Fans pick 76 books like Love Finds a Home

By Janette Oke,

Here are 76 books that Love Finds a Home fans have personally recommended if you like Love Finds a Home. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Simply Love

Jane B. Night Author Of Wedding the Widow

From my list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think it is so important for everyone to be able to see others get their happily ever after. Illness and disability doesn't mean a person can't or shouldn't find love. Everyone should be able to find love. I love seeing characters find their happily ever after even if they aren't physically perfect. 

Jane's book list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest

Jane B. Night Why did Jane love this book?

This book was my first experience with Mary Balogh and I instantly became a fan. She is now one of my favorite romance authors. This book broke my heart in the best of ways. Sydnam is injured from the war. He is missing an eye and an arm. Still, he managed to easily make me, and Anne, swoon over his artistic soul. Anne is a single mother with a background just as heartbreaking as Sydnam's but I never doubted for a moment they would end up happily ever after. I rooted for them all the way. 

By Mary Balogh,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Anne Jewell is a teacher at Miss Martin's School for Girls, a genteel academy in Regency England. Now she must confront the disturbing tragedy that gave her a beautiful son but locked her heart away for many years ago. While on a summer holiday in Wales, Anne meets Sydnam Butler, a taciturn hero of the Peninsula Wars. Gentle yet courageous, he is unlike any man Anne has ever encountered. But he too carries scars of the past. When Anne returns to Miss Martin's, she makes a surprising discovery and has no choice but to test Sydnam's love. Their passion becomes…


Book cover of Annie's Song

Jane B. Night Author Of Wedding the Widow

From my list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think it is so important for everyone to be able to see others get their happily ever after. Illness and disability doesn't mean a person can't or shouldn't find love. Everyone should be able to find love. I love seeing characters find their happily ever after even if they aren't physically perfect. 

Jane's book list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest

Jane B. Night Why did Jane love this book?

This was the first romance I ever read that featured a deaf character. I loved how much research the author did on the subject and how much I learned. This book broke my heart as Annie was again and again mistreated and underestimated until Alex realized that the problem was her ears, not her mind. 

I really loved Alex's character. He marries Annie because she was raped by his brother and becomes pregnant. I loved his sense of duty and honor. I loved his attempts at trying to do right by Annie even when they were misinformed. 

My favorite takeaway from this book was that no one should decide for another person what they need and the able community needs to not make assumptions but to listen to what those with disabilities say about their needs.

By Catherine Anderson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Annie's Song as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Only her gift of love can heal ...Annie Trimble lives in a solitary world that no one enters or understands. As delicate and beautiful as the tender blossoms of the Oregon spring, she is shunned by a town that doesn't understand her. But cruelty cannot destroy the love Annie holds in her heart. When Alex Montgomery learns of the injustice sweet Annie has suffered, he vows to do whatever it takes to set it right-even if it means marrying her. He never dreams he will fall for her childlike innocence, her womanly charms, and the wondrous way she views her…


Book cover of Romancing the Duke

Jane B. Night Author Of Wedding the Widow

From my list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think it is so important for everyone to be able to see others get their happily ever after. Illness and disability doesn't mean a person can't or shouldn't find love. Everyone should be able to find love. I love seeing characters find their happily ever after even if they aren't physically perfect. 

Jane's book list on featuring a disabled character as a love interest

Jane B. Night Why did Jane love this book?

This was the first book in Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After. I love Tessa's modern characters set in a historical backdrop. Isolde is a woman that knows what she wants. She is forced to go up against Ransom, a stubborn Duke who is visually impaired, in a fight over a castle they both believe they own.  

Also, I would just love to say how much I love when Tessa Dare gives her characters an unusual pet. In this case, Isolde has an ermine. Animal antics add so much fun to her stories! 

This book made me laugh. It made me cry. It made my heartbreak and ultimately it gave me a beautiful love story I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

By Tessa Dare,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities. And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one. * Ugly duckling turned swan? * Abducted by handsome highwayman? * Rescued from drudgery by charming prince? No, no, and ...Heh. Now Izzy's given up yearning for romance. She'll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who's never even…


Book cover of A Curse So Dark and Lonely

Melissa Marr Author Of The Hidden Dragon

From my list on if you want to go on a magical adventure.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on fairy tales and folklore in the Appalachian Mountains. Stories of adventure and dusty fairy tale books in my grandmother’s attic were my entertainment. The library trips we took “into town” added to my reading. I discovered that the step from fairy tales to classics wasn’t as wide as folks argue. Years later, when I went off to college, I became an English major, then a graduate student, and then started teaching literature at college. From childhood to adulthood, magic and fiction were my life... which led to selling a book of my own. Over the last 17 years, I’ve been writing fantasy.

Melissa's book list on if you want to go on a magical adventure

Melissa Marr Why did Melissa love this book?

I had stopped reading children’s and teen fiction for a couple of years, for the first time in my half a century of life, and then I read A Curse So Dark and Lonely.

There’s a different sort of adventure here, and I think I related to Harper a little bit extra because I have a chronic illness and when it flares up, my limp is so very obvious. It felt good to see magic + that realism.

The combination of magic, a protagonist I could connect to, and fairy tale elements made me start opening the covers of other books I’d bought and shelved.

By Brigid Kemmerer,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked A Curse So Dark and Lonely as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

A New York Times bestseller! "Has everything you'd want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale." - Jodi Picoult In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer. Fall in love, break the curse. It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the…


Book cover of The City Baker's Guide to Country Living

Amy Watson Author Of Closer to Okay

From my list on using food as a catalyst to a better life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I used to write a food blog because I love stories about food, be they fiction or non-fiction. Food has the power to bring joy, healing, love, anger, sadness, etc.—you name the emotion and food can evoke it or remedy it. I’ve suffered from depression most of my life and the kitchen makes me feel better. Hearing that my chocolate cookies are amazing heals my heart a little at a time. Food and emotion go together like peanut butter and jelly, and I’m the first to pick up a book that skillfully employs both.

Amy's book list on using food as a catalyst to a better life

Amy Watson Why did Amy love this book?

The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living drops you into the action from word one and immerses you in the main character, Livvy’s, life (and the wreck she’s made of it) immediately. The story sucked me in, and rural Vermont as the setting made me wish I could be there. Then there’s the food… Oh man, I would have made a hundred apple pies if I’d headed into the kitchen every time I wanted to when I read this book. Martin is the perfect book boyfriend, too. Their relationship builds slowly, and he is so delicately written that he almost seemed ghost-like to me sometimes – a wonderful foil to the boisterous Livvy.

Louise Miller’s writing is straightforward, beautiful, and sticks with me way after I’ve finished reading. She’s one of the first authors I look for if I want something real but perpetually hopefully even at the bleakest momen…

By Louise Miller,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The City Baker's Guide to Country Living as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Mix in one part Diane Mott ­Davidson’s delightful culinary adventures with several tablespoons of Jan Karon’s country living and quirky characters, bake at 350 degrees for one rich and warm romance." --Library Journal

A full-hearted novel about a big-city baker who discovers the true meaning of home—and that sometimes the best things are found when you didn’t even know you were looking

When Olivia Rawlings—pastry chef extraordinaire for an exclusive Boston dinner club—sets not just her flambéed dessert but the entire building alight, she escapes to the most comforting place she can think of—the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont, home…


Book cover of Hot Response

Savannah Kade Author Of Crash & Burn

From my list on steamy romantic suspense for savvy readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a contemporary romance writer who does some series in paranormal romance and some in romantic suspense. I know lots of romance is about the fantasy and I write to that, but I want each of my romances to have you walking away believing in real-life love, too. I want heroes and heroines who could walk right off the page! I want to acknowledge smart women finding men who love a snappy comeback and a sharp brain. My favorite stories come together when our heroine is the only one who could solve this crime or mystery. I was first invited to write RS in the Dark Falls series and I shockingly won a Maggie for my first book. I loved the genre so much that I went on to build a whole series of my own!

Savannah's book list on steamy romantic suspense for savvy readers

Savannah Kade Why did Savannah love this book?

Cait has her hands full, the last thing she needs is a playboy like Gavin. The only thing firefighter Gavin takes seriously is his job. Even so, he’s been a challenge. But maybe they can rub each other the right way? When these two finally get over their mutual distrust, the sparks fly. You can always count on a Shannon Stacey book to keep you up all night. This is a perfect opposites attract/hot firefighter romance!

By Shannon Stacey,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

“The enjoyable latest installment of Stacey’s contemporary Boston Fire series (after Fully Ignited) combines blazing passion and a certain sweetness.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“Stacey has knocked this one out of the park! Hot Response is amazing right from the beginning. The tension between Gavin and Cait is sizzling.” - RT Reviews (TOP PICK) on Hot Response

From New York Times bestselling author SHANNON STACEY

Meet the tough, dedicated men of BOSTON FIRE—and the women who turn their lives upside down

Gavin Boudreau lives for the job, but he also believes in “work hard, play harder.” As the youngest guy in Ladder…


Book cover of Hour of the Witch

Ellen Baker Author Of The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson

From my list on books with quirky, strong women at their heart.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved reading novels about strong, quirky women since childhood (Nancy Drew, Ramona Quimby, Harriet the Spy, the heroines of Judy Blume novels, just for starting examples!). As I grew into writing my own stories, I also started studying women’s history. I merged these two interests to begin writing historical novels with strong women protagonists. I love the challenge of researching to figure out the details of women’s day-to-day lives–so many unrecorded stories!–and I love to advocate for the idea (fortunately not as revolutionary as it once was) that a woman can be the hero of her own story and that each woman’s story is important to tell.  

Ellen's book list on books with quirky, strong women at their heart

Ellen Baker Why did Ellen love this book?

I loved this book for being historical fiction at its finest, and I loved the main character, Mary Deerfield, for being a woman who did not fit within her own time.

It’s 1660s Boston, and Mary is married to an abusive man. Determined not to die at his hand, she must fight against everything in her society to free herself from her marriage.

I loved how this book so insightfully explored the dynamics of an abusive relationship while also bringing to vivid life a distant time and place. 

By Chris Bohjalian,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Hour of the Witch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the acclaimed author of The Flight Attendant: “Historical fiction at its best…. The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying” (Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the Outlander series, The Washington Post).

A young Puritan woman—faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul—plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense.

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But…


Book cover of Cursed Luck

Megan Haskell Author Of The Last Descendant

From my list on unconventional fantasy heroines by female authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been a fantasy reader since the fourth grade when my father introduced me to The Hobbit. As I grew older, I found myself drawn to female-led fantasy stories. Before I started writing fiction, I reviewed books on a (now defunct) blog, learning from those authors as I critiqued what worked and what didn’t. Now, as a fiction author in my own right, I’ve focused on the story elements that truly speak to me; characters who live and breathe on the page, adventures through magical lands and diverse cultures, myths that feel so true they could almost be real, and heart-pounding action that breaks me out of my own safe little world.

Megan's book list on unconventional fantasy heroines by female authors

Megan Haskell Why did Megan love this book?

Kelley Armstrong has long been one of my favorite authors, but this book in particular struck a positive chord with me. The quirky heroine, Kennedy, is an actual adult without being a middle-aged divorcee. A twenty-something entrepreneur, she runs a small business selling formerly cursed antiques (which she can verify, since she’s a curse weaver who unmakes curses.) Of course, things get complicated when a new client tries to coerce her into a job that sets her at odds with the rest of the magical community. I loved the fresh contemporary setting—no dark and seedy urban underground—and the surprising twist on ancient mythology. All in all, it was a really fun, clean, modern fantasy for grown-ups.

By Kelley Armstrong,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Struggling curse weaver Kennedy Bennett's motto is Carpe Diem. Wealthy luck worker Aiden Connolly has never leapt without looking—usually twice. Forced together on an adventure, they're going to drive each other crazy...in all the best ways.

Kennedy Bennett comes from a long line of curse weavers. For centuries, her family has plied their trade in Unstable, Massachusetts, an unconventional small town that’s welcomed paranormal practitioners since the dawn of spiritualism. Kennedy has recently struck out on her own, opening an antiques shop in Boston, where her speciality is uncursing and reselling hexed objects. Then Aiden Connolly walks into her life…


Book cover of In Pieces

Gerri Bauer Author Of Growing a Family in Persimmon Hollow

From my list on Catholic historical romance novels from someone who adores them.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love Catholic historical romance novels for what they do and don’t include. They feature history, multiple characters, community and faith that together set a rich stage for love stories. The novels don’t include graphic violence or sex scenes. A former journalist, I started writing in the genre because I couldn’t find what I wanted to read. I’m both traditionally and indie published. I’m a member of the Catholic Writers Guild, as are the authors whose books are listed here. Family and community play important roles in my books. They show how a couple is never an isolated pair but always part of a multilayered world. Just like real life.

Gerri's book list on Catholic historical romance novels from someone who adores them

Gerri Bauer Why did Gerri love this book?

In Pieces is the first of a two-book series. The romance develops in this book while subplots thicken. I was quickly drawn to the characters and early American setting. I felt immersed in the ambience of the Boston waterfront during the Federalist years. Themes of redemption, forgiveness and understanding weave through the novel and affect more than the hero and heroine. For example, the hero’s family grapples with his growing interest in Catholicism. As the love story reaches resolution, another subplot deepens: a need for American spies to help protect the young country. I ended the book feeling as though the characters had become friends. In Pieces is subtitled Molly Chase Book 1 and fits the Christian historical fiction genre as well as Catholic historical romance.

By Rhonda Ortiz,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Certain things ruin a girl’s reputation, and madness is one.

BOSTON, 1793—Beautiful and artistic, the only daughter of a prominent merchant, Molly Chase cannot help but attract the notice of Federalist Boston—especially its men. But she carries a painful secret: her father committed suicide and she found his body. Now nightmares plague her day and night, addling her mind and rendering her senseless. Molly needs a home, a nurse, and time to grieve and to find new purpose in life. But when she moves in with her friends, the Robbs, spiteful society gossips assume the worst. And when an imprudent…


Book cover of Dark Lover

Joann I. Martin-Sowles Author Of Laney

From my list on heart-pounding paranormal romance books.

Why am I passionate about this?

Since I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by the supernatural. I’ve always been especially captivated by vampires. My love for vampires and many of the books I’ve read about them contributed to the inspiration that led me to write my own stories. My passion for the series I created drives me. Building my own fantasy world and creating the characters within it has been an amazing experience. Most days, I feel like I’m just a spectator in their world, and they’re writing the story themselves. I hope you, too, will find enjoyment and possibly inspiration in the books from this list, just as I have.

Joann's book list on heart-pounding paranormal romance books

Joann I. Martin-Sowles Why did Joann love this book?

I lost sleep reading this book. Lying in bed, I told myself, “Just one more chapter.” The next thing I knew, it was morning, and I could hear the garbage truck in the distance. Did I put the book down and get my day started, or make sure the trashcans were put out the previous night? Of course not! I was engrossed. I needed more, and I needed to know everything! I needed to know what would happen to the main character and how the Black Dagger Brotherhood worked.

At the time, this book was like nothing else I’d read and my first experience with such a steamy story. But the sexy bits were just bonuses in a story that I found so very captivating I couldn’t put it down. I loved learning about the brotherhood, about Beth’s connection to it, and I loved the dynamics of the brothers, just…

By J. R. Ward,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Dark Lover as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There also exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Among them, none relishes killing their enemies more than Wrath, the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood...

The only pure-bred vampire left on the planet, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But when one of his most trusted fighters is killed - orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage…


Book cover of Simply Love
Book cover of Annie's Song
Book cover of Romancing the Duke

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