Books like 'The Return'

Readers who enjoyed The Return by Nicholas Sparks also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  romance  mystery  small town  action / adventure  drama  family  realistic  military

  • A Merciful Promise by Kendra Elliot

    A Merciful Promise by Kendra Elliot

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    The Wall Street Journal bestselling series continues as Mercy Kilpatrick becomes embedded in the nightmare of a terrorist conspiracy.The job: infiltrate a militia amassing illegal firearms in an isolated forest community. FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick is the ideal candidate. She knows Oregon. She’s near the compound...
  • Charlie Foxtrot by Lani Lynn Vale

    Charlie Foxtrot by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Foster made a promise in his hospital bed when his leg was taken from him that he’d get back to one hundred percent. Leg or no leg, he’d get back on the SWAT team if it killed him. And he does get back. But he has a problem. He can’t let go of the past. The anger burns deep, making his emotions volatile at the best of times...
  • Save Your Breath by Melinda Leigh

    Save Your Breath by Melinda Leigh

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Morgan Dane and PI Lance Kruger investigate the mysterious disappearance of a true-crime writer.When true-crime writer Olivia Cruz disappears with no signs of foul play, her new boyfriend, Lincoln Sharp, suspects the worst. He knows she didn’t leave willingly and turns to attorney Morgan Dane and PI Lance Kruger to find her before it’s too late...
  • Secrets Collide by Kathleen Brooks

    Secrets Collide by Kathleen Brooks

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The mysterious Cy Davies is coming home. He’s not coming alone either. Having rescued Gemma Perry, a sassy investigative reporter for a gossip magazine, he takes her to the one place he knows he can keep her safe. Keeneston. Gemma Perry was having a bad week. Now she was in a small town where gossip was a currency...
  • Veils: A Killers Novel Book 4 (The Killers) by Brynne Asher

    Veils: A Killers Novel Book 4 (The Killers) by Brynne Asher

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    “Give me a memory, Noah.” That’s what she said … the woman who rendered me stupid in the shadows at a wedding reception. I did everything I could to figure her out. She wore more veils of armor than I’ve seen in a lifetime. On the outside, she was strong and self-assured. But within those beautiful, guarded blues? She was laced with vulnerability and grief. We had one night...
  • Lady Luck by Kristen Ashley

    Lady Luck by Kristen Ashley

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    Ty Walker was wrongly imprisoned and for the five years he was inside, he honed his plan so when he gets out, he has nothing but vengeance on his mind.But then he walks straight to stylish, leggy, beautiful, goofy Lexie Berry and he suddenly has something else to think about...
  • Kevlar To My Vest by Lani Lynn Vale

    Kevlar To My Vest by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    You’re the Kevlar…Behind the badge and the pretty face was a heart. A heart that bled just like the rest. A heart that was so in love with Viddy Sheffield that it was humiliating. Trance had been burned before by a woman that couldn’t handle the fact that he risked his life each and every time he went on shift. She was too vulnerable; somehow he had to convince his heart to let her go...
  • Gifts: A Killers Novel, Book 3 by Brynne Asher

    Gifts: A Killers Novel, Book 3 by Brynne Asher

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    No one would say Keelie Lockhart isn’t determined.  Taking on the role of both mom and dad to her two young kids, she’s managing life the best she can...
  • Secrets Never Die by Melinda Leigh

    Secrets Never Die by Melinda Leigh

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    The #1 Amazon Charts bestselling series continues as Morgan Dane and PI Lance Kruger fight for the innocence of a young murder suspect—if only they could find him.When a retired sheriff’s deputy is shot to death in his home, his troubled teenage stepson, Evan, becomes the prime suspect. Even more incriminating, the boy disappeared from the scene of the crime...
  • In the Waning Light by Loreth Anne White

    In the Waning Light by Loreth Anne White

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Two decades after her sister’s brutal attack and murder, Meg Brogan has finally found happiness…or so it appears. A bestselling true-crime writer, Meg has money, fame, and a wealthy fiancé. But when a television-show host presses her to tackle the one story everyone claims she cannot write—the story of her own family’s destruction—her perfect life shatters...
  • Possession by Helen Hardt

    Possession by Helen Hardt

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Your Escape Into A World of Dark Mysteries & Spicy Romance.Jade Roberts’s love for Talon Steel is the real deal, and she’s more determined than ever to help him come to grips with whatever is haunting him. To that end, she continues her investigation of the Steels…and unknowingly attracts some dangerous foes from their shrouded history...
  • Blaze by Jocelynn Drake, Rinda Elliott

    Blaze by Jocelynn Drake, Rinda Elliott

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    The rings have been selected. The champagne placed on ice. The cake decorated. And the pre-wedding sex is off the charts... Lucas Vallois and Andrei Hadeon are finally ready to walk down the aisle. There’s just one small problem. A ghost from Lucas’s past shows up days before the wedding, desperate for help...
  • Issued to the Bride One Soldier by Cora Seton

    Issued to the Bride One Soldier by Cora Seton

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Jack Sanders built his career as an army intelligence operative on his uncanny ability to anticipate what the enemy will do next--but he never anticipated the trouble he's landed in. Removed from duty, his future on the line, he'll have to accept a truly unusual mission to redeem himself...
  • Issued to the Bride One Marine by Cora Seton

    Issued to the Bride One Marine by Cora Seton

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Marine Logan Hughes uses humor like a shield because the twists and turns his life has taken have led him far from the path he was supposed to tread. He’s no priest, and despite his parents’ continued hope, he has no desire to become one. Still, he’s no devil, either...
  • A Lantern in the Dark by Stacey Reynolds

    A Lantern in the Dark by Stacey Reynolds

    Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    In a sleepy beach town in Coastal Carolina, two lost souls learn the destructive nature of secrets and the healing power of love. Captain Aidan O’Brien is a decorated officer of the Royal Irish Regiment. While on a personal mission with his brother to retrieve Michael’s would-be mate, Aidan visits an old friend on the local Marine Corps base...
  • Hear My Heart by Maryann Jordan

    Hear My Heart by Maryann Jordan

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Military duty called them away to war zones, but after tours overseas, the group of friends found their way back home as men, seeking the peaceful little seaside town. Now, the band of brothers, together once more, work to provide a place for less fortunate veterans to call home...
  • Sweet Rose by Maryann Jordan

    Sweet Rose by Maryann Jordan

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Jason Boswell had moved to Baytown at the invitation of his Navy buddy to open a garage and tattoo parlor. He never meant to start off on the wrong foot with the beautiful Rose. Rose Parker wanted to open an ice-cream parlor in Baytown, but life kept handing her one setback after another. And for Jason? It appeared that he managed to get everything he wanted...
  • Montana Danger by Josie Jade, Janie Crouch

    Montana Danger by Josie Jade, Janie Crouch

    Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Some mistakes haunt you forever. Harlan Young knows that from personal experience. Walking away from Grace Townsend, even with the best intentions and no other choice, still haunts him to this day. So when he had the chance to return to Montana, and be part of something as special as the Resting Warrior Ranch, he took it...
  • Halligan to My Axe by Lani Lynn Vale

    Halligan to My Axe by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    You’re the Halligan... Kettle had it all. Until he didn't. He lost it all in a moment. One heart stopping, soul shattering moment, and there wasn't a single thing he could do about it. From that day forward, he stayed away from relationships. Then he responded to a possible fire and there she was, rocking his world when he didn't want it to be rocked. To My..
  • Rising Storm by Kathleen Brooks

    Rising Storm by Kathleen Brooks

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Katelyn Jacks was used to being front and center as a model. But she never had to confront the Keeneston Grapevine! After retiring from the runway and returning to town to open a new animal clinic, Katelyn found that her life in the public eye was anything but over...
  • Acquiring Trouble by Kathleen Brooks

    Acquiring Trouble by Kathleen Brooks

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    This is the third book in the Bluegrass Brothers series by USA Today Best-selling author, Kathleen Brooks. As a natural born leader, Miles Davies accomplishes anything he puts his mind to. Upon returning home from his special forces duties, he has become the strong foundation of the Davies family and his company...
  • Obsession by Helen Hardt

    Obsession by Helen Hardt

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Your Escape Into A World of Dark Mysteries & Spicy Romance.Jade Roberts is in love with Talon Steel but no longer welcome in his home. While she resolves to move on, she still longs for the passion she and Talon shared…and when her boss asks her to dig up information on the Steels, she’s only too happy to comply...
  • Rocky Ground by Kaylea Cross

    Rocky Ground by Kaylea Cross

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    She’s been hurt too many times… Single mom Tiana Fitzgerald has sworn off all romantic relationships to protect herself and her daughter. Her track record is disastrous and she’s done getting hurt. But a certain sexy Scotsman in Crimson Point has other ideas, and somehow manages to sneak past her defenses at every turn...
  • A Merciful Secret by Kendra Elliot

    A Merciful Secret by Kendra Elliot

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    In this Wall Street Journal bestseller, a pair of ritual murders could expose Mercy Kilpatrick to something terrifying: her own past…Raised off the grid by survivalists, Mercy Kilpatrick believed in no greater safeguard than the backwoods of Oregon. Unforgiven by her father for abandoning the fold for the FBI, Mercy still holds to her past convictions. They’re in her blood...
  • Heaven and Hell by Kristen Ashley

    Heaven and Hell by Kristen Ashley

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    After making a bad decision when she was very young, Kia Clementine finds herself in hell. Then, suddenly, within the time it takes for a shotgun to blast, her hell changes. Completely. Then out-of-the-blue she sees Sampson Cooper, her celebrity crush. A man the whole world knows is decent. A man the world knows is loyal. A man the world knows is good...
  • Jenner by Dale Mayer

    Jenner by Dale Mayer

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    ...
  • Tate by Maryann Jordan

    Tate by Maryann Jordan

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Country music, his parents, cold beer, and apple pie…just a few of the things Frank Tate loves. The former SEAL, now a Lighthouse Security specialist also loves his job and lives for the next mission. But when a call from home sends him back to the mid-west, the past and present collide as danger follows the girl he left behind years before...
  • Guarding Your Heart: Baytown Boys by Maryann Jordan

    Guarding Your Heart: Baytown Boys by Maryann Jordan

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Sophie Bayles was devastated by grief when her beloved brother, a soldier, had been killed in action when she was a teenager. Guarding her heart, she left Baytown and the boy she had loved…her brother’s best friend. Callan Ward lucked out when he was assigned to the Coast Guard station in his hometown of Baytown...
  • Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes

    Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    In the wake of WWII, a grieving fisherman submits a poem to a local newspaper asking readers to send rocks in honor of loved ones to create something life-giving but the building halts when tragedy strikes. Decades later, Annie returns to the coastal Maine town where stone ruins spark her curiosity and her search for answers faces a battle against time...
  • Bang Switch by Lani Lynn Vale

    Bang Switch by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Lachlan Downy was a lover, not a fighter. Okay, he wouldn't lie, he was a fighter, too. But nobody had to know that. Especially not Memphis Tennessee Conner and her stuffy attitude when it came to cops and ‘men like him.’ Memphis knew cops. Her daddy was a cop. He was also the president of a motorcycle club...
  • Double Tap by Lani Lynn Vale

    Double Tap by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Nico met the love of his life when he was seventeen. Immediately, he realizes that the gap in their ages is too significant to make a move on her until she’s legal in the eyes of the law. So he joins the United States Navy, killing time until he can come home to her again...
  • Fear the Beard by Lani Lynn Vale

    Fear the Beard by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Tally is a twenty-year-old single mother struggling to finish nursing school. Has she made mistakes in life? Sure, but her daughter isn’t one of them. She works hard, she studies even harder, and she’s only a few weeks away from graduating. She’s living her life the best she knows how when she witnesses a near miss motorcycle accident between a car and a biker...
  • Hail No by Lani Lynn Vale

    Hail No by Lani Lynn Vale

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Evander Lennox doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do. At least, that is, until he’s sent to prison. The four years he's incarcerated, he’s had no choice but to do the things he's asked to do, when he’s asked to do them. And now, if he doesn’t, it will mean a one-way ticket straight back to hell...
  • The Slow Burn of Silence by Loreth Anne White

    The Slow Burn of Silence by Loreth Anne White

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the crossroads of small town mystery and dark suspense comes a romance that explores the bonds of family, the power of love, and the potentially explosive collateral damage of the secrets we keep... Sometimes a contract to forget can be as powerful as a promise to remember..
  • Payback by Rebecca Deel

    Payback by Rebecca Deel

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    A mission from his past threatens his future. A stalker has his sights set on art history teacher Ivy Monroe. Still recovering from a relationship with an abusive former boyfriend, she's determined to win this fight over fear and intimidation. No one has the right to cage her again. When Ivy is nearly killed, she takes refuge in the arms of the one man she trusts...
  • Domestic Animals by Gregory Ashe

    Domestic Animals by Gregory Ashe

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Sometimes, the most dangerous animals are the ones you let inside.When a man hires Emery Hazard to track down a teenager who, he claims, robbed him, Hazard isn’t convinced. The story has holes in it, and the client seems eager—too eager—to keep the authorities from getting involved. But Hazard is willing to play along; he suspects something much darker is going on, and he wants to know what it is...
    Categorized as:
    family  drama  romance  mlm  mystery  contemporary  crime  lgbtq
  • Deserted by Cara Dee

    Deserted by Cara Dee

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Deserted is the third book in the Auctioned Series, following book 1, Auctioned, and book 2, Stranded. Gray Nolan had survived a kidnapping where he was supposed to have been auctioned off to the highest bidder. He had also survived being stranded on an island, under siege from a different set of foes, and throughout the hell they’d all endured, their motto had been “Leave no man behind...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  military  abuse  action-adventure  adult  age-gap  angst
  • Liam by Nyssa Kathryn

    Liam by Nyssa Kathryn

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    She’s looking for a fresh start…she finds him.Nylah Walker knows what it’s like to be protected. You don’t grow up with five brothers without having someone close by, watching your back at all times. She craves independence, and Cradle Mountain is her fresh start. Her new beginning...
  • Reckless Fall by Nyssa Kathryn

    Reckless Fall by Nyssa Kathryn

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    She’s back in town. He needs a nanny. It should be simple. But in the small town of Misty Peak, simple is never easy.Sadie Sandler wouldn’t consider herself a quitter. But then, she did walk out on her own wedding twenty-three minutes before she was supposed to walk down the aisle...
  • Ethan by Dale Mayer

    Ethan by Dale Mayer

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When one door closes … second chances open another …Ethan was lost after a major accident abruptly shifted him from a military life to a civilian one, from working with dogs to odd jobs … In that time, he’d spent months healing from his physical injuries. When he connects with Badger and the rest of his Titanium Corp. group of former SEALs, Badger offers Ethan an opportunity he can’t refuse...
  • Rescued by Stephanie St. Klaire

    Rescued by Stephanie St. Klaire

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Just as the walls start to come down, boundaries redefine, and things heat up, tragedy hits the small mountain town of McKenzie Ridge. Sexy EMT Dawson Tayler made hearts break, and panties melt with a single look. Far from home, in the charming tourist town, he lives a simple life his family would be appalled by – if they were alive...
  • Gunner by Rebecca Sharp

    Gunner by Rebecca Sharp

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    From bestselling romantic suspense author, Dr. Rebecca Sharp, comes a surprise pregnancy romantic suspense...Della Bolden needs an escape—that’s what happens when your billionaire father has shielded your entire life.Growing up under the thumb of personal security—for her own safety—Della wanted one weekend of freedom on a ski trip with her friends...
  • The Obsession by Nora Roberts

    The Obsession by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 34 ratings
    The riveting new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts“She stood in the deep, dark woods, breath shallow and cold prickling over her skin despite the hot, heavy air. She took a step back, then two, as the urge to run fell over her.” Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods...
  • The Devil's Spare Change by Samantha A. Cole

    The Devil's Spare Change by Samantha A. Cole

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    FBI agent Sean Malone put in a transfer to return home to North Carolina in order to be closer to his expanding family. What he didn’t expect was a pleasant surprise from his youth. Little Gracie Whitman is all grown up now and drop-dead gorgeous, and he finds himself thinking about her in ways he’d never done before...
  • Smoky Mountain Judge by Ashley A. Quinn

    Smoky Mountain Judge by Ashley A. Quinn

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Divorced, single mom, Kennedy Davidson, knew the move from Richmond to Asheville would be a rough one for her twin teenagers. What she didn’t count on was the rocky start for herself. A week into her new job as a federal magistrate, danger comes calling when a mid-level cartel boss lands on her court docket...
  • Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

    Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 45 ratings
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a captivating love story filled with suspense and mystery.When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past...
  • Guardian Angel: Callaghan Brothers, Book 5 by Abbie Zanders

    Guardian Angel: Callaghan Brothers, Book 5 by Abbie Zanders

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    They call him the Iceman. The eldest of seven brothers, he is the biggest. The coldest. The meanest. No one has been able to break through the icy shield Kane Callaghan has built around himself. No one except the tiny, stubborn woman willing to sacrifice herself for him. She haunts his dreams, but he has no idea who she is. Where she is. Or if he’ll ever see her again...
  • The Witness by Nora Roberts

    The Witness by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    Daughter of a controlling mother, Elizabeth finally let loose one night, drinking at a nightclub and allowing a strange man's seductive Russian accent lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever. Twelve years later, the woman known as Abigail Lowery lives on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks...
  • Retreat by Jay Crownover

    Retreat by Jay Crownover

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Every once in a while, you need to get away from it all. I was a woman on the edge, shaken and shattered after a breakup that felt like it tore my entire world apart. My best friend, sick of watching me drown in misery and melancholy, harassed me until I agreed to go with her on a week-long wilderness retreat. She promised days spent bonding and getting in touch with our inner bad-asses...
  • Distracted by A.K. Evans

    Distracted by A.K. Evans

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Marriage of convenience? More like marriage of inconvenience. Especially when it turns deadly.Ellery Cross did what she had to do to save her family from ruin. She married a man she wasn’t in love with. Worse, she married a man she knew nothing about.But Ellery eventually learns all she needs to know about her husband. And sticking around is not an option...
The Return by Nicholas Sparks
Fantastic book recommendations by book lovers for book lovers.
Find out more about thebooknaut.com.

Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.

Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.

romance book finder preview 1
romance book finder preview 2
romance book finder preview 3