With over 2 billion reads, Anna Todd’s Wattpad-to-paperback literary phenomenon After has left us all reeling. In a novel packed with romance, drama and a bad boy that we love to hate, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on more books like After.
After is a contemporary romance novel written by author Anna Todd. Books similar to After include Did I Mention I Love You?, The Deal, The DUFF, Ugly Love, Five Feet Apart, Punk 57, Lost & Found, The Hating Game, and The Unhoneymooners, Beautiful Disaster, It Ends With Us, and Begin Again.
So, if you’re also itching to find your new favorite contemporary romance novel, you don’t have to look any further. We’ve compiled a list of our top picks for books like Anna Todd’s most-read novel, After.
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1. Did I Mention I Love You?
- Author: Estelle Maskame
- Series: DIMILY #1
- Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary
After Eden’s parents got divorced, her relationship with her father was strained. Of course, the fact that he has moved on and has started a new family has only made things worse.
Now sixteen, Eden is invited to spend her summer vacation with her father and his family in California. But that means that Eden will have to face the music and meet her three new stepbrothers, including the oldest of the three, Tyler.
Unlike Eden, Tyler is aggressive and troubled, and the two couldn’t be more opposite. But after meeting Tyler’s friends, Eden realizes that there is more to Tyler than initially meets the eye.
As the summer rolls on, Eden starts to dig deeper into the truth about Tyler and who he really is. While uncovering the truth, Eden also starts to unearth her own feelings for her stepbrother. No matter how forbidden, Eden can’t help the way she feels – but can she hold it together for the summer?
2. The Deal
- Author: Elle Kennedy
- Series: Off-Campus #1
- Genre: Romance, New Adult, Contemporary
‘The Deal’ follows Hannah Wells, a 20-year-old student at Briar University. Because of her past, Hannah has only ever been attracted to one man in her life: her ex-boyfriend. But now Justin, the new university transfer student and handsome football player has grabbed her attention.
Desperate to get Justin to notice her, Hannah needs to make a plan that will win him over. But she never thought that her plan would look a lot like befriending the immature and egotistical captain of the hockey team, Garrett Graham.
Garrett has dreams of becoming a professional hockey player, but his ambitions are constantly being threatened by his abysmal grades. After coming to a mutual agreement, the two young students set their plan in motion: Hannah will tutor Garrett if he helps her to get Justin to notice her.
Of course, some plans are never that simple. After an unexpected kiss and a night of passion, Garrett realizes that his feelings for Hannah aren’t as fabricated as he thought. But with Hannah’s troubled past and her eyes set only on Justin, can Garrett convince her that he’s exactly what she has been looking for?
3. The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
- Author: Kody Keplinger
- Series: Hamilton High #1
- Genre: Coming Of Age, Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Seventeen-year-old Bianca has always felt a little different from her friends. And, after an encounter with womanizer Wesley Rush – the high school bad boy – she finally understands why.
Branded by Wesley as the DUFF or Designated Ugly Fat Friend, Bianca feels like her friends only keep her around to make them feel better about themselves. Hurt and upset, Bianca vows to keep away from boys like Wesley.
But, while dealing with complicated family issues, Bianca experiences a moment of weakness and does something she never thought she would do and kisses Wesley in a spontaneous act of rebellion.
Suddenly, she realizes that Wesley could be exactly what she needs – a distraction. From everything.
Although it started out as a reckless decision, Bianca’s relationship with Wesley takes her by surprise. With his own troubled past, Bianca can’t help but feel that Wesley may be everything she never knew she wanted.
In a heart-melting story of enemies to lovers, ‘The DUFF’ is a fun read that will have you hooked from the first page.
4. Ugly Love
- Author: Colleen Hoover
- Genre: Romance, Drama, Young Adult
Tate Collins doesn’t believe in love at first sight – and not even the handsome and successful airline pilot Miles Archer can change that. Not only is Tate adamant that she doesn’t have any romantic feelings for Miles, but she also wouldn’t even go as far as calling him her friend.
And Miles feels the same. The only thing that the pair can agree on is their unmistakable physical attraction to one another. But Miles isn’t interested in falling in love, and Tate is too busy to entangle herself in a relationship.
After coming to an agreement to keep their relationship purely physical, Miles tries to keep Tate at arms’ length through his two unbreakable rules – she can’t ask him about his past, and she can’t have any expectations for a future with him.
But love works in mysterious ways, and both Miles and Tate realize that there is more to their relationship than attraction. With rules being broken and developing feelings, how long can they keep up their arrangement before it gets too messy?
5. Five Feet Apart
- Author: Rachel Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry (contributor), and Tobias Iaconis (contributor)
- Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary
Five Feet Apart is a heart-wrenching novel that surrounds the lives of two teenagers battling cystic fibrosis and their struggle in accepting the unpredictability of their futures.
Stella is a well-organized and ambitious person who likes to keep her life in order and effectively manages her medication and treatments to gain a sense of control over not only her life but her disease as well.
Rule-breaker Will, on the other hand, couldn’t be more different. Burnt out and tired of the constant hospitalizations, treatment trials, and schedules, he has accepted his fate.
After meeting during their stay in the cystic fibrosis ward, Will and Stella can’t stand each other. Will’s unpredictability and chaotic life send Stella into a frenzy, but she can’t seem to stay away from him.
There’s only one problem. Because of their condition, the two teens can’t get within six feet of one another. But when romance blossoms, Will and Stella will need to fight their feelings and desire to do the one thing that they can’t: touch.
6. Punk 57
- Author: Penelope Douglas
- Genre: Romance, Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Punk 57 tells the story of Ryen and Misha, two childhood friends who were erroneously paired as pen pals. Since then, they’ve been inseparable, exchanging letters and telling each other everything, despite never having met.
They had also made a pact: no exchanging pictures or numbers. Over their seven years of exchanges, the teens kept their promise to one another. That is until Misha stumbles upon Ryen’s online profile. And now that he has seen her, there’s no way he can go another day without meeting her.
After a tragic accident, Misha stops responding to Ryen’s letters. But, bombarded with her own problems at school, her mind is on other things.
When a new student named Masen shows up at Ryen’s school, there’s no way for her to maintain her pristine public image anymore. And Masen seems hell-bound on teasing and embarrassing her in front of her peers.
Without the help of her long-time pen-pal, Ryen begins to feel hopeless and alone. Where did Misha go? Perhaps Ryen was never destined to meet her mysterious pen friend.
7. Lost & Found
- Author: Nicole Williams
- Series: Lost & Found #1
- Genre: Romance, Western, Contemporary
Rowen stands out like a sore thumb. Different in almost every way from her peers, she has always found solace in her art. But her mother has her own ideas for her daughter’s life, and Rowen will need to earn her place in art school.
So, after being cast off by her uncaring mother to a ranch in the middle of nowhere with the instruction to prove herself responsible, diligent, and worthy of trust, it’s time for Rowen to prove just how much she wants a spot in her dream school.
Instead of pointing fingers at her and labeling her a freak, for maybe the first time in her life, people are taking the time to get to know her and can see past her alternative appearance.
Rowen is completely out of her element, having grown up with a single parent who never showed her affection and now being a part of a family where simple acts of love are commonplace.
Jesse – a sweet-as-punch young cowboy that unexpectedly moseys into Rowen’s life – is the ranch owner’s son, and he’s not at all like the men Rowen usually pursues. He is upbeat, friendly, and compassionate; he praises her without expecting anything in return, and he appears to see the person she is frantically trying to suppress.
Jesse gently pursues her with nothing more than warmth and empathy, no matter how much she pushes him away. And soon, his charming smile starts to win Rowen over.
With Jesse’s help, Rowen can finally start to lower her guard and discover who she really is.
8. The Hating Game
- Author: Sally Thorne
- Genre: Comedy, Romance, Young Adult
Joshua Templeman, Lucy Hutton’s coworker, is a complete jerk. He’s a haughty, arrogant, and unpleasant bully. Even though she had to admit, he is really quite handsome.
Lucy and Joshua are at odds from the minute they meet, as a result of their companies’ unpleasant corporate merger. Joshua works as an assistant to the CEO of what was once Bexley Publishing, while Lucy works as an assistant to the CEO of Gamin Publishing, which is now defunct.
When the two corporations reluctantly merge, the executive suite follows suit. And when a new executive job at Bexley-Gamin Publishing becomes available, both Lucy’s and Joshua’s supervisors believe that their assistants would be excellent candidates.
Just as the two young and ambitious coworkers reach their boiling point with one another, Lucy shuts off her computer, ready to head home after another tedious workweek, which now also includes her strict interview preparation. But not before her competition joins her in the elevator.
Lucy is convinced that her rival is trying to murder her when Joshua presses the emergency brake, and the elevator comes to a halt. Instead, Joshua gives her a kiss that awakens emotions she didn’t know she had…
Armed with mixed emotions, Lucy will need to decide which is more important to her: her new title as Executive or her passion for Joshua.
9. The Unhoneymooners
- Author: Christina Lauren
- Genre: Romance, New Adult, Adult Fiction
The Unhoneymooners centers around Olive Torres, a young woman who has always seemed unlucky in love – as well as in every other aspect of her life. Ever since she was a little girl, Olive has never been able to catch a break. Or, at least, until her sister’s wedding.
In one of the luckiest turn of events – for Olive, at least – her twin sister’s wedding turns into a disaster when both her and her new groom contract food poisoning from none other than their own wedding buffet. Too sick to enjoy their honeymoon, Olive gets the chance of a lifetime: an all-expenses (and non-refundable) trip to Hawaii.
But there’s just one catch. Ethan, Olive’s least-favorite person and the brother of the groom, is going with her. And they’ll have to share the honeymoon suite.
To make things even more complicated, both Ethan’s ex-girlfriend and Olive’s new boss show up to crash their (almost) perfect getaway. To save face, the two arch-enemies must pretend to be married. And worst of all, they’ll need to be believable.
Told through the cynical narrative of Olive, this book promises you a fun read with a perfectly nuanced enemies-to-lovers storyline.
10. Bully
- Author: Penelope Douglas
- Series: Fall Away #1
- Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Drama
Tate and Jared grew up next door to one another, and, throughout their youth, they were inseparable. But as they grew older, the kind, loving boy Tate once considered her closest friend changed unexpectedly and was replaced by a man who made it his daily mission to terrorize her.
Saddened and confused by Jared’s apparent need to make her feel insignificant, unloved, and isolated, and despite numerous rumors, pranks, and harsh jokes, Tate never stopped mourning the loss of what she had considered her closest friend.
Despite all the tears and agony Jared had brought her, she never stopped looking for the young boy she once loved, clinging to a memory of him that no longer existed.
Now, after a year of attending a school abroad, Tate returns to her hometown for her senior year of high school with a fresh attitude, promising herself that she would not be affected by Jared’s behavior again.
Despite her resolution, her bully is as determined as ever to toy with her and to make her feel every ounce of his disdain for her. That is until Tate finally stands up and fights back. Tate’s patience has run thin, and she has developed a short temper when it comes to anyone who tears her down or abuses her, and she has simply had enough of Jared.
So, she turns the tables on him and tries to make him feel as worthless as he has made her feel for so long.
When Tate finally gets through to Jared, his walls begin to crumble, leaving behind an extremely angry little kid who is so distracted by his own misery that he is willing to hurt the one person who embodies his Achilles heel.
All of the hurt that Jared has felt has allowed him to brainwash himself into believing that her suffering would ease the pain that is infecting him from the inside out.
And what Tate learns about the little boy that she used to know sheds new light on the last few miserable years of her life.
11. Beautiful Disaster
- Author: Jamie McGuire
- Series: Beautiful #1
- Genre: Romance, New Adult, Contemporary
Abby Abernathy is the type of girl you would bring home to your parents. The epitome of a good girl, she guards everything she says and does. And for a good reason.
Determined to put her past behind her, Abby never would have guessed that the college womanizer and all-around bad boy – Travis Maddox – would have ever looked her way. Or that he would have the power to change her sweet and angelic nature forever.
After Travis and Abby make a bet, they’ll each have to fight to keep their perfectly curated social status: Travis as the mysterious and desirable Cassanova of Eastern University, and Abby as the wholesome and fresh-faced girl next door.
There’s only one problem. They may not be as different as they thought they were…
12. It Ends With Us
- Author: Colleen Hoover
- Genre: Romance, New Adult, Contemporary
Life wasn’t always easy for Lily, but her past – and the demons she left behind along with it – hasn’t discouraged her from pursuing the life she craves. Lily has come a long way from the small town where she grew up, and she has made a new life for herself after graduating from college, relocating to Boston, and launching her own business.
But everything in Lily’s life appears almost too perfect when she develops a connection with a handsome neurosurgeon named Ryle.
Ryle is outspoken, opinionated, and perhaps even a tad arrogant, and Ryle’s entire aversion to relationships is disconcerting. Despite his flaws, he is also compassionate, intelligent, and has a particular fondness for Lily.
As she struggles with uncertainties about her new relationship with Ryle, she is reminded of Atlas, her first love and a bridge to the history she has left behind. But although Lily’s thoughts surround her fondness for Atlas, she can’t help but feel it best to leave his memory in her past.
When Atlas suddenly reemerges in Lily’s life, her worst fears begin to come true, and everything that she has created with Ryle is jeopardized. But Lily needs to move on. Even if it may be more difficult than she originally anticipated.
13. Begin Again
- Author: Mona Kasten
- Series: Again #1
- Genre: Romance, New Adult, Contemporary
Allie and Kaden are searching for a fresh start or at the very least a way out of their previous, miserable lives. Allie is a happy, free-spirited young woman who has moved to Woodshill to start a new life away from her family.
Kaden is a ruggedly handsome man with multiple tattoos, each of which is associated with a specific memory from the past. But for two broken people, the presence of significant memories in each of their lives that once wounded them beyond redemption is what brings them together.
In a turn of events, Allie and Kaden wind up sharing an apartment together, but not before Kaden establishes some ground rules.
Firstly, he doesn’t need to know about any of Allie’s ‘girl problems’ – that’s what boyfriends and friends are for. Secondly, Allie needs to respect his privacy and keep quiet and to herself when he has someone over. Lastly – and most importantly – no matter what, the two of them will never sleep together.
After the two of them agree to the rules, everything seems perfect. Well, at least at first. But when Allie befriends Kaden’s friends, and they begin to spend more time together, every rule that Kaden has laid down starts to slip away.
As the two roommates begin to spend more time together, their attraction towards one another grows. And so does their passion.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a steamy romance, a book with an enemies-to-lovers trope, or even just a brilliant contemporary love story, our favorite books like After have got you covered.
So, grab one of our recommendations and get comfortable because we guarantee each one of these books will have you hooked from start to finish.
References:
Goodreads: Books Similar to After
Popsugar: Books Like After We Collided
Yahoo: 15 Books You’ll Love Series
What Should I Read Next: After
Tastedive: Books Like After We Collided