Books like 'How It Feels to Float'

Readers who enjoyed How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  psychological  lgbtq  realistic  family  sad  grief  wlw  coming-of-age  friendship 

  • 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
  • Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival

    Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A sensitive and reassuring story about what to do when a worry won't leave you alone. Meet Ruby—a happy, curious, imaginative girl. But one day, she finds something unexpected: a Worry. It's not such a big Worry, at first. But every day, it grows a little bigger... And a little bigger... Until eventually, the Worry is ENORMOUS and is all she can think about...
  • 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...
  • Seabreeze Book Club by Jan Moran

    Seabreeze Book Club by Jan Moran

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A new bookshop on the beach. A sizzling summer ahead. Join a new book club at the Seabreeze Inn.**From a USA Today bestselling author.**When sisters Ivy and Shelly Bay form a book club to help support a local bookshop on the beach, friends and guests of the inn are eager to join. Yet nothing is quite as it seems in the book club.Meanwhile, a discovery in the historic beach house inn causes a stir...
  • Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey, Tom Kitt

    Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey, Tom Kitt

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    "A brave and breathtaking musical...
  • 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
  • A Time to Forgive by Kay Correll

    A Time to Forgive by Kay Correll

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Sometimes is very, very hard to forget or forgive… Bree Stuart wants nothing more than to pack up her parents’ cabin on Lone Elk Lake and get it ready to sell. One less reminder of her past. Jason Cassidy is thrilled to see his friend, Bree, back in Sweet River Falls after twenty years. He offers to help her get the cabin ready to put on the market...
    Categorized as:
    family  female-mc  friendship  sad  adult  book  contemporary  fiction
  • 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...
  • No Beach Like Nantucket by Grace Palmer

    No Beach Like Nantucket by Grace Palmer

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The Benson family needs a fresh start. Can they find peace and happiness on the beaches of Nantucket?Last summer, a storm blew the Benson family’s lives to bits.It’s been almost a year since that fateful day.Since they learned that life at the beach isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.They’re doing their best to pick up the pieces.Mae is running the Sweet Island Inn...
    Categorized as:
    family  female-mc  friendship  sad  adult  book  breakup  contemporary
  • 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...
  • A Song to Remember by Kay Correll

    A Song to Remember by Kay Correll

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Sometimes a song brings back a memory... Sophie Brooks runs the small art gallery in Sweet River Falls. She’s thrown herself into keeping the gallery open. She owes her parents that much. But when Chase Green arrives in town, long-buried memories of the dreams Sophie had for her life bubble to the surface. Chase is hiding from his own haunted past and keeping long-held secrets...
  • Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

    Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father...
  • A Place to Call Home by Carole Matthews

    A Place to Call Home by Carole Matthews

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Ayesha knows that she must escape from her marriage for the sake of her daughter, Sabina. Slipping away in the dead of the night, they head for London to start a new life. Hayden, a reclusive pop star, hides himself away in the mansion which he shares with two more damaged souls - Crystal, a professional dancer with a kind heart and Joy, an ill-tempered retiree...
  • 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  realistic  sad  book  bullying
  • 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...
  • 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
  • No Child of Mine by Susan Lewis

    No Child of Mine by Susan Lewis

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    From internationally bestselling British author Susan Lewis comes an unflinching, thoroughly suspenseful novel—perfect for readers of Jodi Picoult—about the darkest secrets a family can hide.   Alex Lake’s life is centered on helping people. Her job as a social worker in a British seaside town is more than a career: It’s the very essence of who she is...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  realistic  abuse  adult  book
  • Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

    Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    "My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead." Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukaemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer...
  • The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

    The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    An alternative cover edition for the ISBN can be found here."Ned was beside me, his messages running easily through him, with space between each one, coming through him like water. He was the go-between, going between the animal kingdom and this one. I watched the waves as they rolled and crashed towards us, one after another, never stopping, always changing...
  • Where The Story Starts by Imogen Clark

    Where The Story Starts by Imogen Clark

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A strange encounter. An unlikely friendship. But will it survive when they both know the truth?As single mother Leah struggles to get her children ready one morning, the doorbell rings. Standing on the doorstep of their terraced house in Whitley Bay is a well-dressed stranger, Clio, who feels an emotional tie to the house that she can’t explain...
  • Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

    Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    An accomplished concert pianist, Richard received standing ovations from audiences all over the world in awe of his rare combination of emotional resonance and flawless technique. That was eight months ago.Richard now has ALS, and his entire right arm is paralyzed. His fingers are impotent, still, devoid of possibility...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  grief  realistic  sad  audiobook
  • 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...
  • Change of Heart by Judith Keim

    Change of Heart by Judith Keim

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Emerson “Em” Jordan always wanted a Valentine’s Day wedding. But after being dumped by her boyfriend, she spends the holiday at Seashell Cottage on the Gulf Coast of Florida with Devin Gerard, a family friend who has no interest in her or any other woman and is instead concentrating on his pediatric medical practice and continuing medical missions in Costa Rica...
  • 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...
  • The Shadow Between Us by Carol Mason

    The Shadow Between Us by Carol Mason

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    What is it about the coast that attracts people running from their past? Maybe there’s something in a sea breeze that blows away your problems. Maybe when you look out at the ocean you can see the future; forget the secrets and pain holding you back. Or at least you can forget them for a time. When Olivia moves to Port Townsend, her marriage is floundering, and her life is in pieces...
  • 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
  • The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

    The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    What would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie? Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  realistic  sad  adult  audiobook  book
  • How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

    How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Here is what happens when your mother dies.It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone...
  • 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...
  • My Mother's Eyes: A Short Story by Jeremy Ray

    My Mother's Eyes: A Short Story by Jeremy Ray

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    “You’re wrong, Jordie. You’ll see. Draw me just one more time.”No one knows if his mother will come out of her coma, so fourteen-year-old Jordie memorializes her in the only way he knows how: by drawing her. His older brother doesn’t approve of these sketches, but Jordie’s determined to capture the person she used to be...
  • 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
  • Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe

    Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    No matter how many times Kyle rewrites the scene, he can't get it right. He tries it in the style of Hitchcock, Tarantino, Eastwood, all of his favorite directors—but regardless of the style, he can't remember what happened that day in the shed. The day Jason died...
  • We Own the Sky by Luke Allnutt

    We Own the Sky by Luke Allnutt

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    “We looked down at the cliff jutting into the sea, a rubber boat full of kids going under the arch, and then you started running and jumping through the grass, dodging the rabbit holes, shouting at the top of your voice, so I started chasing you, trying to catch you, and we were laughing so hard as we ran and ran, kicking up rainbow showers in the leaves...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  grief  realistic  sad  adult  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...
  • 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
  • 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...
  • Crazy by Han Nolan

    Crazy by Han Nolan

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Fifteen-year-old Jason has fallen upon bad times—his mother has died and his father has succumbed to mental illness. As he tries to hold his crazy father and their crumbling home together, Jason relies on a host of imaginary friends for guidance as he stumbles along trying not to draw attention to his father’s deteriorating condition...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  drama  family  friendship  grief  realistic  sad  book
  • The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess

    The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Victoria Parker knew her dad's behavior toward her was a little unusual, but she convinced herself everything was fine--until she found herself locked out of the house at 3:00 a.m., surrounded by flashing police lights...
  • Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters by Anita Kushwaha

    Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters by Anita Kushwaha

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    For readers of Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s "Secret Daughter" and Nancy Richler’s "The Imposter Bride", a breathtaking novel from Anita Kushwaha about the ties that bind mothers and daughters together and the secrets that tear them apartVeena, Mala and Nandini are three very different women with something in common...
  • The Other Half of Me by Katherine Slee

    The Other Half of Me by Katherine Slee

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    She ran from her past, abandoned her dreams. But is it too late to start again?Since the death of her big sister, Beth has felt lost, a shadow of her former self...
  • Exposure by Ava Dellaira

    Exposure by Ava Dellaira

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A life-changing moment encompasses conflicting truths that echo across time, in this powerful, provocative debut.One night, two people, four sides of a story.In 2004, Juliette Marker, a white college freshman, and Noah King, a Black high school senior, are two lonely souls who enter each other’s orbit, forge a connection, and, after a chance meeting, go home together...
  • The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes

    The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes

    Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, a novel about a lost girl and her horse, the enduring strength of friendship, and how even the smallest choices can change everythingWhen Sarah's grandfather gives her a beautiful horse named Boo--hoping that one day she'll follow in his footsteps to join an elite French riding school, away from their gritty London...
  • Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson

    Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    From the show's creators comes the groundbreaking, bestselling novel inspired by the hit Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen.Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's griefover the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong...
  • Journey by Danielle Steel

    Journey by Danielle Steel

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Everyone knows Madeleine and Jack Hunter. Maddy is an award-winning TV anchorwoman. Jack is the head of her network. To the world, theirs is a storybook marriage. But behind the doors of their lush Georgetown home a different story emerges. Maddy has always tried to deny Jack's subtle put-downs, control, and jealousy...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  female-mc  friendship  abuse  adult  audiobook  book
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