Books like Fallen Too Far — picked by fans

When I think of the perfect, fun, poolside read, this book is the first to pop into my head.

The Unhoneymooners follows Olive, who ends up having to fake date a man she hates while on their fake honeymoon in Hawaii. I love those tropes (fake relationships, enemies to lovers, forced proximity) but on top of that, this book is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

I was giggling in the pool the entire time I read this, and the light, fast-paced, engaging vibe makes this book the perfect poolside read.

This was the first book that got me into reading full-length novels, and it just happens to be a fun YA summer book. If you want a light, fast-paced, easy read to keep you entertained while lounging by the pool, this is the book for you.

It follows Robyn, a teen working at a water park with her best friend, Caitlin, and Caitlin’s very hot brother, who happens to be Robyn’s supervisor! Making a splash: Robyn, is an adorable, coming-of-age summer love story, and there are two more books from Robyn’s friend’s perspectives if you want more nostalgic summer romance.

Not a big romance/romcom reader? No worries, Never Coming Home is the perfect poolside book for you.

This summer YA mystery/thriller follows a group of teen influencers who are invited to a hot new exclusive island, but everyone’s hiding secrets, and then people start dying. I enjoyed this book as a poolside summer read because it’s so fast-paced and intriguing that I was sucked right into the story.

It’s a summer slasher read full of twists and perfectly unlikeable characters that kept me turning pages until it was done in one sitting.

24 Hours In Italy is the perfect poolside summer read, especially because it transports you to the picturesque Amalfi Coast while enjoying a second chances romance.

I’m recommending this book not only because the author, Romi Moondi, is a fellow Canadian and happens to be my author bestie, but because it’s a genuinely amazing and well-written book. (It got a starred review in Publishers Weekly, so you know I’m not just saying that because I’m biased!).

It’s technically a sequel but it reads as a standalone, and the heartfelt emotions, descriptive setting, and meaningful character arcs make it a perfect summer read.

I loved this collection of fictional essays. Each story wasn’t just “hot” and “smutty;” they had a larger message. One story spoke to power dynamics, while another addressed shame or the desire to be loved, etc.

Sexuality, desire, and arousal are so complex and individual, and I feel like this book explored so much. It really “went there.” Through reading these fictional stories, I felt empowered to do more sexually and push the boundaries of what sex can mean to me. 

This book was THE book that made me want to write a marriage in trouble.

It features characters to absolutely hate in the first few chapters, but then they turn it around and become lovable by the end of the book. I love the idea of a married couple (or engaged one) sleeping in separate rooms because of their distance and then they slowly move back into the same room.

This book also features a terrible mom who gets owned by her kid who’s finally had enough of them, which is always my favorite part of any book. This is a novel to get hooked on, and the ending scene where she finds their wedding invitations in the trash had my jaw on the FLOOR!

Enchanting, action-packed, and full of heart, this book is everything an urban fantasy novel should be. I picked this book up at a library sale, not realizing it was a later book in a series, but the story stood on its own and made me want to run out and buy the rest. The idea of magic families as corporations was unique and intriguing, and Andrews handled it beautifully.

The plot was tightly woven and intense enough that I had trouble setting the book down and blew through it in a few days. I loved the two main characters and their lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers backstory that set up just the right amount of heat for me.

I literally could not stop crying through this entire book. When this novel first begins, we find Kenna Rowan has just been released from jail. She is alone, penniless, and scared with all the cards stacked against her, and she is on a mission to find her daughter. Despite the mystery surrounding the incident that causes Kenna’s incarceration, you are instantly drawn into this character’s vulnerability and sheer force of will and determination. She is at once utterly alone on an island while also strong and brave like a warrior, ready to face the demons in her past in order to find a path back to the daughter that was taken from her. I love all of Colleen Hoover’s novels, but this one shredded me. I couldn’t put it down, had to find out what happened, had to know that Kenna was safe, understood, and vindicated.   

This is really terrible–if highly moreish–stuff: a thin, junky, first-drafty picaresque. But it formed the basis of a film starring Jackie’s sister, Joan. The film even had a tie-in aftershave (heavy on the ginseng), promising all kinds of advantages for the wearer. The film and the book both try to suggest a deluxe, upmarket, classy melding of disco culture with the post-permissive society sexual freedoms now available to the 1970s bachelor and (as an ill-informed nod to feminism) the businesswoman.

This imagined milieu was a million miles from the sleazy, criminal experience of London’s Soho, which had traditionally been where all this erotic access was clustered. The aspiration was shared by Paul Raymond, who worked to translate the risqué stage shows of the 1960s (think pre-fame Christine Keeler) to more contemporary fare for the proto-Thatcherite managerial class, keen to see what secular society had to offer them and their new… show more.

In recent years, Lisa Jewell has moved into psychological thriller, which I also love. But she started off writing warm, gorgeously relatable, and touching stories about young people falling in love, sharing houses, and getting to grips with adult life.

They are all beautifully told, but this one stands out to me. A chance meeting at a caravan park as teenagers see Vince and Joy peeling off into their separate lives and navigating their own joys and heartbreaks… I won’t spoil it, but the ending is just as you’d want it to be.