Looking for an eclectic collection of binge-worthy authors like Colleen Hoover? As an award-winning author and veteran blogger, I’ve spent over a decade reading, analyzing, and recommending the best authors for their breadth of genre that Colleen Hoover fans enjoy—from thriller to romance to young adult.
You’ll find detailed reviews of all my favorites in the roundup below. I’ve personally curated this collection from my own bookshelves. While many lists only suggest bestselling romance writers, this collection includes many authors that you might not have discovered yet.
Khristina Chess
For adventurous CoHo readers willing to explore YA romances like Hoover’s novella, Finding Cinderella, Khristina Chess is a prolific overlooked author with a broad range of novels across multiple genres, including contemporary, thriller, and historical. Like Colleen Hoover’s YA books rated for 14+ readers (Heart Bones and Without Merit), lighter romance and cross-genre plotting are key elements in Chess’ novels.
With more than twelve gripping novels, Chess dives into tough topics—dating violence, self-harm, mental illness—yet always balances them with hope, wit, and often a touch of romance. Some of her books are raw, emotional journeys like Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us; others are pulse-pounding thrillers like Verity that will leave you breathless. Here are my top three recommendations:
Junior Missing — A seductive and chilling dark romance about a runaway teen, drawn into an intoxicating relationship with an older man who takes her in—and won’t let her go!
Drive to June — A dreamy love story in which girl drowning in grief and addiction is thrown a lifeline by an unexpected and romantic stranger—if she’s brave enough to take it.
Hollow Beauty — Prom should be magic, but when her date tells her to lose weight, Olivia’s quest for perfection pulls her into a toxic spiral of extreme dieting and exercising - until one boy helps her see herself clearly again.
Khristina Chess’ books hook me from page one, grab my heartstrings, keep the pages turning, and leave me thinking long after the last chapter. Like Colleen Hoover, every story is so unique, so immersive.
But don’t just take my word for it—more than 500 Goodreads and Amazon reviewers rave about her novels.
Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah is a bestselling and prolific author with epic novels that often focus on themes of love and family, as well as offering resilient female characters facing significant challenges—usually in a historic context. Here are my favorite Kristin Hannah books—so far!
The Nightingale - Set in occupied France during WWII, two sisters contribute to the war effort in different ways, each heroic in its own right.
The Women - A young woman enlists as a nurse in Vietnam, where life teaches her the harshest lessons, both before and after the war.
The Great Alone - An epic story about a young girl growing up in a remote homestead in Alaska in the 1970s.
I learn so much from reading Kristin Hannah’s books! For example, The Four Winds give a deeply emotional viewpoint into the lives of Americans living after the depression, when horrific natural disasters destroyed lives in the plains. Not since The Grapes of Wrath has that era come so alive for me. Or in The Women, there is a scene where the protagonist shows up for duty in a ridiculous “proper lady” dress with high heels—in a Vietnam war zone.
I’m not finished with her large catalog of titles yet, but she’s definitely one of my new favorites!
Mindy McGinnis
Like Colleen Hoover, Mindy McGinnis writes page-turning novels with cross-genre appeal—but more in the YA space. Her novels are gripping, complex, and driven by strong female protagonists. Think of them as “tough topics with a twist.”
My personal recommendation is that you start with these three:
The Female of the Species - An unflinching, painful, searing, riveting, brutal YA book about rape and sexual assault that will shock you to the core.
Heroine - A powerful story of addiction and recovery after a teen girl wakes up to find all of her friends dead.
Be Not Far From Me - After becoming lost and injured, a teenage girl must hike out of the wilderness barefoot with only her wits to keep her alive.
Although Mindy McGinnis’ early novels are my favorites, I love most of the titles in her rich and diverse library, including her dystopian series Not a Drop to Drink. Readers who enjoy the diversity of Colleen’s stories will enjoy this YA author.
T. Greenwood
With more than 15 novels to her name, T. Greenwood offers a rich list of contemporary fiction with complex relationships, emotional storytelling, and themes that are relatable to Colleen Hoover books. Here are my top recommendations:
Rust & Stardust - Based on a true story, an 11-year-old girl is kidnapped by a pedophile and held for two years before escaping.
Keeping Lucy - A woman steals her 2-year-old daughter from a state-run institution and flees across state lines in a fight to be able to keep her.
T. Greenwood’s storytelling is amazing. She writes novels that don’t flinch away from the ugly things, but at the same time, they’re not vulgar. With a light hand, for example, she conveyed the utter horror that Sally endured after being kidnapped by a pedophile, and that story has lingered with me long after I finished it.
Tracy Garvis Graves
I discovered Tracy Garvis Graves by accident, and the romantic plot in The Girl He Used to Know totally reminded me of Colleen Hoover’s romance. Needless to say, I’d finished the book before vacation was over!
My top favorites:
The Girl He Used to Know - A love story about two people who fell in love in college, but a tragedy caused them to separate. Ten years later, they reconnect, and they discover that the love is still there.
On the Island - A teacher and student are stranded together on an island and must survive.
The Girl He Used to Know was my introduction to Tracy Garvis Graves. I picked it up randomly on vacation because I was out of reading material, and the cover caught my eye. I started reading, and BAM! I was hooked. Really, really hooked. Like, I could not stop reading this book. This is the kind of novel that makes me want to ignore my friends and stay up all night until it's done.
The timeline alternates between past and present, and the point of view alternates between Annika Rose and Jonathan Hoffman as they tell the story of their romance.
And what a story they have to tell!
After finishing The Girl He Used to Know, I bought everything by Tracey Garvis Graves to see what other delights she has to offer, and although I also loved On the Island, I still say that The Girl He Used to Know is my favorite.
Ali Hazelwood
Surely, if you’re a fan of authors like Colleen Hoover, you’ve discovered Ali Hazelwood, right? Amazing! My favorite is The Love Hypothesis. Ten stars! I laughed out loud, so many times, reading this STEM romance book. The voice of the main character, Olive Smith, was so much fun. The scenarios that she finds herself in during her fake-dating relationship are hilarious. I loved Adam, too, and how he was bemused by the situation and played along with all the shenanigans.
In the end, there is real depth here. Olive faces serious professional issues in the academic workplace, including sexual harassment. Adam is articulate and direct about what it means to be a good professional mentor and why he strives to do so.
Ali Hazelwood writes both adult romance and young adult with a focus on themes faced by women in technology fields.
My favorite novels by this author are:
The Love Hypothesis - A “fake dating” situation between a grad student and faculty member turns into true love.
Love, Theoretically - A theoretical physicist moonlights as a “fake girlfriend” for a side hustle that lands her in trouble with a professional rival.
Kathleen Glasgow
Fans of Colleen Hoover books like Ugly Love enjoy the strong emotions. Well, Kathleen Glasgow writes heart and soul like nobody I know. She makes me cry every time! Her characters really dig deep.
Here are my favorites by Glasgow:
How to Make Friends with the Dark - A girl's mother dies suddenly, leaving her adrift in the foster care system.
The Glass Girl - A lovely YA novel about a girl hitting rock bottom and finding the way through recovery.
Girl in Pieces - A complex and bestselling novel about a girl working through recovery and the setbacks she experiences along the way.
With the exception of The Agathas (which is hilarious), every one of Kathleen Glasgow’s novels has made me cry. She knows how to get right down to the bone with emotions. That’s why I love her, and why I think fans of Colleen Hoover will love her too.
Jenny Han
Love triangles, fake dating, and other super-sweet romance tropes—Jenny Han writes masterfully in these arenas. My personal favorite from her extensive catalog is To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was my introduction to Jenny Han’s lovely work. Lara Jean is a super sweet adorable character, and even though the story seems like a common love triangle, there are enough twists to keep the pages turning. Plus, Lara Jean herself is such a star. She’s naive and on her own for the first time, and she’s making all kinds of mistakes. She’s basically a train wreck. I love her immensely. Two plot points surprised me, and I thought I had those wrapped up early on.
I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, but I finished it in two sittings, and then I turned to the rest of the romantic novels in her collection.
Other Authors Like Colleen Hover That You’ll Want to Binge
There are many other authors to recommend, but I’ll stop with the top 8. Here are a couple of other awesome authors that didn’t make the list:
E. Lockhart - Her novels combine themes of family dynamics and mental health into compelling plots with lots of twists.
Jennifer Niven - She writes yummy romance like Colleen Hoover. I especially loved Breathless.
Goodreads offers a great book list: Read-Alikes: Colleen Hoover. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads.
About the Author: Khristina Chess
Khristina Chess is an award-winning author of more than a dozen young adult novels, including The Cutting Edge of Friendship, The Delinquent Hero, and Junior Missing. Her novel about eating disorders, Hollow Beauty, was named a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She tackles tough teen topics and writes binge-worthy books across multiple genres, including contemporary, thriller, mystery, dystopian, and adventure.
