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Colorado Books: The Best Books Set in the Centennial State
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge or simply found your way to our website researching books set in Colorado, we’ve curated a diverse list of highly-rated titles about the Centennial State! If you’re looking for another state, check our comprehensive list of books set in every state.
A Few Things Colorado is Known For…
Colorado is known as the Centennial State because it gained statehood in 1876, one century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Best known for the Rocky Mountains, Colorado draws visitors from around the world each year for sightseeing and adventure sports. Residents of this state discuss elevation perhaps more than anyone else. Colorado is home to 58 peaks above 14,000 feet of elevation, referred to as the fourteeners or 14ers, and many locals make it their mission to climb all of them. Additionally, the capital city of Denver is one mile above sea level, so you’ll see the number 5280 (the number of feet in a mile) everywhere you go.
East of the Rockies, the foothills give way to the start of the Great Plains. Covering 2/5ths of the area of the state, this region of Colorado is the most productive, thanks to flat land, fertile soils, and strong yields in cattle, poultry, sheep, corn, wheat, hay, sunflowers, and sugar beets.
Before the building boom of the 1980s and the population explosion in the 2000s, Denver was considered a sleepy “cow town.” While it’s now the 19th most populous city in the US with a vibrant arts and culture scene, it still celebrates its roots for two weeks each January with the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo.
The Best Novels Set in Colorado
Gilded Mountain
Book Summary
The Padgett family’s marble-mining company dominates the town of Moonstone. Sylvie’s father works for them, and she knows the workers are discontent with how they are treated. When she leaves her mountain cabin to work for the Padgetts in their manor, she’s in awe of the luxury they live in.
While the Padgetts express lofty philosophical ideals, Sylvie notices the contrast between the talk and the real-life labor practices that created the Padgett fortune. Their servants, the Gradys, are formerly enslaved people who are also aware of the hypocrisy. The Gradys plan to leave the Padgetts and form a new utopian community on the Colorado prairie.
Outside the manor, labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The newspaper editor is also involved and regularly publishes unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie is stuck in the middle, with conflicting loyalties, until she is forced to choose sides.
The Book Girls Say…
This historical fiction is filled with true stories of Colorado in the early 1900s, including tales of the real labor activist “Mother Jones”. The Financial Panic of 1907 is also covered.
Go As a River
Book Summary
This novel transports you to 1940s rural Colorado and the home of teenager Victoria Nash. Despite her young age, she runs the household as the sole female in a family of troubled men. One day, she meets Wilson Moon, a mysterious young drifter who has been displaced from his tribal land. Their sudden and passionate connection is full of danger and secrets.
Victoria ends up fleeing to the harsh mountain wilderness in a small hut, where she struggles against impossible conditions. As the Gunnison River rises and threatens her homeland, she begins a quest to fight for all she has lost.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a great pick if you enjoy deep and descriptive, character-driven reads. While much of the book is slower-paced, the final chapters are said to be the best.
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The Gifted School
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Book Summary
This juicy contemporary drama focuses on four families that have been friends since their children were born. However, secrets and resentments were buried along the way.
Early in the book, we are introduced to each of these families as they discuss a new, exclusive school that will be opening in the town of Crystal, Colorado (which many readers will recognize as a slightly fictionalized version of Boulder, CO). What starts as good intentions is quickly derailed by very questionable actions as they each fight to get their kids into the new school. These ambitious parents will go to any length to secure a spot for their children. Along the way, secrets and lies will resurface in explosive ways.
This novel explores issues of talent versus privilege, achievement versus potential, and the pursuit of prestige at any cost.
The Book Girls Say…
Author Bruce Holsinger once taught English literature at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has confirmed in interviews that the town of Crystal, where he set his story, is a “reimagined Boulder.” Boulder, located about 30 miles outside of Denver, sits in the shadow of the Flatirons – the striking, reddish sandstone formations that make up a portion of the foothills. In addition to being a popular college town, Boulder is also a major tech hub. It was recently named the seventh most expensive real estate market in the country.
This book is on the longer side at 560 pages, and it may take several chapters to keep the large cast of characters straight, but it’s worth sticking with it! We highly recommend the audio version of the book, as the narrator did an excellent job.
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Little Souls
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Book Summary
While the first world war raged in 1918, the world was also fighting a second battle against the Spanish Flu. In Denver, schools were turned into hospitals, and horse-drawn wagons must continually collect corpses from the streets. Sisters Helen and Lutie are new Denver residents, moving after the death of their parents in Iowa.
Nurse Helen has found a new beau who is a doctor, and Lutie works in advertising at a chic store. To help make ends meet, they have a tenant in the basement of their tidy home. However, when she passes from the flu, they find themselves unexpected caretakers for her young daughter, Dorothy. Their lives take another turn when Lutie arrives home from work to see Dorothy’s father dead in their kitchen. Worse, Helen is standing over him with an ice pick.
The sisters devise a plan to leave him in the street and hope he’s mistaken for yet another flu victim.
The Book Girls Say…
Reviewers say the author transports you directly to 1918 Denver and the constant challenges women of the time endured. This historical fiction also has threads of mystery and romance.
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Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
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Book Summary
Looking for an eerie mystery that’s perfect for book lovers wanting to read something a bit haunting around Halloween?
This highly-rated debut novel follows a bookshop employee named Lydia, who ends up investigating the suicide of one of her bookshop regulars. As Lydia delves into his past, she also uncovers a buried memory from her own violent childhood.
This is a twisty crime thriller with a very creative puzzle element that will keep readers guessing.
The Book Girls Say…
Colorado-based readers will recognize the Bright Ideas bookstore as The Tattered Cover. In the mid-1990s, the area of downtown Denver known as LoDo, which would become very trendy by the next decade, was still primarily a warehouse district and was very rough around the edges. One of LoDo’s main draws at that time was a newly opened bookstore, known as the Tattered Cover, that boasted 20,000 square feet of space over four floors of a historic warehouse building.
Author Mark Sullivan was a bookseller at this Denver book institution during the 1990s and used the store as his inspiration. His novel does an excellent job of capturing what Denver was like during this decade.
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Wandering Stars
Book Summary
This novel traces the history of Colorado’s Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, and also explores how the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was impacted by a traumatic event involving Orvil Red Feather in Tommy Orange’s acclaimed There There.
In the 19th century, Star is a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre who is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle under the evangelical guard of Richard Henry Platt. Platt would go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded with the intent to eradicate Native history and culture. A generation after the Massacre, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school where he is brutalized by Platt.
In Oakland in 2018, Opal is trying to hold her family together after her nephew Orvil’s near-death experience. Beginning during his recovery in the hospital, Orvil becomes obsessed with researching similar incidents online, all the while becoming dependant on prescription medication. His younger brother, Lonny, has PTSD from the event.
The Book Girls Say…
In this new novel, Orange builds on some of the narratives in his 2018 debut novel, looking both back and forward in time. If you haven’t yet read There There, you may prefer to begin there. We’ve been carefully not to put any direct spoilers of the first novel in our description above, but most other synosis you’ll find online are more specific – so avoid reading to much more about Wandering Stars if you want to start with There There.
Keep in mind that these are not light or easy novels to read, so be sure that you’e in the right frame of mind when you pick up either book.
Author Tommy Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and he was born and raised in Oakland, California.
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All Rhodes Lead Here
Book Summary
After her marriage ends, 33-year-old Aurora decides to head back to Pagosa Springs in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains for a fresh start. It’s the only place she’s ever really considered home. She rents a garage apartment in town, but it turns out the owner’s son had listed it for rent without his father’s knowledge or permission in order to get money for a guitar that he desperately wants to buy. Aurora convinces the owner, Tobias Rhodes, to let her stay for one month.
Aurora is on a journey of recovery – both from her relationship and from a loss twenty years in her past. Rhodes is a grumpy man of few words, and his teen son, Amos, is described by reviewers as one of the most authentically written teens you’ll ever read. As time goes on, Aurora and Rhodes slowly become friends, and then eventually more.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a long book (nearly 600 pages) with a very slow-burn romance with a meandering plot. The reviews are excellent, but don’t pick this book if you’re looking for a fast-paced read. But if you want to read a contemporary novel set in the mountains of Colorado, readers say that the beautiful descriptions in this one will have you itching to lace up your hiking boots and get outside! Additionally, this book also delves into some deeper topics, including grief, trauma, and mental health.
Note: Reviewers say this book includes some swearing and sex scenes, so skip it if that’s not your thing.
The Bookseller
Book Summary
By day, Kitty is a single woman who owns a bookstore in Denver with her best friend, Frieda. In 1962, it was unconventional for a woman of her age to be an unmarried business owner, but she enjoyed having complete control over her day-to-day life without a husband to answer to. However, there was a man in her life once that she might have considered marrying—a doctor named Kevin.
But at night, Kitty leads an alternate life in her dreams. In this dream reality, Kitty goes by Katharyn, and the year is 1963. She’s married to the love of her life, a man named Lars. Together they live in an elegant Denver home and have triplets.
This life is everything that she once thought she wanted, and at first, Kitty enjoys her nightly visits to this alternate reality. But soon, Kitty begins to find Katharyn’s life irresistible. As the lines between her real life and her dream life begin to blur, she wonders if she can choose the life she wants – and if so, at what cost?
The Book Girls Say…
The Bookseller is set right in Book Girl Angela’s own little neighborhood in Denver! Locals will recognize Platt Park’s Old South Pearl Street during its cable car days and will enjoy stepping back in time to a decade when the University Hills were considered a southern suburb.
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Plainsong
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Book Summary
Set in the fictional eastern high plains town of Holt, Colorado, this novel centers around several different characters that span four generations in a small town. A high school teacher is raising his two sons alone after their mother leaves. A pregnant teenage girl has been evicted by her mother. And two elderly bachelor brothers live together out in the country, continuing to work their family homestead.
The Book Girls Say…
A decade ago, at the Denver Center Theater Company, Angela saw the premier of the very moving play that was developed from this novel, and she’s wanted to read the book ever since. However, some people are turned off by the lack of quotation marks. Others note there are some explicit scenes and language.
This is the first in a series of three, so keep in mind that not every issue in the book is resolved in this book.
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The Night of Many Endings
Book Summary
Colorado librarian Nora had a rough start to life, first orphaned and then witnessing her brother’s fall into addiction. However, she’s still open-hearted and hopes to be reunited with her brother. Nora feeds her desire to give her brother another chance by helping others in need of someone on their side.
Marlene is elderly and has lost hope in the world, Jasmine is a troubled teen, Lewis is a homeless man with his own last wish, and Vlado is the library’s book-loving security guard.
When the group has to shelter in the library with Nora during a storm, they learn more about each other (and themselves) than they could have expected.
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Woman of Light
Book Summary
This novel begins in Denver in the 1930s, where Luz “Little Light” Lopez begins working for a prominent civil rights attorney. Luz begins to have intense visions of her ancestors in the old west, including her grandmother (who the author says is somewhat loosely based on sharp-shooter Annie Oakley), and her great-grandfather (an indigenous man who leaves the Pueblos in Northern New Mexico).
Told in a non-linear timeline, this novel explores five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family. It will transport you to the wild American West, as well as to the city of Denver, which was deeply segregated in the 1920s and 30s.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel is based on the author’s own ancestors who lived in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. She spent over 10 years researching and writing this novel, beginning when she was a teenager hearing family stories from her aunt Lucy, who inspired the character of Luz in the novel.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine also has a highly-rated short story collection set in Denver, Colorado, called Sabrina & Corina.
No Exit
Book Summary
College student Darby is driving to Utah to see her dying mother when she’s caught in a dangerous blizzard in the Colorado mountains. She pulls off the road to a remote rest stop and finds four other travelers have done the same.
There’s no phone signal inside, so Darby heads back into the cold, hoping she’ll be able to make a call. Instead, she’s horrified to see a little girl trapped in an animal crate in the van next to her car. With no telephone and no passable roads to drive on, she’s trapped at the rest stop.
Darby knows one of the strangers inside must be the kidnapper. How can she save the girl and herself?
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Book Summary
Influencer Mia Bell has lived her life online for years, and what makes better content than planning a wedding? Every aspect of the elaborate affair is being entirely paid for by sponsors. There’s only one problem – she’s no longer engaged. To save face (and sponsors) she fakes the wedding. When the pressure gets to be too much, Mia retreats to her mother’s home in Colorado. She impulsively throws her phone over a cliff, vowing to live off-line and off-the-grid for a while.
Mia’s followers are concerned about her sudden absence, but techie longer Paige sees it as an opportunity. Motivated by her desire to bond with her sister, Jessica, Paige hacks into Mia’s account and begins impersonating Mia. Paige begins to enjoy her fake life a bit too much, causing chaos along the way.
The Book Girls Say…
This book includes plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, but it also addresses some heavier topics, like mental health. Many readers specifically note enjoying all of the outdoorsy Colorado scenes, and dog lovers will especially love the spotlight role played by Mia’s beloved English bulldog.
Hadley & Grace
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Book Summary
Hadley needs to escape her physically abusive husband, Frank, to protect herself, her teenage daughter, and her special needs nephew. Grace is a new mother struggling with single-parenting while her husband is away. Hadley’s husband, Frank, has just cheated Grace out of her commission on a business deal.
One Friday night, these two women cross paths and form an alliance that sets the stage for a road trip adventure with major Thelma and Louise vibes (minus the violence). Together, Hadley and Grace, with three children in tow, are racing to stay one step ahead of the trouble that is chasing them – trouble in the form of Frank, the FBI, and the media. This is a humorous and adventurous feel-good story about two women trying to outsmart everyone to protect their families.
The Book Girls Say…
The characters depart from California and drive through the west, through deserts and small towns to big cities. Reader’s note specifically enjoying the time spent at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado.
This Thelma & Louise-esque novel is good fun, but it also deals with heavier issues, like domestic abuse, gambling, and murder.
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Centennial
Book Summary
This classic Western saga was written to commemorate Colorado’s centennial (the bicentennial of America). Michener is known for his extremely detailed research and this novel is described as the story of Colorado and a celebration of the American frontier told in a more thorough way than you could learn from an entire history class on the subject.
The Book Girls Say…
Although this book continues to receive high ratings more than forty years after its publication, it’s important to remember that the author’s depictions of Native Americans, Mexicans, Black people, and women, among others, reflect the time frame in which it was written. Recent reviewers report that while Michener acknowledges injustices, his treatment of such issues is quite different in his later works.
Highly-Rated Non-Fiction Books About Colorado
While there are countless non-fiction and history books about Colorado, we’ve included just those that have specifically been the highly-rated by us and our readers.
Mile High Stories
Book Summary
This fascinating collection includes some of the best narrative long-form journalism from Denver’s award-winning 5280 Magazine, dating all the way back to its inception in 1993.
The Book Girls Say…
Book Girl Angela, a proud Denverite, has been a loyal reader of 5280 Magazine for nearly two decades. Admittedly, though, she often browses the magazine without reading some of the long-form articles. Picking up this collection provided the perfect opportunity to finally dig into that writing and learn some fascinating Colorado stories along the way.
Tell me Everything
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Book Summary
This non-fiction book is part memoir and part literary true crime. It takes us deep inside the landmark sexual assault investigation into the University of Colorado football program through the eyes of the private investigator who helped crack the case open.
When Erika Krouse was assigned to investigate the sexual assault of a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party the year before, she knows she should turn the case down because her own personal experience with sexual violence makes it feel too personal… but that’s exactly why she takes the job. Over the next five years, as the investigation grew into a national scandal and historic civil rights case, she had to struggle to win the case without losing herself too deep into it.
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Book Summary
The Newcomers follows twenty-two immigrant teenagers throughout the 2015-2016 school year as they land at South High School in Denver, Colorado. Ranging in age from fourteen to nineteen, most of these students came directly from refugee camps in countries plagued by war, famine, or drought.
The book follows the student’s English language education with their dedicated and creative teacher, Mr. Williams. As they get a grasp of the languages, their individual histories unfold and add faces, names, and stories to those seeking asylum.
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Christmas Books Set in Colorado
The Christmas Swap
Book Summary
This festive, funny, and heartwarming Christmas novel is the perfect Hallmark-style armchair travel read that balances friendship and romance! Chloe, Jules, and Lucy met on vacation as kids. They’ve been best friends ever since, despite living on three different continents.
Twenty-two years later, they decide to swap homes for Christmas… Lucy travels to snowy Breckenridge, Colorado; Jules escapes down under for a summery Christmas in Melbourne, Australia; and Chloe travels halfway around the world for a quiet holiday in a quaint English village.
The Book Girls Say…
If you’ve seen the movie The Holiday, then the concept will sound familiar, but this book has even more to offer!
All three of the locations in this book were already very near and dear to Angela’s heart, but the author captures each locale so perfectly that you’ll feel like you’ve been there, too!
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The Christmas Wager
Book Summary
There are only eight days until Christmas, and the Maple Falls Holiday Games will determine the selling price of the quaint mountain town’s failing Christmas shop. The Holiday Games are an annual tradition of eccentric strength and skill challenges.
The first competitor is Bella, an LA-based real estate developer who needs to score a great deal on the shop to secure a big promotion. Her rival in the Games is Jess, the shop owner’s stubborn grandson, who wants the highest price possible. As days pass by, Jess and Bella’s icy feelings for each other begin to thaw. But someone still has to win…
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The Worst Noel
Book Summary
Lilly is a single mom to two teenagers, a jewelry shop owner, and the local Chamber of Commerce president. She is as busy as ever this Christmas and definitely didn’t have time to find a dead body on the floor of her store.
On top of that, she has to deal with her deadbeat ex-husband and the declining mental health of her mother. When a second dead body appears, Lilly is now the prime suspect and hopes the local police can figure out what is really happening ASAP for any hope of a merry Christmas.
The Book Girls Say…
This Christmas cozy kicks off a series of seven books featuring different holidays. All seven are available with KU. The Worse Noel also includes three recipes!
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Read Around the USA – Books Set in Other States
We hope you enjoyed this book list of books about Colorado and found some great titles to add to your TBR. If you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, be sure to check out our alphabetical index of books set in each state.
You can read all about the Read Around the USA Challenge and sign up for a free printable challenge book tracker here.
