“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”
First published back in 2016 but only becoming a viral sensation in more recent times thanks to BookTok, It Ends With Us is a contemporary romance book by serial bestselling author Colleen Hoover. In it, Hoover hooks readers with another delectable story that is tender, gritty, heartbreaking and profound in equal measure, following Lily and Ryle’s increasingly toxic relationship, and the shocking emergence of an old flame in their lives in the shape of Atlas Corrigan. With the book’s big-screen adaptation hitting cinemas across the globe, we here at What We Reading thought we would cater for any CoHo-shaped holes in your heart with some of the best books like It Ends With Us for those looking for their next great romance read!
Reminders Of Him – Colleen Hoover
After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan steps foot back in the town where everything went wrong, hoping to be reunited with her four-year-old daughter. But, the bridges she burned the first time around soon prove hard to rebuild. No matter how hard she works to redeem herself, everyone in her daughter’s life seems hellbent on keeping Kenna out.
The only person who hasn’t shut the door on her is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and the only link to Kenna’s daughter she has left. Nevertheless, if anyone were to see how close the two were becoming, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them. The two form a close connection despite the pressure. But, as the passion grows, so does the danger. We’re kicking off our list of books like It Ends With Us with another one of Colleen Hoover’s best love stories, Reminders of Him.
Only Love Can Hurt Like This – Paige Toon
When Wren realises her fiance is in love with someone else, she is convinced that her heart will never recover. On the other side of the globe, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on.
Wren hopes that spending the summer on her father’s farm in Indiana with her step-family will help her heal. Against a backdrop of the fireflies and cornfields, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are instantly upended. What Wren doesn’t know, however, is that Anders is holding tightly onto a secret. If he acts on any of the feelings he has for Wren, it will have a devastating impact on everyone around him. Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine; nevertheless, knowing the truth, how could she possibly stay? The perfect follow-up for fans of It Ends With Us and Colleen Hoover, Paige Toon’s Only Love Can Hurt Like This questions when love is worth risking everything.
The Light We Lost – Jill Santopolo
Lucy and Gabe met as seniors at Columbia University on a day that would change their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to have meaning and matter. When they encounter each other again a year later, it appears to be fate.
Then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy sets off on her own career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year-long journey of dreams, desires, resentment, betrayals and, ultimately, love. Whilst the journey takes them continents apart, Lucy and Gabe will never find each other out of each other’s hearts. Like It Ends With Us, Jill Santopolo’s The Light We Lost is a story that explores fate, love and choices, as well as the impact of past decisions on relationships in the present.
The Things We Leave Unfinished – Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after giving up almost everything in a brutal divorce. Now back at home in her late grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she runs into Noah Harrison, the cocky local bestselling romance novelist. Whilst the publisher thinks he is the best fit, Georgia will be damned if he thinks he’s fit to finish her grandmother’s story.
Nevertheless, as the pair read through Scarlett’s words in both the manuscripts and her box of letters, they begin to wonder why she never finished her story herself. Based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia is all too familiar with love not working out and is determined to learn from her grandmother’s mistakes – even if it means denying the growing chemistry between her and Noah and potentially destroying his career.
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Me Before You (Me Before You #1) – Jojo Moyes
Another one of the best books like It Ends With Us is Jojo Moyes’ bestselling Me Before You series. Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living a perfectly ordinary life. She picks up a badly needed job working for Will Traynor, a man used to living a huge life of big deals and extreme sports until an accident left him in a wheelchair.
Will is fairly certain he can’t live the way he is, but his moody exterior doesn’t deter Louisa. Soon, his happiness meant more to her than she ever expected. Even more surprising, when she learns Will has shocking plans of his own, she embarks on a mission to show him that life is still very much worth living.
Before I Let You Go – Kelly Rimmer
One of the best family drama books like It Ends With Us, Kelly Rimmer’s Before I Let You Go is another story of healing and forgiveness. It opens with a phone call at 2 A.M, and the first time Lexie Vidler has heard her sister’s voice in years. Annie is in trouble again. Only this time, she is pregnant and in premature labour. If she goes to the hospital, she’ll lose custody of her baby, and potentially be carted off to prison.
As the weeks pass, Lexie finds herself caring for her delicate newborn niece, even as her carefully-ordered life begins to crumble around her. In court-ordered rehab, Annie attempts to work on herself by confronting long-buried secrets from the sisters’ childhood, memories that Lexie isn’t prepared to revisit. But, will the journey heal Annie, or lead to her slipping down an even darker path?
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The Girl He Used To Know – Tracey Garvis Graves
Annika Rose enjoys being alone. She feels lost in social situations, always saying the wrong things or acting the wrong way. Instead, she prefers the comfortable solitude of reading books or playing chess to being surrounded by the company of others. The exception to this is Jonathan. She likes being around him, although she hasn’t seen him for over a decade. Until now that is. But, after what happened between them all those years ago, she’s no longer certain whether he would ever want to see her again.
Nominated for Best Romance in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Tracey Garvis Graves’ The Girl He Used To Know is a candid and uplifting novel similar to It Ends With Us about second chances and learning to love someone, regardless of their differences.
Five Feet Apart – Rachael Lippincott
Stella Grant likes to be in control, even though her out-of-control lungs have seen her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs more than anything in her life is to keep away from anyone or anything that could jeopardise the possibility of a lung transplant. For Will Newman, the only thing he wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. Soon, he’ll be turning eighteen and will be free to unplug all the machines around him and see the world for what it really is.
If Will even so much as breathes on Stella, she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to guarantee that they stay alive is by staying apart. But, what if they could steal back just a little bit of space that their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart be so dangerous, if it ensured their hearts wouldn’t be broken too? Rachael Lippincott’s Five Feet Apart is a YA romance tale featuring themes of health, distance, the fight for a shared future, as well as love under constrained circumstances, perfect for any fans of It Ends With Us.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
