Here are 100 books that True to You fans have personally recommended if you like
True to You.
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My passion for whimsy is assuredly the result of my mama’s efforts to cultivate an environment where imaginative play and creativity were nurtured. I was raised on a steady diet of whimsical children’s literature—green eggs and ham in a box with a fox, pots of hunny with a silly old bear, and forbidden radishes with a naughty rabbit. As I grew up, I drank raspberry cordial with bosom friends and sipped tea with a fawn I met by a lamppost. Now, I’m still drawn to whimsy of all sorts because along with imaginative scope, I find it also broadens one’s joy. May these books bring you much joy, dear reader!
When curating a list of whimsical book recommendations, one must surely start with the epitome of whimsy herself, Miss Anne Shirley!
With her big words, vast scope for imagination, and appreciation for nature's marvels, Anne with an E is one of my favorite fictional bosom friends. A true kindred spirit, I could visit daily without tiring of her poetical musings.
I love how Anne matures as a character while still maintaining her sense of wonder, and I love how her wonder—her whimsical ability to see a simple lake as an enchanting Lake of Shining Waters—inspires me to romance my own life and search for the wondrous cloaked in the familiar.
Anne of Green Gables is the classic children's book by L M Montgomery, the inspiration for the Netflix Original series Anne with an E. Watch it now!
Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are in for a big surprise. They are waiting for an orphan boy to help with the work at Green Gables - but a skinny, red-haired girl turns up instead. Feisty and full of spirit, Anne Shirley charms her way into the Cuthberts' affection with her vivid imagination and constant chatter. It's not long before Anne finds herself in trouble, but soon it becomes impossible for the Cuthberts to…
Bettina Jaja spent years of her life obeying a man everyone both revered and feared, a man she called her husband - a man of God who gave her a comfortable life by all external accounts. Why, then, was she so unhappy? Pouring her heart out in her uncensored life…
I’m a romance writer who moved around often as a child. Whenever I started a new school, I’d bring a book with me. Even now, I always run errands with a print book and my Kindle as I’m a writer, wife, and mother of four. Two of my children have medical conditions, and I’ve spent time in various doctor and hospital waiting rooms. I’ve taken books into MRI booths where I’d read while my daughter underwent an MRI. I gravitate toward emotional romances that keep me entertained while possessing a thread of humor or something unique about them so I can lose myself in their world anytime, anywhere.
The minute I picked up this book I knew I could read it anywhere, anytime. Two of my children have medical conditions, and I’ve read books in waiting rooms, MRI booths, and parking lots. I love romance series with strong characters who find a happily ever after. RaeAnne Thayne excels at creating a sense of community and casts of characters I want to revisit.
Claire Bradford leads a predictable life in Hope’s Crossing with no time for romance, especially when her best friend’s sexy younger brother returns as the new chief of police. But when an accident forces Claire to slow down and lean on others—especially Riley McKnight—she realizes, for the first time, that things need to change, beginning with being open to love and other possibilities.
What she didn't need was a tragic car accident. As a single mom and the owner of a successful bead shop, Claire leads a predictable life in Hope's Crossing, Colorado. So what if she has no time for romance? At least, that's what she tells herself, especially when her best friend's sexy younger brother comes back to town as the new chief of police.
But when the accident forces Claire to slow down and lean on others—especially Riley McKnight—she realizes, for the first time, that things need to change. And not just in her…
I’m a romance writer who moved around often as a child. Whenever I started a new school, I’d bring a book with me. Even now, I always run errands with a print book and my Kindle as I’m a writer, wife, and mother of four. Two of my children have medical conditions, and I’ve spent time in various doctor and hospital waiting rooms. I’ve taken books into MRI booths where I’d read while my daughter underwent an MRI. I gravitate toward emotional romances that keep me entertained while possessing a thread of humor or something unique about them so I can lose myself in their world anytime, anywhere.
I love books that cross romance genres, and Lovely Digits qualifies as it’s a historical romantic suspense. I was hooked from the first page where the heroine, Lucy, deals with a particularly unruly case. I read this book while waiting to pick up my twins from school and at all times of day.
The book revolves around two murders committed in the sleepy Victorian town of Clun, England, where an unlikely partnership forms between the new constable and the quirky heroine. Can they combine forces and prevent a third murder?
I liked how Lucy was ahead of her time as well as relatable and likeable. She cared for her sister and her cat while still proving her intelligence to the town and the hero while winning his heart.
When two murders strike the sleepy Victorian town of Clun, England, an unlikely partnership forms. But can the killer be found before there is a third?
Lovely Digits is the town oddity . . . Quirky spinster Lucy Wycliffe prefers to ignore gossip and embrace her position as the town’s layer out of the dead, despite how her parents’ deaths thrust her into such unlikely work. Lovely Digits, as she’s known to the local townspeople, no longer dreams of marriage, but takes pride in providing dignity to the dead. Desperate to hold on to her family’s cottage and support…
Bettina Jaja spent years of her life obeying a man everyone both revered and feared, a man she called her husband - a man of God who gave her a comfortable life by all external accounts. Why, then, was she so unhappy? Pouring her heart out in her uncensored life…
I’m a romance writer who moved around often as a child. Whenever I started a new school, I’d bring a book with me. Even now, I always run errands with a print book and my Kindle as I’m a writer, wife, and mother of four. Two of my children have medical conditions, and I’ve spent time in various doctor and hospital waiting rooms. I’ve taken books into MRI booths where I’d read while my daughter underwent an MRI. I gravitate toward emotional romances that keep me entertained while possessing a thread of humor or something unique about them so I can lose myself in their world anytime, anywhere.
I’m fortunate that I can read as a passenger on car trips or on an airplane, but I gravitate to shorter romances that I can read in one sitting while I’m traveling. For me, Tina Radcliffe is my go-to writer for these type of journeys.
I loved Lucy and Jackson’s story in Claiming Her Cowboy as Lucy is the director of Big Heart Ranch for orphans and Jackson is the attorney sent to evaluate the funding. Can he stay objective or will he fall for the beautiful woman who gives her all to the orphans on the ranch? I found myself reading at gas stops and caught up in the story as I got closer to my vacation destination. This was the perfect book while traveling: short, emotional, and thought-provoking.
Attorney Jackson Harris regularly goes toe-to-toe with the world’s toughest lawyers—but none of them compare to Lucy Maxwell. The feisty director of Oklahoma’s Big Heart Ranch for orphans is as stubborn as she is pretty. But Jack must stay focused; he’s only there to evaluate the ranch’s funding. Falling for Lucy and the sweet children she protects is out of the question. Though Lucy is determined to keep the ranch, she’s not about to give control to a city slicker—even a devastatingly good-looking one. But as they bump heads, Jack…
My life is one of two halves; I spent the first half living in the industrial West Midlands, at school and then training to become a doctor, and the second half living in rural bliss in the southwest of England. For the day job, I’m an anesthesiologist, but my true passion, thanks to my mother being an English teacher, is reading romance and writing my own. I am well-travelled and spend a quarter of each year in France, so my books often have characters from all over Europe as well as characters working in the medical profession or overcoming/ living with a variety of health conditions.
I loved the uniqueness of this book, centred around the novelty of email in 1999. I love the idea of a nerdy guy whose job it is to read other folks' emails as he struggles with young adulthood approaching the dreaded Y2K. I loved how his POV is beautifully interspersed with cute epistolary exchanges.
From the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wayward Son, Fangirl, Carry On, and Landline comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about an office romance that blossoms one email at a time....
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now—reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to…
I'm a women's fiction novelist with a love for drama without trauma. As an avid reader myself, I write what I know—moving stories written for women and about women. In my books, I sweep you off your feet, lead your heart to a place it's never been before, make you think, make you fall in love, make you yearn for justice, make you aspire and hope and dream. And I promise a happy ending every time, or at least a realistic, thought-provoking tote of warm feelings you can take with you. I hope you enjoy my reading recommendations below!
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.
A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.
After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter's life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.
The only person who hasn't closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar…
My name is Elle Rivers, and I’ve been a romance reader and writer for over ten years. I started reading when I was in high school because I was a lonely kid who loved watching people fall in love. I love the romance genre because it always has a happy ending, and reading about characters overcoming their struggles reminds me that I can also face any hard moments in life. I try to write the same kinds of characters in my books. They’re all a piece of me, and I am so excited that others can read them, too.
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!
When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.
Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that's three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.
Naomi wants out, but there's a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding…
I have cerebral palsy, but the list of things that I absolutely can’t do is surprisingly short: I can climb a flight of steps or walk the length of a football field, for example, but those tasks are going to take a lot more time and energy for me than they would an able-bodied person. We all choose where to invest in life, but cerebral palsy makes that process much more deliberate, and I’ve been fascinated by it for a long time. I’m always on the hunt for stories that demonstrate that our choices shape our life, not our limitations, and I’m determined to choose joy.
This book is the most fun I’ve ever had reading a romantic comedy—and I’ve read a lot of them! As the title suggests, a lot of this story is told through correspondence between our main couple, and while many authors strive for banter that is funny and flirty, these letters actually were—which is not easy to do!
I had an absolute blast watching Teddy and Everett get to know each other in the midst of a well-formed plot about building a life around what is truly important to you.
A charming and heartwarming new romantic comedy by the acclaimed author of Waiting for Tom Hanks, Kerry Winfrey.
Teddy Phillips never thought she would still be spending every day surrounded by toys at almost thirty years old. But working at a vintage toy store is pretty much all she has going on in her life after being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend. The one joy that she has kept is her not-so-guilty pleasure: Everett’s Place, a local children’s show hosted by Everett St. James, a man whom Teddy finds very soothing . . . and, okay, cute.
I grew up reading the kind of books I could relate to, and 24 years ago, I felt ready to write my own book. I tried for a literary style at first but then soon realized that my natural voice suited novels that are warm, funny, and all about the ups and downs of ordinary people’s lives. These are the kind of books I still read–for inspiration and escape. They inspire me, lift me up, and stay with me long after I’ve read the last page. For me, nothing is more fascinating than human emotions and the way we relate to each other and navigate our lives.
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.
Remember falling in love for the first time? Remember thinking, This is The One? Remember life getting in the way? From adolescent snogging to apartment shares, relationships, career crises, and children, Vince & Joy is the unforgettable story of two lives lived separately but forever entwined.
Back in the 1980s, teenagers Vince and Joy met, fell desperately in love, and never quite said good-bye. Now nearly twenty years later they've both begun to ask themselves if that long-ago romance was the enduring love that they've been searching for.
There’s nothing better than sitting down at the pool to read a fun, engaging story that transports you into another world and keeps you entertained. I’ve always loved reading to escape, and when I started writing and posting my stories for free online at 17 years old, I discovered my true calling. My first story amassed 140 million reads with millions of comments, where people shared how much fun they had reading the story and how it helped them escape from their lives. Since then, I’ve continued writing stories I’m passionate about and sharing them with people who love a good, fun, romance.
Abbi Glines is the best at writing fun, steamy, New Adult summer romances.
You can’t help but be immediately immersed into the story, especially with all of the angst and drama and tension that leaves you needing to see how it’ll all work out. This book has got all those fun tropes that make a great poolside read: bad boy/good girl, enemies to lovers, step-siblings, forced proximity, and a coastal beach town.
The New York Times bestselling novel that launched the beloved world of Rosemary Beach and introduced the world to Rush and Blaire.
The wealthy son of a rocker. A tough farm girl from Alabama. Two step-siblings from different worlds. One summer in Rosemary Beach.
The last thing Blaire Wynn wants is to move in with her father’s new family in Rosemary Beach, Florida. She has no choice. Blaire’s mother has passed away after a long illness, leaving behind a mountain of medical debts and no way for Blaire to keep their small Alabama farmhouse.
