Books like 'Willow'

Readers who enjoyed Willow by Julia Hoban also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  romance  psychological  realistic  drama  high-school  grief  family  coming-of-age  sad 

  • Healed: Stone and Pepper by Tess Thompson

    Healed: Stone and Pepper by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    It's Cliffside Bay and beyond in this heartwarming enemies-to-lovers romantic adventure from USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson. Stone Hickman is the last of a dying breed. The former Marine believes in integrity, service to his country, a hard day's work, and taking care of his loved ones...
  • Marred: Kyle and Violet by Tess Thompson

    Marred: Kyle and Violet by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Kyle Hicks started with nothing. Now he's a self-made man. And as luck would have it, his latest project as a real estate developer lands him in Cliffside Bay with his very best friends, The Dogs. At the end of his grueling work days, Kyle's got just enough time left for his buddies and not much else...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  sad  adult  anthologies  contemporary  epic
  • Tainted: Lance and Mary by Tess Thompson

    Tainted: Lance and Mary by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    One career-ending mistake sends Lance Mullen home to Cliffside Bay in search of a fresh start. And in no time at all, home begins to feel like the place he was always meant to be. With his beautiful new beach house, his friends and family close by, and a profitable business to grow, life really is good. That is until his heart tries to wreck everything... again...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  sad  adult  book  contemporary
  • Glass by Ellen Hopkins

    Glass by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of you, this monster will never let you go. Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips...
    Categorized as:
    angst  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad  teens
  • Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

    Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Sometimes you don't wake up. But if you happen to, you know things will never be the same.Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act—suicide.Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade...
  • 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...
  • Jaded: Zane and Honor by Tess Thompson

    Jaded: Zane and Honor by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Zane Shaw isn't the type to cower in a corner, until he meets Honor Sullivan. She's the most phenomenal woman he's ever met, but he's been burned before and so he's doomed to fall for her from a distance. If only his past hadn't left him so weary, perhaps he could be the man he was raised to be. Honor Sullivan has too much at stake to get distracted by a man. But Zane Shaw isn't just any man...
  • No Place too Far by Kay Bratt

    No Place too Far by Kay Bratt

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Maggie Dalton was forced to uproot her entire life to protect herself and her son. Just when she thinks she’s outrun her past, she’ll have to face her fears in this emotional and suspenseful novel by the bestselling author of Wish Me Home.After a year on the move, single mom Maggie Dalton has found a safe haven with her son in Maui...
    Categorized as:
    dark  family  female-mc  friendship  sad  adult  audiobook  book
  • Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins

    Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    They used to joke about it. Like many brilliant scientists, Josh sometimes had trouble remembering things that needed doing in the "real" world--like buying groceries, eating regular meals, and talking to people. But he was happy to have his beloved wife, Lauren, remind him with her "honey do" lists. He just never realized how much he would need one when she was gone...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  grief  sad  adult  audiobook
  • The Words We Keep by Erin Stewart

    The Words We Keep by Erin Stewart

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    It's been three months since The Night on the Bathroom Floor--when Lily found her older sister Alice hurting herself. Ever since then, Lily has been desperately trying to keep things together, for herself and for her family. But now Alice is coming home from her treatment program and it is becoming harder for Lily to ignore all of the feelings she's been trying to outrun...
  • 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...
  • Light in the Shadows by A. Meredith Walters

    Light in the Shadows by A. Meredith Walters

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    In the bestselling sequel to Find You in the Dark, A. Meredith Walters continues the emotional story of Maggie, Clay, and the power of unconditional love.How do you keep going when you feel like your life is over?Maggie never thought she’d see Clay again. So, she attempts to put her life back together after her heart has been shattered to pieces...
  • After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick, Nick Podehl

    After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick, Nick Podehl

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Even though the cancer should be far behind him, Jeffrey still worries that it will return. He's got normal teen stuff to deal with, too - friends, parents, girls, school.Normally, he'd ask his older brother, Steven, for advice. But Steven, always the trusty, responsible one, is finally rebelling and has taken off to Africa to join a drumming circle and 'find himself.'Jeffrey feels abandoned...
  • The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

    The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    In the tradition of Speak, this extraordinary debut novel shares the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault.Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.What was once simple, is now complex...
  • The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle

    The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    New town, new school, new friends. It was difficult for Ginny at first, but her senior year is finally starting to feel kind of normal. That is, until she sees him—the beautiful mystery in her English class. He has never spoken a word to anyone. He moves through each day at school without making eye contact. His name is Smitty Tibbs, but everyone calls him the Alien...
  • Sunrise over Strawberry Hill Farm by Alison Sherlock

    Sunrise over Strawberry Hill Farm by Alison Sherlock

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Pre-order the BRAND NEW romance from Alison Sherlock She drives a tractor. He arrives in a red Ferrari. What could possibly go wrong? Flora Barton is desperate to save her family home Strawberry Hill Farm. She only needs one thing - a great business idea to keep the farm afloat!So, when Nico Rossi arrives from Italy with a crazy plan to save the farm, Flora should be overjoyed...
  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  female-mc  friendship  grief
  • The Weight of Zero by Karen Fortunati

    The Weight of Zero by Karen Fortunati

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Seventeen-year-old Catherine Pulaski knows Zero is coming for her. Zero, the devastating depression born of Catherine’s bipolar disorder, almost triumphed once; that was her first suicide attempt.Being bipolar is forever. It never goes away. The med du jour might work right now, but Zero will be back for her. It’s only a matter of time...
    Categorized as:
    family  female-mc  friendship  grief  high-school  realistic  sad  book
  • How to Disappear by Sharon Huss Roat

    How to Disappear by Sharon Huss Roat

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Vicky Decker has perfected the art of hiding in plain sight, quietly navigating the halls of her high school undetected except by her best (and only) friend, Jenna. But when Jenna moves away, Vicky’s isolation becomes unbearable.So she decides to invent a social life by Photoshopping herself into other people’s pictures, posting them on Instagram under the screen name Vicurious...
  • Therapy by Kathryn Perez

    Therapy by Kathryn Perez

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Sometimes you have to get lost in order to be found... I’m needy. I’m broken. Cutting breaks through my numbness, but only opens more wounds. Depression, self-harm, bullying....that's my reality. Sex and guys....that's my escape. The space between the truth and lies is blurred leaving me torn, lost and confused...
  • Paper Hearts & Summer Kisses by Carole Matthews

    Paper Hearts & Summer Kisses by Carole Matthews

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    'I'm a Carole Matthews addict!' Mary BerryA heart-warming and poignant novel of romance, family and second chances, Paper Hearts and Summer Kisses is Sunday Times bestselling Carole Matthews at her outstanding best. Perfect for fans of Jill Mansell and Milly Johnson...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  sad  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • 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...
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

    All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 49 ratings
    The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning! Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him...
  • Christina by Leanne Davis

    Christina by Leanne Davis

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    My entire life I’ve lived with shadows lurking behind what otherwise appears like the perfect family. My mother often disappears into her bedroom for days at a time because her life becomes too much to deal with. I never understood it. I know there are family secrets. I hear the whispers and innuendos. But no one wants me to know the truth. The thing is: I’m not a little girl anymore...
  • The Last Goodbye by Kay Lyons

    The Last Goodbye by Kay Lyons

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    SOMETIMES THE PAIN OF LIFE BRINGS A NEW BEGINNING...Widower Dominic Dunn isn’t sure what to think of his wife’s pre-planned trip for him a year after her death. It’s her effort to force him from his work desk to the coast and the peacefulness she’d found at the Carolina Cove Inn...
  • His Uptown Girl by Liz Talley

    His Uptown Girl by Liz Talley

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Life doesn't follow rules... Jazz pianist Dez Batiste knows this all too well. It's taken him years to return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina swept away what mattered most. His musician's soul is still lost in the wreckage, but he's after a brand-new future by opening an Uptown jazz club. Too bad the distractingly sexy Eleanor Theriot is getting in his way...
  • A Voice in the Distance by Tabitha Suzuma

    A Voice in the Distance by Tabitha Suzuma

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    In his final year at the Royal College of Music, star pianist Flynn Laukonen has the world at his feet. He has moved in with his girlfriend Jennah and is already getting concert bookings for what promises to be a glittering career...
  • The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

    The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Mikki Brammer's The Collected Regrets of Clover is a big-hearted and life-affirming debut about a death doula who, in caring for others at the end of their life, has forgotten how to live her own, for readers of The Midnight Library...
  • Stronger Than You Know by Jolene Perry

    Stronger Than You Know by Jolene Perry

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    After police intervention, fifteen-year-old Joy has finally escaped the trailer where she once lived with her mother and survived years of confinement and abuse. Now living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in a comfortable house, she’s sure she’ll never belong. Wracked by panic attacks, afraid to talk to anyone at her new school, Joy’s got a whole list of reasons why she’s crazy...
    Categorized as:
    dark  family  friendship  high-school  realistic  teens  abuse  book
  • How It Ends by Laura Wiess

    How It Ends by Laura Wiess

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Following her stunning and critically acclaimed novels Such a Pretty Girl and Leftovers, Laura Wiess crafts a riveting and emotionally powerful tale of beauty, destruction...and love.Seventeen-year-old Hanna has been in love with Seth for as long as she can remember, but now that she and Seth are in an actual relationship, love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  family  female-mc  realistic  sad  abuse
  • All Our Broken Pieces by L.D. Crichton

    All Our Broken Pieces by L.D. Crichton

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    "You can’t keep two people who are meant to be together apart for long...”Lennon Davis doesn’t believe in much, but she does believe in the security of the number five. If she flicks the bedroom light switch five times, maybe her new L.A. school won’t suck. But that doesn’t feel right, so she flicks the switch again. And again...
  • Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

    Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Maguire is bad luck.No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the roller coaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch...
  • 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...
  • Letting Ana Go by Anonymous

    Letting Ana Go by Anonymous

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    In the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky, a harrowing account of anorexia and addiction.She was a good girl from a good family, with everything she could want or need. But below the surface, she felt like she could never be good enough. Like she could never live up to the expectations that surrounded her. Like she couldn’t do anything to make a change...
  • The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

    The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A gripping, openhearted novel about family, reconciliation, and bringing closure to the secrets of the past.Early into the tempestuous decade of her thirties, Rae Langdon struggles to work through a grief she never anticipated. With her father, Connor, she tends to their Ohio farm, a forty-acre spread that itself has enjoyed better days...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  grief  adult  audiobook  book
  • 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...
  • The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah

    The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    The youngest of three daughters, Angela DeSaria Malone was always “the princess” of the family, a girl who thought she knew how her life would unfold. High School. College. Marriage. Motherhood. That was how it had gone for her sisters, her cousins, her friends. But it didn’t work out that way for Angie...
  • 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...
  • The Years After by Leanne Davis

    The Years After by Leanne Davis

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Eighteen-year-old Olivia Lindstrom is ready to start the rest of her life in a world she sees as wide-open to accomplish her limitless dreams. A gifted musician, she wants nothing more than to study music, improve her skills, and later pursue a dedicated career. Her biggest concerns about starting college are missing her parents and worrying about her grade point average...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  family  female-mc  sad  action-adventure  adult  book
  • The Boarding House by Sharon Sala

    The Boarding House by Sharon Sala

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Ellie Wayne doesn't just live. She survives.Ellie Wayne has grown up in frightening circumstances, damaged by a sexually abusive father and mentally fragile mother. Scarred and still threatened by a father she hates and fears, Ellie believes her future holds nothing more than danger, shame and secrets . . . until the unspeakable happens, and Ellie is forced to choose...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  sad  abuse  adult  book  contemporary
  • In Her Wake by K.A. Tucker

    In Her Wake by K.A. Tucker

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Before you knew him as Trent in Ten Tiny Breaths, he was Cole Reynolds—and he had it all. Until one night when he makes a fatal, wrong decision…and loses everything.When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  female-mc  realistic  sad  audiobook
  • 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...
  • Some Boys by Patty Blount

    Some Boys by Patty Blount

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Some boys go too far. Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.When Grace meets Ian she's afraid. Afraid he'll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But...Ian doesn't. He's funny and kind with secrets of his own...
  • Goodnight, Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson

    Goodnight, Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    From the author of the internationally bestselling novels My Best Friend’s Girl and Marshmallows for Breakfast comes an incredibly moving, powerfully written new novel about motherhood, love, loss, and new beginnings. Nova will do anything for her closest friend, Mal, whom she has known since childhood...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  realistic  sad  adult  audiobook
  • Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

    Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 22 ratings
    Norah has agoraphobia and OCD. When groceries are left on the porch, she can't step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He's sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did. Norah can't leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl...
  • 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...
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