text in a fairly obvious way.

El latido de las mariposas por May R Ayamonte - A crime thriller set in Granada, Spain (where I live). The investigator has a heart condition that's shared by the author, which creates some unique challenges. It includes a messy love triangle with the investigator's ex-husband. Good if you're familiar with police procedurals so you understand the general beats of the story or are interested in exploring a bit of southern Spain.

Dorayaki por Durian Sukegawa - Originally written in Japanese, this translation works really well with short sentences and chapters. It's about a guy working in a dorayaki shop who's struggling with his life choices. There's a lot of beautiful imagery about the seasons and it's more focused on the relationship between various characters (with a slower-moving plot). Good if you like cooking or stories about how we rectify systemic injustice.

Mujeres que arden por Maria Esclapez - The author is a clinical psychologist, just like the main POV protagonist, Eleonor, whose life is falling apart. She’s just quit her job, broken up with her toxic boyfriend, and escaped to Toledo to stay in the house of her grandfather, who’s recently died. In the unexpected mess of her grandfather’s house, Eleonor finds a handwritten diary from the sixteenth century, and a significant part of the remaining story is told from the perspective of that unknown woman writer. As a result, we get to travel to the Toledo of the sixteenth century, when the city was an important seat for the Inquisition and its related witch trials. The main storyline is a mystery, but there are also strong themes of self-transformation, finding romance in unexpected places, and challenging patriarchal framings of the past.

Acuarela contemporánea in situ por Marion Rivolier - Originally written in French, this is a guide on how to start painting loosely with watercolour en plein air. It includes practical exercises you can do to ground the teachings in the book. This is one of the first books I ever read in Spanish, and it was helpful because I was already going to a local urban sketching group, so the subject matter was familiar, but I didn't have any of the vocabularly in Spanish. Rivolier also has a very different style to me, so it was fun to explore some of her techniques.

Este Invierno por Alice Oseman - If you've read any of Oseman's Heartstopper graphic novels in English, I recommend listening to this audiobook, which is about an hour long. It's Christmas Day, and while Charlie and his siblings believe it's supposed to be a day everyone loves, the reality is more complicated. The story's split into three sections, each told from the POV of a different sibling. The vocabulary is focused on every-day topics: Christmas, sibling relationships and your annoying relatives who ask inappropriate questions about your boyfriend. Trigger warning for discussions about eating disorders.

La biblioteca de la medianoche por Matt Haig - Nora doesn't want to be alive anymore, but instead of death she finds herself in a library where each book on the shelf represents a different life she could be living in another universe. We get lots of vocabulary about every-day life as Nora travels to different countries where she has different careers and relationships. Haig is English and I was familiar with a lot of the locations in the novel (but haven't read it in English).

I've read all the books on this list and will be adding to it over time. (All of these books are also readily available in my local bookstores in Spain.)

If you're looking for extra inspiration or potential reads in other genres, see my pinned shelf 'Spanish TBR' here, full of books I want to read in Spanish.

I also recommend checking out the Latin America Horror and ¡Ay wey! Mexican Authors Quests if you normally read horror or are interested in Mexico.

Last updated: 23 September 2026

My situation is a little different to yours, but what you're saying makes sense to me. I'm an English speaker who now lives in Spain, and I definitely feel similarly if I read books originally written in English that have been translated into Spanish. Because you're not just translating a language, it's also all the cultural differences and idioms and shared humour, etc.

Here are a couple of books that I've enjoyed lately in Spanish:

• Planeta by Ana Oncina - a queer sci-fi / romance graphic novel with beautiful illustrations (although note it has some casual drug use and a character struggling with their mental health, in case they are triggers for you).
• El latido de las mariposas by Mar R Ayamonte - crime novel with a romance sub-plot set in and around Granada. The main character has a heart condition that's shared by the author, which creates some unique challenges.
• Dorayaki by Durian Sukegawa - translated from Japanese but I thought this translation worked really well. It's about a guy working in a dorayaki shop who's struggling with his life choices. (I didn't find this triggering but you may want to double check the content warnings on Storygraph for this one.)

The book on my TBR that I'm most excited about is Siempre Nos Quedará Seúl by Mikey Fernández. It's a queer retelling of my favourite Jane Austen novel, Persuasion, set in Korea.

And I'm currently reading Las pruebas de Unter by Mia Faraday for my book club. It's a mix between The Hunger Games and Fourth Wing - it's quite silly, but I'm having a good time.

I hope something here helps! I'm always looking for more Spanish-speaking authors to try, so if you have recommendations for books you've loved in the past, I'd love to add them to my TBR. And if you ever want to buddy read something in Spanish let me know :)

Pick Your Poison: Book-ish Edition: 1. I would reluctantly choose the sticker and maybe cover it with a real one that's less egregious. 2. I prefer to read a paperback to a hardcover, so I guess I would choose all paperbacks (with the last one being a different size). 3. Miscommunication is my most hated trope so the characters can have a third act breakup if they promise to get back together by the end. 4. I'd rather wait 10 years for the 5-star hits - gotta let my fave author cook! And if the books are that good, I can do a few re-reads in the meantime. 5. It's easier to ignore illogical worldbuilding if the character development is good. 6. I'd rather wait for my Libby holds to come and be able to read what I want. I can reread the books I have in the meantime or buy something locally (where my English-language options are more limited). 7. Honestly sometimes I spoil the ending myself if I'm feeling too much anxiety for the characters, so a five-star read that's spoiled. I love all the genres, like romance and procedurals, where you know what the outcome's going to be for the most part and seeing how the characters get there is the point. 8. I'd read books 300 pages or less because longer books can normally be split into smaller chunks anyway. Although I also love 500 page books so I'm relatively relaxed about this one, but shorter books means I can more easily read in Spanish, too. 9. The romance is incredible but with a poor plot. Similar to the worldbuilding, I can forgive a lot if there's interesting character development. 10. Okay I think this is the exception to everything I've said above about character development. I need the author to land the ending of a series, and I'm willing for it to be a tragedy as long as it hasn't been sold to me as a happily-ever-after.

Whew, this was a ride for a Friday afternoon, but quite fun! Now I'm off to read something poison-free 🥳