21 Books Like It Ends With Us That You’ll Love Just As Much
If you loved Colleen Hoover’s bestseller, It Ends With Us (and its sequel, It Starts With Us), and already watched the It Ends with Us movie, then I already know you’re looking for more books like It Ends With Us to read that will give you all the same feels.
If you’re desperate for that all-consuming feeling of falling head over heels for a book and characters that put your heart through the wringer, then don’t miss a single one of these books similar to It Ends With Us.
*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
But first, let’s recap It Ends with Us and talk about what we love about this book so that we know what we’re looking for in books similar to it.
Themes in Books Like It Ends With Us
Three themes stood out to me when reading It Ends With Us which made this a five-star read for me. (Check out my review of It Ends With Us!)
Strength Amidst Abuse
While I typically refrain from reading books with “tough” topics or potential triggers, I knew that It Ends With Us was one I couldn’t ignore despite abuse being a key focus.
Not only does Colleen Hoover do an amazing job with such a sensitive subject matter but it was her focus on the strength of Lily (and Atlas!) that really shined through the rough spots.
I can’t claim to know anything about what it’s like to be a victim or survivor of spousal or family abuse and neglect but I do know that I was captivated by Lily and Atlas’ resilience in It Ends With Us.
Second Chance Romance
A second theme underlying It Ends With Us (and continues in the sequel, It Starts With Us) is two childhood friends finding each other again in a beautiful second chance romance.
I adore second chance romance books when two adults finally get together after having established a friendship or romance at a younger age as childhood friends which leads to our third theme.
Friends to Lovers Romance
Lily and Atlas bonded as teenagers when both were just surviving under extreme circumstances – Atlas, being kicked out of his home and living homeless, and Lily living with an abusive father.
Their friends to lovers connection just jumped off the page in It Ends With Us and gave me all the feels to see their love for one another grow from friendship to much more.
Books Like It Ends With Us
I kind of have a beef with book lists that only list books like It Ends With Us because they are popular books. I could create an epic list if that were the only criteria.
But for books to qualify as worthy as being called books similar It Ends With Us for me, they not only have to be well-written and give you all the feels, but they ALSO have to include at least one or all of the above themes.
Below are the BEST books with characters who showed their strength despite abuse or some other hardship and/or who fell in love with a friend who they later reconnected with and lived happily ever after.
Trust me when I say you will not be disappointed in any of these books if you loved the It Ends With Us series.
Best Books Like It Ends With Us
Beard With Me
by Penny Reid
Scarlet St. Claire is a survivor. She’s careful and she’s smart, but not when it comes to Billy Winston.
Billy Winston is a fighter. He’d do absolutely anything for his family which is why he must always be in complete control. Billy is fearless and he’s honorable, but not when it comes to Scarlet St. Claire.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Billy and Scarlet are the epitomes of star-crossed lovers like Atlas and Lily.
While we meet Billy Winston and Scarlet in previous books in Reid’s Winston Brothers series, this is their origin story about how they met as teenagers, their first weeks of friendship, and how they came to fall in love despite the odds stacked against them.
Reading this book before the finale of the Winston Brothers series was nothing short of amazing.
Scarlet has an abusive father, the head of a motorcycle club, with a mother who doesn’t protect her. Trying to escape them, she finds a home in the woods behind Billy’s house.
Forging an unlikely friendship, Billy becomes Scarlet’s protector – more than she’ll ever know.
This book gave me all the feels like It Ends With Us and is one that I won’t soon forget. My Review of Beard with Me.
The Real
by Kate Stewart
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.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Kate Stewart, like Colleen Hoover, doesn’t shy away from the real-world topic of abuse in this one but from an angle that’s not often talked about.
You’ll 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 Atlas in It Ends With Us.
Yet getting that happily-ever-after is easier said than done when the dark comes into the light.
Long Shot
by Kennedy Ryan
Think you know what it’s like being a baller’s girl? You don’t. My fairy tale is upside down. A happily never after.
I kissed the prince and he turned into a fraud. I was a fool, and his love – fool’s gold.
Now there’s a new player in the game, August West. One of the NBA’s brightest stars. Fine. Forbidden.
He wants me. I want him. But my past, my fraudulent prince, just won’t let me go.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Who wouldn’t want to fall in love with a top doctor like Ryle or a pro basketball player like Caleb, but unfortunately good looks and a good job can hide a very different man inside.
I loved the meet cute between August and Iris and wanted so much more for them but life took them in different directions until it brought them back together when Iris needed it most.
If you loved Lily’s transformation and strength, then you’ll want to read about Iris’s as well.
Ryan, like Colleen Hoover, is a force with words that make you think, make you feel, and make you consumed with the characters and stories of her books.
This is a tough book like It Ends With Us but oh so good.
Redeeming Love
by Francine Rivers
As a child sold into the life of selling her body, Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal.
She doesn’t expect Michael Hosea, a man who feels called by God to marry Angel and love her unconditionally.
As she slowly starts to trust and love Michael in return, so do her feelings of unworthiness and fear which propel her to leave her husband.
As she turns back to the darkness, she must learn that her true healing can only come from the One who loves her most.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
It’s your choice whether you want to read this book first or watch the movie released in 2022 but either way, you’ll find the love story of Angel and Michael.
Angel has been through hell and back, leaving her to fear men until she meets Michael.
This is a book about surviving your past and trusting enough to have a future.
It Ain’t Me Babe
by Tillie Cole
Many years ago, two children from completely different worlds forged a connection, a fateful connection, an unbreakable bond that would change their lives forever.
Salome knows only one way to live—under Prophet David’s rule. In the commune Salome knows nothing of life beyond her strict faith, nor of life beyond the Fence—the fence that cages her, keeps her trapped in an endless cycle of misery.
A life she believes she is destined to always lead, until a horrific event sets her free.
Fleeing the absolute safety of all she has ever known, Salome is thrust into the world outside, a frightening world full of uncertainty and sin; into the protective arms of a person she believed she would never see again.
River ‘Styx’ Nash knows one thing for certain in life—he was born and bred to wear a cut. Raised in a turbulent world, Styx unexpectedly has the heavy burden of the Hades Hangmen gavel thrust upon him.
Haunted by a crushing speech impediment, Styx quickly learns to deal with his haters.
Styx has one rule in life—never let anyone get too close. It’s a plan that he has stuck to for years, that is, until a young woman is found injured on his lot… a woman who looks uncannily familiar, a woman who clearly does not belong in his world, yet a woman he feels reluctant to let go.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
This book has two themes represented in It Ends With Us. A love story between two adults who once connected as children and a story about a woman who survives the worst situations imaginable to find love with a man who would do anything to protect her.
There are definitely some intense trigger warnings for this book about a child/woman abused in a cult, but it will consume you and have you reading the rest of the motorcycle club books in the series for the other women’s happily-ever-afters.
The Last Letter from Your Lover
by Jojo Moyes
It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is.
She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply “B”, asking her to leave her husband.
Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper’s archives.
She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too.
Ellie’s search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
This too is another book like It Ends With Us that has both a theme around spousal abuse and a second chance love story.
It is so heart-wrenching how a car accident and amnesia tear these two lovers apart.
I love the juxtaposition of the past love story and present which really translates well to the big screen in the movie which you should definitely watch after reading this book!
Safe Haven
by Nicholas Sparks
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 single neighbor, Jo.
Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.
But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her – a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport.
With Jo’s empathetic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards, and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Safe Haven is also a romance book like It Ends With Us that shines a light on spousal abuse, and is told in a way only Nicholas Sparks can.
It’s a story about how you can’t move on with a future until you address what’s haunting you from your past.
The Flatshare
by Beth O’Leary
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash.
Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
The Flatshare is a book like It Ends With Us that totally captured me from the first chapter, and had me thinking it was headed in a completely different direction than what it ultimately was.
I love the connection between Tiffany and Leon that grew each and every day even without them ever seeing each other.
Both of these characters have struggles that ultimately only make them stronger and bring the two of them closer together. For Tiffany, it’s an abusive ex-boyfriend.
Definitely give it a read because it’s one of my most favorite romance novels and another romance book that was made into a TV series in 2022! My Review of The Flatshare.
Stealing Home
by Carrie Aarons
Walker Callahan has loved from afar for as long as he can remember.
The golden boy of the Callahan baseball dynasty, he’s the only player to ever secure a top spot on a roster controlled by his own flesh and blood.
The pressure, duty and plans laid out for him since birth loom large, causing things like love and a family to fall by the wayside. Or maybe that’s because the woman he loves is already married with children.
When they met, she was already promised to someone else. For over six years, he resigned himself to being her friend.
Until one night, when her marriage and the ugly secrets it keeps unravels for the world to see. She’s burned, scared and needs someone who will put her needs above everything else.
Can Walker risk his own future and show her how to trust again? Or will the feelings he’s kept hidden for years throw him out of the game before he can even attempt to play?
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Carrie Aarons’ book is another book similar to It Ends With Us that focuses on a woman who’s trying to recover from a relationship with an abusive husband.
Hannah’s now a single parent to two young kids trying to get her feet under her and she receives help from her husband’s former teammate, Walker, a pro baseball player who has loved her ever since he first met her.
It’s such a beautiful love story, but it’s Walker’s patience, kindness, and love (like Atlas’ for Lily) that really shines through for Hannah and this romance. My Review of Stealing Home.
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.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
While this book has a lot of heavy moments recounting the trauma of Logan’s past that includes abuse, it is also lightened by Logan’s sweet, younger brother.
Alyssa, Ryle’s sister, was such an important character in the It Ends With Us series for me because of her dedication and loyalty as a friend to Lily.
Logan too has such a caring and loving family and it was this theme of strong bonds of family and resilience that stood out in this novel that made me love it so much.
Pucked Off
by Helena Hunting
NHL defenseman Lance Romero is notorious for parties and excess.
He’s a player on and off the ice. Not because he likes the notoriety, but because he doesn’t know how to be any other way.
He has secrets that he shared with the wrong person, and she uses them against him.
He should cut ties, but she makes it difficult, because she’s the kind of bad he thinks he deserves until another woman from his past lights up his dark.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Hunting blew me away with this book similar to It Ends With Us which focuses on a professional hockey player who is abused by a former girlfriend.
How this man hurts inside is so palpable, and yet you wouldn’t really know just looking at him. Even his closest friends don’t know what he truly struggles with.
This romance novel illustrates what a toxic relationship looks like, but then you also get to see the complete opposite once Poppy comes back into his life.
You won’t be the same after reading Lance’s story.
Driven
by K Bromberg
Colton Donavan lives on that razor thin edge toward out of control. Whether it’s on the track or off of it, everything he wants is at his fingertips: success, willing women, media attention.
Everything that is, but me. I’m the exception this reckless bad boy can’t seem to win over.
We both know the two of us could never work. But he crashes into my life without apology—disrupting my world, testing my boundaries, and uncovering the darkness of my past.
Our chemistry is undeniable. Our attraction is magnetic. Our ability to help each other heal obvious. And even though he won’t let me in, there’s something about Colton I can’t walk away from.
This is the beginning of our story. Our fight. Our perfectly imperfect love.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Driven is book one in a series that looks at the impact of abuse on a young boy on the man he becomes later in life.
It is a book similar to It Ends With Us as it showcases his strength, but also his struggles, and the love that Colton ultimately fights for like Lily.
Check it out and then watch the TV series available on Passionflix.
Someday Someday
by Emma Scott
Max has spent that last ten years rebuilding his life after being kicked out by his family for being gay.
He’s survived addiction and living on the streets so he should be able to handle working as a nurse for an ailing billionaire.
He just didn’t expect the spark he felt upon meeting the billionaire’s son who he soon learns is hiding secrets in order to inherit his family’s fortune.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
If you are still clamoring for another book in It Ends With Us series that looks at Atlas’ younger life and how he came to be homeless, living in an abandoned house behind Lily’s I totally agree because I want this novel!
Silas in Someday Someday reminds me of Atlas, as he too was mistreated by a parent and was almost destroyed because of it.
This is his story of redemption after recovering from addiction and finally claiming the life that he wants – not hiding who he really is, with the person he wants to live it. My Review of Someday Someday.
Dear Ava
by Ilsa Madden-Mills
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.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Dear Ava is one of those books like It Ends With Us that also has elements that remind me of so many of Colleen Hoover‘s books.
While it is a young adult romance, Ava’s strength, returning back to the high school where she must attend with the person who assaulted her, reminds me so much of Lily strength in light of Ryle’s abuse. My Review of Dear Ava.
Love and Other Words
by Christina Lauren
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.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Love and Other Words is one of my favorite second chance romance books where two childhood friends find each other again as adults.
Like Lily and Atlas in It Ends With Us, Macy and Elliot forged a strong bond as kids but then lost each other.
If only these two couples would have sought each other out earlier then so much time would not have been wasted – but alas!
Both of their happily-ever-after endings are worth it.
One True Loves
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts.
They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.
On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.
Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again.
When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.
That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her.
With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.
Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?
Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
I may be stretching it a bit adding this Taylor Jenkins Reid book, but you’ll find it just as heart-wrenching as It Ends With Us.
While she is not a victim of abuse, Emma lost her husband in a tragic accident only to have him return alive years later.
Before Ryle’s abuse started, I’m not sure which way I would have gone had Lily had to choose between him and Atlas and I definitely don’t envy Emma for having to choose between her husband and her fiancé.
Just as there is an It Ends With Us movie coming soon, there is also a One True Love movie releasing in 2023!
Seven Days in June
by Tia Williams
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.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
I feel like Lily’s time with Atlas at the beginning of It Ends With Us was just way too short and yet long enough for them to form this forever bond and fall in love with one another.
For Shane and Eva, it only took one week to fall for one another and forge a similar bond that never went away.
I loved seeing them reunite twenty years later but adored all of the flashbacks to their amazing beginning.
A Crack in Everything
by L.H. Cosway
I was a city girl with humble dreams. Then Dylan O’Dea broke into my flat, held me against the wall and told me to stay quiet.
It was like in the movies, where the universe zeros in on a single scene. I looked into his eyes and knew he was going to change me.
For Dylan, the sky was always falling. He showed me how our world is a contradiction of beauty and ugliness. How you need just a tiny drop of something unsavoury to create every great scent.
Pretty deep for a pair of teenagers living in a block of council flats in inner city Dublin, right? But we weren’t typical.
We both had our obsessions. Mine was growing things, Dylan’s was scent. He taught me how to use my nose, and I introduced him to the magic of flowers.
I had no idea that one day he’d build an empire from what we started together. But before that, there was love and happiness, tragedy and epic heartbreak.
My name is Evelyn Flynn and I’m going to tell you about the crack in everything.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Atlas and Lily formed a most unlikely friendship after he moved into the abandoned house behind hers and Dylan and Evelyn have a similar, neighbors-to-lovers story where they both live in the same block of flats in Dublin.
Only Dylan is counting down the days until he can leave and Evelyn will never leave. Ugh!
If you love star-crossed young lovers like Lily and Atlas in It Ends With Us then you will enjoy this devastatingly good novel by Cosway.
Just be prepared for the cliffhanger and then read book two in the duet for a beautiful second chance romance.
Steadfast
by Sarina Bowen
Jude lost everything one spring day when he crashed his car into an apple tree on the side of the road. One man gone, and there’s no way he can ever right that wrong.
He’d steer clear of Colebury, Vermont forever if he could. But an ex-con in recovery for his drug addiction can’t find a job just anywhere.
Sophie Haines is stunned by his reappearance. After a three-year absence, the man who took away her brother and broke her heart is suddenly everywhere she turns.
It’s hard not to stare at how much he’s changed. The bad boy who used to love her didn’t have big biceps and sun-kissed hair. And he’d never volunteer in the church kitchen.
No one wants to see Sophie and Jude back together, least of all Sophie’s police chief father. But it’s a small town. And forbidden love is a law unto itself.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
Jude and Sophie’s love story is another beautiful second chance romance about two young lovers torn apart by tragedy.
I loved Atlas just as much as I loved Lily in It Ends With Us and if you felt the same, then you’ll totally fall for Jude.
He is a man pulling himself up from addiction and time in prison and is struggling with a reputation that is working against him.
It’s an emotional read that I know you’ll love.
A Thousand Boy Kisses
by Tillie Cole
One kiss lasts a moment. But a thousand kisses can last a lifetime.
One boy. One girl. A bond that is forged in an instant and cherished for a decade. A bond that neither time nor distance can break. A bond that will last forever. Or so they believe.
When seventeen-year-old Rune Kristiansen returns from his native Norway to the sleepy town of Blossom Grove, Georgia, where he befriended Poppy Litchfield as a child, he has just one thing on his mind.
Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation?
Rune’s heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent. When he discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
I’m adding another Tilly Cole book on this list because A Thousand Boy Kisses is one of those titles that so many people recommend when you’re looking for a tearjerker.
I totally bawled my eyes out with It Ends With Us and you’ll do the same with this young adult romance.
Rune is totally devoted to Poppy just as I felt Atlas was devoted to Lily even when he resigned himself that she could never be his. Grab it for another unforgettable read.
What If You & Me
by Roni Loren
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.
Why This Book is Like It Ends With Us:
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.
These characters remind me so much of Lily and Atlas in It Ends With Us as 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 and one you must read if you loved It Ends With Us. My Review of What If You & Me.
Related Book Lists:
- It Ends With Us Series: The Ultimate Guide
- It Ends With Us Movie: The Ultimate Guide
- Best Colleen Hoover Books Ranked
- Authors Like Colleen Hoover
- Colleen Hoover Books in Order: The Ultimate Guide
- Colleen Hoover Book Series
More “Books Like” Lists:
- Books Like Bridgerton
- Books Like Red, White and Royal Blue
- Books Like Fourth Wing
- Books Like Fifty Shades of Grey
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