78 books like Texas Destiny

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 am Rhys Bowen, New York Times best selling author of two historical mystery series and several Internationally best selling historical novels. Many of these take place in and around World War II. I have particularly focused on the bravery of ordinary women, the unsung heroines who risked their lives against impossible odds. My stories take place in France, Italy, as well as, England so these books resonated with me.

I love my family. I can’t do without them. I have three siblings, and I’m the oldest. My father is a hard-working Texas man who I like to compare to Gus from Lonesome Dove. My mother is a lady. Like Jackie. She’s a classic. This made for interesting suppers. We were expected to behave like royalty while our father wanted us to “pull his finger”. I can’t tell you the mischief that went on in my house. And the fanciness. Oh, my heavens, the fanciness. My mother has so many teapots. My family is the reason I can tell stories, and I applaud any author who makes family come alive.

I love my family. I can’t do without them. I have three siblings, and I’m the oldest. My father is a hard-working Texas man who I like to compare to Gus from Lonesome Dove. My mother is a lady. Like Jackie. She’s a classic. This made for interesting suppers. We were expected to behave like royalty while our father wanted us to “pull his finger”. I can’t tell you the mischief that went on in my house. And the fanciness. Oh, my heavens, the fanciness. My mother has so many teapots. My family is the reason I can tell stories, and I applaud any author who makes family come alive.

I spent a decade as a single mom, so stories featuring solo parent protagonists make my book antennae perk up. A happy ever after is a must for a relaxing read, and I prefer stories that don’t slam the door in your face when things heat up between the couple. So much character work can happen between the sheets—especially when you’re dealing with people who have been hurt by love before. While there are closed-door or chaste romances out there that feature single parents, those are less likely to end up in my TBR, and thus less likely for me to push them into your hands.

I came to America from Iran when I was five years old. There's something about immigration that's taught me to be a "first-class noticer," which was Saul Bellow's requirement for a writer. Because I always feel a little (or more) outside of things, people, places, and languages hold a wonderful strangeness for me. Writing is where I try to make sense of all that. As an immigrant, I’ve been especially drawn to stories about people whose lives haven’t always been included in literature. For a novelist, history can be an invitation or a provocation. For me, it’s both. Reading about the past pulls me into its mysteries; the mysteries inspire me to invent. 

I live in California and write novels based on my grandmother’s stories of our female ancestors. I love tales of everyday women who lived normal lives (according to them) but were quite remarkable to my 21st-century eyes. I wrote The Aloha Spirit about my husband’s grandmother, who was an amazing woman. His family is from Hawaii, and we visit there frequently. Anyone who spends time in the islands experiences the warm welcome of the people, which we know as the aloha spirit. I know Grandma had a difficult life, and I wrote the novel to explore how she might have overcome those difficulties to find her aloha spirit.

The biggest compliment a reader can give me is to tell me my book made them cry. Yes, I love a great tear-jerker. I love writing them, and I love reading them. When we feel more deeply, we can live more fully. Books that evoke emotion can help us tune into our authentic selves and confront falsehoods that have held us back from full victory in our lives. Plus, reading is cheaper than therapy! I seek to bring hope, healing, and freedom through fiction. You have to feel to heal, so bring on all the feels.  

I've been fascinated with time travel since I was young, and that's been a few moons. When the idea came to write books that play with time and space and cloak them in a romantic comedy, I got in my favorite writing chair to see who showed up with a story. I want to entice readers to take the journey, pondering suppose we could time travel? I think time is malleable, at least in my characters' hands. And they've done an excellent job of keeping me intrigued with their escapades in the past and present. I hope you enjoy the books I chose to recommend as much as I did. 

Nearly a quarter century has passed since my childhood spent in the Ozark Mountains, but it still remains home. It’s a unique corner of America, not quite the South and not quite the Midwest, but undeniably country. Growing up there on a farm, near towns in decades-long decline, I saw the best and worst of rural life, and of the folks who call it home. That place and those people inspire me and my writing, driving me to show the Ozarks and its people as complex and ever changing. I aspire to move past the nostalgia of rural life, but not at the sacrifice of its beauty and charm.