This is the Colleen Hoover book r/RomanceBooks argues about more than any other, and the one readers say to go in prepared for. Lily Bloom falls hard for Ryle Kincaid, a brilliant, intense neurosurgeon, and what starts as a swoony romance turns into something much heavier as love collides with the cycle of abuse Lily watched her mother survive. Readers are clear that it's marketed as romance but reads as something harder, so check the content warnings first, the domestic abuse is graphic. The consensus is that it's genuinely moving and worth reading, but it is not the cozy CoHo people sometimes expect. The 2024 Blake Lively film sent a whole new wave of readers to it.
Curated from real reader threads on Reddit (r/Romantasy, r/RomanceBooks, r/Fantasy) and cross-referenced against Goodreads and BookTok. Updated regularly.
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by Colleen Hoover
Mentioned in 5 of 20 "books like It Ends With Us" threads we pulled from Reddit (33 comments). CoHo's psychological thriller. A writer hired to finish a bestselling author's series finds a horrifying manuscript hidden in her office.
by Colleen Hoover
Tate Collins can't resist her gorgeous, emotionally unavailable neighbor Miles, and they agree to a no-feelings, no-questions arrangement. Then his backstory (told in devastating second-person chapters) starts to surface. CoHo crossover that IEWU readers reach for next. The backstory chapters will ruin you.
by Emily Henry
Mentioned in 4 of 20 IEWU threads on Reddit. Two people get dumped for each other's exes and decide to fake-date for revenge. Lighter than IEWU but the same emotional intelligence.
by Emily Henry
Two best friends, ten summer trips, one fight that ended it all. 3 of 20 IEWU threads on Reddit mention it. The friends-to-lovers-to-estranged arc that hits the same heart spot.
by Madeline Miller
Patroclus, an unlikely prince, meets Achilles, brilliant, golden, and destined for legend, and the devotion that grows between them reshapes both their lives. The tragedy is built in from the first page; Miller makes you fall in love anyway. The tearjerker IEWU readers cross over to when they want devastating love in a different setting.
by Hanya Yanagihara
Four friends meet at a small Massachusetts college and follow each other to New York, where one of them, quiet, damaged Jude St. Francis, carries a childhood no one is allowed to ask about. Not romance, but the same "this book broke me" devastation IEWU readers seek.
It Starts With Us picks up where IEWU ends with Atlas's POV. Reader reception is mixed, many feel IEWU works better as a standalone. Read it if you need closure for Atlas + Lily; skip if you want IEWU to stand alone.
Domestic abuse (graphic), pregnancy, child witnessing abuse, references to suicide. Read carefully or check the StoryGraph CW database before starting.
Funny Story by Emily Henry comes up most in Reddit threads. Same emotional intelligence in a lighter contemporary setting.
It starts with what romantasy readers actually recommend to each other, the books that come up again and again in Reddit threads (r/Romantasy, r/fantasyromance), Goodreads 'readers also enjoyed,' and BookTok. For popular titles those lists are hand-curated with a reason for each pick; for everything else, 90books matches on tropes, pace, spice and vibe. Connect your Goodreads and books you've already read get filtered out. Affiliate buy links support the site but never affect which books are recommended.
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