Here are 86 books that Blindsided fans have personally recommended if you like
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I’m a complete bookworm and romance addict. I love to see the old tropes being written with a fresh feel, and I’m a true believer that romance is so hard to write because everyone knows the end, but it’s up to the writer to bring you on a worthy journey. After reading countless friends-to-lovers novels, I can say with certainty I have the list with the best books written by the contemporary romance rock stars. Let’s get to it!
This is a pen pals turned to best friends turned to enemies turned to lovers story. And no one could write this mess better than Penelope Douglas. Punk 57 follows the friendship of two kids who only talk through letters until Misha transfers to Ryen’s school and discovers she’s nothing like in the letters. You can blame the hormones, but this book has the same amount of angst as it has of pure goodness.
From New York Times Bestselling Author, Penelope Douglas, comes the latest standalone love-hate romance.
We were perfect together. Until we met." MishaI can’t help but smile at the lyrics in her letter. She misses me. In fifth grade, my teacher set us up with pen pals from a different school. Thinking I was a girl, with a name like Misha, the other teacher paired me up with her student, Ryen. My teacher, believing Ryen was a boy like me, agreed. It didn’t take long for us to figure out the mistake. And in no time at all, we were arguing…
I’m a complete bookworm and romance addict. I love to see the old tropes being written with a fresh feel, and I’m a true believer that romance is so hard to write because everyone knows the end, but it’s up to the writer to bring you on a worthy journey. After reading countless friends-to-lovers novels, I can say with certainty I have the list with the best books written by the contemporary romance rock stars. Let’s get to it!
I’d talk about Mariana Zapata for days without coming out for air. The queen of slow-burn will leave you squirming in your seat shouting “Just kiss already!” on the top of your lungs. It’s a sweet blooming romance between childhood friends who spent years apart. If you read The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, you were probably waiting for Zack’s story. Bonus? Zack is the sweetest and the pure definition of a cinnamon roll hero.
Before he was “Big Texas,” he was “Zac the Snack Pack.”Bianca Brannen knows time—mostly—heals all wounds. Including those your once loved ones might have unintentionally given you. (Those just take longer.)She thinks she’s ready when a call has her walking back into her old friend’s life. Or at least as prepared as possible to see the starting quarterback in the National Football Organization. Before the lights, the fans, and the millions, he’d been a skinny kid with a heart of gold. Waltzing out of Zac Travis’s life should be easy. Just as easy as he walked out of hers.
I’m a complete bookworm and romance addict. I love to see the old tropes being written with a fresh feel, and I’m a true believer that romance is so hard to write because everyone knows the end, but it’s up to the writer to bring you on a worthy journey. After reading countless friends-to-lovers novels, I can say with certainty I have the list with the best books written by the contemporary romance rock stars. Let’s get to it!
Even though he’s her best friend’s ex, it totally makes the list because they were all childhood friends first. One of the most underrated books by Meghan Quinn, I can’t stop talking about Tucker and Emma. The reason this book is so good comes down to a simple recipe: fluffy, hilarious, and with a tortured hero who only wants to be loved. This book is a standalone but part of a wonderful series full of mouthwatering heroes.
When I found an eviction notice taped on my apartment door, I had two options: find a comfortable cardboard box to call home, or move in with Tucker Jameson. Seeing that cardboard makes me feel itchy, I chose the latter. Which shouldn't be that big of a deal since Tucker is one of my good friends. And because he's still pining after his ex-girlfriend and I'm trying to finish my nursing degree, there is nothing to worry about in the romance department, making my last semester an easy one to conquer.Boy, was I wrong. Rules are set, dinners are made,…
I’m a complete bookworm and romance addict. I love to see the old tropes being written with a fresh feel, and I’m a true believer that romance is so hard to write because everyone knows the end, but it’s up to the writer to bring you on a worthy journey. After reading countless friends-to-lovers novels, I can say with certainty I have the list with the best books written by the contemporary romance rock stars. Let’s get to it!
This one is a retelling of the ultimate friends-to-lovers novel: Emmaby Jane Austen. It will give you a contemporary feel, but Staci Hart managed to keep Emma’s soul alive in this book. Cam is sure her six-foot-six football player of best friend will never go for a girl like her. And even when things between them change, she’s not ready to see how it will work. Honestly, you’ll want to shout at Cam many times, but her frustrating moments are written so beautifully that is worth the ride. And the book is set inside the coolest bar/book store you’ll ever imagine.
Some universal truths refuse to be ignored.Peanut butter and jelly are a match made in heaven. Spaghetti and meatballs are best friends forever. And guys like Tyler Knight don’t go for girls like Cam Emerson.She knew from the second she met him that he didn’t belong on her bookshelf, the six-foot-six ex-tight end with a face so all-American, it could have sold apple pie. So she shelved him next to the supermodels and rock stars and took her place on her own shelf — the one with the flannel-clad, pasty-faced comic book nerds. Most of her boyfriends have existed between…
Growing up, my mother often shared stories of her evacuation to a small Wiltshire village during World War Two. Far from a warm welcome, the local children viewed the newcomers with suspicion, and they were made to feel unwanted. My mother did, however, form one lifelong friendship that was very important to her. Her tales inspired me to write a novel about an evacuee’s experience for my Creative Writing MA. Living in Dorset at the time, I set my story there. The research was fascinating, allowing me to weave together historical insights with my own memories and experiences of today’s rural life.
As a grandmother myself, I felt the pain of the loss of a baby, fortunately only imagined in my case, and the distress of a bereaved mother. Wartime, by its very nature, brings loss of life, and there is no lack of that in this story.
These losses were, for me, later tempered by a storyline that divided my sympathies. A book that tore at my heartstrings without labouring on detailed violence of war.
EVERY MOTHER'S WORST NIGHTMARE IS ABOUT TO COME TRUE...
Based on a gripping and moving true story, The Stolen Baby is the new Second World War novel from bestselling author Diney Costeloe.
Plymouth, 1941. As sirens blare all around, the Shawbrook family take refuge in a packed shelter. Bombs have already begun to fall through the night sky when they realise their infant son, Freddie, has been forgotten in the rush, left to sleep in his crib. Terrified, Vera, his young mother races to find him and bring him to safety.
The next morning, police officer David Shawbrook returns from…
I worked for years as a long-haul flight attendant, and met a lot of people. Some travelling for love, honeymoons, anniversaries, some for medical care, to say goodbye to someone. And some for that bucket list item, because they knew it was their last chance. I’ve always been amazed by the human spirit and its ability to love deeply. And I love romance stories! I have read so many. My favourites are the ones about people and the emotional journeys they go on. So combine the two, and you’ve got heart-wrenching stories that make you realise what’s important, even if they do break your heart in the process.
What I love about LM Fox’s books are that she has spent her life working in the medical profession, and so her stories are accurate and true to life in her depiction of certain topics and issues, and the strength of the human spirit in facing them.
The Bitter Rival follows playboy surgeon, Sebastian Lee, and Isabella, who is a single Mom to Austin, who has autism.
There are beautiful depictions of the relationship between Isabella and Austin in this book, and also the introduction of Sebastian into their lives. As always with LM Fox, there is emotion, steam, drama, and twists and turns on the way to their HEA.
I’m always on the hunt for unique, thought-provoking voices among the endless thicket of personal growth titles out there. I look for thought leaders who can help me truly understand myself or the Universe, and help me reach some next-level breakthroughs in my heart. In my prior role as podcast producer for the likes of Dr. Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, and the like, I’ve been able to really understand what does (and doesn’t) trigger true change within ourselves. I’ve compiled this short list of people whoknow their sh*tand both challenge me and make me feel blessed to have encountered their wild, gorgeous minds in the pages of their books.
The simplicity of this book is breathtaking—there’s just one central idea: life should feel easy.
And yet we all instinctively answer, “No, it’s not. It never will be.” And that’s Hamrick’s genius: she asks you to live, for a moment, in a world that lacks any resistance to your dreams or goals. A world where life fully and effectively supports you.
And then she unravels all your own resistance to this idea.
Contrary to what we've believed, life does not have to be hard. And it was never intended to be! "Choosing Easy World" explores the concept that we can access a place where everything works out effortlessly, harmoniously, and in support of our highest possibilities for well-being. As its title implies, "Choosing Easy World" reveals that the key to being in this reality - in "Easy World" - is as simple and easy as choosing to be. Woven throughout with powerful personal stories of opting into Easy World with remarkable results, "Choosing Easy World" provides readers with inspiration, instructions, and support…
Megan is a long-time resident of queer fantasy romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She has been doing so for nearly twenty years, and hopes to do it at least another twenty. She is asexual, biromantic, and married to a wonderful woman. When she’s not busy writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies and play video games.
This is one of the best books of redemption I've ever read, about a man who did some truly horrible, some would say unforgivable things, and has been working hard the past several years to make amends for his wrongs, a journey he continues even as he meets the man who just might be the love of his life. All this in a beautifully built fantasy world, and while it is book two in the series it stands on its own just fine. When it comes to tales of redemption and forgiveness, though, of facing a sordid past and working to overcome it, this book continues to set the bar for me.
On the outside, Mayr seems to have it all: a successful career as Head of the Guard for a prominent politician, family and friends who rely on him, and the attention of beautiful lovers. But appearances are a good way to bury secrets, including mistakes he can never fix and a broken heart that never seems to heal, forever searching for the one person to share his life with.When his last girlfriend takes him back and suggests an intimate night together with Tash, one of her lovers, Mayr reluctantly agrees. The last thing he expects is to fall hard for…
All of the books on my list are about characters who—either due to their own failings and character flaws, or bad luck, or the body blows that life has thrown their way, or a combination of all those things—have hit rock bottom (though as it sometimes turns out, there’s a bottom below that bottom). I think because of my own struggles, and because I’ve often been my own worst enemy, I’ve found comfort in reading stories of this sort. Like many of the writers on my list, I’ve also found that, more often than not, the only way out was to start writing about what I was going through.
Nearly every Goodis novel features an antihero who has fallen from a higher station in life and is now living on the fringes. In this one, Jim Cassidy, once a highly respected airline pilot until a disastrous plane crash leaves him a broken man, now finds himself driving a bus on a dead-end route, consoling himself with a drink at the neighborhood watering hole where he met his cheating wife and trying to figure out how not to get dragged down even deeper. Of course, things do get even worse for him, and not even the surprising “happy ending” can change the inevitability of the ultimate crash we know is coming for him and for all of us.
They say that a man needs a woman to go to hell with. Cassidy had two. One was Mildred, the wife who kept him chained with ties of fear and jealousy and paralyzing sexual need. The other was Doris, a frail angel with a 100-proof halo and a bottle instead of a harp. With those two, Cassidy found that the ride to hell could be twice as fast.
Goodis holds his rightful place in the pantheon of noir writers, alongside Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich, and Charles Williams. His writing stays true and never wavers, is never prettified. His characters always…
I am the product of biracial parents, and the idea of passing or not has always fascinated me as well as disgusted me. The reasons one would want to pass in this era are much different than the survival aspect my ancestors who passed had to consider in the 19th century. In writing my YA historical novels, being biracial always enters in, no matter the topic, because it is who I am and, in the end, always rears its head for consideration.
RM is famous for steamy romance, but this book was a shift in a more literary direction.
I love the challenges Zale Rowen faces in his dogged attempts to find deadbeat dads in Chicago. His personal struggle is not so much biracial as it is emotional since his own father left him.
The book is excellently written and is a definite page-turner for those who love suspense and want to discover who they are genetically and emotionally. RM is also a personal friend; his inspiration kick-started my fiction writing journey.
Zale Rowan, devoted to his career of tracking down fathers who have abandoned their children and forcing them to own up to their deeds, begins to realize that his reasons for his obsession go beyond what he has let himself believe. By the author of The Harris Men.
