Picked by The Hitman's Guide fans

Here are 4 books that The Hitman's Guide fans have personally recommended once you finish the The Hitman's Guide series. Shepherd is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of The Rosie Project

Ruth Leigh Author Of The Diary of Isabella M Smugge

From my list on books you read and re-read even though you know every word by heart.

Why am I passionate about this?

I learned to read at four and have been telling stories ever since. Books were my escape from unhappiness into a new and endless world. Left to myself, I’d read ten or so weekly, and my mind was packed with characters, dialogue, jokes, prose, and poetry like an over-brimming literary reservoir. Words are my thing, and I am an avid collector of them. I was reading David Copperfield at eight and specialised in 18th and 19th-century literature at university. I’ve written five books and am working on the sixth. I love writing humour but have also authored Jane Austen Fan Fiction and poetry. Without books, my world is nothing.

Ruth's book list on books you read and re-read even though you know every word by heart

Ruth Leigh Why Ruth loves this book

To my knowledge, no one has written a main character like Don Tilman before. A tall, handsome genetics professor who’s never had a second date, he approaches his need for a wife with typical precision and the use of a complex spreadsheet. Don navigates the unfamiliar world of feelings and unplanned activities with his customary efficiency, but what is this strange new emotion he’s feeling?

I simply adore this book and often read it twice a year. It’s an absolute delight, funny, poignant, and so incredibly life-affirming. You’ll be cheering Don and Rosie on and hoping that everything works out for them. I do every time, and I know what happens!

By Graeme Simsion ,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked The Rosie Project as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The international bestselling romantic comedy “bursting with warmth, emotional depth, and…humor,” (Entertainment Weekly) featuring the oddly charming, socially challenged genetics professor, Don, as he seeks true love.

The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her…


Book cover of How I Wonder What You Are

Barbara Elsborg Author Of Strangers

From my list on romance books to make you smile.

Why am I passionate about this?

I read lots of different genres, but my greatest passion in both writing and reading is romance. Though I am picky! I need humour in the stories. They don’t have to be funny on every page but I do like to smile occasionally when I’m reading. The ability to weave a plot, create interesting characters, and include humour is something I admire greatly. Even in the thrillers and suspense novels I read, it’s those touches of humour that bring the story to life for me. In the 50+ books I’ve written, none are without that spark of fun. Throw in a happy ever after – and you have a perfect romance, guaranteed to brighten the darkest of days. 

Barbara's book list on romance books to make you smile

Barbara Elsborg Why Barbara loves this book

This book has great warmth and humour. The characters feel so real. It’s set in Yorkshire in the UK, which happens to be where I spent most of my life, so that made it extra enjoyable. I feel not enough people know about Jane Lovering and her books deserve more readers. This is not just another romance, but a romance with heart and depth. I defy anyone not to fall in love with Phinn.

By Jane Lovering ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How I Wonder What You Are as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Maybe he wasn't there because of the lights - maybe they were there because of him..." It's been over eighteen months since Molly Gilchrist has had a man (as her best friend, Caro, is so fond of reminding her), so when she as good as stumbles upon one, lying comatose, on the moors one bitterly cold morning, it seems like the Universe is having a laugh at her expense. But Phinn Baxter, (that's Doctor Phinneas Baxter) is no drunken layabout, as Molly is soon to discover; with a PhD in astrophysics and a tortured past that is a match for…


Book cover of Cat. Freya North

Barbara Elsborg Author Of Strangers

From my list on romance books to make you smile.

Why am I passionate about this?

I read lots of different genres, but my greatest passion in both writing and reading is romance. Though I am picky! I need humour in the stories. They don’t have to be funny on every page but I do like to smile occasionally when I’m reading. The ability to weave a plot, create interesting characters, and include humour is something I admire greatly. Even in the thrillers and suspense novels I read, it’s those touches of humour that bring the story to life for me. In the 50+ books I’ve written, none are without that spark of fun. Throw in a happy ever after – and you have a perfect romance, guaranteed to brighten the darkest of days. 

Barbara's book list on romance books to make you smile

Barbara Elsborg Why Barbara loves this book

A romantic romp set in the Tour de France. I quite fancied writing a book about the Tour myself but I don’t think this book can be bettered. Cat, the heroine, is part of a male press corps and has to fight not only for space but for her stories. I learnt a lot about this cycling race from this book and I like the fact that Freya North has books linked through families. 

By Freya North ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cat. Freya North as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

She's in for the ride of her life.

Her career is stuck in a rut.

Her love life has been a tangle.

But fortune favours the brave...

When journalist Cat McCabe lands a job reporting on the Tour de France she's confident it might give her stuttering career the boost it needs and provide a welcome distraction from a messy break-up. Or so she hopes.

She quickly realizes Le Tour is not just all about the bikes. Large bulges, huge egos, lashings of Lycra and plenty of sexy shenanigans play their part and, soon enough, her own life starts to…


Book cover of Welcome to Temptation

Eve M. Riley Author Of The Refusal

From my list on the best sex scenes of all time.

Why am I passionate about this?

What makes a good sex scene for you? Long and drawn out, fast and furious or an unusual location? Perhaps the interesting use of accessories is your jam. And that’s before we get to angry sex, makeup sex, unexpected sex, or sex with the fear of discovery. I’ve loved steamy romance novels for as long as I can remember, and when I look for books with sex scenes, I have high expectations. I’m a fan of something unusual. Not tacky or totally unrealistic, just something surprising and interesting. But have all the best ideas been written? No way. I’m a firm believer that the best is yet to come.

Eve's book list on the best sex scenes of all time

Eve M. Riley Why Eve loves this book

This is an older book, but Jennifer’s sizzle is unsurpassed. A movie assignment brings Sophie Dempsey to Temptation, Ohio. From the moment she drives into town, she has a bad feeling: Everything is a little too right. And when she has a run-in with the town's unnervingly sexy mayor, Phineas Tucker, making her little movie morphs into something downright dangerous.

Choosing the hottest scene out of several scorchers in this book was hard. There’s the sex scene on the table in the kitchen, but the scene where Phin decides that Sophie is turned on by discovery fantasies—so when her friend arrives at her house he makes increasingly louder noises until they are discovered—mmm hmm, that’s a masterpiece.

By Jennifer Crusie ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Welcome to Temptation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sophie came to Temptation, a small town in Ohio, to help her sister make a movie. Now she's making trouble for the town council, love with the mayor and lemonade for a murderer. Welcome to Temptation - population 2158. And falling. This is a humorous tale of scandal, gossip and murder.