Fans pick 99 books like You, with a View

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… show more.

I adored this small-town romance about a former Michelin star chef looking for a second chance and the local sweetheart who can’t help but rescue hurt and neglected animals and is determined to beat her ex-boyfriend in this year’s pairs canoe race.

The staple silliness and absurdity of a small-town rom-com lift the emotional heaviness of both principal characters’ personal circumstances. Fisher is grieving the loss of his sister and his career while also suddenly responsible for his teenage niece, and her three brothers raised Sage after their parents died young.

Their romantic connection is mature and emotional but also playful and sweet. DeWitt’s expert use of comedy to cut against emotion is especially lovely in this book. I laughed and cried, often at the same time.

What’s better than a figure skating pair romance? One where the newly formed team are enemies! Jasmine has never reached the same elite level as Ivan, but now that she’s temporarily paired with him for one season, she’s determined to make the most of it, even if they spend their ice time bickering.

Jasmine has a supportive, close-knit family, but she’s not getting younger, and her divorced father pressures her to finally give up her skating aspirations and go to college. Jasmine is scrappy, snarky, and impossible not to root for. This slow-burn romance builds organically as Ivan’s arrogance quietly shifts to admiration for and loyalty to his new partner.

This book also has one of the swooniest micro trope moments: Ivan’s hidden feelings come out in an achingly sweet slip as he cares for Jasmine and calls her “baby.”

City girl Calla reunites with the Alaskan bush pilot father she’s never really known following his cancer diagnosis. I love this classic fish-out-of-water story, set in rural Alaska, where Calla falls for the rugged, remote landscape and a gruff, bearded yeti “sky cowboy” named Jonah who flies with her dad.

This book had me kicking my feet, laughing, and then fully sobbing. While it is one of my favorite enemies-to-lovers romances, with incredible banter and sexual tension, the realistic last-chance repair of Calla’s relationship with her father is just as compelling.

The two storylines together create the perfect blend of emotional depth, sizzling chemistry, and significant character growth. This is a deeply cathartic, feel-good romance.

I loved the book because of my deep interest in its theme: the radicalization of Muslim youth in Europe. It’s a convincing account of a young Londoner getting drawn to ISIS, which upends a family already mired in tragedy.

The key characters shine in their own narrative, and their respective truths speak to me. I also loved that the writer gives us a snapshot of the lives of the ISIS recruits living in Syria.   

Even though the marriage in Oh William! ends in divorce while my marriage ended (without my consent) in my husband’s untimely death, the book brought me back to the unconventional nature of my marriage. Elizabeth Strout’s uncanny ability to say much in a single sentence had me traveling back in time and heart to the many moments that made our marriage. The tendernesses and fears, the deep trust and insecurities that quietly but forcefully bound us together made up the subtle mysteries of our uncommon relationship. What makes people move apart yet remain forever close, as in Lucy Barton and her ex-husband, William, or what holds two people together when there are many factors that might drive them apart, as in my marriage? These questions made reading this book a thought-provoking and enriching experience.

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?!

This intricately written story sparked my interest from the very first page. Every time the author introduced a clue to the plot, I immediately wanted to know what it meant and what was coming. I was “chomping at the bit” as they say, and there was never one moment where the story lagged. Every single sentence needed to be there and the mystery had layer after layer with no way to ever predict what would happen. This is a historical fiction writer who definitely understands how to weave a top-notch suspenseful tale, and that’s what this is. 

This story of a Cuban-American family sweeps the reader from Havana to Florida, from the years of Fidel Castro’s Revolution into the present-day immigrant experience. Historical fiction is a gift to readers in that it puts us squarely into history’s most tumultuous and dramatic moments, and that is exactly what Cleeton has done with this beautiful and transportive novel of the Perez family.

I struggled to pick just one Gill Paul novel as I’ve hugely enjoyed every one I’ve read.

Ultimately, I love to learn something new from a book and, whilst I’d heard of the Romanovs, I knew very little about Russian history and the Revolution. Obviously, with historical fiction, parts are invented – and the main plot twist with this is a theory that has been disproven – so you have to be discerning with what you take as fact.

But historical fiction is such a wonderful way to learn about different eras, and Gill Paul brings worlds and people to life so evocatively.