If you’ve already finished reading ALL of Colleen Hoover’s books and are looking for recommendations of books just like hers, then check out these authors like Colleen Hoover whose works will tug on all of your heartstrings.
These authors are some of my favorites who will give you amazing characters, heart-wrenching stories, and the best writing just like Colleen Hoover.
Trust me when I say you’ll be thanking me after you add these books like Colleen Hoover’s to your TBR list.
*Disclosure: I participate in the Amazon Affiliates program so if you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Can we all just bow down to the success of Colleen Hoover? I mean, this woman is on fire!
I loved this article from the New York Times that put Colleen Hoover’s success into some perspective.
In 2022 she has sold MORE books than Dr. Seuss and more books than James Patterson and John Grisham combined. OMG – you go girl!
It Starts With Us became the most pre-ordered novel in Simon & Schuster’s history!
With so many of her books flying off the shelves, readers are clamoring for more books like hers and more authors like Colleen Hoover to read and I’m here to help!
Why We Love Authors Like Colleen Hoover
So, what is it about authors like Colleen Hoover that we love so much?
Authors Like Colleen Hoover Write Heart-Wrenching Stories
I love to read romance books for all of the feelings they evoke in me.
I love the sweet moments, the steamy moments, the heart-wrenching moments, and the frustrating moments that can all encompass just one story.
Authors like Colleen Hoover create epic stories that effortlessly pull you from one emotion to the next and you’re just along for the ride.
Bring me the drama, the romance, the love, the heartache, and the happily ever after. These authors know how to bring it!
Authors Like Colleen Hoover Create Amazing Characters
I can’t love a book unless I love the characters.
I just wanted to crawl into Miles’ apartment with Tate in Ugly Love and soothe his heartache.
I wanted to sit on Sydney’s balcony in Maybe Someday and listen to Ridge play his guitar all night long.
Colleen Hoover and these authors like her craft the most amazing characters who hook you from the word go and don’t let up until the very end but even then I find myself thinking about these characters long after finishing a book.
Authors Like Colleen Hoover Bring a Seriousness to Romance
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good rom-com, but sometimes it’s the more serious romance books that stay with me for days.
Colleen Hoover’s books encompass contemporary romance, young adult romance, paranormal romance, and thrillers and each of them brings a different concept to contemplate.
From drug abuse to homelessness, poverty, family issues, and domestic violence, Colleen Hoover doesn’t back down from the tough subjects.
These authors like Colleen Hoover equally tackle tough topics within their romance novels with such grace and beauty. I am in awe.
Authors Like Colleen Hoover Have Stellar Writing
You can’t have great authors like Colleen Hoover unless they have stellar writing to back up their success.
So many of these romance authors below are also self-published authors like Colleen Hoover at her start, and it’s their amazing writing skills that keep readers coming back for more.
It’s not easy to craft a story with drama, love, steaminess, and plot hooks while also delivering good writing but these women are amazing!
Authors Like Colleen Hoover Make You Want to Read Their Entire Catalog of Books
When you find an author that you love like Colleen Hoover, all you want to do is devour their entire catalog of books.
Every title, novella, short story, book series, collection – you have to have it.
I can vouch for these authors below because after reading just one title, I was off and reading everything I could can my hands on from these authors.
If that isn’t a sign of a great writer, I don’t know what is!
*Don’t miss my list of all of the Colleen Hoover book series to binge-read or my list of best Colleen Hoover books ranked!
Which Authors Are Like Colleen Hoover?
This list of authors like Colleen Hoover includes many of my favorite authors.
The authors below are included in this list because their work reminds me so much of Colleen Hoover’s or because they have a book that is very similar to one of Colleen Hoover’s books.
Do you have another author that you believe delivers a place on this list? Please share them in the comments below!
Authors Like Colleen Hoover With Similar Works:
The Air He Breathes
by Brittainy C. Cherry
For Those Who Want a Book Like Ugly Love
I was warned about Tristan Cole, told that he was cruel, cold, damaged.
It’s easy to judge a man because of his past. To look at Tristan and see a monster.
But I couldn’t do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him because it also lived inside of me.
We were both empty. We were both looking for something else. Something more.
We both wanted to put together the shattered pieces of our yesterdays.
Then perhaps we could finally remember how to breathe.
Brittainy C. Cherry‘s books never fail to draw out so many emotions and put my heart through the wringer.
So many of her characters show strength amidst such loss and pain but it’s their redemption and the happily-ever-after they find that makes the heartache you feel reading her books so worth it.
The Air He Breathes is a great book for someone looking for books like Ugly Love.
In it, loss recognizes loss. It’s what pulls these characters together and helps them to heal.
It’s the first in the emotional Elements series which are all must-reads!
Related: The Best Ugly Love Quotes
A Different Blue
by Amy Harmon
For Those Who Want a Book Like Slammed
Blue Echohawk doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know her real name since she was abandoned at two and raised by a drifter.
At nineteen she is just a senior in high school and the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing.
This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. It is the story of an unlikely friendship and of falling in love.
I love Amy Harmon books because her writing is magnificent and her stories are so thought-provoking.
She is definitely an author like Colleen Hoover whose books cross genres and tackle a variety of topics.
I’ve loved her fantasy romance books, her historical romance novels, her young adult romances as well as this teacher-student romance that is perfect for someone who wants a book like Slammed.
Blue’s story is a fascinating read and I loved her personal journey most.
Related: Slammed Series by Colleen Hoover: The Ultimate Guide
Between Hello and Goodbye
by Emma Scott
For Those Who Want a Book Like Ugly Love
Faith Benson’s carefree lifestyle is jeopardizing her job at a top Seattle ad agency, so her boss demands she take a leave of absence to get her head on straight.
Faith heads to the remote Hawaiian island of Kauai, far away from the vices that get her in trouble.
A twisted ankle on Day One requires rescuing by a man who is vice personified—a gorgeous firefighter who awakens feelings in her heart she never knew existed.
Asher Mackey doesn’t get involved with beautiful tourists. He’s devoted his life to the safety and care of everyone around him, except himself, until Faith showing him how safe—but empty—his life truly is.
Despite their best efforts to keep their distance, Faith and Asher fall hard and fast, but there’s an ocean between them, living on opposite sides of the Pacific.
When Asher receives devastating news, he and Faith have to decide once and for all to entrust their hearts fully to the other or return to their safe—but separate—worlds.
Emma Scott is one of those authors that doesn’t hold anything back. She purposefully wants to put your heart through the wringer but then have it find redemption after the sadness and pain.
I find her books to be so moving and full of emotion and that was no different in Between Hello and Goodbye.
Faith and Asher reminded me a lot of Tate and Miles in Ugly Love who both go into their “relationship” thinking it will only be a temporary fix but really becomes more.
I loved it and highly recommend it.
Skin
by BB Easton
For Those Who Want a Book Like Hopeless and Without Merit
At age 15, BB was planning her wedding to the punk hero of Peach State High, Lance Hightower.
Trying desperately to gain his attention by not eating and shaving her head, she instead ends up the object of Ronald “Knight” McKnight’s attention.
The senior who’s anger and violence scares everyone, including BB, but who ultimately ends up getting under her skin and changing her life forever.
BB Easton is a rock star. She probably was in a former life, but for her to put her own life onto the page in four amazing books is just epic.
What I love most about this book is that it’s not a perfect heroine or a swoony hero with the fairytale romance.
Ronald and BB are such delicate characters, each struggling with their own demons, but it’s their connection that I found so beautiful.
Neglectful parents, poor self-esteem, eating disorders, and drug use are just some of the topics explored in this unforgettable novel.
If you’re looking for an author like Colleen Hoover, definitely check out BB Easton. My Review.
Love and Other Words
by Christina Lauren
For Those Who Want a Book Like November 9, Heart Bones, It Ends With Us
Macy Sorensen’s life is upended when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life.
He was the boy she bonded over books with and who restored her heart after the loss of her mother only to go on and break it.
Elliot never understood Macy’s decade-long silence but when life gives them both a chance to uncover the truth about the past, they may also discover that they have a future after all.
I don’t think there is a Christina Lauren book I haven’t read because this writing duo pens the best books with such varied stories that I can’t get enough.
Love and Other Words is one of my favorite second chance romance books and one of my favorites of all the Christina Lauren books.
I love how authors make you fall for young characters right along with them as they are falling for each other.
This book reminds me of Heart Bones in the connection forged between Macy and Elliot as they were growing up is like the connection between Beyah and Samson.
For amazing writing and fantastic stories, Christina Lauren is definitely an author like Colleen Hoover to have on your TBR list.
Related: Books Like It Ends With Us You’ll Love Just as Much
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What If You & Me
by Roni Loren
For Those Who Want a Book Like It Ends With Us
Andi Lockley knows first-hand that the world can be a scary place after narrowly escaping a dangerous man years ago.
Her anxiety doesn’t let her forget it, but she’s channeling her fears into her next novel and her true crime podcast.
Former firefighter Hill Dawson can’t sleep and is stuck in limbo.
After losing part of his leg in a rescue gone wrong, he doesn’t know what to do with his life, but he’s quick to jump in and save is neighbor Andi when someone breaks in.
What starts out as a neighbor rescue turns into a chance for something more if Andi can put aside her fear and trust in love again.
Roni Loren can write and I loved every book in her Say Everything series because each has such phenomenal characters.
I have a real weakness for romance book characters who are able to confront their pasts and find the strength in themselves to rise above.
The characters in this book remind me of a younger Lily and Atlas. Both are survivors struggling to move forward with their lives and find love in each other.
I found this book to be an emotionally charged, beautiful love story. You’ll love it and all of Loren’s work. My Review.
Related: Books Like It Ends With Us You’ll Love Just as Much
Perfect Strangers
by J.T. Geissinger
For Those Who Want a Book Like Verity and Layla
Author Olivia Rossi hasn’t been able to write a word since tragedy struck two years ago and ripped her world apart.
Heartbroken and still haunted by the past, she accepts an offer to spend the summer at a friend’s apartment in Paris in search of healing and her lost muse.
What she finds instead is James, an enigmatic stranger who ignites in her an unexpected and all-consuming passion.
Agreeing to tell each other nothing more than their first names, Olivia and James embark on a torrid affair.
But the more time they spend together, the more Olivia begins to realize her summer fling is turning into a powerful connection…and that the magnetic man she’s falling in love with might not be what he seems at all.
When I say this book made my jaw drop I am not kidding. OMG does J.T. Geissinger make your head spin in this unbelievable romance.
I had fallen in love with her writing and her books long before Perfect Strangers, but this book showed her range and just how fabulous she is at crafting amazing stories.
If you loved the twists and turns and epic plotlines of Verity or Layla then you will love Perfect Strangers. Read it then read Pen Pal and ALL of her books. 😊 My Review.
The Real
by Kate Stewart
For Those Who Want a Book Like It Ends With Us
They say it happens when you least expect it. It did for me.
It started the moment I saw the simple message pop up on my computer screen, Hi.
And when I met the eyes of the gorgeous man messaging me from across the coffee shop, I never thought my reply would lead to the most intense and passionate relationship of my life.
We both agreed to check our bags at the door and put our future hopes and aspirations on the table.
We fell in love, never anticipating the contents of our pasts to tear us apart.
Kate Stewart may be my all-time favorite author but it seems hard to narrow it down to just one. Her novels and characters stay with me long after hitting the end.
Her books consume you and many of her later works have epic playlists to go along with them which make reading her books a totally immersive experience.
The Real would be a great read for anyone who loved It Ends With Us because it has a similar trajectory in its story.
You fall hard and fast along with Cameron and Abbie and just want to see them whisked away in a happily-ever-after as you do with Lily and Ryle.
But Stewart also brings to light a pertinent social issue from an angle that honestly isn’t talked about nearly enough.
Read it and then devour every one of her books. You’ll thank me for introducing you to this author like Colleen Hoover.
Related: Books Like It Ends With Us You’ll Love Just as Much
Hook Shot
by Kennedy Ryan
For Those Who Want a Book Like It Ends With Us
Divorced. Single dad. Traded to a losing squad. Cheated on, betrayed, exposed.
My perfect life has ended and I’m still picking up the pieces. The last thing I need is a woman I can’t resist.
Lotus DuPree is a kick to my gut and a wrench in my plans from the moment our eyes meet. I promised myself I wouldn’t trust a woman again, but I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want Lo.
Kenan Ross charged into my life but the last thing I need is him. I’m working on me. Facing my pain and conquering my demons.
I’ve seen what trusting a man gets you. But he just keeps coming for me. Keeps knocking down my defenses and stealing my excuses one by one.
He never gives up, and now…I’m not sure I want him to.
Kennedy Ryan is another one of those authors who hits you with all the feels in her novels.
I love how she doesn’t shy away from tough subjects but doesn’t use them for needless drama. She’s thoughtful and purposeful in her words which makes her stories unforgettable.
Hook Shot (and Long Shot, another book in the HOOPS series) also deals with the heavy subject of abuse.
It’s typically not a topic I love in my romance books but Kennedy is another author like Colleen Hoover that changes my mind.
Related: Books Like It Ends With Us You’ll Love Just as Much
Playing with Fire
by L.J. Shen
For Those Who Want a Book Like Hopeless and Heart Bones
West St. Claire is a god on campus – he’s broody, he’s aloof, and he only does one-night stands. Until he meets Casey.
Casey is a fellow student at Sheridan U who survives by trying to blend into the background and stay unseen. Until she meets West.
L.J. Shen is another author like Colleen Hoover who writes unforgettable new adult romance books.
Her characters are often flawed or damaged but totally hook you in.
West and Casey are two college students both struggling with the heavy burden of events from their past that they can’t escape.
It’s as if they can both recognize the scars, visible and invisible, in each other and it’s what makes them perfect for one another.
This one of my favorite Shen romance books. My Review.
Thank You For Listening
by Julia Whelan
For Those Who Want a Book Like Maybe Someday
For Sewanee Chester, being an audiobook narrator is a long way from her days of being a film star.
When she arrives in Las Vegas last-minute for a book convention, Sewanee unexpectedly spends a whirlwind night with a charming stranger.
On her return home, Sewanee discovers one of the world’s most beloved romance novelists wanted her to perform her last book—with Brock McNight, the industry’s hottest, most secretive voice.
As Sewanee begins work on the book, resurrecting her old romance pseudonym, she and Brock forge a real connection, hidden behind the comfort of anonymity.
Soon, she is dreaming again, but secrets are revealed, and the realities of life come crashing down around her once more.
I’m a big fan of books with characters with differences who are not treated any differently for those differences.
Sewanee, and Ridge of Maybe Someday, both have physical differences but that doesn’t even factor into Brock or Sydney’s reasoning to be with them.
Definitely give this romance book a go. Julia Whelan does not disappoint and is definitely another author that reminds me of Colleen Hoover.
Related: Maybe Someday Series by Colleen Hoover: The Ultimate Guide
Logan
by Jay McLean
Logan is a high school dropout who outraces his demons with the help of Mary.
She’s the only thing that can help, until he meets Aubrey.
Colleen Hoover’s books can make you weep a crazy amount of tears and boy does this one do the same.
Jay McLean is an author like Colleen Hoover who will captivate you with her new adult romance books that pack a punch.
While this book has a lot of heavy moments recounting the trauma of Logan’s past, it is also lightened by Logan’s sweet, younger brother.
Don’t miss this book that explores the strong bonds of family and resilience and then check out the rest in the Preston Brothers series.
Dear Ava
by Ilsa Madden-Mills
For Those Who Want a Book Like Hopeless and Heart Bones
Ava is back at Camden Prep for her senior year as the outcast. The popular Sharks may rule the school but one destroyed her and now another is leaving secret love notes in her locker.
Madden-Mills is another author like Colleen Hoover who crafts young adult romances that pack a punch.
Dear Ava will have you feeling so deeply for characters who have seen and struggled with way more than anyone ever should during their eighteen years of life.
It’s the perfect book like Hopeless and if you like high school romances with mature teens who rise from adversity. My Review.
Archer’s Voice
by Mia Sheridan
For Those Who Want a Book Like Heart Bones and Without Merit
I wanted to lose myself in the small town of Pelion, Maine. To forget everything I had left behind.
I’m almost safe again. But the moment I meet Archer Hale, my entire world tilts on its axis, and never rights itself again.
Until I trespass into his strange, silent, and isolated world, Archer communicates with no one.
There’s so much more to him than just his beauty, his presence, or the ways his hands communicate with me. On me.
But this town is mired in secrets and betrayals, and Archer is the center of it all.
Trust me when I say that you won’t forget a character like Archer Hale.
If you like the family drama in books like Without Merit, then you’ll love Archer’s Voice as you learn about the past that links Archer and the small town of Pelion.
This book was consuming, has the best characters, and such a profound story. Mia Sheridan knocks it out of the park and is definitely an author like Colleen Hoover to check out.
The Maddest Obsession
by Danielle Lori
For Those Who Want a Book Like It Ends With Us
Her dresses are too tight, her heels too tall. She laughs too loudly. Little do most know it’s just a sparkly disguise, there to hide one panic attack at a time.
Nobody can crack Gianna’s facade until he comes along.
Christian Allister may be a special agent upholding the law, but in the New York underworld, he’s a hustler who can make anyone disappear.
One winter night and their lives intertwine. She hates him—his stone-cold demeanor, his arrogance and too-perceptive eye—but over the years, even as their games consist of insulting each other’s looks and intelligence, she begins to live to play with him.
Nowhere in Christian’s plans had he ever prepared for Gianna. She’s chaos embodied, his frustration, his fascination. His maddest obsession.
I think a lot of Colleen Hoover books bring two wounded souls together and that is definitely the case in this book about Christian and Gianna.
I loved Christian’s alpha ways but his troubled past reminds me of Atlas in It Ends With Us, only darker.
This is the second book in Danielle Lori’s Made series which I devoured in an entire weekend. Her writing is just so good that I had to read everything before coming up for air.
Her mafia romances are some of the best out there.
Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village.
She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident.
Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected.
When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
I dare you to read this book and not ball your eyes out. OMG! Jojo Moyes is one of those authors like Colleen Hoover that makes you really think about the topics she explores in her novels.
What would I feel if I were in Will’s shoes? Would I make the same choices and decisions as he did even if I found love?
Such a profound book that is followed by a great sequel!
Seven Days in June
by Tia Williams
For Those Who Want a Book Like Confess and It Starts With Us
Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling writer, who is feeling pressed from all sides.
Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning literary author who, to everyone’s surprise, shows up in New York.
When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York’s Black literati.
What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love.
They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can’t deny their chemistry-or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since.
Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva’s not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal.
But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered.
There’s just something about a really good second chance love story that is so satisfying to the soul.
Tia Williams really amazed me with her fabulous writing and her entralling characters in this one.
I loved the use of flashbacks to their one week together and it only made their current interactions all the more heated and tension-filled.
I’ll definitely be reading more from Williams as she strikes me as an author like Colleen Hoover who will deliver emotionally charged books you can’t help but love.
Fortuity
by Jewel E. Ann
For Those Who Want a Book Like Regretting You
Gracelyn is on a self-imposed man ban having had her heart broken by three men in her life.
Her heart is even more shattered with the loss of her brother and his wife, leaving her as the guardian to her ten-year-old nephew, Gabe.
Moving into a house on the beach in San Diego, she meets her neighbor, single dad, Nathaniel who’s had his own heart-broken more than once.
This was the first Jewel E. Ann book I read and it instantly became one of my favorite romance books of all time.
Ann is an author like Colleen Hoover because she doesn’t stray from the hard topics but she can also bring such levity and lightness to them. Case in point with the adorable kids in Fortuity.
I absolutely loved the back stories of Gracelyn and Nathaniel and the journey to their finding peace and love with each other.
It’s fantastic and I highly recommend it and all of Ann’s work! Fans of Reminders of Him will enjoy this read!
As Dust Dances
by Samantha Young
For Those Who Want a Book Like Confess and Maybe Someday
Who would guess that Skylar Finch, the lead singer of a hugely successful American pop-rock band, would be living off the grid in a cemetery in Glasgow.
The pressures of fame drove her to busking on the streets to make ends meet while trying to keep her identity hidden.
When Killian O’Dea hears the busker, he knows signing her to a deal would bring big success to his record label, only he can’t convince her to sign with him until one night she’s put in danger.
As their connection grows, Killian will have to make a choice between doing what’s right for the label and what’s right for the woman he loves.
Only an author like Colleen Hoover would write a rock star romance that also explores the very real issue of homelessness.
Samantha Young brought Skylar’s struggles to light in such a beautiful way and weaved in Killian’s own past and struggles with professional integrity.
Since reading my first Young book, I went on to read her entire catalog of books because I just loved her writing style, her characters and the struggles she brought to light in these characters.
Whether it’s her musician romances or her On Dublin Street series, Young is an author that will stay with you long after reading her work, like Colleen Hoover.
Marriage for One
by Ella Maise
For Those Who Want a Book Like All Your Perfects
The first time Rose met Jack, he proposed and she accepted.
She can’t believe she accepted his marriage of convenience business arrangement but she really had no choice.
Now she’s sharing a house with a man she doesn’t know and yet she finds herself falling for him all the same.
Ella Maise is another one of those authors like Colleen Hoover who made me fall so hard for her characters as they slowly fall for each other in one of the best slow burn romances I’ve ever read.
Rose and Jack were complete strangers and yet their interactions built to something extraordinary.
I think it can be easy to simply follow a formula and crank out a romance book, but it’s the authors like Colleen Hoover and Maise who craft such unique and heart-wrenching stories that I love most and can’t get enough of.
Related Book Lists:
- Colleen Hoover Books in Order: The Ultimate Guide
- Colleen Hoover Book Series: The Ultimate Guide
- Best Colleen Hoover Books Ranked
- My Favorite Romance Book Heroes With Wounded Hearts
- Books Like It Ends With Us You’ll Love Just as Much
- It Ends With Us Movie: What We Know
- Spicy Booktok Books for the Biggest Fans
