If you’re a fan of MAFS UK - and if you’ve clicked this article, you probably are - then it's safe to say that you’ve got taste. The latest season had explosive fights, cheating scandals, and some genuine connections.
It can be hard to find something to replace MAFS with once the series ends, but hopefully these book recommendations will help tide you over until the next group of romantics walk down the aisle to a total stranger.
The Selection by Kiera Cass
On paper, MAFS UK does sound pretty dystopian; strangers forced to marry at first sight then locked away from all of their friends and family. This novel, published in 2012, has been a dystopian YA romance staple ever since. It already has one film adaptation, and recently Netflix scrapped its highly anticipated version much to the annoyance of fans.
In this book, The Selection is the competition that gives 35 girls the opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth and compete for the heart of Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Like MAFS, this has high stakes, secret affairs, and unlikely attractions - what more could fans of the show want?
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Like the MAFS UK experts, Oliver believes love can be reduced down to an equation, but is love a numbers game? Can the love experts on MAFS UK truly match the contestants with their perfect partner based on an algorithm? This novel, which is now a Netflix movie more succinctly named Love at First Sight, follows Oliver and Hadley’s 24-hour love story, and is the perfect read for any MAFS UK fan.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Arguably one of the greatest love stories every written, you may be wondering what this masterpiece could have in common with MAFS - another masterpiece for very different reasons. This gothic novel tells the story of Cathy and the brooding anti-hero, Heathcliff. They are the blueprint for today’s unlikely pairing trope, which can be found in modern novels as well as, you guessed it, Married At First Sight. While Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship is doomed due to their different classes and expectations, Emily Brontë’s novel is still considered one of the best romantic novels of the past two centuries.
Other People’s Husbands by Elizabeth Noble
With all the couple swapping on MAFS UK, fans of the show love to hate a cheating scandal. So naturally, we had to include a book about adultery. This gripping novel follows a group of friends who are ripped apart by an affair, and it has just enough drama and double-crossing to keep a MAFS UK fan intrigued.
The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
This new novel follows Lucy Young, a 26-year-old unlucky in love production assistant who is desperate to fast-forward to the ‘good part’, where her love life and career are all sorted. After a drunken night, she wakes up to the future she always wanted, complete with the dreamy husband. Much like the contestants on MAFS UK, she must learn to navigate married life while knowing little to nothing about her match. Can Lucy fall in love with a stranger, even if he is technically her husband?
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
At the end of the day, MAFS UK tells the story of people searching for love, much like the protagonist of this novel from Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings (pen name Christina Lauren). Fizzy Chen is a writer looking for love, and she has ironically made her fortune crafting romance novels. She meets Conor Prince, a documentary filmmaker being forced to produce a reality show, who finds the answer to his problems in Fizzy; what if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? This combines the reality show drama of MAFS UK with the heart-warming love-story that the often unexpectedly hits us with.