51 books like Falling for the Unexpected

By Rachel Lyn Adams,

Here are 51 books that Falling for the Unexpected fans have personally recommended if you like Falling for the Unexpected. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Confined Space: An Everyday Heroes World Novel

Kimberly Knight Author Of Tattooed Dots

From my list on heating up your nights.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everyone wants to find romance. Some of us find it within the pages—or more than once. I also think romance gets a bad rap, but I for one love to fall in love repeatedly. It doesn’t matter if they’re fictional because when you read a story; you get lost in their world, as though you’re their friend, too. That is what I strive for when I write my characters. I write them as someone you could go out for a drink with and just have a good time. However, most of my characters experience life or death situations, but that just makes them stronger in the end, especially when I base them on my real-life experiences like in Tattooed Dots.

Kimberly's book list on heating up your nights

Kimberly Knight Why did Kimberly love this book?

Confined Space is a book that clutches your heartstrings, pulling you in, and demanding you find out what secrets Coral is hiding. I love the way that Rowdy loves Coral and wants to protect her. How he wants to give Archer love too and take care of him. Even after the pain, Coral suffers she can find love again and move on.

By E.M. Shue,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

E.M. Shue’s Confined Space is an emotional journey and romantic suspense written in K. Bromberg’s Everyday Heroes World.At the end of her rope, Coral Pierce decides to move on to a new town and start over. Sunnyville isn’t what she was expecting when she and her newborn son are involved in a serious accident. She soon finds herself entrapped within not only the car but the eyes of the firefighter helping her. But with her past issues she should just stick to talking to him, not thinking about what he looks like under his bunker gear.Tall, muscular, and independent Rowdy…


Book cover of Saving Their Princess

Kimberly Knight Author Of Tattooed Dots

From my list on heating up your nights.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everyone wants to find romance. Some of us find it within the pages—or more than once. I also think romance gets a bad rap, but I for one love to fall in love repeatedly. It doesn’t matter if they’re fictional because when you read a story; you get lost in their world, as though you’re their friend, too. That is what I strive for when I write my characters. I write them as someone you could go out for a drink with and just have a good time. However, most of my characters experience life or death situations, but that just makes them stronger in the end, especially when I base them on my real-life experiences like in Tattooed Dots.

Kimberly's book list on heating up your nights

Kimberly Knight Why did Kimberly love this book?

Saving Their Princess makes you question what is possible. It takes a twist on reality and gives you a new perspective. I love this book so much because it spins one of my favorite all-time classic fairytales into a modern-day twist. I got the value of friendship and love from this story. Two men that have been friends for years fall for the same woman and they give her the life she deserves.

By KL Donn,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From USA Today Bestselling author KL Donn comes an all new menage romance stepping into the world of magic and fantasy in a sexy fairytale retelling.


Once upon a time… 

Isn't that how love stories begin? 

Not this time. This is not a love story. 

This is the untold story of Sleeping Beauty and how Princess Arianna of Graeline was conceived out of darkness and lies.

Born into a kingdom on the brink of disaster, she remains hidden away from the world as protection against a vengeful curse. 

A love curse.

Malevolence has invaded the land of mystery, and the…


Book cover of Exposure: An Epiphany Novel

Kimberly Knight Author Of Tattooed Dots

From my list on heating up your nights.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everyone wants to find romance. Some of us find it within the pages—or more than once. I also think romance gets a bad rap, but I for one love to fall in love repeatedly. It doesn’t matter if they’re fictional because when you read a story; you get lost in their world, as though you’re their friend, too. That is what I strive for when I write my characters. I write them as someone you could go out for a drink with and just have a good time. However, most of my characters experience life or death situations, but that just makes them stronger in the end, especially when I base them on my real-life experiences like in Tattooed Dots.

Kimberly's book list on heating up your nights

Kimberly Knight Why did Kimberly love this book?

The characters in Exposure are well developed and likable, and the story was captivating from beginning to end. It had the right mix of tension and humor. Readers who enjoy spicy romances with some family drama thrown in will love this book. Loyalty is a double-edged sword, especially when dealing with family.

By Ember Dante,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Did fate bring them together only to rip them apart?

Emmy Blake gave up on love the day she found her boyfriend in bed with another woman. Emotionally broken, she feared the situation would leave her forever jaded to the idea of romance.

Until she met Ian Walsh.

His confidence and compassion were as refreshing as they were unexpected. Powerless to resist her desire for him, she found the one thing missing from her life... passion.

Betrayal and tragedy left mental and physical scars Ian would never escape. Haunted by demons of the past, he rejected his father’s ideals and…


Book cover of Bared Souls

Kimberly Knight Author Of Tattooed Dots

From my list on heating up your nights.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everyone wants to find romance. Some of us find it within the pages—or more than once. I also think romance gets a bad rap, but I for one love to fall in love repeatedly. It doesn’t matter if they’re fictional because when you read a story; you get lost in their world, as though you’re their friend, too. That is what I strive for when I write my characters. I write them as someone you could go out for a drink with and just have a good time. However, most of my characters experience life or death situations, but that just makes them stronger in the end, especially when I base them on my real-life experiences like in Tattooed Dots.

Kimberly's book list on heating up your nights

Kimberly Knight Why did Kimberly love this book?

Bared Souls is a unique story with interesting characters and a beautiful and tragic love story that pulls on your emotions and heartstrings. It makes you see love in a different way and takes on a topic that is hard to overcome for some. Even leading to death. Bared Souls sucks you in and will have you flipping the pages until the very end.

By Ellie Wade,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Alma Weber
He told me that he’d destroy me. I knew he wasn’t lying, and I loved him anyway. I believed in love—in him. I just wasn’t prepared to carry the weight of his demons.
I wanted forever with him, but life showed me love was temporary, and forever was a dream.
Despite everything that happened, even now, I wouldn’t change any of it.
For a love to have the capacity to destroy you, it has to be extraordinarily powerful—and that kind of love is impossible to walk away from.
Leo Harding
I warned her that I’d ruin her. I…


Book cover of W-3

Mikita Brottman Author Of Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder

From my list on psychiatric hospital by women who spent time there.

Why am I passionate about this?

In addition to being an author, I’m a literature professor and a psychoanalyst; I have worked in prisons and psychiatric hospitals. I have also been a psychiatric patient. I’m fascinated by narrative, and by the way we use language to make sense of our own experiences and to connect with other people.

Mikita's book list on psychiatric hospital by women who spent time there

Mikita Brottman Why did Mikita love this book?

This is a recent reissue of a book first published in 1974 and long out of print. Bette Howland gives us a vivid and honest account of her time in Ward 3 of a Chicago psychiatric hospital after a serious suicide attempt in her late twenties. I was moved by the moments of communion, camaraderie and even comedy the narrator shares with her fellow patients. Having said that, Ward 3 is a terrible place. The “treatments” are also punishments. The narrator confronts the ward’s alienation with clear, unsentimental detachment. I was absorbed by her struggle to retain an element of dignity in the face of the hospital’s fatally indifferent bureaucracy. 

By Bette Howland,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked W-3 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An extraordinary portrait of a brilliant mind on the brink: A new edition of the 1974 memoir by the author of the acclaimed collection Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. With an introduction by Yiyun Li.

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life could begin. At last it had dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”

From the author of…


Book cover of Ferocious Wild Beasts!

Julie Fulton Author Of Bears Don't Eat Egg Sandwiches

From my list on the craziest picture books for children.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a diet of crazy stories by Edward Lear, Dr. Seuss, and Hillaire Belloc amongst others. They instilled in me a lifelong love of books and reading. Dad created whacky stories for me every bedtime too. Little wonder I now write my own zany tales. Greedy Mrs. MacCready and the rest of the Ever So series, plus Bears Don’t Eat Egg Sandwiches, are direct descendants of the stories I loved as a child! Experience as a classroom teacher gave me many insights into the minds of young children. I love going back into schools to read my books to a new audience. Hope you enjoy them too!

Julie's book list on the craziest picture books for children

Julie Fulton Why did Julie love this book?

Jack’s lost in the forest; the forest Mum warned him is full of ‘ferocious, wild beasts’. A friendly bear offers to help, but is soon as scared as Jack when he hears how hairy and big some of the beasts are. A variety of other creatures join them – there’s safety in numbers when you might be squished or pounced on or gobbled up by who knows what. And then a wild roar echoes through the forest…

I love how the creatures all seem perfectly friendly to Jack. His terrifying them all by retelling his tales of ferocious beasts, again and again, is brilliant. And the ending is just perfect – especially for any ferocious mum out there!

By Chris Wormell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ferocious Wild Beasts! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jack is lost in the forest - a forest that his mum has told him is full of ferocious wild beasts! But the creatures that Jack meets there: a bear, a lion, an elephant, a crocodile, a wolf and a python, all seem perfectly friendly to him, even if they are a bit worried about these ferocious wild beasts he's been telling them about ...But then they hear a terrible roar...Who or what can it be?


Book cover of Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West

Jan Mackell Collins Author Of Behind Brothel Doors: The Business of Prostitution in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma (1860–1940)

From my list on historical prostitution.

Why am I passionate about this?

Having grown up with an older generation—my great-grandparents, great-great aunts and uncles, and a godmother, all who were born between 1877 and 1900—I learned to appreciate how they lived and what they went through. As a child, I found a hand-written poem about a brothel queen who caused a gunfight between her paramour and a stranger. Then, in college, I met a wonderful old man who told me stories about the former red-light district right in my own neighborhood. Once I learned the often tragic, but also successful stories of these ladies, I decided to be their voice and remind America how important they were to our history.

Jan's book list on historical prostitution

Jan Mackell Collins Why did Jan love this book?

Mrs. Seagraves used real facts and lots of sources to tell her stories, and her book was one of the first to address the prostitution industry in the west. Because of her, some of the women who were formerly cast aside finally got the recognition they deserved. For those seeking a more romanticized look at the biographies of prostitutes and why it is important to remember them, this is the book.

By Anne Seagraves,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Soiled Doves tells the story of the grey world of prostitution and the women who participated in the oldest profession. Colorful, if not socially acceptable, these ladies of easy virtue were a definite part of the early West--wearing ruffled petticoats with fancy bows, they were glamorous and plain, good and ad and many were as wild as the land they came to tame.

Women like "Molly b'Dam," Mattie Silks, and "Chicago Joe" blended into the fabric of the American Frontier with an easy familiarity. Others, such as "Sorrel Mike," escaped through suicide, Lottie John chose marriage and the Chinese slave…


Book cover of Pretend You're Mine

DeDe Ramey Author Of 24 to Life

From my list on a blend of romance, laughter, and mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

There is something about a 'happily ever after' that, no matter how hard it is to get there, it is so satisfying when you do. If there is a little humor mixed in with mystery that can take your emotions on a rollercoaster, that’s all the better. I decided to write romance because I do believe in fairy tales. I believe love is a choice. You make it what you want. I am a romantic suspense author because I love the thrill of solving the crime. In many cases, truth is stranger than fiction. Many times I use real-life issues and moments in time in my writing to pique the readers' curiosity. 

DeDe's book list on a blend of romance, laughter, and mystery

DeDe Ramey Why did DeDe love this book?

This was one of the first romance books I read, and it has stuck with me. Luke is a grouchy military guy that is tired of his family’s meddling or anyone else’s for that matter. His bristly personality keeps most at bay but when Harper stumbles into his life he realizes he’s going to have a hard time keeping her out of his life. She’s not deterred by his grumpiness and Luke’s true protective personality starts to emerge. Not to give anything away, but the romance of these two was what was memorable about this book. 

By Lucy Score,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pretend You're Mine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I only wanted to protect you...

Luke Garrison is a hometown hero, a member of the National Guard ready to deploy again. He's strong, sexy, broody. The last thing he's looking for is a woman to ruin his solitude. When the wildly beautiful Harper stumbles into his life, though, he realizes that she's the perfect decoy. A fake girlfriend to keep his family off his back until he's deployed.

So what if kissing her sends his mind to wicked places? He can control himself. Can't he?

Harper was on her way to starting a new life... again. But something about…


Book cover of The Fourth Monkey

Katherine Black Author Of Leverage

From my list on dark and twisted psychological thrillers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been writing for a long time and reading even longer. I enjoy intelligent books that are well written—not overwritten or over punctuated—and as we all do both of those, I mean that it’s been well edited. And I understand the struggle which is why four of my five choices are from indie authors like myself.

Katherine's book list on dark and twisted psychological thrillers

Katherine Black Why did Katherine love this book?

I loved this book. This is the tenth book I’ve read this month and I haven’t had a bad one yet, so either I’m really good at picking, or the standard of writing out there is improving all the time. I would give this book 9.5 out of 10. I couldn’t wait to get my day finished so that I could settle and read in the evenings. Can’t praise this highly enough.

The plot was riveting, the pace built well, the characterisation is up there, and his description is powerful and draws you right into the visuals and meaning of the story.  What really captured me with this book was the child’s voice. It was so damned subtly done. If anything, the boy is written in an understated way—but before it ever got sinister, you just knew with that creepy little kid’s voice that it was going to. The ‘out…

By J.D. Barker,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Fourth Monkey as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

`The Fourth Monkey has one of the most ingenious openings that I've read in years. This thriller never disappoints.'
James Patterson

`Superbly constructed and immaculately paced' - The Daily Mail

Brilliant. Complicated. Psychopath.

That's the Four Monkey Killer or `4MK'. A murderer with a twisted vision and absolutely no mercy.

Detective Sam Porter has hunted him for five long years, the recipient of box after box of grisly trinkets carved from the bodies of 4MK's victims.

But now Porter has learnt the killer's twisted history and is racing to do the seemingly impossible - find 4MK's latest victim before it's…


Book cover of The Lucky One

Deborah Halber Author Of The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America's Coldest Cases

From my list on cold cases involving unidentified victims.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’d always known about the Lady of the Dunes. I’d read about how she was found in the dunes of Provincetown, Massachusetts, on July 26, 1974. I didn’t know about the tens of thousands of other unidentified victims like her, stowed around the US in the back rooms of morgues and unmarked graves. As a journalist who has always given a voice to those who struggle to be heard, I feel compelled to research and write about these Jane and John Does and the people who work to keep their cases in the public eye. I share a unique bond with writers who do the same.

Deborah's book list on cold cases involving unidentified victims

Deborah Halber Why did Deborah love this book?

I am biased toward any writer who features amateur sleuths. Lori Rader-Day not only plunges readers into a compelling story with a delightfully twisty ending, she also pays tribute to the volunteers who slave away on real-life sites such as The Doe Network. When the protagonist comes across a picture of a missing person, she realizes it’s someone from her past and resolves, for complicated reasons, to track him down. 

By Lori Rader-Day,

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?

"This might well be my favorite Rader-Day so far: a brilliant premise intriguingly developed, totally believable characters and a climax that took my breath away." - Ann Cleeves, New York Times bestselling author of The Shetland and Vera Series

From the author of the Edgar Award (R)-nominated Under A Dark Sky comes an unforgettable, chilling novel about a young woman who recognizes the man who kidnapped her as a child, setting off a search for justice, and into danger.

Most people who go missing are never found. But Alice was the lucky one...

As a child, Alice was stolen from…


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