The Best Books for Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid

If you love the era-spanning scope and emotional intensity of Reid’s novels, Kristin Hannah’s The Women is an absolute must-read. This 2024 blockbuster follows Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a privileged Southern California nursing student who joins the Army Nurse Corps and ships out to Vietnam in 1965. What follows is a searing, heartbreaking journey through war and its aftermath.

Like Reid’s best work, Hannah doesn’t shy away from the messy, complicated parts of being human. Frankie’s story spans decades, from the chaos of a field hospital in Vietnam to the painful homecoming to an America that wants to forget the war ever happened. The novel explores themes of sacrifice, identity, and the cost of doing the right thing—all wrapped in Hannah’s signature gorgeous prose and deeply emotional storytelling. The friendship between the nurses feels as authentic and powerful as the bond between the Riva siblings in Malibu Rising, and Hannah’s attention to historical detail rivals Reid’s immersive settings.

This is historical fiction at its finest—powerful, moving, and impossible to put down. Fair warning: keep tissues nearby. Hannah is the bestselling author of more than 20 novels, including The Nightingale (which spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list), The Four Winds, and The Great Alone. The Women was the #1 bestselling book of 2024 and won the Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction. If you appreciate how Reid illuminates untold stories (like female tennis players in Carrie Soto Is Back), you’ll love how Hannah shines a light on the forgotten women who served in Vietnam.

Emily Henry might write contemporary romance, but don’t let that fool you—her emotional depth and character development rival anything Reid has written. Happy Place tells the story of Harriet and Wyn, the “perfect couple” who broke up six months ago but haven’t told their friend group yet. When they arrive for their annual Maine vacation, they have to pretend they’re still together for one last week.

What makes this such a perfect pick for Reid fans is Henry’s masterful use of dual timelines. The book alternates between the present-day vacation and flashbacks showing how Harriet and Wyn fell in love, giving readers that same satisfying structure Reid uses so well. More importantly, Henry writes about friendship with the same care and complexity Reid brings to family dynamics. This isn’t just a romance—it’s about chosen family, growing up, and the bittersweet reality that sometimes loving people isn’t enough.

Henry’s wit and warmth shine through every page, and like Reid, she creates characters you’ll think about long after you’ve finished the book. The group dynamic at the Maine cottage has that same lived-in authenticity as the tight-knit relationships in Reid’s novels. Happy Place won the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance, making it the third consecutive year one of Henry’s novels won that category.

Patti Callahan Henry specializes in exactly the kind of dual-timeline storytelling that Taylor Jenkins Reid fans adore. The Secret Book of Flora Lea alternates between 1939 and 1960, following two sisters evacuated from London during World War II and the mystery that unfolds twenty years later when one of them encounters a published children’s book that seems impossibly connected to their past.

Like Reid’s Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel explores how stories get told and retold, how the past shapes the present, and how the truth is often more complicated than it appears. Hazel’s journey to discover what happened to her missing sister Flora has the same propulsive mystery element that makes Reid’s books unputdownable. And Callahan Henry’s attention to period detail—from wartime England to 1960s London—creates settings as vivid and transporting as Reid’s 1980s space program in Atmosphere or 1950s Hollywood in Evelyn Hugo.

What really sets this book apart is its exploration of guilt, grief, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. The fairy tale world of “Whisperwood” that Hazel creates for Flora adds a layer of magical realism that feels fresh while still maintaining the emotional authenticity Reid’s fans expect. Callahan Henry has won multiple awards including the Christy Award and the Harper Lee Award, and this book showcases exactly why she’s considered a master of historical fiction. Her other novels, like Once Upon a Wardrobe and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, are equally wonderful for fans of literary historical fiction.

Beatriz Williams writes sweeping, sophisticated historical fiction with the same glamorous settings and complex female characters that make Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novels so addictive. Husbands & Lovers weaves together two timelines: contemporary New England and 1950s Cairo, connected by a family mystery that spans generations.

The novel follows Mallory, whose comfortable life is upended when her son has a medical emergency that leads her to an old family estate on an island off the Connecticut coast. There, she discovers secrets about her husband’s family—particularly his grandmother Hannah, whose passionate affair with a hotel manager in revolutionary Cairo had consequences that echo into the present day.

If you loved the Old Hollywood glamor of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Williams delivers that same intoxicating mix of privilege, passion, and scandal, just set against the backdrop of espionage-filled Cairo instead of Malibu mansions. Williams excels at writing complicated women making difficult choices in worlds that limit their options—very much in Reid’s wheelhouse. The 1950s timeline drips with atmosphere and danger, while the contemporary story explores themes of marriage, motherhood, and the family secrets that shape us.

Williams has written nineteen novels, many of them bestsellers, and she’s known for her lush prose and intricate plotting. Like Reid, she makes you care deeply about her characters while delivering plot twists that keep you up reading way past your bedtime. Her other novels, including The Summer Wives and Along the Infinite Sea, offer similar pleasures and are worth adding to your TBR pile.

Bonnie Garmus’s blockbuster debut has a lot in common with Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novels, starting with a brilliant, determined female protagonist who refuses to let the world tell her who she can be. Set in the 1960s, Lessons in Chemistry follows Elizabeth Zott, a chemist whose career is derailed by sexism but who finds an unexpected path as the host of a revolutionary cooking show.

Like Reid’s heroines—think Carrie Soto’s fierce determination or Evelyn Hugo’s refusal to be dismissed—Elizabeth is complicated, flawed, and absolutely unforgettable. The novel explores ambition, motherhood, and the price women pay for being “difficult” (read: having standards and self-respect). Garmus writes with the same sharp wit and emotional intelligence that Reid brings to her work, and the 1960s setting is rendered with loving detail.

What makes this such a great pick for Reid fans is how Garmus balances humor with heartbreak, creating a story that’s both entertaining and meaningful. Elizabeth’s unconventional family—including her brilliant daughter and the other outcasts she collects—feels as authentic and moving as the found families in Reid’s novels. The book spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list, was a Goodreads Choice Award winner, and was shortlisted for numerous other awards. It’s smart, funny, feminist, and deeply satisfying—everything a Taylor Jenkins Reid fan could want.

Kristin Harmel’s The Book of Lost Names is a stunning World War II novel that combines historical detail with an irresistible mystery in the same way Taylor Jenkins Reid layers timelines and reveals secrets. The book alternates between 2005 and the 1940s, following Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida who discovers a photograph in the New York Times of a book she created more than sixty years ago—a book that holds the hidden identities of Jewish children she helped save during the war.

Like Reid’s novels, Harmel uses the dual-timeline structure masterfully to build suspense and emotional investment. In the 1940s, Eva becomes a forger in the French Resistance, creating false documents to smuggle Jewish children to safety. To preserve their true identities, she and a fellow forger record them in code in a prayer book—the Book of Lost Names. The novel explores themes of sacrifice, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive, much like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo examines how we construct and protect our most important truths.

What makes this particularly appealing for Reid fans is Harmel’s attention to period detail and her ability to create deeply human characters facing impossible choices. The book was inspired by true stories of document forgers during WWII, giving it the same grounding in real history that makes Reid’s novels so compelling. The Book of Lost Names became a New York Times bestseller and was named a best book of the year by multiple publications. Harmel has written over a dozen novels, including The Paris Daughter and The Forest of Vanishing Stars, and like Hannah, she specializes in bringing forgotten women’s stories to light.

Delia Owens’s Where the Crawdads Sing became a cultural phenomenon for many of the same reasons Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books captivate readers: it combines a compelling mystery with rich character development and a setting so vivid you can smell the marsh grass.

The novel follows Kya, the “Marsh Girl” who grows up alone in the coastal wetlands of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. When a popular local man is found dead, Kya becomes the prime suspect. The book weaves together Kya’s coming-of-age story with a present-day murder investigation, using the dual timeline structure Reid fans will recognize and love.

What makes this book special is Owens’s deep understanding of solitude, resilience, and the human need for connection. Kya is an unforgettable character—brilliant, damaged, and fighting to survive in a world that wants to either exploit her or ignore her entirely. The novel explores themes of prejudice, belonging, and the stories we tell about people we don’t understand, all wrapped in prose that’s both lyrical and accessible.

Where the Crawdads Sing spent over three years on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. It was chosen for Reese’s Book Club and was adapted into a major film. Like Reid’s novels, it’s the kind of book that sparks passionate conversations and stays with you long after the final page.

If you loved the Old Hollywood setting of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife offers a similar peek into the glamorous (and often painful) world of famous artists. This novel tells the story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson, and their years together in 1920s Paris among the expatriate literary crowd.

McLain writes with the same attention to historical detail that makes Reid’s settings so immersive. The Jazz Age Paris comes alive—the cafés, the parties, the creative ferment, and the complicated friendships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and other literary legends. But at the heart of the novel is Hadley herself, a woman who loved a brilliant, difficult man and paid a steep price for it.

Like Evelyn Hugo, Hadley has to navigate a world where her husband’s fame comes at her expense, where supporting his genius means sacrificing her own identity. McLain captures the bittersweet reality of loving someone whose ambition knows no bounds. The novel is both a love story and a meditation on marriage, creativity, and the often-invisible women behind famous men.

The Paris Wife was a New York Times bestseller and a Goodreads Choice Award finalist. McLain has written several other biographical novels, including Circling the Sun and When the Stars Go Dark, all of which feature the same lush prose and complex female characters that Reid fans adore.

Okay, hear me out on this one. While Remarkably Bright Creatures might seem like an odd choice for Taylor Jenkins Reid fans at first glance, this 2022 debut has many elements Reid would appreciate: heart, humor, and an absolutely unforgettable narrator.

The novel follows Tora, a seventy-year-old widow working the night shift at an aquarium, who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus. Yes, you read that right—the octopus narrates parts of the book. But before you dismiss this as quirky for quirky’s sake, know that beneath the unusual premise is a deeply moving story about grief, connection, and second chances.

What makes this work for Reid fans is the emotional authenticity underneath the whimsy. Like Reid, Van Pelt isn’t afraid to tackle big feelings—loss, regret, loneliness—while still maintaining a light touch. The mystery at the heart of the novel (what happened to Tora’s son who disappeared decades ago) has that same propulsive quality as Reid’s books, and Marcellus himself is as memorable a character as any human Reid has created.

The book was an indie bookstore phenomenon, chosen by over 800 independent bookstores as their top pick. It’s been optioned for film and has sold over a million copies. If you appreciate how Reid can make you laugh and cry in the same chapter, Van Pelt delivers that same emotional range.

Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow might be about video game designers rather than rock stars or tennis players, but it has the same creative energy and complicated partnerships that drive Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best work. The novel follows Sam and Sadie, childhood friends who reconnect in college and begin designing games together, building a creative partnership that’s as intense and fraught as anything in Daisy Jones & The Six.

Like Reid, Zevin writes about ambition, creativity, and the way collaborative work can be both transcendent and destructive. Sam and Sadie’s relationship—which exists somewhere between friendship, romance, and creative partnership—feels achingly real, full of the kind of miscommunication and missed connections that define the best relationships in Reid’s novels. The book spans decades, showing how success, failure, illness, and betrayal shape these characters.

What sets this apart is Zevin’s understanding of how art gets made—the grueling work, the compromises, the moments of pure creative flow. If you loved the way Reid captured the creative process in Daisy Jones or the dedication required in Carrie Soto Is Back, you’ll appreciate Zevin’s insider view of the gaming world. The novel is also deeply thoughtful about identity, disability, and what we owe the people who help us become who we are.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was a New York Times bestseller, longlisted for the Booker Prize, and named one of the best books of 2022 by seemingly every publication. It’s smart, emotionally devastating, and impossible to put down—everything Taylor Jenkins Reid fans look for in a great novel.