18 books like About a Boy

What to read after About a Boy — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Finding home Irene Hannon · 2012 · ★ 3.9 · 237p · ≈ 7h · Moderate One stubborn boy is getting the better of Scott Walsh. The very busy project manager keeps finding the kid on his dangerous construction site. One warning to the boy's parents should take care of it. But when Scott meets widowed mother Cindy Peterson, she's already carrying so much on her narrow shoulders. He wants to help Cindy and her boy, but didn't he vow never to get involved with a family… Shares: Single mothers, Romance & Relationships, Romance

The Last Samurai Helen Dewitt · 2000 · ★ 4.4 · 530p · ≈ 17h · Moderate "Ludo, age six, is a prodigy. His mother, Sibylla, raises him alone and tries hard to keep his voracious intellect satisfied, while she struggles to make ends meet. With her exasperated guidance, he teaches himself Greek, so that he can read The Odyssey, before moving on to study Hebrew, Arabic, Inuit, and Japanese. And both Sibylla and Ludo share a passion for Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which… Shares: Single mothers, London

Rainbow's End Irene Hannon · 2007 · ★ 4.8 · 251p · ≈ 8h · Moderate To lessen the pain of his wife's death, Keith Michaels headed cross-country. When he reached the Pacific Northwest, he still felt broken, empty and alone. When a sudden storm stranded him on Orcas Island, he sought refuge with the local widow. Shares: Single mothers, Romance & Relationships

Lucky charm Carly Phillips · 2008 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Long ago, as revenge on a Corwin who stole her son's fiancee, a witch proclaimed an eternal curse that every Corwin male who married for love would be destined to lose his woman and his fortune...Derek thought he could outsmart the long-standing Corwin curse by breaking up with Gabrielle, his first love—and marrying someone else. Now, divorced and broke, all he has left is his teenage daughter… Shares: Divorced people, Romance & Relationships, Romance

The exile James Patterson · 2017 · ★ 3.9 · 138p · ≈ 4h · Moderate The woman Finn O'Grady swore to protect is convinced an ancient curse has put her family in danger. O'Grady has seen too much evil to believe in the supernatural. And then the killing starts. Shares: Single mothers, London

A Painted House John Grisham · 2000 · ★ 4.1 · 462p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Using his own childhood for inspiration (and leaving the lawyers behind), bestselling author John Grisham sets A Painted House in 1950s rural Arkansas. During harvest time, together with hired Mexicans and hill people, seven-year-old Luke Chandler picks cotton on his family's rented 80 acres. But racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder cause Luke to grow up before he's ready. Shares: Boys, Ficción

Autumn Lover Elizabeth Lowell · 1996 · ★ 3.8 · 504p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Returning to her Wyoming ranch at the Civil War's end, Elyssa Sutton finds it picked bare by scavengers and coveted by determined men. Yet the proud young woman vows never again to abandon her Ruby Mountain home-though it means enlisting the aid of a dark and dangerous stranger who lives for revenge alone. Hunter Maxwell has suffered from the savagery of outlaws and the faithlessness of a woman.… Shares: Romance & Relationships, Romance

Safe harbour Danielle Steel · 2003 · ★ 4.1 · 342p · ≈ 11h · Moderate An unforgettable story of survival...and of the extraordinary acts of faith and courage that bring – and keep – families together...On a wind-swept summer day, as the fog rolls across the San Francisco coastline, a solitary figure walks down the beach, a dog at her side. At eleven, Pip Mackenzie's young life has already been touched by tragedy; nine months before, a terrible accident plunged her… Shares: Divorced people, Romance

The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton · 1900 · ★ 4.1 · 614p · ≈ 20h · Challenging Edith Wharton's satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary, and manipulative, her principal… Shares: Divorced people, Romance

A Widow for One Year John Irving · 1998 · ★ 3.8 · 576p · ≈ 19h · Moderate “One night when she was four and sleeping in the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking—it was coming from her parents’ bedroom.” This sentence opens John Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year, a story of a family marked by tragedy. Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character—a “difficult” woman. By no means is she conventionally “nice,” but… Shares: Single mothers, Romance

High Fidelity Nick Hornby · 1995 · ★ 3.9 · 314p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Nick Hornby's first novel, an international bestseller and instantly recognized by critics and readers alike as a classic, helps to explain men to women, and men to men. Rob is good on music: he owns a small record shop and has strong views on what's decent and what isn't. But he's much less good on relationships. In fact, he's not at all sure that he wants to commit himself to anyone. So it's… Shares: Ficción, Romance & Relationships, Romance

At First Sight Nicholas Sparks · 2001 · ★ 4.4 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate There are a few things Jeremy Marsh was sure he'd never do: he'd never leave New York City; never give his heart away again after barely surviving one failed marriage; and, most of all, never become a parent. Now, Jeremy is living in the tiny town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, married to Lexie Darnell, the love of his life, and anticipating the birth of their daughter. But just as his life… Shares: Ficción, Romance & Relationships, Romance

Zombie Moon Lori Devoti · 2010 · ★ 3.5 · 328p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Caleb Locke lived for one thing—killing zombies. And this man—this legend—was exactly what Samantha Wagner needed. In mist-shrouded alleys, hunted by zombies, haunted by fear, she vowed to find Caleb and convince him to help her. But she hadn't counted on falling in love…. Caleb kept his own secrets—like the one he couldn't hide when the moon was full. But his wolf was drawn to Samantha,… Shares: Romance & Relationships, Romance

The Mad Wife Meagan Church · 321p · ≈ 10h · Moderate THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom bestselling author Meagan Church comes a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build—and the lies we live.They called it hysteria. She called it survival.Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife.… Shares: Romance

The Frozen River: A GMA Book Club Pick Ariel Lawhon NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history."Fans of… Shares: Romance

The Lion Women of Tehran Marjan Kamali · 2025 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali, this perfect book club read is “evocative...and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism” (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran. In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move… Shares: Romance

Daughters of the Sun and Moon Lisa See · ★ 4.2 A New York Times bestseller! From beloved bestselling author Lisa See, the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive, in the turmoil of post–Civil War Los Angeles. In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and… Shares: Romance

The Sweet Blue Distance Sara Donati · 801p · ≈ 26h · Moderate A young midwife travels west to the New Mexico Territory to care for women in need and faces dangers more harrowing than the ones she’s fleeing in this epic tale of survival, redemption, and love from Sara Donati, the international bestselling author of the Wilderness series. 1857: In a bid to outrun her past, Carrie Ballentyne accepts a nursing position with a doctor in the New Mexico… Shares: Romance

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