Here are 100 books that Woman on the Run fans have personally recommended if you like
Woman on the Run.
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I’ve written an equal amount of horror and romance, including books, podcasts, and screenplays. I love both genres equally, but I’m most drawn to stories that strike a nice balance between the two. Danger makes the romance less cheesy, and romance gives the thriller side more meaning. As an ESL teacher who has worked everywhere, from Bhutan to Zanzibar, I also love discovering new places. Some of my favorite books take their characters to new locations, forcing them to discover the hidden dangers and pleasant surprises that every place has to offer.
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.
Soon no one on Earth will have a place to hide in this novel about fears known and unknown by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.
In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob's Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting.
The neighboring island of Ringrock houses a secret: a government research facility. And now two agents have arrived on Jacob's Ladder in search of someone-or something-they refuse to identify. Although an air of menace hangs…
I grew up in a large family and was often forgotten since I wasn’t the loud and rebellious child, but I was often pushed over because I wouldn’t stand up for myself in fear of anger. My only escape was walking the seven blocks to my local library and reading about heroic deeds, beautiful ladies falling in love with the dashing prince, and wishing I could be brave like the characters in my books. In my late teens, I realized there’s more to a person than physical strength.
Nicholas Sparks is one of those romance writers whose work I mostly like, but I’m not a die-hard fan. However, I love this book. Not every sweet, sappy romance makes me cry, but this one did. I really cared for the main character, Katie. She’s quiet and keeps to herself, but beneath the reserved smile, she’s hiding from an abusive marriage.
It takes courage to run from a bad situation and strength to face your demons finally. I also liked that the romance was believable and took its time. Romances that make me fall in love with the characters are among my favorite kinds of love stories.
In a small North Carolina town, a mysterious and beautiful woman running from her past slowly falls for a kind-hearted store owner . . . until dark secrets begin to threaten her new life.
When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken…
I’ve written an equal amount of horror and romance, including books, podcasts, and screenplays. I love both genres equally, but I’m most drawn to stories that strike a nice balance between the two. Danger makes the romance less cheesy, and romance gives the thriller side more meaning. As an ESL teacher who has worked everywhere, from Bhutan to Zanzibar, I also love discovering new places. Some of my favorite books take their characters to new locations, forcing them to discover the hidden dangers and pleasant surprises that every place has to offer.
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.
In her stunning 200th novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts proves why no one is better “when it comes to flawlessly fusing high-stakes suspense with red-hot romance" (Booklist, starred review).
Daughter of a cold, controlling mother and an anonymous donor, studious, obedient Elizabeth Fitch finally let loose one night, drinking too much at a nightclub and allowing a strange man’s seductive Russian accent to lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive.
Twelve years later, the woman now known as Abigail Lowery lives alone on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance…
I’ve written an equal amount of horror and romance, including books, podcasts, and screenplays. I love both genres equally, but I’m most drawn to stories that strike a nice balance between the two. Danger makes the romance less cheesy, and romance gives the thriller side more meaning. As an ESL teacher who has worked everywhere, from Bhutan to Zanzibar, I also love discovering new places. Some of my favorite books take their characters to new locations, forcing them to discover the hidden dangers and pleasant surprises that every place has to offer.
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.
Stewart O'Nan is one of the most highly acclaimed fiction writers of his generation, selected by Granta as one of the Best Young American Novelists and hailed by The New York Times as "a master." Grove Press is proud to reissue his haunting noir novel The Speed Queen. The Speed Queen is the gripping story of a twisted love triangle's drug-fueled killing spree across the desert plains, told in the voice of Oklahoma death-row inmate Marjorie Standiford, who is recounting her experiences for a best-selling horror writer researching the murders. It's a chilling, unputdownable crime novel in the tradition of…
I was a romance reader long before becoming an author. 89 published books later, including 2 New York Times and 9 USA Today bestsellers, I feel justified in claiming some knowledge on the subject. I believe you must be a book lover, an avid reader, to be a successful writer.That said, everyone has diverse tastes, and I think taste and what a person needs in a book, changes with time and circumstances. Luckily there have never been more books available. You just have to find them. Whether you read my recommendations and said, “Yes!” or “Hell, no!”, I hope you're one step closer to your next best read.
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.
Can these opposites turn up the heat… without burning down the house?
House-flipping sensation and YouTube star Maggie Nichols can’t wait to dig into her next challenge. Arriving in tiny Kinship, Idaho, with only a cot and a coffeemaker, Maggie is prepared to restore a crumbling Victorian mansion in four months or less. She has her to-do lists, her blueprints, and her team. What she doesn’t have is time for sexy, laid-back landscaper Silas Wright.
The man takes flirtation to a whole new level. And he does it shirtless…sometimes pants-less. He and his service school-dropout dog are impressively persistent. But…
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.
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.
Lauren Bailey may be a romantic at heart, but after a decade of matchmaking schemes gone wrong, there's only one match she's committed to now--the one that will make her a mother. Lauren is a dedicated first-grade teacher in Idaho, and her love for children has led her to the path of international adoption. To satisfy her adoption agency's requirements, she gladly agreed to remain single for the foreseeable future; however, just as her long wait comes to an end, Lauren is blindsided by a complication she never saw coming: Joshua Avery.
I’m a writer who grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Austin, Texas. Though I haven’t lived in Massachusetts for over a decade now, I find myself drawn back to the state’s coast in my fiction. My novel, Women and Children First, takes place in a fictional town south of Boston called Nashquitten. I’m obsessed with how where we’re from shapes who we become and the ways we use narrative to try and exert control over our lives.
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.”
LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning debut novel about love and forgiveness, about the violence of memory and the equal violence of its loss—from O. Henry Prize–winning author Emily Ruskovich
WINNER OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BOOK AWARD • WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED
Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband’s memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade’s…
I am a deeply emotional person although I hide it well. I feel things on a level not everyone understands. I am also a romantic. Because of that, I have always been drawn to romance books, even as a child, but more than that, I am drawn to romance that makes me feel. I want to feel the heartbreak and live through the struggles of love. Real love isn’t pretty and neat. It is messy and raw and vulnerable. I want to experience the gut-clenching, heart-racing emotions with every page and every word. It’s what keeps me turning the pages wanting more.
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.
What happens when you grow up with your soulmate and become as close as two people can become?Then, tragedy strikes, and you desperately fight yourself trying to hang on to what you have with him, but ultimately, push him away because of the pain and fear. Time passes.The pain you felt subsides, laying dormant.You can finally wake with the sunrise with a smile on your face, only to have it ripped away from you again when you’re abducted and held prisoner by a sadistic human being.Only to be released and promised he’d come back for me… My given name is…
Prior to writing my own works of fiction, I actually worked for several years as a romance ghostwriter. I’ve worked for many clients under various pseudonyms, and many of these titles have gone on to the Amazon Top 100 list (I just can’t tell you which one because I signed an NDA). I think that romance as a genre can be a wonderfully cathartic and escapist experience, allowing us the opportunity to swoon, pine, and giddily indulge in the joy of what it’s like to fall in love over and over again.
I believe in second chances. That’s why Forget Me Not is one of my favorite romance reads of the year!
Ama Torres is a wedding planner who (ironically) doesn’t believe in marriage. This may or may not be the reason why handsome and brooding florist Elliot Bloom seems so distant and broken-hearted. They were an item—until something went terribly wrong!
This is a swoon-worthy read with snappy banter and plenty of spice. Watching these two fall in love all over again is sweet enough to give me cavities.
A wedding planner and her grumpy ex must work together to plan a celebrity event in this deliciously spicy and funny novel from Ali Hazelwood's "favorite writer."
Ama Torres is an optimistic wedding planner who doesn’t believe in marriage. But weddings? They’re amazing. Elliot Bloom is a brooding florist who hates owning a flower shop…until a certain bright-eyed, donut-loving workaholic shows up at his door.
Once upon a time, they collaborated on events by day, and by night, Ama traced the intricate flower tattoos etched along his body. Then Ama shattered his heart and never spoke to Elliot again.
I love a little humor from romantic trysts or tales of woe of that one love that got away. Divulged conversations and gossip on the therapy couch can be fascinating (massage work relaxes the body and mind). Clients worldwide find choosing their ideal partner a lottery. Inspiration struck me to look more closely at how marriage choices are made through the heart or the mind. We all search for the perfect soul mate. Learning how others met was intriguing by chance or manipulated. Clearly showing, fate did seem to be at play in most cases. I love creating escapism to let your wild romantic dreams be a possibility.
Romance themes are easy for readers, but the escapism and scenarios are vast. This novel, set in the Big Apple, New York, hits the mark well. Some twists and turns, never knowing the final outcome. How random situations happen can make you think of serendipity at play.
Does fate have more control than you think? An intriguing concept. Thrown into the mix of engagements and weddings, tempers can flare. The stubbornness of characters with some excellent scenes where you feel the emotion and are in the midst of the story. Travels from the USA to Dublin, the story has a homely, feel-good vibe for romantic lovers.
I found the writing tone tight and to the point in places, and I never quite knew how things would pan out for the key players.
Doesn't every girl dream of getting... something from Tiffany's?
On 5th Avenue in New York City, two very different men are shopping for gifts for the women they love.
Gary is buying his girlfriend Rachel a charm bracelet. Partly to thank her for paying for their holiday-of-a-lifetime to New York. But mainly because he's left his shopping far too late.
Whereas Ethan's looking for something a little more special - an engagement ring for the first woman to have made him happy since he lost the love of his life.
But when the two men's shopping bags get confused, and…
