Here are 100 books that Five Ways to Fall fans have personally recommended if you like Five Ways to Fall. Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Wicked Sexy Liar

Claire Raye Author Of Complicate Me

From my list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have always loved to read about the bad boy with a secret soft side and when we started writing together, we decided to jump on this genre as well. Writing in dual POVs gives us an opportunity to explore how the bad boy is perceived by others as well as show exactly what the bad boy is thinking…and we love it! There's nothing better than a misunderstood alpha who hides his true feelings because he doesn’t feel worthy. And when he finds that amazing woman who just gets him…magic! We hope you enjoy our very own bad boy with a secret soft side in our book Complicate Me.

Claire and Raye's book list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side

Claire Raye Why Claire and Raye loves this book

This is the fourth and last book in the Wild Seasons series and in our view, the best. Featuring a player who’s just looking to hook up for a night of fun and a girl who likes to avoid the drama, these two get thrown for a loop when they cross paths. It’s hot, it’s steamy and it’s also pretty sweet. The banter these two shared was great and their chemistry felt so real. Plus, we loved watching Luke own his past and his mistakes and seeing London finally admit she was falling for the guy. 

By Christina Lauren ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wicked Sexy Liar as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When three college besties meet three hot guys in Vegas, anything can-and does-happen. Book Four in the New York TimesWild Seasons series that began with Sweet Filthy Boy (the Romantic Timesbook of the year that Sylvia Day called "a sexy, sweet treasure of a story"), Dirty Rowdy Thing, and Dark Wild Night.


If you love Five Ways to Fall...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of How to Date Your Brother's Best Friend

Claire Raye Author Of Complicate Me

From my list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have always loved to read about the bad boy with a secret soft side and when we started writing together, we decided to jump on this genre as well. Writing in dual POVs gives us an opportunity to explore how the bad boy is perceived by others as well as show exactly what the bad boy is thinking…and we love it! There's nothing better than a misunderstood alpha who hides his true feelings because he doesn’t feel worthy. And when he finds that amazing woman who just gets him…magic! We hope you enjoy our very own bad boy with a secret soft side in our book Complicate Me.

Claire and Raye's book list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side

Claire Raye Why Claire and Raye loves this book

We’ve always had a soft spot for a broken bad boy and this book creates an amazing example of that in Dean. A former marine who grew up in a foster home, he’s completely unaware of the secret crush his best friend’s younger sister, Holly has harbored on him for years. When circumstances allow them to explore that crush, things go from secret to oh-so hot and we were so on board for it. We loved watching Dean finally start to feel like someone saw and understood him and even when tragedy strikes, Holly never gives up on him. The final scenes were freaking adorable…there’s nothing better than a bad boy who is all in with his girl!

By Julie Kriss ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Date Your Brother's Best Friend as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I can’t date Dean Madden. He’s a bad boy and my older brother’s best friend. So what if I pretended he was my fake boyfriend in high school? That was a long time ago, and he never has to know. We’re both grown up now. It’s never going to happen.

Until one hot weekend when everything happens.

Now Dean has made a bet with me: four weeks of dating, and whoever gets dumped first loses. In order to win, I just have to date him. And the more dates we go on, the more I see the things Dean hides…


Book cover of Breaker: A Brother's Best Friend Standalone Romance

Claire Raye Author Of Complicate Me

From my list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have always loved to read about the bad boy with a secret soft side and when we started writing together, we decided to jump on this genre as well. Writing in dual POVs gives us an opportunity to explore how the bad boy is perceived by others as well as show exactly what the bad boy is thinking…and we love it! There's nothing better than a misunderstood alpha who hides his true feelings because he doesn’t feel worthy. And when he finds that amazing woman who just gets him…magic! We hope you enjoy our very own bad boy with a secret soft side in our book Complicate Me.

Claire and Raye's book list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side

Claire Raye Why Claire and Raye loves this book

We have serious love for those brother’s best friend romances and this one doesn’t disappoint. Grady is the perfect broody male lead with all his flaws and wants so much more for Sutton than he feels he can offer her. But omg, when his moody and broody nature finally disappears, he is the perfect mix of vulnerability and love when it comes to Sutton. The push and pull and all the angst had our hearts breaking, but then swooning with happiness by the end.  

By Harloe Rae ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A TOP 15 AMAZON BESTSELLER!

“Tell me a happy something, Sutton.”

I was only seven the first time Grady Bowen whispered those words to me. Cloaked by the black sky under a blanket of stars, it was easy to get lost. He didn’t have any good memories of his own and needed to borrow mine. I would willingly give him anything.

Being infatuated with that boy was a beautiful curse. What could have been special didn’t get the chance to bloom. He’d never see me as more than his best friend’s kid sister. That was a hard lesson to learn,…


If you love K.A. Tucker...

Book cover of The Tao of Poison

The Tao of Poison by Isham Cook,

A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.

The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…

Book cover of Over the Moon

Claire Raye Author Of Complicate Me

From my list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have always loved to read about the bad boy with a secret soft side and when we started writing together, we decided to jump on this genre as well. Writing in dual POVs gives us an opportunity to explore how the bad boy is perceived by others as well as show exactly what the bad boy is thinking…and we love it! There's nothing better than a misunderstood alpha who hides his true feelings because he doesn’t feel worthy. And when he finds that amazing woman who just gets him…magic! We hope you enjoy our very own bad boy with a secret soft side in our book Complicate Me.

Claire and Raye's book list on alpha heroes with a secret soft side

Claire Raye Why Claire and Raye loves this book

A sports romance and opposites attract? Sign us up! But then toss in the mouthy rebel of a professional football star who is rarely told no and we are all in. Kingston Scott is the bad boy who chases the good girl and it plays out in epic fashion. Despite Kingston’s playboy reputation, we couldn’t help but root for him to win the girl. Because underneath it all, he’s a total softie, especially when it comes to his girl Silver. 

By K.K. Allen ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"A charming and steamy small-town romance between a mysterious woman struggling to protect the safe haven she's created, and the reckless man determined to break down her walls." HEA Book Babes

“My secrets have always kept me safe…until he saw my truth.”

Kingston Scott is the most eligible bachelor in professional football, a charming rebel on and off the field. He’s also in desperate need of an attitude adjustment.

After a reckless night puts him behind bars, he’s sentenced to coach football at a sleepaway camp in the middle of nowhere. He’s not sure he’ll survive an entire month of…


Book cover of Margaritas, Mayhem & Murder

Susie Black Author Of Death by Coconut

From my list on cozy mysteries with protagonists who are away from home.

Why am I passionate about this?

Before I started writing cozy mysteries, like the protagonist in my Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, I enjoyed a career as a ladies’ apparel sales executive. Fortunately for my writing, sales execs are also students of human nature. All my life, I have been fascinated by what makes people tick. How do they react, especially when they are out of their lane or comfort zone, such as being away from the safety of home and forced to deal with a crisis? I have taken all I have learned and applied it to my writing. 

Susie's book list on cozy mysteries with protagonists who are away from home

Susie Black Why Susie loves this book

Nothing tickles my funny bone more than a laugh-out-loud, madcap tale chock full of zany, but imperfect characters to fall in love with one moment and want to smack upside their heads the next.

Give me a plot like this one that runs at a breakneck pace, with a bumbling protagonist getting herself out of one mess only to fall into a bigger one the next time, and I’m a happy camper.

Add snappy dialogue that is spicier than hot salsa and a dash of romance with a smokin’ hot local sheriff to the foibles as this book does, and I bought myself a ticket to take a rollercoaster-worthy wild ride that was more fun than whacking a piñata. 

By Mary Cunningham ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Margaritas, Mayhem & Murder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Andi Anna Jones, so-so travel agent and amateur sleuth, puts aside her resentment of her father's widow and books a sixtieth birthday cruise to Cancun for Ruby and three friends. Never does Andi imagine the cruise will include the murder of a has-been lounge singer--or that Ruby might be the main suspect. Flirting with more than danger after arriving in Mexico, Andi connects with charming local sheriff, Manual Gonzales. An embarrassing night involving the sheriff, too many margaritas, and a Mariachi band, can't quell her determination to clear the name of her ex-stepmother. While gathering clues and interviewing witnesses, however,…


Book cover of The Distance

Michiel Heyns Author Of A Poor Season for Whales

From my list on by Africans that don’t have much to say about Africa.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an African author, I find that my books end up on the ‘African fiction’ shelf in the bookstore, which can be a disadvantage if my novel is, say, about Henry James or the Trojan War, both of which I've written novels about. As a lecturer in English literature, I've become acquainted with a vast and varied array of literature. So, whereas of course there are many wonderful African novels that deal with specifically African themes, I think the label African novel can be constricting and commercially disadvantageous. Many African novelists see themselves as part of a larger community, and their novels reflect that perspective, even though they are nominally set in Africa.

Michiel's book list on by Africans that don’t have much to say about Africa

Michiel Heyns Why Michiel loves this book

Taking stock of my selections, I realise that they are all to some degree autobiographical or semi-autobiographical. Just why I am attracted to this genre I don’t know: perhaps I am fascinated by the technical challenge of finding a narrative voice that is both personal and detached, of impersonalising emotions that could easily just be self-indulgent. Humour is often useful here, and Vladislavics’s novel is richly humorous, in its (lightly fictionalised) account of a culturally challenging boyhood in Pretoria, at the time the whitest and most conservative city in South Africa (interestingly, also the setting for Galgut’s The Promise). Young Joe, the stand-in for the author has, apart from an addiction to reading, a consuming interest in Muhammed Ali, and has kept a scrapbook of every newspaper item he could find relating to the great boxer. The bookworm-boxing addict is entirely engaging, as brought to life by a master…

By Ivan Vladislavic ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In the spring of 1970, a Pretoria schoolboy, Joe, becomes obsessed with Muhammad Ali. He begins collecting daily newspaper clippings about him, a passion that grows into an archive of scrapbooks. Forty years later, when Joe has become a writer, these scrapbooks become the foundation for a memoir of his childhood. When he calls upon his brother, Branko, for help uncovering their shared past, meaning comes into view in the spaces between then and now, growing up and growing old, speaking out and keeping silent.


If you love Five Ways to Fall...

Book cover of Big Ideas... For Small Businesses: Simple, Practical Tools and Tactics to Help Your Small Business Grow

Big Ideas... For Small Businesses by John Lamerton,

Big Ideas… for Small Businesses is a straight-talking, no-nonsense guide to growing a small business without sacrificing your lifestyle. Written by a former civil servant turned entrepreneur, the book challenges hustle culture and instead champions the idea of an "ambitious lifestyle business" - one that provides freedom and financial stability,…

Book cover of White Oleander

Courtney Miller Santo Author Of The Roots of the Olive Tree

From my list on books for mothers and daughters.

Why am I passionate about this?

My obsession with reading began in third grade when I heard an audio version of The Secret Garden and described the plot to my mom, who told me I should bike to our public library and check the book out. Since then, I’ve written two novels, and I teach creative writing and literature classes at the University of Memphis. At the heart of everything I write is the relationship between women connected by blood. My own great-grandmother lived to be 104, and I have a weekly lunch with my own 94-year-old grandmother. There’s nothing like learning what your own mother was like, as told to you by her mother.

Courtney's book list on books for mothers and daughters

Courtney Miller Santo Why Courtney loves this book

I was one of those women who was obsessed with Oprah’s Book Club. She started it in 1996, the same year I started my sophomore year of college. I can’t say that I read every book assigned to me in my classes, but I damn sure as hell read every book Oprah recommended.

White Oleander was picked in May 1999, just a few months before my wedding. I did zero wedding planning the week I read that book. I ignored my soon-to-be husband and called my sisters to demand that they read the book. The story, which follows Astrid (why did my parents name me such a terrible ugly name like Courtney when Astrid was right there?) as she navigates foster care following her mother’s conviction for murder, is compelling. However, I fell in love with the prose and the way Finch describes the people and places in the novel.

…

By Janet Fitch ,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked White Oleander as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

White Oleander is a painfully beautiful first novel about a young girl growing up the hard way. It is a powerful story of mothers and daughters, their ambiguous alliances, their selfish love and cruel behaviour, and the search for love and identity.Astrid has been raised by her mother, a beautiful, headstrong poet. Astrid forgives her everything as her world revolves around this beautiful creature until Ingrid murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life. Astrid's fierce determination to survive and be loved makes her an unforgettable figure. 'Liquid poetry' - Oprah Winfrey 'Tangled, complex and extraordinarily moving' - Observer


Book cover of Pizza Girl

Carrie McCrossen and Ian McWethy Author Of Margot Mertz Takes It Down

From my list on feminist perspectives, coming-of-age, and humor.

Why are we passionate about this?

Hi! We are writers currently living in Los Angeles after 18 years in New York. We wrote Margot Mertz after reading American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Online Lives of Teenagers by Nancy Jo Sales. It was the first time we heard of boys cultivating and curating non-consensual nude pics, effectively treating them like Pokemon cards. It was infuriating, especially when we realized there are no federal laws to protect victims of revenge porn at the time. So it became a focus of our work. We love a main character who’s angry but also funny, and desperately seeking change.

Carrie's book list on feminist perspectives, coming-of-age, and humor

Carrie McCrossen and Ian McWethy Why Carrie loves this book

The logline sounds like the most depressing character study you’ll ever read. A story of a pregnant teenager, Jane, who lives with her mom after the death of her father. Jane spends her days delivering pizzas and her nights drinking beers alone in a shed behind their house. But thanks to the prose, and the pacing of the plotting, this book is both funny, engaging, and something of a psychological thriller. Especially when Jane becomes obsessed with one of her regulars, a stay-at-home mom. We marveled at Kyoung Frazier’s ability to put us in the head of Jane, in a way that we actually wanted to stay there.

By Jean Kyoung Frazier ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Pizza Girl as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named a Vogue, Esquire, NPR, Marie Claire, and Refinery29 Best Book of the Year. Perfect for fans of Normal People and Fleabag

Great inventiveness, unfailing intelligence and empathy, and best of all a rare and shimmering wit' Richard Ford

A moving story about an unforgettable young woman trying to find her place in the world...

Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl, our dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all.

Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the…


Book cover of Vera

Larry Zuckerman Author Of Lonely Are the Brave

From my list on men and women breaking unwritten rules.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a teenager, I began to question the myths my parents told about our family, but when saying so caused trouble, I confided my stories to paper instead. That’s how I became a writer. My first love has always been fiction, but I broke into print writing history—about quirky subjects in which I find deep meaning, like the potato’s revolutionary influence on the Western world, or how the invasion and occupation of Belgium in 1914 foretold Nazi Europe. My fascination with subversion shapes my novels too—my quiet, lonely protagonists would never storm the barricades yet appear radical because of how they live, a circumstance I know well.

Larry's book list on men and women breaking unwritten rules

Larry Zuckerman Why Larry loves this book

I have a soft spot for characters who find strength by dint of superhuman effort, and the way this fifteen-year-old takes charge after the 1906 earthquake—haltingly, uncertainly, as is only plausible—makes me wish I’d met her.

Her path is steeper than the San Francisco hills, yet her refusal to ask for pity wins me over. I also admire how Edgarian uses her protagonist’s coming of age to represent San Francisco’s, a parallel delivered with a light touch.

But above all, the novel explores the fraught relation between women and power; and how Vera walks that tightrope makes compelling fiction.

By Carol Edgarian ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

New York Times bestselling author Carol Edgarian delivers “an all-encompassing and enthralling” (Oprah Daily) novel featuring an unforgettable heroine coming of age in the aftermath of catastrophe, and her quest for love and reinvention.

Meet Vera Johnson, fifteen-year-old illegitimate daughter of Rose, notorious proprietor of San Francisco’s most legendary bordello. Vera has grown up straddling two worlds—the madam’s alluring sphere, replete with tickets to the opera, surly henchmen, and scant morality, and the quiet domestic life of the family paid to raise her.

On the morning of the great quake, Vera’s worlds collide. As the city burns and looters…


If you love K.A. Tucker...

Book cover of Sexy Selfie Nation: Standing Up for Yourself in Today's Toxic, Sexist Culture

Sexy Selfie Nation by Leora Tanenbaum,

The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.

Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicit…

Book cover of Paradise Lodge

Gill Oliver Author Of Joe Faber and the Optimists

From my list on books for when life heads downhill.

Why am I passionate about this?

The bottom has fallen out of my world several times now, but it’s much worse watching disaster strike someone you love. When my husband suffered a near-fatal stroke, it was inevitable I’d end up writing about his road to rehab. Grit and humour were what they said he’d need, and Scousers like me laugh at anything. We also cry and argue a lot. I’m on a mission to cheer people on and hand them arms as they battle through hard times. A life, or a state of mind, can change in a moment, and that’s what I read and write about.  

Gill's book list on books for when life heads downhill

Gill Oliver Why Gill loves this book

I’m a sucker for a pun, and this is another witty book about a serious subject, so it’s right up my street. Milton it ain’t—I romped through it at a time when I was desperate for entertainment. Aging is explored with a sense of freshness and fun as a teenager goes to work in an old people’s home.

A convincing voice, well observed, and ultimately poignant as our protagonist gets closer to understanding age and the elderly—whilst growing up herself. I love the fact that the jokes are never laboured. It’s coming to us all…

By Nina Stibbe ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Paradise Lodge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Lizzie Vogel's story continues in Paradise Lodge, the brilliantly comic sequel to Nina Stibbe's hilarious Man at the Helm.

'LOVE it! Instant classic - funny, wise, touching, entirely delightful' MARIAN KEYES

*****

Working in a care home is not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl but 15-year-old Lizzie Vogel went for it. It just seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk (it is the 1970s after all), plus she has some knowledge of old people. They're not suited to granary bread, and you mustn't compare them to toddlers, but she doesn't know there's…


Book cover of Wicked Sexy Liar
Book cover of How to Date Your Brother's Best Friend
Book cover of Breaker: A Brother's Best Friend Standalone Romance

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