Fans pick 100 books like Lovelight Farms

By B.K. Borison,

Here are 100 books that Lovelight Farms fans have personally recommended if you like Lovelight Farms. 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 The Love Hypothesis

Terry Newman Author Of Hearts on the Rocks

From my list on fake-relationship themed books.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am, first and foremost, an avid reader. And romance, especially romantic comedy, is my go-to choice. And if that romantic comedy has a fake-dating theme…YAY! It was only natural that I write that theme. I believe that life throws you love at the most unexpected times and unexpected places. I love writing character-driven stories, and what better way to have them show off their true selves than by pretending to be in a relationship with a stranger? 

Terry's book list on fake-relationship themed books

Terry Newman Why did Terry love this book?

This is the book I compare all other fake-dating books to. The meet-cute sucked me in. In a panic, Olive kisses the closest (and only) man she sees, hoping her friend will believe she’s on a real date in a biology lab. Now, her friend thinks she’s dating Adam, the smug young professor who seems to hate graduate students.

Let the conflict begin. I love that Olive is a STEM graduate student searching for a method of early detection of pancreatic cancer—the kind that killed her mom. She’s smart and passionate about her work. And I fell for Adam hard. Hazelwood only gives us Olive’s viewpoint, so I was trying to read his intent right along with her. And then there was the “aha” moment when I finally tied the prologue to the story. I will always and forever recommend this book.

By Ali Hazelwood,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Love Hypothesis as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Instant New York Times Bestseller and TikTok Sensation!

As seen on THE VIEW!

A BuzzFeed Best Summer Read of 2021

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So,…


Book cover of Beach Read

Melanie Sweeney Author Of Take Me Home

From my list on realistic romances with a family subplot.

Why am I passionate about this?

During my MFA, I learned to write family dramas and character-driven fiction, but I wanted more comfort, joy, and… romance! I knew the swoony and funny aspects of rom-coms could lift heavier emotional subjects like grief and loss, allowing readers to explore these resonant aspects of life safely, with a guaranteed Happily Ever After. All the books on this list explore a full emotional range of the human experience through extraordinary, utterly magical love stories about otherwise ordinary, flawed people. I hope they make you laugh, swoon, maybe shed a few cathartic tears, and come out the other side feeling better than when you turned the first page. 

Melanie's book list on realistic romances with a family subplot

Melanie Sweeney Why did Melanie love this book?

This enemies-to-lovers story about a romance writer and a literary fiction writer who strike a bet to write their next book in each other’s genre blew me away with its hilarious dialogue and realistic emotional stakes.

January struggles to write another Happily Ever After upon learning her recently deceased father had a secret life with another woman. She goes to deal with his beach house, only to find that her college writing rival is her neighbor for the summer.

As part of Gus and January’s renewed rivalry, they go on a series of dates to teach each other about their genre, and they develop mutual professional respect that bleeds into attraction.

One highlight is when they write flirty notes and hold them up through their neighboring windows. This is a true rom-com, so hilarious and sexy, but it commits to realism and reaches for heavy, heart-wrenching emotional stakes and the…

By Emily Henry,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Beach Read as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION AND BOOK LOVERS!

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring…


Book cover of You Deserve Each Other

Elle Rivers Author Of Contractual Obligations

From my list on romance books with main characters that hook you from page one.

Why am I passionate about this?

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. 

Elle's book list on romance books with main characters that hook you from page one

Elle Rivers Why did Elle love this book?

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!

By Sarah Hogle,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked You Deserve Each Other as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

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…


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest By Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

Book cover of The Fiction Between Us

Elle Rivers Author Of Contractual Obligations

From my list on romance books with main characters that hook you from page one.

Why am I passionate about this?

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. 

Elle's book list on romance books with main characters that hook you from page one

Elle Rivers Why did Elle love this book?

This novel is set in the fictional amusement park of Honeywood Acres, and it follows two characters who pretend to date as their characters in the park. I love a good fake dating story, especially when it’s for a job, and the two leads hate each other at the start of the book.

It’s a slower burn, which is always fun because it gives us time to fall in love with the characters. The author has a talent for world-building, and I got lost in this book! 

Book cover of One Day in December

Jacqueline Friedland Author Of That's Not a Thing

From my list on contemporary romance set in Manhattan.

Why am I passionate about this?

As someone who’s been born and raised in and around the suburbs of Manhattan, I have a love-hate relationship with the city. I crave the excitement it offers but then gets frustrated by its drawbacks- the crowds, the dirt, the noise, the expense, the pressure. But then you crack open the pages of a romance story, and the allure of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs is undeniable. Anything is possible in New York City.

Jacqueline's book list on contemporary romance set in Manhattan

Jacqueline Friedland Why did Jacqueline love this book?

I live a very busy life with four children, two dogs, an awesome husband, and a career of my own. If a book doesn’t pull me in right from the start, I tend to give up on it fairly quickly. This book sucks you in right away and keeps you turning the pages with fervor. It’s a complicated story about friendship, romance, and a young woman who thinks she has everything figured out, until she doesn’t, but then she does, and then she doesn’t. You get the gist.

By Josie Silver,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked One Day in December as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Get ready to be swept up in a whirlwind romance. It absolutely charmed me.”—Reese Witherspoon (A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick)

“The perfect book to get lost in . . . Josie Silver’s characters sneak their way into your heart and stay.”—Jill Santopolo, author of The Light We Lost

Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their…


Book cover of The Sister Wife: Brides of Gabriel Book One

Catherine Richmond Author Of The Shelter of Each Other

From my list on communes and cults in the 19th century.

Why am I passionate about this?

The Loess Hills of Iowa provide a great place to hike, with leg-stretching hills and diverse species of plants and animals, and a park with the unusual name Preparation Canyon. In 1853 a small band of Mormons built a commune called Preparation. Leader Charles Blancher Thompson kept his printing press busy, publishing over a thousand pages. Few of those pages told about those who lived there. The Shelter of Each Other is the story of the people of Preparation, brought to you by a writer whose imagination fills in blanks and connects the dots.

Catherine's book list on communes and cults in the 19th century

Catherine Richmond Why did Catherine love this book?

The Sister Wife shows the early history of the Mormons through the eyes of an emigrant woman whose father has joined the Mormons.

When her best friend’s husband dies, the prophet orders her husband to take her as a second wife. Obedience is required to climb the LDS hierarchy. Violence escalates against anyone who questions the leadership.

By Diane Noble,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Sister Wife is the first book in a new Brides of Gabriel historical series set during the formation of the Mormon edict of polygamy. Award-winning author Diane Noble explores the inner conflicts, emotions, and decisions of three women married to the same man. A moving tale of faith and doubt, love and commitment for fans of Big Love or those who devoured Carolyn Jessop’s Escape, The Sister Wife follows a budding family living in close community with the controversial Mormon prophet Joseph Smith as they are pulled deeper into the world of polygamy.


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Book cover of Return to Hope Creek

Return to Hope Creek By Alyssa J. Montgomery,

Return to Hope Creek is a second-chance rural romance set in Australia.

Stella Simpson's career and engagement are over. She returns to the rural community of Hope Creek to heal, unaware her high school and college sweetheart, Mitchell Scott, has also moved back to town to do some healing of…

Book cover of Anna and the Apocalypse

Oliver Douglas Author Of Karma

From my list on horror that focuses on character development.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up, I’m not embarrassed to admit the horror genre was too scary for me. I don’t remember when it was but at some point that changed and it’s become my favourite. It started with horror movies but as I became a writer, that love transferred to horror books. My favourite type of horror focuses more on the character than the scares. I don’t see why I should be worried about a character’s fate if they’re one-dimensional. I’d trade in great character development for clichéd scares in horror any day.

Oliver's book list on horror that focuses on character development

Oliver Douglas Why did Oliver love this book?

This book is based on one of my favourite movies. However, it takes its time to expand on the characters (delving into their feelings and motivations more). It’s a zombie story set at Christmas about a young girl who wants to break away from her life in Scotland. The zombies are second to the characters. Time is taken to explore Anna, her friends, and the eventual villain through flashbacks and their relationships.  As a Scotsman it’s nice to see a horror story set in Scotland, which is something I try to do with most of my horror books.

By Katharine Turner, Barry Waldo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Anna and the Apocalypse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

School’s out for the end of the world.

Anna and the Apocalypse is a horror comedy about a teenager who faces down a zombie apocalypse with a little help from her friends.

Anna Shepherd is a straight-A student with a lot going on under the surface: she’s struggling with her mom’s death, total friend drama, and the fallout from wasting her time on a very attractive boy. She’s looking forward to skipping town after graduation—but then a zombie apocalypse majorly disrupts the holidays season. It’s going to be very hard to graduate high school without a brain.

To save the…


Book cover of The River

Pedro Hoffmeister Author Of American Afterlife

From my list on apocalyptic thrillers when you want to be scared.

Why am I passionate about this?

My parents joined an evangelical cult when I was ten years old, and I was taught to fear everything, to truly believe I was an evil child, and that God wanted rule-following, humble servants who cowered before him. When I tried to rebel, I was punished and sent away to a cult camp in Colorado where a creepy pastor exhorted us daily. I finally escaped the cult for good when I was 17, but it took a long, long time to recover. Now, along with writing dark novels, I teach wilderness survival and the neuroscience of survival, and I try to apply my knowledge and skills when writing my characters in the American Afterlife series.

Pedro's book list on apocalyptic thrillers when you want to be scared

Pedro Hoffmeister Why did Pedro love this book?

Any Peter Heller novel will work here—The Dog Stars, The Painter, etc.—but The River is really interesting for a few reasons: Heller pushes his characters into the unknown on a river that serves both as a literal symbol and a propulsive, metaphorical symbol. There’s no way to backtrack on a river, so his two friends can’t go backwards. Then we add in the imminent danger of a forest fire and the creepy people also on the river with them, and the whole entire mix is scary!

By Peter Heller,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The River as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ONE OF THE OBSERVER THRILLERS OF THE YEAR: 'GLORIOUS PROSE AND RAZOR-SHARP TENSION'

'LYRICAL AND ACTION-PACKED' Guardian
'I COULDN'T TURN THE PAGES FAST ENOUGH' Clare Mackintosh
'IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN, OR FORGET' Sunday Mirror
'GLORIOUS DRAMA AND LYRICAL FLAIR Denise Mina, New York Times

Two friends
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since their first day of college, brought together by their shared love the great outdoors.

The adventure of a lifetime
When they decide to canoe down the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate the ultimate wilderness experience: no phones, no fellow travellers, no way of going…


Book cover of The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly

Heather Shumaker Author Of The Griffins of Castle Cary

From my list on spooky (but not too spooky) ghost stories for kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a children’s book author and regularly read 2-3 middle grade books a week. I love books that respect kids enough to make them think, and I seek out good books constantly, whether they are intended for kids, youth, or adults. I’m the author of the early education books It’s OK Not to Share and It’s OK to Go Up the Slide, and the ghost adventure The Griffins of Castle Cary for kids ages 8-12. I’m a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and besides writing, I host two podcasts: BookSmitten (children’s books), and Renegade Rules (early childhood). Enjoy the books!

Heather's book list on spooky (but not too spooky) ghost stories for kids

Heather Shumaker Why did Heather love this book?

I like books that make you think, and this book satisfies. Charlie remembers his brother. But that’s odd, because Charlie is an only child. Besides being a mystery, this book excited me because it probes the idea of loving someone and missing someone who doesn’t exist. Or doesn’t exist anymore. Not too scary, this book gives plenty of adventure. The children have to enter an abandoned orphan asylum to find the ghostly, missing children.

By Rebecca K.S. Ansari,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

“As puzzle pieces click into place, The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly reveals that it’s stories—and family—that make us whole. A deeply satisfying and beautiful book.” —Elana K. Arnold, National Book Award finalist and author of The Question of Miracles

Charlie O’Reilly is an only child. Which is why it makes everyone uncomfortable when he talks about his brother.

Liam. His eight-year-old kid brother, who, up until a year ago, slept in the bunk above Charlie, took pride in being as annoying as possible, and was the only person who could make Charlie laugh until it hurt.

Then came the…


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Book cover of Ferry to Cooperation Island

Ferry to Cooperation Island By Carol Newman Cronin,

James Malloy is a ferry captain--or used to be, until he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by a "girl" named Courtney Farris. Now, instead of piloting Brenton Island’s daily lifeline to the glitzy docks of Newport, Rhode Island, James spends his days beached, bitter, and bored.

When he discovers a…

Book cover of Firefly Lane

Katie K. May Author Of You're on Fire, It's Fine: Effective Strategies for Parenting Teens with Self-Destructive Behaviors

From my list on healing family dynamics and generational trauma.

Why am I passionate about this?

My journey from a teen struggling with self-harm, drug use, and overwhelming emotions to a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Clinician™ and director of Creative Healing, Teen Support Centers, uniquely positions me to understand the deep emotional challenges teens face. Having navigated my own tumultuous youth and now parenting a "Fire Feeler" teen, I use my personal and professional insights to guide thousands of teens and their parents. I am passionately committed to creating environments where teens are supported while the entire family learns skills to improve and work together.

Katie's book list on healing family dynamics and generational trauma

Katie K. May Why did Katie love this book?

I was deeply moved by Firefly Lane because it captures the essence of lifelong friendships transcending family dysfunction. I cherished how Tully and Kate's relationship reflects the idea that sometimes, the family we choose holds the key to our healing.

This book resonated with me on a personal level, reminding me of my bond to my best friend, which has been a cornerstone through life's tumultuous phases.

By Kristin Hannah,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . now a #1 Netflix series!

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a…


Book cover of The Love Hypothesis
Book cover of Beach Read
Book cover of You Deserve Each Other

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