100 books like Woman on the Run

As always, Dean Koontz uses short, propulsive chapters and tons of dangling questions to make his long novels feel short.

This book is definitely the most exciting of his more recent work, focusing on a woman on the run from a mysterious, tragic past who takes refuge on a tiny island with just as many secrets as she has.

I love how Koontz raises the stakes with each short chapter, withholding answers until he slaps you across the face with them. 

The genius of this book is that it starts out as a typical Nicholas Sparks novel (nothing wrong with that) before morphing into a full-on thriller. The change is subtle, building up the intrigue and tension until the novel’s small-town sappiness (again, nothing wrong with that) makes way for some interesting reveals and a truly memorable villain.

The side characters are well-rounded without being aggressively quirky, and I always rooted for the heroine even when I, like all the other characters, didn’t know her full story. I thought the first third was a bit slow at times, but I’m so glad I stuck with it because the whole story reinvents itself and justifies all the set-up.

Nora Roberts can be an acquired taste sometimes, but when she includes as much intrigue as she does in this book, her books are propulsive.

Both the hero and heroine are equally smart, and I love the way they each try to figure each other out. The bad guys aren’t as fleshed out as our two main leads, but the danger they offer is always lurking around the edges of a very fun, very likable romance. 

A huge departure from the previous books on this list, this book is a full-on thrill ride with one of the coolest narrative devices I’ve ever seen: A woman on death row narrates her supposed cross-country killing spree to a horror author who’s interested in adapting her life story.

She’s a fascinating woman, telling her story in a way that constantly challenged me to figure out what parts of her on-the-run narrative are real. She’s surprisingly sympathetic, even when she’s doing awful things.

I devoured this book in one sitting and haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Did you ever read a book so immersive that you were sad when it was over because it felt as if you were saying goodbye forever to your new best friends? That’s how I felt at the final page of Maggie Moves On. 

With a reluctant down-on-love heroine and a hot hero who falls hard and fast and refuses to give up on her, the romance was both steamy and swoon-worthy. Add in the laugh-out-loud moments with a comical but ill-trained dog, an old house under renovation and full of secrets, a small town, and a large cast of characters and this book hit all my hot buttons.

Before I Called You Mine truly brought me through the gamut of emotions with a plot that pitted the main character’s two deepest desires against each other: becoming an adoptive mother and true love.

As a mom who has adopted twice, my heart thrummed in time with Lauren’s as she pursued her passion of adopting, only to come up against an obstacle she never expected. This journey of the heart was so relatable and heartfelt, I couldn’t help but walk it with the characters. And wow! What characters.

A novel about tough choices and how following God’s path brings the sweetest rewards in the end. This is a lesson I’ve learned repeatedly in my own life. How encouraging for this book to remind me. 

I first fell in love with Emily Ruskovich’s short fiction, and this novel, which takes place near a fictionalized version of Mt. Hoodoo, captures the same uncanniness of the ordinary that first drew me to her work.

She captures the landscape’s strange darkness and stark beauty in such detail that I actually dreamt about it. And if you’re obsessed with memory like I am, you’ll be drawn to the way she exposes the shakiness of what we remember as “truth.” 

This is book one in a trilogy of heartbreak and redemption. The tears I cried for the couple as they fought life and each other were real. They were brought to their knees forced to face the consequences of their actions and forced to recognize their love for each other was never going to be easy. From the first chapter, I was driven into a universe that made me feel real pain and heartbreak, but more than that, real love.  Love that was unconditional and unfathomable. It takes a lot to get there, but their HEA was well worth the struggle.

I literally could not stop crying through this entire book. When this novel first begins, we find Kenna Rowan has just been released from jail. She is alone, penniless, and scared with all the cards stacked against her, and she is on a mission to find her daughter. Despite the mystery surrounding the incident that causes Kenna’s incarceration, you are instantly drawn into this character’s vulnerability and sheer force of will and determination. She is at once utterly alone on an island while also strong and brave like a warrior, ready to face the demons in her past in order to find a path back to the daughter that was taken from her. I love all of Colleen Hoover’s novels, but this one shredded me. I couldn’t put it down, had to find out what happened, had to know that Kenna was safe, understood, and vindicated.   

I can always count on Tiffany Reisz for a witty, banter-filled romance, and this sexy seasonal delight is no exception. After a bad breakup, Joey heads to her family’s Oregon cabin, where her troubles are eased by the presence of her brother’s gorgeous best friend, Chris. But this hookup with the handyman has the potential to last past October 31st.

The funny and flirtatious dialogue here kept me laughing.