20 Books Like It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

Book Summary

The book has alternating narration between two twin sisters, Fern and Rose. Fern thrives on routine and must avoid crowds and noise. She does all she can to avoid getting upset because that has led to tragedy in the past. 

Rose is her rock, so when Fern finds out Rose can’t have a baby, she decides to get pregnant and give Rose her baby to pay her back for always taking care of her. In her mind, this is a straightforward plan. But the plan ends up revealing layers of dark secrets along the way.

Book Summary

When a Vietnam POW returns home, he carries new anger and impulsiveness. Determined to stand by her husband, his wife agrees with his plan to move his family to Alaska to live off the grid. Soon after arriving, the harsh reality of rural Alaska sets in for 13-year-old Leni and her mom.

For a while, things were better with her dad as they spent the fall season preparing for their first Alaskan winter. Unfortunately, she correctly feared his more balanced self was only temporary.

Book Summary

In this story of love and loss, Emma married her high school sweetheart, Jesse. The two are building a life of adventure together on the West Coast, far from the expectations of their families back east. But on their first wedding anniversary, Jesse’s helicopter crashes over the Pacific Ocean and he is assumed dead. 

Just like that, the book closes on the fairy tale life that Emma thought would be her happily ever after. She moves back home to Massachusettes to rebuild her life. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma finally found love again after reuniting with an old friend, Sam. But when Jesse is found alive after more than four years, Emma will be forced to choose between her husband and her fiance.

Book Summary

Dill’s father is a Pentecostal minister who first drew attention for his extreme beliefs and then for a scandal. His friend Travis has his own demons in the form of an abusive father, so he escapes into a book series called Bloodfall. Dill has secret feelings for friend Lydia, a free-spirited and sarcastic fashion blogger who dreams of leaving rural Tennessee and heading to New York. 

Woven into this story of three unlikely friends trying to navigate the end of high school are stories of small-town life and themes of courage. But you’ll also need a box of tissues handy! 

Book Summary

Ruth Jefferson is a 44-year-old labor and delivery nurse with twenty years of experience at a Connecticut hospital. After being reassigned away from a patient, she learns that the parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child.

The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey the orders of her superiors based on the parent’s mandate, or does she intervene?

This story is told from three alternating points of view: Ruth, the nurse; Kennedy, her middle-aged attorney; and Turk, the newborn’s white supremacist father.

Book Summary

Newlywed Ruth is a law school graduate and has an independent streak stronger than most young women in her posh neighborhood. However, she still wants to impress her mother-in-law, who has signed Ruth up for etiquette lessons with Lillian Diamond. 

Fellow etiquette-classmate Carrie is quiet, but has a dark secret. As witty Ruth befriends Carrie, they form an unbreakable bond. Ruth pushes Lillian and all of her Diamond Girls to question the status quo and stretch beyond their comfort zones as they unite to protect one of their own.

Book Summary

Macy and her dad spend their weekends at a house in the charming town of Healdsburg, where they can escape their daily lives in San Francisco. While the house starts as a place to process their grief, they gain even more than they expected. The large family across the street, starting with son Elliot, quickly becomes more than just casual neighbors.

Elliot and Macy soon bond over their love of books and their favorite words. Over time, their teenage friendship grows into romance.

The book is told in a split timeline. You watch their relationship develop as teens but also see Macy eleven years later working on her pediatrics residency in San Francisco. She’s engaged to someone else when she unexpectedly runs into Elliot at a coffee shop.

Upon seeing him, her long-repressed emotions come rushing back. Something happened in the past to tear them apart, but their chemistry is as strong as ever. For a shot at a future, they’ll be forced to come to terms with both the past and the present.

Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old April has a rough life, fending for herself in a motorless motorhome that her father won while playing poker. She works at a diner but dreams of being a songwriter. After flunking out of school and another fight with her dad, April sets off to find a better life for herself.

Along the way, she meets others with complex stories, which are the perfect inspiration for her songs. But even more important than that, she finds that family doesn’t have to mean the community you were born into. Instead, people you meet can become family.

Book Summary

When Sadie doesn’t get the promotion she both needs and expects, she immediately adds three things to her to-do list – a drink, a one-night stand, and a new place to live. Unfortunately, she tackles these tasks in the wrong order. The drinks turn into Sadie mixing up a dating app and a roommate app. Whoops!

Jack has been dealing with his parents’ unexpected death by escaping into movies and video games alone. After hearing her story, he offers Sadie the spare bedroom in his gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone at an excellent price, even though he wasn’t looking for a roommate.

The cheap rent lets her grow her former side business as a florist into a full-time gig. But how long can these polar opposites happily coexist in one house?

Book Summary

Charlotte feels adrift. She’s spent her twenties bouncing from job to job and guy to guy, just waiting for something to hold her interest. But all that changes when she meets a gorgeous painter named Adam. Like her, he seems to be lost. The two feel an instant attraction and spend one amazing night together – filled with champagne, Chinese food, and the best conversation. But there are also red flags. Adam gives Charlotte the cold shoulder when the morning rolls around, leaving her both hurt and confused.

When she’s still unable to get Adam off her mind months later, Charlotte is determined to find out why he pushed her away after their perfect night together. Will this decision rewrite their love story, or has the ending already been written?

Book Summary

This novel tells the intertwined tale of three moms whose children attend the same primary school in suburban Sydney.

Forty-year-old Madeline is funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is beautiful, but the illusion of perfection comes at a price. Single mom Jane is new to town and has a mysterious past. She’s so young that other moms mistake her for a nanny.

The three women at the heart of this story are very different, but a schoolyard scandal threatens to expose each of their lies.

Book Summary

From the outside, it appears that Alice has a perfect marriage. But the reality is very different. She has, in fact, been unhappily married for 50 years. Her husband, Ken, becomes violent when he’s angry. Alice always put up with it because she thought she was putting the needs of her kids ahead of her own.

But now their two sons are grown up. One son, Tim, is a successful banker living nearby with his wife and children. The other son, Matt, bounced around from job to job and is now traveling abroad. Alice can’t keep track of what continent he’s on. At 69 years old, Alice is finally beginning to wonder if she made the right decision for all these years, and what would happen if she finally decided to put her needs first.

The character-driven story is told in three parts: first showing us what Alice’s marriage looked like over the past 50 years; then from Tim’s perspective as he and his wife chase their dreams; and then we meet Matt, “the other son,” whose story helps to put all the pieces together. This book deals with challenging issues, but the author does not rely on graphic descriptions of violence, and there are also humorous moments.

Book Summary

In this emotional rollercoaster, Dannie Kohan is a rising Manhattan attorney who just nailed an important job interview and then got engaged. She’s had one heck of a great day and goes to bed confident that she’s on track to achieve her five-year plan.

When she wakes up, she finds herself in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger and next to a different man. It’s still December 15th – but it’s now 2025, five years later. One intense and shocking hour later, Dannie wakes up again back in 2020.

Was it all a very realistic dream? She decides it must have been and tries to forget all about it. But the memory is suddenly brought back to the surface when, four and a half years later, Dannie meets the man from her dream.

Book Summary

In Cedar Falls, Iowa there are two women, each named Janine Brown, who desperately need their own fresh starts. One is heartbroken from a loss, and the other has an abusive boyfriend she is desperate to escape. 

When a home and garden TV network announces that Janine Brown from Cedar Falls, Iowa has won a dream home in Maine, they both assume they are the winner. When each Janine (nicknamed Janey & Nean) arrives in Maine, they discover the mix-up, but neither is ready to return to their prior reality. 

While both of their stories are compelling and will stir your emotions, wise and witty Aunt Midge provides a lighter break to keep things from being too heavy. She’ll keep you laughing while the younger Janines sort through past hurts and try to find the best way forward in life.

Book Summary

What if Lily had to leave Boston and start life over in a new town? 

In the novel Safe Haven, Katie arrives in a North Carolina town with a lot of secrets. Although she tries to keep to herself, widowed dad Alex begins capturing her heart. 

As Katie becomes attached to Alex and his children, she wants to put down roots but remains terrified of her past’s secrets. A new friend, Jo, lends consistent support as Katie tries to choose between remaining on the run and opening her heart to real love. 

As with most Nicholas Sparks books, you’ll experience an array of emotions while reading. Reviewers enjoyed Safe Haven because it adds suspense to his standard romance themes.

Book Summary

When night-shift worker Leon needs some extra cash to help a family member, he decides to get a roommate.

The problem is that he has a one-bedroom apartment with one bed. So, he places an ad for someone to sleep in his bed while he’s at work. They’ll never be home at the same time, but it’s still a crazy plan.

Thankfully, it’s just the solution newly single Tiffy needs.

Several of their post-it note conversations back and forth made us laugh out loud. There’s also a mix of humor and more serious topics if you’re looking for a rom-com with substance.

Book Summary

Samantha is a school librarian who loves her current job and has a bold zest for life…but she hasn’t always been that way. Duncan, the new school principal, is very regimented and unwilling to stray from the rules…but he hasn’t always been that way.

Sam and Duncan have met before. They worked together at another school years ago, back when they were both very different people. When Duncan takes over as the new principal at Sam’s school, she’s shocked to discover that the fun-loving guy she remembers has turned into a completely different person – one she’s afraid will ruin everything she loves about her loving and welcoming school community.

As things spiral out of control, Sam and Duncan are forced to get real with one another and reveal their past traumas to save the school and themselves.

Book Summary

Born a Crime is the true story of Daily Show host Trevor Noah’s childhood and into his early adulthood. His rise to success was unlikely based on his beginning. Trevor was born in South Africa in 1984 to a white father and black mother. His parents could have been imprisoned for five years – or worse – for conceiving him. He spent his early years largely hidden from life outside because his mother feared (with good reason) that he could be removed from her custody because of the apartheid rules of segregation.

In true Trevor Noah fashion, you’ll be entertained while also receiving an education on life in apartheid South Africa. He manages to explain the extremely complex system of apartheid in accessible terms by drawing on examples and comparisons.

When the era of white rule officially ended in the early 1990s, it was far from the end of the family’s troubles. From attempted kidnappings and domestic violence to high school dating drama, you’ll find a mixture of relatable and shocking stories that keep you engaged with every page.