15 Found Family Romance Books You’ll Totally Fall For

Things We Never Got Over
by Lucy Score

Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: Alone. He doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride.

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin only to have her evil twin steal Naomi’s car and cash, leaving Naomi with a niece she didn’t know she had.

Since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of Knox, the least he can do is help her out of her jam.

And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.

At least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger.

There’s a reason this Lucy Score book became so popular and it’s because it’s that good and tugs on all your heartstrings, plus it’s the perfect romance in the found family trope.

I love how it starts with Naomi’s life in shambles and yet by the end, her life is so full of all the people she’s come to love in the small town she finds herself.

It doesn’t hurt that this is an awesome grumpy sunshine romance too as I adored Knox who is such a key player in bringing this found family together.

This is the perfect found family trope romance with a beautiful blended family, extended family, and friends and you’ll get even more in the next book in the series, Things We Hide From the Light.

Check out my review of Things We Never Got Over.

Next of Kin
by Hannah Bonam-Young

When people-pleasing Chloe learns that her birth mother has unexpectedly had another baby, she doesn’t hesitate to become a next-of-kin guardian.

But when she fails to pass Child Protective Services’ financial evaluation, she is faced with a choice: see her baby sister placed in foster care or participate in CPS’ new initiative, TeamUp.

Enter Warren, a surly mechanic’s apprentice attempting to get custody of his deaf fifteen-year-old brother after failing CPS’ housing evaluation. The two strangers immediately clash but agree to live together until Warren can find housing elsewhere and Chloe can further grow her freelance career.

As their lives intertwine, Chloe and Warren both realize that they’re far more similar than they could have imagined. What started as forced begins to feel natural—and far less lonely.

Chemistry soon intensifies beyond what either of them can stand, but they must each decide if what burns between them is worth risking their arrangement.

Next of Kin was my first Hannah Bonham-Young book and it definitely wasn’t my last because this author can write!

I first picked up this romance because I was so intrigued by the storyline when older siblings step up as guardians for their younger siblings.

I not only enjoyed the roommates-to-lovers angle of this book but how Chloe and Warren built this beautiful family together. I cannot recommend this book enough if you are a fan of the found family trope.

The Redo
by Max Monroe

I must be the only single woman who got stuck in a New York City elevator in the middle of a summer blackout with their former high school sweetheart—whom I haven’t seen in years—while pregnant with a baby that isn’t biologically mine.

My life is so crazy complicated, but everything about my former flame makes me think I could totally still be in love with him.

Even though he’s the epitome of tall, dark, and incredibly handsome, Remington Winslow has been a single bachelor for most of his life – ever since he got left at the altar.

He doesn’t do relationships. He definitely doesn’t fall in love. He’s the jaded guy who doesn’t want to settle down, and I’m the career-focused woman with more baggage than a 747 can hold.

We’re just two friends who used to be in love but I can’t help but hope that maybe we can find it once again?

I absolutely adore the Winslow Brothers series by Max Monroe. This final book in the series just tugs on all your heartstrings in the best way, but it can absolutely be read as a standalone, especially if you love the found family trope.

Maria and Remington are former high school sweethearts who end up reconnecting many years later when Maria is pregnant as a surrogate with her sister and brother-in-law’s baby.

When she loses her sister and brother-in-law in an accident, Maria is left in a precarious position and Remington, the caring stud that he is, totally steps up for her.

This is one of those found family trope books with a sweet second chance romance that just makes you feel so good without any unnecessary angst or drama to detract from their awesome love story. I highly recommend it.

Dance Away With Me
by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

When life throws her one setback too many, midwife and young widow Tess Hartsong takes off for Runaway Mountain.

In this small town high in the Tennessee mountains, surrounded by nature, she hopes to outrun her heartbreak and find the solace she needs to heal.

But instead of peace and quiet, she encounters an enigmatic artist with a craving for solitude, a fairy-tale sprite with too many secrets, a helpless infant, a passel of curious teens, and a town suspicious of outsiders, especially one as headstrong as Tess.

Just as headstrong, is Ian North, a difficult, gifted man with a tortured soul—a man who makes Tess question everything.

In running away to this new life, Tess wonders— Has she lost herself . . . or has she found her future?

People who know Susan Elizabeth Phillips from her Chicago Star series are used to her laugh-out-loud humor in her romance books, but this found family trope romance is more of a drama that totally took me by surprise in the best way.

Tess is one strong heroine who has moved away to a small town in the Tennessee mountains to heal herself. But there she runs into Ian, the grumpy artist, as well as the small-town folk, who aren’t keen to accept her.

I can’t go into why this fits the found family trope without giving away spoilers, but you’ll just have to trust me that this is a beautiful romance, though outside Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ typical romcom trope, and I loved it.

Check out my review of Dance Away With Me.

Sustained
by Emma Chase

When you’re a defense attorney in Washington, DC, you see firsthand how hard life can be, and that sometimes the only way to survive is to be harder.

I, Jake Becker, have a reputation for being cold, callous, and intimidating—and that suits me just fine. In fact, it’s necessary when I’m breaking down a witness on the stand.

Complications don’t work for me—I’m a “need-to-know” type of man. If you’re my client, tell me the basic facts. If you’re my date, stick to what will turn you on. I’m not a therapist or Prince Charming—and I don’t pretend to be.

Then Chelsea McQuaid and her six orphaned nieces and nephews came along and complicated the ever-loving hell out of my life.

Now I’m going to Mommy and Me classes, One Direction concerts, the emergency room, and arguing cases in the principal’s office.

Chelsea’s too sweet, too innocent, and too gorgeous for her own good. She tries to be tough, but she’s not. She needs someone to help her, defend her…and the kids. And that—that, I know how to do.

Sustained is one of my absolute favorite romance books because I completely fell for Jake and Chelsea’s love story.

Chelsea takes in her six orphaned nieces and nephews, but has one heck of a time jumping into the parent role.

The romance between Jake and Chelsea is endearing with off-the-charts chemistry, but it’s their relationship with the kids and the found family that they make that makes this book fantastic.

Anyone who loves the found family trope should definitely read this book!

The Gravity of Us
by Brittainy C. Cherry

Graham Russell and I weren’t made for one another. I was driven by emotion; he was apathetic. I dreamed while he lived in nightmares. I cried when he had no tears to shed.

Despite his frozen heart and my readiness to run, we sometimes shared seconds. Seconds when our eyes locked and we saw each other’s secrets. Seconds when his lips tasted my fears, and I breathed in his pains. Seconds when we both imagined what it would be like to love one another.

Those seconds left us floating, but when reality knocked us sideways, gravity forced us to descend.

Graham Russell wasn’t a man who knew how to love, and I wasn’t a woman who knew how to either. Yet if I had the chance to fall again, I’d fall with him forever. Even if we were destined to crash against solid ground.

Boy do Cherry’s books toy with my heart and give me all the feels, and The Gravity of Us was no different.

This too made my list of all-time favorite romance books because the story was so unique, the romance so beautiful, and the found family result of it all so worth the heartache.

It is a sort of forbidden romance between two opposites, and since I don’t want to give away any spoilers, you’ll just have to trust me that it’s one of the best in the found family trope.

Reminders of Him
by Colleen Hoover

After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter.

But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.

The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter.

But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk.

Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

Some books in the found family trope do include characters who have a bloodline connection and that is definitely the case in Reminders of Him and yet there is so much more to the relationships and the ties that bind them in this book.

I didn’t think a Colleen Hoover book could top It Ends With Us, but man, did she ever with this one, giving us such a strong heroine who’s fighting for her daughter.

The ending was such a tear-jerker but oh-so-perfect for this beloved found family. It’s a must-read!

Check out my review of Reminders of Him.

Fortuity
by Jewel E. Ann

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 is another great book in the found family trope where there may be some blood ties connecting some characters, but it’s the path that brought these two main characters together that made this romance book so special.

Single parents have a soft spot in my heart and Jewel E. Ann wrote two of the best in Fortuity – one of my favorite romance books of all time.

This book has amazing writing and a beautiful love story with characters you can’t help but love, including the kids!

Check out my review of Fortuity.

Wait for It
by Mariana Zapata

If anyone ever said being an adult was easy, they hadn’t been one long enough. Diana Casillas can admit it: she doesn’t know what she’s doing half the time. How she’s made it through the last two years of her life without losing her nephews is nothing short of a miracle.

With a new house, two little boys she inherited the most painful possible way, a giant dog, a job she usually loves, more than enough family, and friends, she has almost everything she could ever ask for. Except for a boyfriend. Or a husband. But who needs either one of those?

Sometimes books in the found family trope can be pretty heavy given the circumstances that leave some kids without their parents. But, it’s all about the adults in their lives that step up to take care of them that make all the difference.

This is one of my favorite Zapata slow burn romance books with such a strong heroine who finds herself suddenly a parent to her nephews and falls for the neighbor. It’s definitely one not to miss.

The Simple Wild
by K.A. Tucker

Calla hasn’t been back to Alaska since she was two years old, but now she’s back to repair her relationship with her father before it’s too late.

She just doesn’t know if she’s more at risk from the wilds of Alaska or the obnoxious charter pilot she meets.

I adored this enemies to lovers, slow burn romance by Tucker which really reflects the found family trope in my mind.

When you live in the wilds of Alaska, you have no choice but to bond with your neighbors and coworkers to survive the elements and the loneliness.

Though Calla went to Alaska to reconnect with her father, she gained so much more. I highly recommend this book and each that follows in the series to see how this found family grows.

Check out my review of The Simple Wild.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
by Sangu Mandanna

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention.

And as an orphan who was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos “pretending” to be a witch.

She thinks no one will take it seriously. But an unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic.

Once there Mika is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also with Jamie. He’s the handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, a threat comes knocking at their door. Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for.

This witch romance book has me rooting for the heroine, Mika, from the start since she was an orphan, growing up without her own sense of family.

But when she is tasked to teach three young witches, it sets her on a course to find her own found family and love story. I can’t wait to read it.

Beautiful
by Christina Lauren

After walking in on her boyfriend shagging another girl in their place, Pippa Bay Cox ditches London for the States to go on a road trip with Ruby Miller and some of her Beautiful friends.

Scaling the career ladder is the default way to deal with heartbreak—and to just deal—for Jensen Bergstrom. Absolutely buried by his drive and workload, he rarely takes time for himself.

But when his sister Hanna convinces him to join the gang on a two-week wine tour, he has a rare moment of cutting loose. Of course, it’s only once he’s committed that he realizes the strange girl he met briefly on the plane is coming along, too.

She might be too much for him…or he might realize his life has become too small and needs her to make it bigger, crazier.

With this circle of friends there’s always something going on: from Chloe and Sara’s unexpected personality swaps to Will’s new domestic side to Bennett’s text message barrage and George’s own happily-ever-after. In short, their adventures in love, friendship, and hilarity are nothing short of Beautiful.

Without a doubt, the Beautiful series by Christina, Lauren is one of the best series to binge read. The series follows an amazing found family of friends and it’s FANTASTIC.

While I definitely recommend reading each book in the series, but Beautiful is the final one that brings it all together with this found family of friends. I absolutely loved it.

Neanderthal Seeks Human
by Penny Reid

There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris:
1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved,
2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and
3) She doesn’t know how to knit.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can’t help wondering what new torment fate has in store.

To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan—aka Sir McHotpants—witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can’t afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn to make her an offer she can’t refuse.

This is the first book in Reid’s Knitting in the City series, which really sets the stage for this amazing found family of women who get together and knit each week.

Everyone in the group is a bit different with their own backstory, but their support and love for one another comes through in each book in the series.

Definitely start off with Janie and Quinn in Neanderthal Seeks Human and continue on with the rest of the series if you love the found family trope when it comes to girlfriends.

Accidentally on Purpose
by Jill Shalvis

Elle Wheaton’s priorities: friends, career, and amazing shoes. Then there’s the muscular wall of stubbornness that’s security expert Archer Hunt—who comes before everything else.

No point in telling Mr. “Feels-Free Zone” that, though. Elle will just see other men until she gets over Archer . . . which should only take a lifetime.

Archer’s wanted the best for Elle ever since he sacrificed his law-enforcement career to save her. Their chemistry could start the next San Francisco earthquake and he craves her 24/7, but Archer doesn’t want to be responsible for the damage. The alternative? Watch her go out with guys who aren’t him.

As far as Archer’s concerned, nobody is good enough for Elle. But when he sets out to prove it by sabotaging her dates, she gets mad—and things get hot as hell.

Now Archer has a new mission: prove to Elle that her perfect man has been here all along.

Accidentally on Purpose is a book in Shalvis’ Heartbreaker Bay series, which is another book series about a fantastic group of friends who come together to form their own found family.

This friend group is reminiscent of the Melrose Place cast in that they are all living in the same apartment building in San Francisco.

While all different, this cast of characters are the best of friends and support each other no matter what.

This was my favorite in the series because Elle and Archer are the best and have the hottest chemistry. You can absolutely read it as a standalone, and I highly recommend it!

Boyfriend Material
by Alexis Hall

One compromising photo too many puts Luc’s job in jeopardy. His one chance at redemption turns out to be a fake relationship with a respectable boyfriend to clean up his image.

That “job” falls to Oliver Blackwood, a barrister, who is the opposite of Luc in every way.

But the thing about fake dating is that it can feel a lot like real dating. And that’s when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don’t ever want to let them go.

I love books with the best cast of characters, and Hall knows how to write them, especially in Boyfriend Material.

Don’t get me wrong, this is all about two opposites who find love with one another despite their own struggles in this gay romance. I really enjoyed how close-knit Luc’s friend group is and how they truly are his family and welcome Oliver into the fold.

Check out my review of Boyfriend Material.