“Love shows up. That’s how you know when it’s real.”
Yours Truly is a 2023 romance book by Abby Jimenez, author of the bestselling Part of Your World. Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is flatlining. Her divorce has just been finalised, her brother is in desperate need of a kidney donor, and the promotion she’s been after is going to the new doctor, Dr Jacob Maddox. But then he writes her a letter. It’s the sort of letter that proves that he is hopeless at first impressions, but also funny and subversively likeable. Soon, the pair are exchanging letters, sharing lunch in their ‘sob closet’ and Jacob even offers the greatest gift of all. Bri begins to wonder how much longer she can resist this sexy new doctor, especially when he calls in a favour she can’t refuse. If you love stories of second-chance romances and the joys of finding the one, join us at What We Reading for the best books like Yours Truly!
Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone #3) – Abby Jimenez
Kicking off our list of books like Yours Truly is another one of Abby Jimenez’s best stories, Life’s Too Short. A standalone in her The Friend Zone series, this 2021 story is a touching rom-com about two polar opposites, an adorable dog and living life to the fullest. When Vanessa Price quit her job to travel the globe, she wasn’t anticipating becoming a viral sensation. For her, living each day to the fullest isn’t just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of thirty, so she is determined to never take anything for granted.
But, after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in the custody of her infant daughter, her life flips from ‘daily adventure’ to ‘next-level bad’. The last person in the world she expects help from is Adrian Copeland, the hot lawyer next door. And she would have never expected him and his geriatric Chihuahua to be secret baby tamers. But the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.
The Seven Year Slip – Ashley Poston
Clementine is determined to keep her heart safe. She plans to work hard, find someone decent to love and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one on the list is obviously metaphorical, but she remembers her aunt always telling her you always need one big dream to keep going. But, whilst everything else has been going swimmingly so far, love has proven to be a stumbling block for her. She isn’t sure her heart can take anyone getting too close.
And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt. A man with a dreamy Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The sort of man who, once upon a time, she would have fallen head over heels for. Except, he lives in the past. Seven years ago to be exact. Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed. Another one of the best 2023 romance releases, The Seven Year Slip is the perfect book like Yours Truly for anyone looking for another touching second-chance story.
The Exception To The Rule (The Improbable Meet-Cute #1) – Christina Lauren
On February 14, one typo brings a boy and girl together purely through chance. Wishing each other a happy Valentine’s Day isn’t the end for the two of them. In fact, it has become a friendly tradition they engage in every year. But, there are rules they adhere to: no pics, no real names, and nothing too personal. As the years pass, these rules for their email ‘dates’ begin to break, and they begin sharing more than they could ever imagine – including the urge to ask: ‘what if we actually met’?
A 2024 romance novella by fellow bestseller Christina Lauren, The Exception to the Rule is the perfect follow-up to Your’s Truly for any reader looking for another cutesy story of a chance encounter blossoming into something more.
The Neighbor Favor – Kristina Forest
Shy, bookish and self-confessed awkward operator Lily Greene has always full inadequate compared to the rest of her accomplished family. She dreams of becoming a children’s book editor, but has been frustratingly stuck in the non-fiction section with no hopes of a promotion. Lily finds solace in her exchanges with her favourite fantasy author, where tentative emails between two lonely souls lead to a friendship and, soon, something else. Until he ghosts her.
Months on, still reeling from the experience, Lily is looking for a date to her sister’s wedding. And the ideal candidate is Nick Brown, her charming and attractive new neighbour. She feels drawn to him but has no idea that he is her favourite author in the flesh. Nick has his own reasons for using a pen name and pushing Lilly away. And soon this simple favour between neighbours turns into anything but ‘simple’ in Kristina Forest’s The Neighbor Favor.
Hello Stranger – Katherine Center
Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming. One moment she was celebrating placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition; the next, she was waking up in hospital with a bizarre condition called ‘face blindness’. For every face Sadie now sees, all she is greeted with is a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. But, as she struggles to cope with the condition, lingering family issues, her artistic dreams and caring for her dog, Peanut, she finds herself drawn to not just one man, but two completely different ones.
Perceiving anything clearly seems like an impossible task for Sadie now. But, in Katherine Center’s Hello Stranger, she soon begins to learn how people show up when we least expect them, we can only find certain things when we’re not looking and there are always other ways of seeing.
Out On A Limb – Hannah Bonam-Young
Winnifred ‘Win’ McNulty has always been wildly independent. Not one to be coddled or defined by her limb difference, she has spent most of her life proving she can do it by herself. And, for the most part, she has done just fine so far. That is until a one-night stand with a charming stranger named Bo. In an instant, one night changes everything.
While Bo is surprisingly elated to step up to the plate, Win finds herself unsure whether she can handle this new challenge on her own, or if she’ll finally open herself up to a helping hand. The pair decide to get to know each other as friends. And nothing more. But, just like in Yours Truly, Hannah Bonam-Young shows how life rarely goes to plan like that in her book, Out on a Limb.
Love, Theoretically – Ali Hazelwood
Another one of the best academia-themed romance books like Yours Truly comes from global bestselling author Ali Hazelwood in Love, Theoretically. By day, Elsie Hannaway is toiling away grading labs and teaching thermodynamics. By other day, she is perfecting her craft as a fake girlfriend for individuals to hire, using her people-pleasing skills to become whatever they need. But this gig soon comes crashing down.
Jack Smith is the annoyingly attractive older brother of Elsie’s favourite client. He’s also the cold-hearted physicist who ruined her mentor’s career. And that same Jack Smith now sits on the MIT hiring committee, right between Elsie and her dream job. But, as she prepares for an all-out scholarly war, Elsie is surprised to feel herself being pulled into Jack’s orbit, tempting her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice.
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).
