Books like 'We Were Liars'

Readers who enjoyed We Were Liars by E. Lockhart also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

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  • In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

    In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 61 ratings
    Life is over in an instant for sixteen-year-old Finn Miller when a devastating car accident tumbles her and ten others over the side of a mountain. Suspended between worlds, she watches helplessly as those she loves struggle to survive.Impossible choices are made, decisions that leave the survivors tormented with grief and regret...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  drama  family  friendship  grief  realistic  sad
  • Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 54 ratings
    Librarian's note: An alternative cover edition can be found hereNo one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fineMeet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  friendship  grief  realistic
  • Identical by Ellen Hopkins

    Identical by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for US Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. When the girls were 9, Daddy started to turn to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should and has been sexually abusing her for years...
  • Blue String by Tess Thompson

    Blue String by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    She's a single mom happily raising her son with the help of her family. He's a country music star reeling from tragedy. When he shows up on her doorstep asking for a safe place to hide from the world, will she let him into her heart and family?Costume designer Teagan Lanigan only has time to love her work and the young son she’s raising by herself...
    Categorized as:
    family  sad  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  fiction
  • More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

    More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay...until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage...
  • Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

    Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling. Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off...
  • Night Road by Kristin Hannah

    Night Road by Kristin Hannah

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone’s needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable...
  • Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts

    Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    From Nora Roberts comes the #1 New York Times bestseller Shelter in Place (June 2018) — a powerful tale of heart, heroism...and propulsive suspense.It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine. Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start. A boy flirted with the girl selling sunglasses...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  friendship  grief  realistic  sad
  • Nelumbo Nucifera by Cristina Slough

    Nelumbo Nucifera by Cristina Slough

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    On the surface, Gaby Parker has it all; however, behind closed doors, is a woman who lives in constant fear of the man who was supposed to love her: her husband, Kyle. Beaten, desperate, and broken, Gaby realizes the only way to escape from her violent husband is to kill herself — on paper...
  • Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

    Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Beautifully captures the joys of a new family as it builds to an overwhelmingly moving climax. This is an unforgettable love story, at once heartbreaking and full of hope.James Patterson has written a love story!--a powerfully moving and suspenseful novel about families, loss, new love, and hope. Katie Wilkinson has found her perfect man at last...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  grief  realistic  sad  season-summer  suspense
  • All My Lies Are True by Dorothy Koomson

    All My Lies Are True by Dorothy Koomson

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    From the bestselling author of Tell Me Your Secret and The Brighton Mermaid comes the breath-taking sequel to the iconic Sunday Times bestseller The Ice Cream Girls.Verity is telling lies...And that's why she's about to be arrested for attempted murder.Serena has been lying for years. . .And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable..
    Categorized as:
    crime  family  friendship  suspense  abuse  adult  audiobook  book
  • The Next Grave by Kendra Elliot

    The Next Grave by Kendra Elliot

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A Wall Street Journal bestselling series.Following a murder and a woman’s sudden disappearance, investigations into old crimes and new collide in an alarming novel of suspense by a Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author.Detective Evan Bolton is gutted by his latest investigation...
    Categorized as:
    north-america  usa  crime  suspense  drama  oregon  romance  mystery
  • Identity by Nora Roberts

    Identity by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A new thriller about one man's ice-cold malice, and one woman's fight to reclaim her life.Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  friendship  suspense  adult  audiobook  book
  • In Her Father's Shadow by Quinn Avery

    In Her Father's Shadow by Quinn Avery

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Sienna Rivers’s aspirations for a normal childhood came crashing down the night they discovered her father was a serial killer. Once her mother’s illusion of a perfect family is destroyed, Sienna is sent to live with the only other “family” she knows...
  • Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain

    Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Laura Brandon had promised her dying father she would visit Sarah Tolley, but her own agony is drowning out the old woman's ramblings. Her husband killed himself, and the only witness--her daughter, Emma--now refuses to speak. Desperate, Laura turns to a man she met once five years ago: Emma's real father...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  plot-twist  realistic  suspense  adult  audiobook
  • Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

    Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The thick glass of a mason jar cuts deep, and the pain washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you...
  • If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

    If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    If he had been with me everything would have been different...I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts...
  • Vanished by Kendra Elliot

    Vanished by Kendra Elliot

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kendra Elliot.When an eleven-year-old is abducted on her way to school, the FBI doesn’t waste a moment, sending agents to scour the area and embedding Special Agent Ava McLane with the distraught family...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  sad  suspense  action-adventure  adult
  • Between Now and Forever by Barbara Freethy

    Between Now and Forever by Barbara Freethy

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    From #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy comes a romantic and suspenseful new novel in the popular family series, The Callaways. Nicole met Ryan when he was a handsome, cocky teenager with a desire to fly high above the clouds...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction  mystery
  • At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

    At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the author of We Are the Ants comes “another winner” (Booklist, starred review) about a boy who believes the universe is slowly shrinking as the things he remembers are being erased from others’ memories.Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since the second grade, and boyfriends since eighth. They spent countless days dreaming of escaping their small town—and then Tommy vanished...
  • Crank by Ellen Hopkins

    Crank by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the "monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or "crank." Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne'er-do-well father...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad
  • Broken Silence by Natasha Preston

    Broken Silence by Natasha Preston

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Four years after Oakley left for Australia, the trial is ready to begin. After coming to the decision that she needs to face her abusers to finally be able to move on, Oakley and her family return to England to give evidence in person...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  realistic  sad  suspense  abuse  audiobook
  • What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

    What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 45 ratings
    Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old...
  • Curves Ahead by Andi Jaxon

    Curves Ahead by Andi Jaxon

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Everyone knows appearances can be deceiving, and in my case, even I’ve been fooled. The last thing I need is immature man-child, Alexander Bennet, trying to smile his way into my pants. I hate everything about him; his stupid smirk, his rumbling chuckle, and the way butterflies riot in my stomach when he aims them at me...
    Categorized as:
    dark  suspense  sad  friendship  family  drama  romance  contemporary
  • Riverstar by Tess Thompson

    Riverstar by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    After ending an affair with a married movie producer, feisty Hollywood makeup artist Bella Webber finds herself back in the quaint Oregon town of River Valley, the location of a famous director’s latest film...
    Categorized as:
    crime  family  sad  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  female-mc
  • Sweet Baby by Sharon Sala

    Sweet Baby by Sharon Sala

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    A woman confronts her past with the help of the man she loves in this emotional mystery from the New York Times–bestselling author. Abandoned as a little girl and bounced from foster home to foster home, photojournalist Tory Lancaster has finally found someone to love in Brett Hooker, an investigator for the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office...
    Categorized as:
    amnesia  dark  sad  suspense  abuse  adult  book  contemporary
  • Heartsong Cottage by Emily March

    Heartsong Cottage by Emily March

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Daniel Garrett is no stranger to heartache or tragedy. Once a successful detective, his world fell apart with his son's murder and his wife's suicide. Leaving the police force, Daniel devotes his life to finding missing children, but when a case goes sour on the anniversary of his personal tragedy, he returns to Eternity Springs hoping for some of the town's fabled healing...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  friendship  realistic  suspense  adult  audiobook  book
  • The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from a party, her entire life changes as she finds herself at the center of an attempted murder investigation. Ella tries to move on, but her attacker isn't done yet. He shows himself in the form of horrifying signs and symbols: a clown mask strewn on her bed, a dead bird in her backpack, a shadow moving past her window in the night...
  • Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

    Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Armed with two years' worth of savings and the need to experience life outside the bubble of her Oregon small town, twenty-five-year old Amber Welles is prepared for anything. Except dying in Dublin. Had it not been for the bravery of a stranger, she might have. But he takes off before she has the chance to offer her gratitude. Twenty-four-year-old River Delaney is rattled...
  • Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

    Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    He says: You're an awful person. He says: What makes you think I would ever ask you out? He says: The world would be a better place without you in it. Lara just got told off on Facebook. She thought that Christian liked her, that he was finally going to ask her to his school's homecoming dance...
  • Nocte by Courtney Cole

    Nocte by Courtney Cole

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    My name is Calla Price. I'm eighteen years old, and I'm one half of a whole. My other half—my twin brother, my Finn—is crazy. I love him. More than life, more than anything. And even though I'm terrified he'll suck me down with him, no one can save him but me. I'm doing all I can to stay afloat in a sea of insanity, but I'm drowning more and more each day. So I reach out for a lifeline...
  • If There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    If There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Lena Wise is always looking forward to tomorrow, especially at the start of her senior year. She's ready to pack in as much friend time as possible, to finish college applications and to maybe let her childhood best friend Sebastian know how she really feels about him. For Lena, the upcoming year is going to be epic—one of opportunities and chances...
  • The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

    The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    There's death all around us.We just don't pay attention.Until we do.The last time Lex was happy, it was before. When she had a family that was whole. A boyfriend she loved. Friends who didn't look at her like she might break down at any moment.Now she's just the girl whose brother killed himself. And it feels like that's all she'll ever be...
  • Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all - popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend. Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it's one she no longer wants any part of...
    Categorized as:
    amnesia  crime  dark  drama  family  friendship  high-school  realistic
  • The Program by Suzanne Young

    The Program by Suzanne Young

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive...
    Categorized as:
    amnesia  drama  family  friendship  grief  high-school  realistic  sad
  • The Rise by Shari King, Shari Low

    The Rise by Shari King, Shari Low

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When we bury our secrets, they always come back to haunt us...Their rise was meteoric.Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, just trying to survive tough lives of danger and dysfunction.But on one Hollywood evening in 1993, they were on the world’s biggest stage, accepting their Oscar in front of the watching world.That night was the beginning of their careers...
  • A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy in the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but also longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad  suspense  audiobook
  • Wake to Dream by Lily White

    Wake to Dream by Lily White

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Alice Beaumont is running out of time…Plagued by sleep disorders since her childhood, Alice had grown accustomed to the nightly dreams that terrorized her. She woke up in strange places. She was paralyzed by fear and hallucinations. She screamed each night at unseen specters and evil faces.When her sister, Delilah, goes missing, Alice’s dreams take on new meaning...
    Categorized as:
    dark  suspense  crime  drama  plot-twist  romance  mystery  abuse
  • Edge of Midnight by Leslie Tentler

    Edge of Midnight by Leslie Tentler

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The writer becomes the story when crime reporter Mia Hale is discovered on a Jacksonville beach, bloodied and disoriented, but alive. She remembers nothing, but her wounds bear the signature of a sadistic serial killer. After years lying dormant, The Collector has resumed his grim hobby: abducting women and taking gruesome souvenirs before dumping their bodies...
    Categorized as:
    amnesia  crime  dark  north-america  suspense  usa  adult  audiobook
  • I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña

    I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Kidd is running from his past and his future. No mom, no dad, and there’s nothing for him at the group home but therapy. He doesn’t belong at the beach where he works either, unless he finds a reason to stay.   Olivia is blond hair, blue eyes, rich dad. The prettiest girl in Cardiff...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  drama  family  friendship  grief  realistic  abuse  book
  • The Lies We Hide by S.E. Lynes

    The Lies We Hide by S.E. Lynes

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Thirty years ago, Nicola Watson lived with her parents and older brother in a respectable suburb...
  • What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

    What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    A searing yet ultimately uplifting young adult novel about a teenage girl's recovery from anorexia.Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has honed a dangerous skill: starving herself. Even when her parents send her to a treatment center, she can't stop. Then she begins receiving packages from someone she doesn't know...
  • The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews

    The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Mary Kay Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads delivers her next page-turner for the summer with The Newcomer.In trouble and on the run...After she discovers her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain she knows who did it: Tanya’s ex; sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield...
  • Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

    Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion...
  • The Pact by Jodi Picoult

    The Pact by Jodi Picoult

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty—they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more...
  • Hate List by Jennifer Brown

    Hate List by Jennifer Brown

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets...
  • Slated by Teri Terry

    Slated by Teri Terry

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 44 ratings
    A riveting psychological thrillerKYLA HAS BEEN SLATED - her memory erased, her personality wiped blank. This is the government's way of dealing with teen terrorists: give them a fresh start as a new person. They teach Kyla how to walk and talk again, give her a new identity and a new family, and tell her to be grateful for this second chance...
  • Hold Still by Nina LaCour, Nina Schindler

    Hold Still by Nina LaCour, Nina Schindler

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    An arresting story about starting over after a friend’s suicide, from a breakthrough new voice in YA fiction.dear caitlin, there are so many things that i want so badly to tell you but i just can’t.Devastating, hopeful, hopeless, playful . . . in words and illustrations, Ingrid left behind a painful farewell in her journal for Caitlin...
  • Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz

    Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Last fall, sixteen-year-old Camelia fell for Ben, a new boy at school who had a very mysterious gift – psychometry, the ability to sense the future through touch. But just as Camelia and Ben's romance began to heat up, he abruptly left town. Brokenhearted, Camelia has spent the last few months studying everything she can about psychometry and experiencing strange brushes with premonition...
  • After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

    After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  family  grief  realistic  suspense  21st-century  adult
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