68 books like Together

By Julie Cohen,

Here are 68 books that Together fans have personally recommended if you like Together. 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 Time Traveler's Wife

C.J. Connolly Author Of The Love of Her Lives

From my list on magic-realism romance for your otherworldly feels.

Why am I passionate about this?

The stars aligned to ignite my passion for magic-realism romance after a few things had happened. 1) I got heavily into the idea of the multiverse and alternate realities in high school, having been inspired by my physics teacher. 2) I read and fell in love with The Time Traveler’s Wife (see list!). 3) I binge-watched the incredible sci-fi show Fringe, which deals with parallel universes and time jumps. 4) I decided to write my first multiverse romance, inspired by all the above factors and more besides. Since then, I’ve focused most of my reading on romantic novels, with those that share a magic realism twist being auto-reads—of course!

C.J.'s book list on magic-realism romance for your otherworldly feels

C.J. Connolly Why did C.J. love this book?

While not perhaps a “romance” novel in the established-formula sense, this book is achingly romantic. This epic story truly focuses on the gradual development of the two protagonists’ relationship and how time travel both created and challenged their love. This book ignited my passion for magic-realism romantic novels and remains one of my top books of all time.

I adore the contrast of romantic love between two seemingly destined souls and the brutality of some events caused by Henry’s uncontrolled time travel. There’s also the tricky angle of the age gap (only sometimes, depending on where Henry and Clare are in their lives, but it is occasionally extreme), which the author doesn’t shy away from. And I confess this is probably the book that made me sob the most!

By Audrey Niffenegger,

Why should I read it?

25 authors picked The Time Traveler's Wife as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a series on HBO starring Rose Leslie and Theo James!

The iconic time travel love story and mega-bestselling first novel from Audrey Niffenegger is "a soaring celebration of the victory of love over time" (Chicago Tribune).

Henry DeTamble is a dashing, adventurous librarian who is at the mercy of his random time time-traveling abilities. Clare Abshire is an artist whose life moves through a natural sequential course. This is the celebrated and timeless tale of their love. Henry and Clare's passionate affair is built and endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap…


Book cover of The Sight of You

Clare Swatman Author Of A Love to Last a Lifetime

From my list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path.

Why am I passionate about this?

From the moment I started reading those ‘create your own story’ books as a child, I’ve loved a story with a different ending, or at least the possibility of a different ending because I like to be taken by surprise. Having spent years as a magazine journalist interviewing people about their lives, I knew I wanted to write stories about people, because people are fascinating and surprising. My fascination with people and time travel also probably explains why my debut novel, Before You Go, had both of those elements in them – and when I find a book that bends convention a little – or a lot – I’ll shout about it from the rooftops!

Clare's book list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path

Clare Swatman Why did Clare love this book?

This has such a clever premise – a man who can’t let himself get close to anyone because every time he does, he dreams about how they’re going to die and when.

And then he meets Callie, and he does everything he can not to fall in love with her... except he can’t help himself. And then he dreams about her death...

Honestly, what's not to love?!

By Holly Miller,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

THE RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK
'Unique and breathtaking and painful and broken and perfect . . . just like love'
Jodi Picoult
'Exquisitely written, incredibly moving and impossible to put down'
Beth O'Leary, author of The Flatshare
___________

Joel is afraid of the future.
Since he was a child he's been haunted by dreams about the people he loves. Visions of what's going to happen - the good and the bad. And the only way to prevent them is to never let anyone close to him again.

Callie can't let go of the past.
Since her best friend…


Book cover of The Impossible Us

Clare Swatman Author Of A Love to Last a Lifetime

From my list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path.

Why am I passionate about this?

From the moment I started reading those ‘create your own story’ books as a child, I’ve loved a story with a different ending, or at least the possibility of a different ending because I like to be taken by surprise. Having spent years as a magazine journalist interviewing people about their lives, I knew I wanted to write stories about people, because people are fascinating and surprising. My fascination with people and time travel also probably explains why my debut novel, Before You Go, had both of those elements in them – and when I find a book that bends convention a little – or a lot – I’ll shout about it from the rooftops!

Clare's book list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path

Clare Swatman Why did Clare love this book?

I read this book last year and adored it from the moment it began.

I knew straight away it was going to be something special when I realised there was something unusual about Nick and Bee’s relationship – and oh my!

Without giving too much away (trust me, it will spoil it!), it allows you to instantly suspend your disbelief and be swept up into the love story that you know, in your brain, can’t possibly exist, but which your heart desperately wants you to believe. 

I read it in a day because I simply couldn’t put it down, and recommend it to everyone I see – and no book can come more recommended than that!

Book cover of The Book of Two Ways

Clare Swatman Author Of A Love to Last a Lifetime

From my list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path.

Why am I passionate about this?

From the moment I started reading those ‘create your own story’ books as a child, I’ve loved a story with a different ending, or at least the possibility of a different ending because I like to be taken by surprise. Having spent years as a magazine journalist interviewing people about their lives, I knew I wanted to write stories about people, because people are fascinating and surprising. My fascination with people and time travel also probably explains why my debut novel, Before You Go, had both of those elements in them – and when I find a book that bends convention a little – or a lot – I’ll shout about it from the rooftops!

Clare's book list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path

Clare Swatman Why did Clare love this book?

Remember those stories you used to read a kid, where you could choose which way the story went next, and choose your own ending?

I was never the kid who could just make a decision and see where the story went – I always had to read all the different options to see what might have happened. 

That's why this book appealed, because you get to see how both choices worked out. And then it surprises you all over again

By Jodi Picoult,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'A writer the world should be reading right now.' Independent

Who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are now?

Dawn is a death doula, and spends her life helping people make the final transition peacefully.

But when the plane she's on plummets, she finds herself thinking not of the perfect life she has, but the life she was forced to abandon fifteen years ago - when she left behind a career in Egyptology, and a man she loved.

Against the odds, she survives, and the airline offers her a ticket to wherever she…


Book cover of Lady Violet Investigates

Lynn Morrison Author Of The Missing Diamond

From my list on read after you binge-watch Bridgerton.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born and raised in Mississippi, where ink and river mud run through our veins in equal measure. My parents were readers, and thus, I followed in their footsteps. Before long, I was reading their library choices and mine and still running out of books before it was time to visit again. From the moment I laid eyes on Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series, I was hooked on historical mysteries. It took me forty years of life to realize I had stories of my own to share. I now live in Oxford, England, with my husband, two daughters, three cats, and lots of shadowy corners for inspiration.

Lynn's book list on read after you binge-watch Bridgerton

Lynn Morrison Why did Lynn love this book?

I am fairly convinced that Grace Burrowes is a time traveler, for I have never seen a modern author get period-specific language so right. Unlike all the other books on my list, the Lady Violet series does not include any murders.

Instead, Lady Violet’s penchant for solving “puzzles” made for a nice break from the more macabre. I got lost in the twisty details and adored the Agatha Christie-style reveal at the end of the book.

Book cover of Wander Dust

Christy Sloat Author Of The Wordsmith

From my list on time travel you probably haven’t read.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a sucker for a good time travel novel. So when I started writing my Librarian Chronicles I quickly learned that there is just so much you can do with the theory of time. My characters have gone to many places and times and in order to perfect these locations and eras that required tons of research. For my first novel, The Librarian, I researched for nearly a year before I wrote the book. I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy my Librarian Chronicles and I look forward to writing more in the series. Each novel is unique and they can all be read in any order.

Christy's book list on time travel you probably haven’t read

Christy Sloat Why did Christy love this book?

I was lucky enough to read this book when it was first released in 2011. I had just gotten my first eReader, a Nook, and downloaded this book based on the cover. I won’t lie, I am a cover fanatic. Once I read it though, I quickly realized this book was more than the cover. It is well-written and pulled me out of a pretty deep reading slump.

Even better, it's an independently published book and I love to support Indie’s. But let’s get into why I love this book so much. Wander Dust dances that line between fantasy and time travel, and has all the allure of romance that I just love about a book. There is a lot of information thrown at you from the very beginning about the society in which our young character is thrust into, which for me is just what I need when I…

By Michelle Warren, Pam Berehulke (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish.

The Lady in Black burns Sera’s memories.

Unexplainable Premonitions catapult her to other cities.

The Grungy Gang wants to kill her.

And a beautiful, mysterious boy stalks her.

But when Sera moves to Chicago, and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she is immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysteries that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose…


Book cover of Time Between Us

Christy Sloat Author Of The Wordsmith

From my list on time travel you probably haven’t read.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a sucker for a good time travel novel. So when I started writing my Librarian Chronicles I quickly learned that there is just so much you can do with the theory of time. My characters have gone to many places and times and in order to perfect these locations and eras that required tons of research. For my first novel, The Librarian, I researched for nearly a year before I wrote the book. I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy my Librarian Chronicles and I look forward to writing more in the series. Each novel is unique and they can all be read in any order.

Christy's book list on time travel you probably haven’t read

Christy Sloat Why did Christy love this book?

Where do I begin with this book? It is literally a tear-jerker of a romance. Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet, but they did, and they quickly fell for each other. But things are complicated for these two. They are playing with fate and they just don’t care.

Bennett can time travel but he can also take an event in time and alter it. And as we’ve learned in many time traveling novels, that can change things in the future forever and cause a ripple effect.

The couple is just so sweet and innocent that you fall in love with them and want them so badly to make it work. I would highly recommend this series to anyone. I promise you’ll just love the sincerity and romance.

By Tamara Ireland Stone,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Time Between Us 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?

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett's unique ability to travel through time and space brings him into Anna's life, and with him, a new world of adventure and possibility. As their relationship deepens, they face the reality that time might knock Bennett back where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate—and what consequences they can bear in…


Book cover of Run, Come See Jerusalem!

Larry A. Brown Author Of Temporal Gambit

From my list on time travel resulting in alternate realities.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have read SF, starting with the classic Jules Verne, since I was a young teenager. Soon I discovered Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Ellison, Zelazny, Dick, all of whom lit up my mind with wondrous and sometimes dangerous visions of possible futures. During the COVID shutdown period, when our university went to online instruction, my wife convinced me to try my hand at writing in my favorite genre. Previously I had written a textbook, How Films Tell Stories (listed here at Shepherd), but never any fiction, so I wrote Temporal Gambit, a time-travel adventure combined with themes of first contact, artificial intelligence, and alternate history. I then followed it with a sequel. I hope you enjoy. 

Larry's book list on time travel resulting in alternate realities

Larry A. Brown Why did Larry love this book?

This clever novel takes the old premise, “What would happen if you went into the past and met yourself?” and magnifies it by multiple degrees.

Returning to the time of the great Chicago fire, the hero ends up meeting several past and/or future versions of himself, each time making his situation more complicated. A quick, enjoyable read.

By Richard C. Meredith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Run, Come See Jerusalem! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

1st edition paperback, vg++


Book cover of A Shortcut in Time

James Papandrea Author Of From Star Wars to Superman: Christ Figures in Science Fiction and Superhero Films

From my list on thought-provoking time travel.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a lifelong fan of science fiction, and especially all things time travel. However, I do get annoyed by time travel stories where the time travel is never really explained or it’s just reduced to a magical vehicle for the story setting. I want my science fiction to ask the big questions of humanity. I have a PhD in history and theology, and in my research for my book From Star Wars to Superman, I combined a lifetime of enjoying science fiction and time travel with a career studying those big philosophical questions, and I’ve come to the conclusion that true sci-fi has to be thought-provoking.

James' book list on thought-provoking time travel

James Papandrea Why did James love this book?

A Shortcut in Time is a deeply personal story that really dares to get into the question of memory in time travel – in other words, the time traveler remembers people he loved, but these people do not remember him once the time stream is altered.

The author was bold enough to go beyond the “safe” and dig into the personal dangers of time travel. I also love the element of “reluctant” time travel this book explores. 

By Charles Dickinson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Shortcut in Time as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Charles Dickinson's novels and short stories have won widespread acclaim for their deft characterization, humanity, and humor. Newsday described him as "a writer thoroughly in command of his art," while the Chicago Tribune wrote "he can surprise us at almost every turn."

Now Dickinson slips beyond the bounds of mundane realism to create a poignant fantasy that bears comparison to the work of Jack Finney and Jonathan Carroll.

Euclid, Illinois, is a town of many shortcuts, between houses, through orchards, and across fields. Josh Winkler, a local artist and longtime resident, knows these irregular pathways well, but is thoroughly taken…


Book cover of 666

Chuck W. Chapman Author Of Freak on a Moped

From my list on horror you’ve never heard of.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been a fan of the horror genre since I was a kid. Even though sometimes I was so scared, I had to sleep with the light on or not sleep at all. Something about the darkness and the unknown has always seemed so alluring. I can't even count the number of horror movies I've watched or books I've read. That feel of the hair standing up on your arms or the back of your neck is a thrill like no other. 

Chuck's book list on horror you’ve never heard of

Chuck W. Chapman Why did Chuck love this book?

Most people know Anson from The Amityville Horror, but this is a whole other horror, and gratefully, totally fictional this time. A couple moves into their dream home (sound familiar?), soon, strange and frightening things begin to happen at the house with the ominous address. Things that have happened in the same house, at other locations, in other times. I read this book years ago and the imagery of the final chapters still unnerves me.

By Jay Anson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 666 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An innocent-looking but evil-filled house mysteriously appears at different times in different cities, each time waiting for the unwitting victim to rent it and then unleashing the terrifying force of the devil


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Chicago, time travel, and authors?

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