Books like 'Starfish'

Readers who enjoyed Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  romance  psychological  realistic  family  coming-of-age  poc-mc  asian-mc  friendship  friends-to-lovers 

  • 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...
  • 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...
  • Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

    Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

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

    Deleted: Jackson and Maggie by Tess Thompson

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Jackson Waller has loved Maggie Keene since they were six years old, but their dueling dreams ultimately tore them apart. First love—true love—wasn’t enough to overcome their individual desires to pursue dreams on opposite coasts. When Jackson learns of Maggie’s tragic death on her way to college on the east coast, his heartbreak, compounded by grief, renews his focus on his own future...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • Gulf Coast Cottage by Maggie Miller

    Gulf Coast Cottage by Maggie Miller

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Escape to the Gulf Coast of Florida with Georgia Carpenter as she gets a second chance at life, love, and happiness. In the middle of an awful divorce, fifty-three-year-old Georgia Carpenter finds herself out of luck, time, and money. Then her phone rings with the news that her great aunt has died and left her a cottage in the Gulf Coast town of Blackbird Beach...
  • Three Complete Novels: Heaven/Dawn/Ruby by V.C. Andrews

    Three Complete Novels: Heaven/Dawn/Ruby by V.C. Andrews

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    This volume features the first novels in three thrilling V.C. Andrews' series: "Heaven, Dawn, " and "Ruby"--an unprecedented hardcover collection--complete and unabridged--at an inviting price! Available...
  • Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

    Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    All Evie wants is to be normal. She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list…But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • Prove Me Right by Anna Brooks

    Prove Me Right by Anna Brooks

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    One weakness can change everything. Meara and Liam were friends before they could talk, in love since they could drive, and planning their future before they graduated high school. In order to start the life they’ve always dreamed of, Liam just has to finish his tour with the band. He doesn't want anyone else. Liam's only ever had eyes for Meara, and he can't wait to finally get home to her...
  • 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...
  • Hunger for Life by Andy Marr

    Hunger for Life by Andy Marr

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    On the day of his graduation, James says goodbye to the future and moves back to his parents’ house in Myreton, the sleepy village of his childhood. He’s not happy, but the thought of continuing his life anywhere else seems unthinkable while his sister, Emma, continues to suffer with the illness that’s plagued her since she was a child...
  • Ugly by Margaret McHeyzer

    Ugly by Margaret McHeyzer

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    *To watch the trailer, click on my author name above. If I were dead, I wouldn't be able to see.If I were dead, I wouldn't be able to feel.If I were dead, he'd never raise his hand to me again.If I were dead, his words wouldn't cut as deep as they do.If I were dead, I'd be beautiful and I wouldn't be so...ugly.I'm not dead...but I wish I was.*This is a dark YA/NA standalone, full-length novel...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern

    How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    She has just two weeks. Two weeks to teach him how to fall in love – with his own life. Adam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night, when Christine is crossing the Halfpenny Bridge in Dublin. Adam is there, poised, threatening to jump. Adam is desperate – but Christine makes a crazy deal with him...
  • 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...
  • A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy in the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but also longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews...
  • The Last Summer by Ruthie Luhnow

    The Last Summer by Ruthie Luhnow

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    "It's not even really a first kiss if you're practicing on a friend." Trapped in a conservative prairie town, Alfie Alder has spent his whole life enduring bullying from his classmates and indifference from his teachers. Only one person has ever seen past Alfie's sarcastic, standoffish exterior—his best friend and the love of his life, Wynn...
  • Roam by Anna Brooks

    Roam by Anna Brooks

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    She was my daughter’s best friend. She stood next to me and held my hand while my little girl’s pink casket was lowered into the ground. The last time I saw her she was chasing me down the street as I left the town that was slowly suffocating me to death. But now she’s a woman and she needs my help. So I’ll save her and ask for nothing in return...
  • Love & Ruin by J.A. Owenby

    Love & Ruin by J.A. Owenby

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The shadows have always been my safe place. I prefer to hide, stay under the radar.In a rare burst of bravery,I decide to go to college far away.But people are cruel everywhere, and even though I’m far from home, I still want to hide.Until Hendrix.He sees me. Defends me.At first he seems too good to be true, but he wins my trust, makes me feel safe in his presence...
  • I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña

    I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Kidd is running from his past and his future. No mom, no dad, and there’s nothing for him at the group home but therapy. He doesn’t belong at the beach where he works either, unless he finds a reason to stay.   Olivia is blond hair, blue eyes, rich dad. The prettiest girl in Cardiff...
  • 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  friendship  poc-mc  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...
  • Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

    Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A heart-wrenching novel about a sixteen-year-old girl trapped in an abusive relationship—and the path she takes to freedom and happiness, from award-winning author Heather Demetrios.“Like Speak, it is one of those rare books that can have a real, lasting impact on readers, and can start important conversations.” —Adi Alsaid, author of Let’s Get Lost and Never Always SometimesGrace wants out...
  • Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi

    Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    From New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters switching places and committing insurance fraud to save one of their lives.Jayne Baek is barely getting by. She shuffles through fashion school, saddled with a deadbeat boyfriend, clout-chasing friends, and a wretched eating disorder that she’s not fully ready to confront...
  • Collision Course by S.C. Stephens

    Collision Course by S.C. Stephens

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Lucas had it all—popularity, a devoted girlfriend, a brotherly best friend, and a loving mother who would do anything for him. His life was right on course to be successful and fulfilling…until the crash changed everything.Late at night, during a sudden downpour, three young lives are lost and Lucas, the lone survivor, is left to face the consequences...
  • Lucy in the Sky by Anonymous

    Lucy in the Sky by Anonymous

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A riveting first-person tale of addiction, in the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Jay’s Journal.The author of this diary began journaling on her sixteenth birthday. She lived in an upper middle class neighborhood in Santa Monica with her mom, dad, and Berkeley-bound older brother. She was a good girl, living a good life...but one party changed everything...
  • The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick, C. Kennedy

    The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick, C. Kennedy

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person helpful, generous, and chivalrous a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn't recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape.Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior...
  • Ten Birthdays by Kerry Wilkinson

    Ten Birthdays by Kerry Wilkinson

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    *Winner of the Romantic Novelists' Association Young Adult Novel of the Year 2018*"There are going to be so many things I wish I could’ve told you in person, Poppy. I won’t get the chance to do that, so perhaps this is my only way…"It’s Poppy Kinsey’s birthday...
  • A Sliver of Hope by Karla J. Nellenbach

    A Sliver of Hope by Karla J. Nellenbach

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    My twin sister was the only person in the world I thought I’d known inside and out. Apparently, I was wrong. Twin sisters share a unique bond, one that can't be broken by miles, time, or even death. Hannah and Hope Morton are no exception. When Hope takes her own life, Hannah loses a sister and a best friend, a catastrophe she isn't sure she'll survive herself...
  • The Art of Insanity by Christine Webb

    The Art of Insanity by Christine Webb

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    High schooler Natalie Cordova has just been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. Her mom insists she keep it secret.Putting up a front and hiding her mental illness from her classmates is going to be the hardest thing high schooler Natalie Cordova has ever done. It’s her senior year, and she’s just been selected to present her artwork at a prestigious show...
  • 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...
  • The Ordinary Us by DomLuka

    The Ordinary Us by DomLuka

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    This is the story of seventeen-year-old Quinn Moore. He has a loving family, good friends and a girlfriend he's deemed as perfect. Quinn's also gay, not that he's about to admit it. He likes things just the way they are, thank you. But then he meets Jude Landon, and everything in Quinn's comfortable world is turned upside down.Status: Complete Word count: approx...
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.