Here are 100 books that Dear Aaron fans have personally recommended if you like Dear Aaron. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of The Girl in the Love Song

L.J. Evans Author Of Branded by a Song: A Small-town, Rock-star Romance

From my list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been reading and writing romance for most of my life, and I found the stories I was truly drawn to were the ones where I got to know the characters deeply and personally before they got their hard-earned happily ever after. I want to feel like not only the main characters are my new best friends, but also their friends and families. I want to live beside them as they go through this wild ride called life. So, those are the books I set out to write...stories telling about life’s ups and downs, dreams cast aside and remade, and families found along the way. Achingly heartfelt romance with resilient characters readers will adore.

L.J.'s book list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days

L.J. Evans Why L.J. loves this book

I love Emma Scott stories not only because they are amazeballs, but also because she’s a pretty incredible human being with her own incredible story. But be warned, her words don’t hold back any punches. I often want to scream and tear my hair out as I’m reading, but in the end, I have the largest smile on my face. Emma Scott knows how to find the perfect ending to her stunning stories.

By Emma Scott ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Girl in the Love Song as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At Santa Cruz Central High School, they called them the misfits, the outcasts, the weirdos. But most of us knew them as the Lost Boys...Miller Stratton is a survivor. After a harrowing childhood of poverty, he will do anything it takes to find security for himself and his mom. He’s putting all his hopes and dreams in the fragile frame of his guitar and the beauty he creates with its strings and his soulful voice.Until Violet.No one expects to meet the love of their life at age thirteen. But the spunky rich girl steals Miller’s heart and refuses to give…


If you love Dear Aaron...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Book cover of Making Faces

L.J. Evans Author Of Branded by a Song: A Small-town, Rock-star Romance

From my list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been reading and writing romance for most of my life, and I found the stories I was truly drawn to were the ones where I got to know the characters deeply and personally before they got their hard-earned happily ever after. I want to feel like not only the main characters are my new best friends, but also their friends and families. I want to live beside them as they go through this wild ride called life. So, those are the books I set out to write...stories telling about life’s ups and downs, dreams cast aside and remade, and families found along the way. Achingly heartfelt romance with resilient characters readers will adore.

L.J.'s book list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days

L.J. Evans Why L.J. loves this book

Amy Harmon is another author who you can read anything and love it! The emotions drip from her pages in the full range of laughter to anger to tears. It’s an incredible journey! Even though I read this book years ago, I still feel like I know these characters personally. They are, quite literally, part of the fabric of my life.

By Amy Harmon ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Ambrose Young was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She'd been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have...until he wasn't beautiful anymore

Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl's love for a broken…


Book cover of The Air He Breathes

L.J. Evans Author Of Branded by a Song: A Small-town, Rock-star Romance

From my list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been reading and writing romance for most of my life, and I found the stories I was truly drawn to were the ones where I got to know the characters deeply and personally before they got their hard-earned happily ever after. I want to feel like not only the main characters are my new best friends, but also their friends and families. I want to live beside them as they go through this wild ride called life. So, those are the books I set out to write...stories telling about life’s ups and downs, dreams cast aside and remade, and families found along the way. Achingly heartfelt romance with resilient characters readers will adore.

L.J.'s book list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days

L.J. Evans Why L.J. loves this book

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I love emotional books. Books where I can feel every heartbeat and every laugh and every smile. Brittainy Cherry always brings this to her stories. The Air He Breathes was one of my first reads by her, so it has an extra special place in my heart.

By Brittainy C. Cherry ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Air He Breathes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I was warned about Tristan Cole. “Stay away from him,” people said. “He’s cruel.” “He’s cold.” “He’s damaged.” It’s easy to judge a man because of his past. To look at Tristan and see a monster. But I couldn’t do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him because it also lived inside of me. We were both empty. We were both looking for something else. Something more. We both wanted to put together the shattered pieces of our yesterdays. Then perhaps we could finally remember how to breathe.


If you love Mariana Zapata...

Book cover of Memento: A Novel in Dreams, Thoughts, and Images

Memento by Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau,

Sine, a professor of creative writing, accompanies Sam, a neuroscientist, on a conference trip to a Hotel Castle. Sam wants to present a new device, the "monitor." Sine hopes to recover from tending to her mother who just passed away. 

When they arrive, Sine is in a dream-like state. Real…

Book cover of Dear Mr. Brody

L.J. Evans Author Of Branded by a Song: A Small-town, Rock-star Romance

From my list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been reading and writing romance for most of my life, and I found the stories I was truly drawn to were the ones where I got to know the characters deeply and personally before they got their hard-earned happily ever after. I want to feel like not only the main characters are my new best friends, but also their friends and families. I want to live beside them as they go through this wild ride called life. So, those are the books I set out to write...stories telling about life’s ups and downs, dreams cast aside and remade, and families found along the way. Achingly heartfelt romance with resilient characters readers will adore.

L.J.'s book list on romance with slow burns you’ll feel for days

L.J. Evans Why L.J. loves this book

Beautifully written words with a lyrical like feel are what I know I’ll always find within the pages of an A.M. Johnson book. The emotions she wrings from me every time are astonishing, and yet I never feel like I’ve been banged over the head with them like you sometimes get in some heartfelt stories. This is a male-male romance, and even if you don’t think this is your sort of thing, I still highly recommend it because it’s just gorgeous.

By A.M. Johnson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dear Mr. Brody as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Parker,

I never meant for any of this to happen, to fall for you. It doesn't matter that we're both adults, or how much we want this to work. The college policy is clear. I can't see a way around this without one of us getting hurt. If I would’ve known who you were when we met online, I would have never pursued a relationship. I'm new to all of this, and besides my daughter, getting to know you has been the best thing to ever happen to me. But I can't make you hide again. I won't. It's not…


Book cover of With Love, Wherever You Are

Christine Kohler Author Of No Surrender Soldier

From my list on going beyond bombs and how war affects families.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a lover of history, when I lived in Hawaii, Japan, and Guam, I visited World War II sites. I had a fascinating career as a political reporter. I reported on a “Christmas Drop,” a tradition since WWII. On Johnston Atoll, I did photojournalism on the incineration of chemical weapons from East Germany. I interviewed a Kuwaiti sheik and human shields during Desert Storm. I covered negotiations when the Philippines didn’t renew US military base leases. While at the San Antonio Express News, I researched the WWII Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi, who hid on Guam for nearly 28 years. That was the seed for my novel No Surrender Soldier

Christine's book list on going beyond bombs and how war affects families

Christine Kohler Why Christine loves this book

Author Dandi Daley Mackall wrote With Love, Wherever You Are after reading a trunk-load of letters exchanged by her parents during their years as a nurse and doctor on the battlefields of Europe during World War II. Mackall's novel is based on genealogical research and is a story about people and the matters of their hearts, instead of military strategies and battles. Mackall was closer in time, though, since With Love, Wherever You Are is about her parents and set during the 1940s. She had access to primary sources in her research. As “The Greatest Generation” is passing away, it’s important that authors like Mackall are preserving these biographical stories.

By Dandi Daley Mackall ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Everyone knows that war romances never last . . .
After a whirlwind romance and wedding, Helen Eberhart Daley, an army nurse, and Lieutenant Frank Daley, M.D. are sent to the front lines of Europe with only letters to connect them for months at a time.

Surrounded by danger and desperately wounded patients, they soon find that only the war seems real―and their marriage more and more like a distant dream. If they make it through the war, will their marriage survive?

Based on the incredible true love story, With Love, Wherever You Are is an adult novel from beloved…


Book cover of Yours Truly

Demi Blaize Author Of Apparently, I'm A Bitch

From my list on romantic comedies to keep you swooning.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been the dorky bookworm, the party girl who laughs too loud, the gamer-tomboy, and the doting mother of two kids who is now in a happy, loving marriage. Through all my shifts and changes, the one constant thread in my life was love. But not the rough, I-have-to-hurt-someone-to-get-it kind of love you might find in dark romance novels (although I enjoy those too sometimes). My kind of experience with love is that it’s at its best when it’s fun and when it’s easy. If you can find your most authentic you in the pages of a rom-com, you’re guaranteed an escape from reality that’ll pull you deeper into yourself. 

Demi's book list on romantic comedies to keep you swooning

Demi Blaize Why Demi loves this book

This book broke my heart and stitched it back together. Abby Jimenez's writing style is magnetic, and her characters make me laugh and cry in equal amounts. Every time I need a pick-me-up, I pull out this book.

There are few perfect romantic comedies out there. Some have third-act breakups that don’t make sense. Some are riddled with miscommunication or surprise baby tropes that have a person feeling all the ick. This is not that book. Does it have miscommunication? Yes, in a reasonable, wonderful kind of way. Does it have a surprise baby? Yes! In a way that deepens the two main character’s connection.

The fact that this writer can take my two most disliked tropes and make them entertaining shows just how incredible this author is at her craft. Most importantly, it made me giggle my ass off, and if that is a requirement for you, then this…

By Abby Jimenez ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Yours Truly as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match from "a true talent" (Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a…


If you love Dear Aaron...

Book cover of Salvation in the Sun

Salvation in the Sun by Lauren Lee Merewether,

In an age of splendor, a heretic king strips Egypt bare—forcing his queen to quell rebellion and plunging his children into a conspiracy against the crown.

Salvation in the Sun follows Nefertiti as she ascends the throne beside Pharaoh Amenhotep—soon to become Akhenaten—just as he declares war on Egypt’s ancient…

Book cover of The Lucky One

Elizabeth Bromke Author Of Home to Brambleberry Creek

From my list on women’s fiction with gorgeous heartland settings.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love drawing gorgeous, interesting settings. Ever since my parents drove my brother and me across America to visit our cousins in Michigan, I have found myself enchanted by everything from sweet small-towns to pit stops with lots of potential for drama. I have always felt that setting can be its own character. With its bright, sunny suburbs and its dark, shadowy back-alleys, the setting is the centerpiece of any great story.

Sarah's book list on women’s fiction with gorgeous heartland settings

Elizabeth Bromke Why Sarah loves this book

You might not think about Sparks as a go-to for sweeping countryside settings… and yet his treatment of the North Carolina lends itself so sweetly to this romance, that I bet the story wouldn’t be the same without it. There is something so sexy about a handsome man in blue jeans ambling down a country lane.

By Nicholas Sparks ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lucky One as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A U.S. Marine's brush with death leads him to the love of his life in this New York Times bestseller of destiny, luck, and the redemptive power of romance.
After U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman buried in the dirt during his tour of duty in Iraq, he experiences a sudden streak of luck -- winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph -- his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seem to get the woman…


Book cover of The Beguiled

L.P. Fergusson Author Of The Summer Fields

From my list on handsome men in a parlous state.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in a medical family, my father and brother both surgeons and my mother a nurse. My parents met while serving in WW2 and that combination of compassion and horror in the field hospitals of Europe have stayed with me ever since. In fact, my first novel A Dangerous Act of Kindness, is set during WW2. I’m also a career hypochondriac. I avoid reading about illnesses or injuries I may suffer from myself, but I am fascinated by disease and pioneering surgery, thus The Summer Fields revolves around a disease that has now been eradicated (smallpox) and pre-anaesthetic surgery, something I hope I shall never have to face. 

L.P.'s book list on handsome men in a parlous state

L.P. Fergusson Why L.P. loves this book

You may know this strange story as a film, but the different narrators in this gothic tale of John McBurney, a wounded Union soldier being washed and nursed by a group of young girls in Martha Farnworth’s remote school is full of the same sexual tension I hoped to conjure up in my book. What could be more beguiling than the juxtaposition of sheltered women carrying out intimate tasks on a man weakened by injury?

By Thomas Cullinan ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The basis for the major motion picture directed by Sofia Coppola-named best director at the Cannes Film Festival for The Beguiled-and starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning

"[A] mad gothic tale . . . The reader is mesmerized with horror by what goes on in that forgotten school for young ladies." -Stephen King, in Danse Macabre

Wounded and near death, a young Union Army corporal is found in the woods of Virginia during the height of the Civil War and brought to the nearby Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. Almost immediately he sets about…


Book cover of A Photo Finish

Lena Hendrix Author Of The Badge

From my list on small town romances that bring the heat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an author who writes hot-as-sin small-town romance. As an avid romance reader, when I found my love of all small-town things combined with high heat of steamy romance, I was hooked! With steamy, small-town romance you get feel-good, heartfelt romances with steamy, open-door scenes. If it can make you blush and warm your heart, I’m all in! In my list, I’ve included a variety of small-town romance authors that will tug at your heartstrings in one scene and have you fanning yourself in the next. 

Lena's book list on small town romances that bring the heat

Lena Hendrix Why Lena loves this book

Elsie Silver was a new-to-me author in 2021 and I’m hooked! A Photo Finish is actually book 2 in the series, but they are interconnected stand-alones. In this book, the female main character is a horse jockey. She’s strong, capable, and determined. The male main character is a veteran with secrets of his own and he is delicious and broody and really, really needs a hug. Those two have a secret, salacious past and it was so fun to see them clash and come together for an amazing, feel-good romance.

By Elsie Silver ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Photo Finish as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I’ve seen every square inch of Violet Eaton’s delectable body and she has no idea who I am.

Until now.

What happened between us online, in our chats, was meant to stay anonymous and in the past.

Until it didn’t.

It’s a small world, but Ruby Creek is even smaller. When I move to the tiny town, the grumpy facade I’ve created slips when we’re forced to live under the same roof.

Every flush of her cheeks, every time her eyes flare with heat, every time she begs me not to stop, the ice I’ve encased myself in melts. She…


If you love Mariana Zapata...

Book cover of Foxfire in the Snow

Foxfire in the Snow by J.S. Fields,

It's a time of change, between magic and alchemy.

Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…

Book cover of Balanced on the Blade's Edge

Allen Ballantine Author Of Knight of the Wood

From my list on fantasy characters that will keep you coming back.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love to read, and a good story is one thing. But once you’ve read the story, you know how it ends. It’s the characters in the story that determine if you want to go back and read them again. These are stories that I enjoy reading over again, (some several times) although I know how the story ends. The characters in these stories have inspired me to write my own.

Allen's book list on fantasy characters that will keep you coming back

Allen Ballantine Why Allen loves this book

Lindsay Buroker is probably my favorite fantasy author, her books are full of fun, quirky characters who even have me reading genres I don’t normally read. In this book, Colonel Ridgewalker Zirkander, a cocky war hero pilot in a world where magic is hated and feared, meets Sardelle Terushan, a sorceress from an earlier era who was preserved in a stasis chamber. Along with her snarky sentient sword Jaxi, Sardell must help Ridge fend off an attack while hiding her magical ability. An ability that would have everyone wanting to kill her. This is the first book of a series featuring adventures of Ridge, Sardell, Jaxi, and Ridge’s squadron of young goofy pilots.

By Lindsay Buroker ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Balanced on the Blade's Edge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Colonel Ridge Zirkander isn’t the model of military professionalism—he has a tendency to say exactly what’s on his mind, and his record has enough demerits to wallpaper the hull of an airship—but as the best fighter pilot in the Iskandian army, he’s used to a little leniency from his superiors. Until he punches the wrong diplomat in the nose and finds himself issued new orders: take command of a remote prison mine in the inhospitable Ice Blades Mountains. Ridge has never been in charge of anything larger than a flier squadron—what’s he supposed to do with a frozen fortress full…


Book cover of The Girl in the Love Song
Book cover of Making Faces
Book cover of The Air He Breathes

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,340

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in romantic love, letters, and soldiers?

Romantic Love 1,001 books
Letters 31 books
Soldiers 117 books