Picked by Love Comes Softly fans

Here are 4 books that Love Comes Softly fans have personally recommended once you finish the Love Comes Softly series. Book DNA is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of A Curse So Dark and Lonely

Melissa Marr Author Of The Hidden Dragon

From my list on if you want to go on a magical adventure.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on fairy tales and folklore in the Appalachian Mountains. Stories of adventure and dusty fairy tale books in my grandmother’s attic were my entertainment. The library trips we took “into town” added to my reading. I discovered that the step from fairy tales to classics wasn’t as wide as folks argue. Years later, when I went off to college, I became an English major, then a graduate student, and then started teaching literature at college. From childhood to adulthood, magic and fiction were my life... which led to selling a book of my own. Over the last 17 years, I’ve been writing fantasy.

Melissa's book list on if you want to go on a magical adventure

Melissa Marr Why Melissa loves this book

I had stopped reading children’s and teen fiction for a couple of years, for the first time in my half a century of life, and then I read A Curse So Dark and Lonely.

There’s a different sort of adventure here, and I think I related to Harper a little bit extra because I have a chronic illness and when it flares up, my limp is so very obvious. It felt good to see magic + that realism.

The combination of magic, a protagonist I could connect to, and fairy tale elements made me start opening the covers of other books I’d bought and shelved.

By Brigid Kemmerer ,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked A Curse So Dark and Lonely as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

A New York Times bestseller! "Has everything you'd want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale." - Jodi Picoult In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer. Fall in love, break the curse. It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the…


Book cover of Romancing the Duke

Jane B. Night Author Of Wedding the Widow

From my list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think it is so important for everyone to be able to see others get their happily ever after. Illness and disability doesn't mean a person can't or shouldn't find love. Everyone should be able to find love. I love seeing characters find their happily ever after even if they aren't physically perfect. 

Jane's book list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest

Jane B. Night Why Jane loves this book

This was the first book in Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After. I love Tessa's modern characters set in a historical backdrop. Isolde is a woman that knows what she wants. She is forced to go up against Ransom, a stubborn Duke who is visually impaired, in a fight over a castle they both believe they own.  

Also, I would just love to say how much I love when Tessa Dare gives her characters an unusual pet. In this case, Isolde has an ermine. Animal antics add so much fun to her stories! 

This book made me laugh. It made me cry. It made my heartbreak and ultimately it gave me a beautiful love story I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

By Tessa Dare ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Romancing the Duke as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities. And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one. * Ugly duckling turned swan? * Abducted by handsome highwayman? * Rescued from drudgery by charming prince? No, no, and ...Heh. Now Izzy's given up yearning for romance. She'll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who's never even…


Book cover of Annie's Song

Jane B. Night Author Of Wedding the Widow

From my list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think it is so important for everyone to be able to see others get their happily ever after. Illness and disability doesn't mean a person can't or shouldn't find love. Everyone should be able to find love. I love seeing characters find their happily ever after even if they aren't physically perfect. 

Jane's book list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest

Jane B. Night Why Jane loves this book

This was the first romance I ever read that featured a deaf character. I loved how much research the author did on the subject and how much I learned. This book broke my heart as Annie was again and again mistreated and underestimated until Alex realized that the problem was her ears, not her mind. 

I really loved Alex's character. He marries Annie because she was raped by his brother and becomes pregnant. I loved his sense of duty and honor. I loved his attempts at trying to do right by Annie even when they were misinformed. 

My favorite takeaway from this book was that no one should decide for another person what they need and the able community needs to not make assumptions but to listen to what those with disabilities say about their needs.

By Catherine Anderson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Annie's Song as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Only her gift of love can heal ...Annie Trimble lives in a solitary world that no one enters or understands. As delicate and beautiful as the tender blossoms of the Oregon spring, she is shunned by a town that doesn't understand her. But cruelty cannot destroy the love Annie holds in her heart. When Alex Montgomery learns of the injustice sweet Annie has suffered, he vows to do whatever it takes to set it right-even if it means marrying her. He never dreams he will fall for her childlike innocence, her womanly charms, and the wondrous way she views her…


Book cover of Simply Love

Jane B. Night Author Of Wedding the Widow

From my list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think it is so important for everyone to be able to see others get their happily ever after. Illness and disability doesn't mean a person can't or shouldn't find love. Everyone should be able to find love. I love seeing characters find their happily ever after even if they aren't physically perfect. 

Jane's book list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest

Jane B. Night Why Jane loves this book

This book was my first experience with Mary Balogh and I instantly became a fan. She is now one of my favorite romance authors. This book broke my heart in the best of ways. Sydnam is injured from the war. He is missing an eye and an arm. Still, he managed to easily make me, and Anne, swoon over his artistic soul. Anne is a single mother with a background just as heartbreaking as Sydnam's but I never doubted for a moment they would end up happily ever after. I rooted for them all the way. 

By Mary Balogh ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Simply Love as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Anne Jewell is a teacher at Miss Martin's School for Girls, a genteel academy in Regency England. Now she must confront the disturbing tragedy that gave her a beautiful son but locked her heart away for many years ago. While on a summer holiday in Wales, Anne meets Sydnam Butler, a taciturn hero of the Peninsula Wars. Gentle yet courageous, he is unlike any man Anne has ever encountered. But he too carries scars of the past. When Anne returns to Miss Martin's, she makes a surprising discovery and has no choice but to test Sydnam's love. Their passion becomes…