Books like 'That's Not What Happened'

Readers who enjoyed That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  mystery  action / adventure  realistic  lgbtq  friendship  high-school  crime  religion  bullying 

  • Beartown by Fredrik Backman

    Beartown by Fredrik Backman

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 50 ratings
    People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded town. And that rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today...
  • If I Live by Terri Blackstock

    If I Live by Terri Blackstock

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Casey is hiding again—in Memphis this time—but it’s different now. She knows without a doubt that Dylan believes her and is doing all he can to help bring Brent’s killer to justice. He’s become an unexpected friend . . . and even, maybe, something more. Hope makes everything more bearable...
  • 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
  • Ruby Jane by Susan May Warren

    Ruby Jane by Susan May Warren

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    She loved...and lost.Ruby Jane never thought she'd meet the man of her dreams while running from the police in Russia. That he'd steal her heart on a train to Siberia. But loving a former CIA officer comes with a price...a life of danger. A life of high stakes.A life where he simply disappears...He has no memory of the man he was.Mack Jones has no memory of his past..
  • Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI's Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother's murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  friendship  high-school  lgbtq  realistic
  • Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

    Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 53 ratings
    With more than a million Gallagher Girls books sold, a legion of fans have fallen in love with the New York Times best-selling spy-girl series, and the fifth book delivers the most nerve-wracking, high-stakes adventure yet...
  • The Rescuer by Dee Henderson

    The Rescuer by Dee Henderson

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    HE'S RUNNING AWAY ...Stephen O'Malley is a paramedic. He's been rescuing people all his life. But he's on the run now --- from the burden of his profession, from the grief of losing his sister, from a God he doesn't want to trust.HE PAUSED TO HELP A FRIEND ...Meghan may be blind, but she's not crazy...
  • United We Spy by Ally Carter

    United We Spy by Ally Carter

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    Don't miss a moment of the beloved, bestselling series where spies-in-training navigate double crosses, secret missions, friendship, and first love-now with a bonus epilogue! Cammie Morgan has lost her father and her memory, but in the heart-pounding conclusion to the best-selling Gallagher Girls series, she finds her greatest mission yet...
  • F.A.I.T.H. by Jo P.R.

    F.A.I.T.H. by Jo P.R.

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    "I was broken. Nothing, no one could fix me. Until you came into my life again. I wish I had gone with you that day instead of him. Because, now I can't imagine how I spent the previous years of my life without you by my side. You are my savior. You showed me that its okay to be broken and you showed me that I wasn't alone. You were with me. i love you for that. But I hate that I love you...
  • Hostile Intent by Lynette Eason

    Hostile Intent by Lynette Eason

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Ava Jackson entered the military shortly after high school, but her mother's illness has forced her to request an early discharge. She already lost her father while deployed, and there's no way she's going to let her mother die alone. But after a visit to the nursing facility where her mother lives, Ava is attacked walking back to her car...
  • Active Defense by Lynette Eason

    Active Defense by Lynette Eason

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    As a former field surgeon in Afghanistan, Heather Fontaine is used to life-or-death situations. She just didn't expect them to follow her home. When she returns from a party to find that someone has broken into her house--and threatened her friends--she assumes it is the stalker who has been following her and creeping her out...
  • Code of Valor by Lynette Eason

    Code of Valor by Lynette Eason

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    What Detective Brady St. John really needs is a relaxing vacation. Unfortunately, just as the sun is setting on his second day at a friend's cabin on Lake Henley, he hears a scream and races to rescue a woman from her would-be killer. When the killer escapes only to return to finish the job, Brady vows to utilize all of his many resources to keep her safe--and catch those who would see her dead...
  • A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti

    A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    When everything has been taken from you, what else is there to do but run?So that’s what Annabelle does—she runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She’s not ready to think about the why yet, just the how—muscles burning, heart pumping, feet pounding the earth...
  • You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow

    You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces comes a breathtaking story about a town, its tragedies, and the quiet beauty of everyday life.For all of Emory's life she's been told who she is. In town she's the rich one--the great-great-granddaughter of the mill's founder. At school she's hot Maddie Ward's younger sister...
  • Restart by Gordon Korman

    Restart by Gordon Korman

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    The amazing New York Times bestseller about what you can do when life gives you a second chance.Chase's memory just went out the window.Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof. He doesn't remember hitting his head. He doesn't, in fact, remember anything. He wakes up in a hospital room and suddenly has to learn his whole life all over again . . . starting with his own name.He knows he's Chase...
  • Kidnapped by Dee Henderson

    Kidnapped by Dee Henderson

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Someone snatched his cousin's wife and son. FBI agent Luke Falcon is searching for a kidnapper and sorting out the crime. He's afraid it's the work of a stalker. He's afraid they're already dead. And he'll do anything required to get them back alive . . . but he didn't plan on falling in love with the only witness...
  • Heroine by Mindy McGinnis, Brittany Pressley

    Heroine by Mindy McGinnis, Brittany Pressley

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A captivating and powerful exploration of the opioid crisis—the deadliest drug epidemic in American history—through the eyes of a college-bound softball star. Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a visceral and necessary novel about addiction, family, friendship, and hope...
  • Walk the Edge by Katie McGarry

    Walk the Edge by Katie McGarry

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    One moment of recklessness will change their worlds.Smart. Responsible. That's seventeen-year-old Breanna's role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a toe out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyber-bully's line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas "Razor" Turner into her life...
  • Redemption by Traci Hunter Abramson

    Redemption by Traci Hunter Abramson

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Gage Stewart has spent five years trying to overcome his past. Once an abused and troubled teenager, he has worked tirelessly to move beyond the fateful day he was manipulated into holding a group of teenagers hostage. Now, with a new identity and a college degree in criminal psychology, he accepts an unlikely job teaching others what to do during mass shootings...
  • Save Me by Ariana Nash

    Save Me by Ariana Nash

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The third and final book in the outstanding mafia/priest MM Forgive Me series. Vitari Angelini knows selling a cache of Battaglia guns to a drug lord is not what Francis would call legal, but he’ll never find out. Besides, it’s for a good cause: Francis’s happy ever after...
    Categorized as:
    lgbtq  crime  dark  religion  drama  spirituality  romance  mlm
  • The Crushing Depths by Dani Pettrey

    The Crushing Depths by Dani Pettrey

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    When an accident claims the life of an oil-rig worker on the first drilling platform off the North Carolina coast, Coast Guard investigators Rissi Dawson and Mason Rogers are sent to take the case. Tensions surrounding the oil rig are high and the death has everyone on edge...
  • Believe Like a Child by Paige Dearth

    Believe Like a Child by Paige Dearth

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Home isn't safe for young Alessa because her uncle lives there...unfortunately neither are the streets.Alessa's uncle is a child predator, and she's one of his victims.At sixteen, after the death of her only friend, Alessa finds herself isolated at home with her uncle. Unable to live there, she runs away.Alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, she encounters more people who hurt her...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  realistic  survival  abuse
  • Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton

    Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Cliff Hubbard is a huge loser. Literally. His nickname at Happy Valley High School is Neanderthal because he's so enormous — 6'6" and 250 pounds to be exact. He has no one at school and life in his trailer park home has gone from bad to worse ever since his older brother's suicide.There's no one Cliff hates more than the nauseatingly cool quarterback, Aaron Zimmerman...
  • The Ethan I Was Before by Ali Standish

    The Ethan I Was Before by Ali Standish

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Ethan had been many things. He was always ready for adventure and always willing to accept a dare, especially from his best friend, Kacey. But that was before. Before the accident that took Kacey from him. Before his family moved from Boston to the small town of Palm Knot, Georgia.Palm Knot may be tiny, but it’s the home of possibility and second chances...
  • Slay by Brittney Morris

    Slay by Brittney Morris

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    'We are different ages, genders and traditions ... but tonight we all SLAY' Black Panther meets Ready Player One. A fierce teen game developer battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for black gamers...
  • Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

    Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A beautifully written and deeply moving middle-grade novel with characters to cherish and a story that deals with tragedy and loss in a fresh way. Aubrey has suffered an unbelievable loss, and goes to live with her grandmother in Vermont in order to heal. There she makes new friends, learns to cope with what has happened, and begins to figure out how to move on...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  friendship  grief  realistic  sad  survival  teens
  • 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...
  • The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson...
  • On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

    On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago...
  • Expired Hope by Lisa Phillips, Megan Besing

    Expired Hope by Lisa Phillips, Megan Besing

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    She battled every fire she ever faced.He’s risking everything for the chance to belong.Veteran and therapist Natalie Atkinson watched her Army career explode in her face. All she ever wanted was to help people carry their burdens. Seeking a new future in Last Chance County doesn’t start so well when she’s the one being rescued from a client’s burning house...
    Categorized as:
    grief  friendship  family  drama  spirituality  religion  dark  romance
  • Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

    Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    In this striking new novel by the critically acclaimed author of Allegedly and Monday’s Not Coming, Tiffany D. Jackson tells the story of three Brooklyn teens who plot to turn their murdered friend into a major rap star by pretending he's still alive. Brooklyn, 1998. Biggie Smalls was right: Things done changed...
  • Unspoken by Dee Henderson

    Unspoken by Dee Henderson

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Charlotte Graham is at the center of the most famous kidnapping in Chicago history. The task force of FBI and local cops found her two abductors, killed them, rescued her, but it took four very long years. The fact she was found less than three miles from her home, had been there the entire time, haunts them. She's changed her identity, found a profession she loves, and rebuilt her life...
  • Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

    Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Kendra, fifteen, hasn't felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially because she still can't remember the most important detail-- her abuser's identity. Frightened, Kendra believes someone is always watching and following her, leaving menacing messages only she understands...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  high-school  lgbtq  realistic  sad
  • Among the Brave by Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Among the Brave by Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    A Reluctant HeroTrey may have saved Luke's life, but he still thinks of himself as a coward who can barely stand to be outdoors. Now Trey finds out Luke has been taken prisoner at Population Police headquarters. Trey is terrified, but he knows that if he doesn't rescue his friend, no one will.At police headquarters, Trey impersonates an officer to try getting to Luke...
  • Rising Darkness by Nancy Mehl

    Rising Darkness by Nancy Mehl

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Sophie Wittenbauer left her strict Mennonite hometown under a cloud of shame and regret. Certain she's left her past far behind her, she's now focused on her job at a newspaper and is shocked when she stumbles upon the name of someone she knew in her old life...
  • Abandoned by J.P. Barnaby

    Abandoned by J.P. Barnaby

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Little Boy Lost, Book Two. Jamie is gone. Brian's secret has been revealed. Brian McAllister's story continues as he tries to cope with the loss of his best friend and soul mate amid the alienation and ridicule of his classmates. When hatred turns to violence, Brian narrows his focus to two goals: surviving and finding Jamie...
    Categorized as:
    bullying  coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  high-school  lgbtq  sad
  • Spellbound by Cate Tiernan

    Spellbound by Cate Tiernan

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Morgan knows that a great battle is to come. More immediately, she senses that someone is out to harm Hunter...
  • Kalahari by Jessica Khoury

    Kalahari by Jessica Khoury

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Deep in the Kalahari Desert, a Corpus lab protects a dangerous secret…But what happens when that secret takes on a life of its own? When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide...
  • Into This River I Drown by T.J. Klune

    Into This River I Drown by T.J. Klune

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Five years ago, Benji Green lost his beloved father, Big Eddie, who drowned when his truck crashed into a river. All called it an accident, but Benji thought it more. However, even years later, he is buried deep in his grief, throwing himself into taking over Big Eddie's convenience store in the small town of Roseland, Oregon...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  grief  lgbtq  religion
  • This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills

    This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Sloane isn't expecting to fall in with a group of friends when she moves from New York to Florida—especially not a group of friends so intense, so in love, so all-consuming. Yet that's exactly what happens. Sloane becomes closest to Vera, a social-media star who lights up any room, and Gabe, Vera's twin brother and the most serious person Sloane's ever met...
  • Taken by Dee Henderson

    Taken by Dee Henderson

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A Compelling New Mystery from Dee Henderson! Abducted at the age of sixteen and coerced into assisting the Jacoby crime family, Shannon Bliss has finally found a way out. She desperately wants to resume some semblance of normal life, but she also knows she has some unfinished business to attend to. She has enough evidence to put her captors behind bars for a very long time...
  • So Not Happening by Jenny B. Jones

    So Not Happening by Jenny B. Jones

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    New York's social darling just woke up in a nightmare: Oklahoma. Problem is, it's right where God wants her. Bella Kirkwood had it all: A-list friends at her prestigious private school, Broadway in her backyard, and Daddy's MasterCard in her wallet. Then her father, a plastic surgeon to the stars, decided to trade her mother in for a newer model...
  • If I Run by Terri Blackstock

    If I Run by Terri Blackstock

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Casey Cox has blood on the bottom of her shoes, in her car, on her clothes. But there's no point in trying to defend herself. She just has to run. Casey didn't kill her friend Brent. She discovered his body, but she'd never try to hurt him. He's the only person she's ever trusted enough to tell the truth about what happened to her father . .
  • Changeling by Cate Tiernan

    Changeling by Cate Tiernan

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    When Morgan receives a shocking revelation about her family, she's thrown into a moral tailspin, believing that her essential nature is evil...
  • The Calling by Cate Tiernan

    The Calling by Cate Tiernan

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Morgan, Hunter and other members of their coven go to New York for a few days in search of the Amyranth witches. Hunter, a Seeker for the Council, is looking for Killian, a young witch in danger. It seems that Ciaran, Killian's father, is looking for him and intending to wipe his magic...
  • 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...
  • 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

    10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    Longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize A moving novel on the power of friendship in our darkest times, from internationally renowned writer and speaker Elif Shafak. In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  friendship  grief  lgbtq  realistic
  • Break Us by Jennifer Brown

    Break Us by Jennifer Brown

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Nikki Kill doesn’t see the world in black and white. Her synesthesia shades everything in view, transforming numbers, words, and emotions into colorful clues. Which means she’s a dangerous commodity to anyone with something to hide.Nikki has already taken on the Hollises—one of L.A.’s most powerful families—for murdering her half sister, Peyton...
  • Almost True by Keren David

    Almost True by Keren David

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Ruthless killers are hunting Ty so the police move him and his mum to a quiet seaside town. But a horrific attack and a bullet meant for Ty prove that he's not safe.On the road again, Ty's in hiding with complete strangers . . . who seem to know a lot about him. Meanwhile he's desperate to see his girlfriend Claire, and terrified that she may betray him...
  • Dime by E.R. Frank

    Dime by E.R. Frank

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The startling realities of teen prostitution are revealed in this eye-opening, heartbreaking story from the author of "America," which "Booklist "called a piercing, unforgettable novel and "Kirkus Reviews "deemed a work of sublime humanity. As a teen girl in Newark, New Jersey, lost in the foster care system, Dime just wants someone to care about her, to love her. A family...
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