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10 Heartrending Reads Perfect for Jodi Picoult Fans

September 19 2022
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Have you already read every one of Jodi Picoult’s timely and tear-jerking novels? Have a penchant for bittersweet and thought-provoking stories? Then check out this list of ten titles, hand-picked for true Jodi Picoult fans. These novels take on the big and often devastating topics that dominate the public consciousness but approach the from intimate, deeply felt angles. With fully realized characters, gripping plots, and intense moral and emotional dilemmas, each of these books is sure to pack a punch.

(Plus, check out our Jodi Picoult Sweepstakes to learn more about how you could win a set of her novels to display on your keeper shelf or share with friends!)

Never Change
by Elizabeth Berg

In this New York Times bestselling novel, Myra has always been shy and just a little bit lonely; but now, as an adult, she makes the most of her quiet life, despite being what she considers to be a middle-aged spinster. Her closest emotional attachments are to her patients who she meets through her job as a visiting nurse. But when her newest terminal brain tumor patient turns out to be Chip, a former high school classmate and the most popular boy in school, Myra forms a connection beyond anything she expected.

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Never Change
Elizabeth Berg

In this classic New York Times bestselling novel, “one of the most dramatic and beautiful books of her career” (Midwest Book Review), the author of The Confession Club has written a compassionate and unforgettable celebration of the redemptive power of second chances and love over death.

Myra Lipinsky is living a quiet life as a middle-aged, self-described spinster. She had been a lonely child, and now she is an equally lonely adult though she takes great pride in her career as a visiting nurse. Her patients are her only true emotional attachments, but when they are well, they move on.

When she gets a call about a new assignment, she is shocked to discover that the patient is Chip Reardon, a former high school classmate of Myra’s. He had been the most popular and adored boy in school, but now he is suffering from an incurable brain tumor and plans to die at home. With their roles starkly reversed, Myra and Chip discover that it is often through facing death that we can truly begin to live.

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Purple Hearts
by Tess Wakefield

Cassie, an Austin-based singer/songwriter, has just been diagnosed with diabetes and can’t cover the medical costs on her bartender’s job no insurance policy. One night, she asks an old friend who is enlisted in the Army if he will enter a marriage of convenience with her where she gets the health benefits and they split the increased family paycheck. While he declines, his intense fellow enlistee Luke with a dark past offers to take the deal instead. Now a Netflix Original Film, PURPLE HEARTS is also perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks.

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Purple Hearts
Tess Wakefield

NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM!

When a soldier with a troubled past and a struggling songwriter agree to a marriage of convenience for the military benefits, neither expects much after saying “I do.” Then tragedy strikes, and the line between what’s real and what’s pretend begins to blur in this smart and surprising romance perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks and Jojo Moyes.

Cassie Salazar and Luke Morrow couldn’t be more different. Sharp-witted Cassie works nights at a bar in Austin, Texas to make ends meet while pursuing her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Luke is an Army trainee, about to ship out for duty, who finds comfort in the unswerving discipline of service. But a chance encounter at Cassie’s bar changes the course of both their lives.

Cassie is drowning in medical bills after being diagnosed with diabetes. When she runs into her old friend Frankie, now enlisted in the Army, she proposes a deal: she’ll marry him in exchange for better medical insurance and they can split the increased paycheck that comes with having a “family.” When Frankie declines, his attractive but frustratingly intense friend Luke volunteers to marry Cassie instead. What she doesn’t know is that he has desperate reasons of his own to get married. In this unforgettable love story, Cassie and Luke must set aside their differences to make it look like a real marriage...unless, somewhere along the way, it becomes one...

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Safe with Me
by Amy Hatvany

After a terrible car accident, Hannah Scott made the gut-wrenching decision to donate her daughter’s organs. One year later, Hannah unexpectedly meets the Bell family, whose teenaged daughter Maddie was the recipient of one of those organs. Fearful of ruining the friendship Hannah is forming with Maddie and her mother Olivia, she doesn’t reveal the truth about who she is. But she does become involved in their own troubles as Olivia grapples with how to leave her abusive husband and Maddie attempts to re-enter the world after a debilitating illness.

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Safe with Me
Amy Hatvany

A "compelling and thought-provoking" (Kristin Hannah) novel about two mothers and one daughter who are linked by tragedy and bound by secrets, from the acclaimed author of Heart Like Mine.

The screech of tires brought Hannah Scott’s world as she knew it to a devastating end. A year after she signed the papers to donate her daughter’s organs, Hannah is still reeling with grief when she unexpectedly stumbles into the life of the Bell family, whose fifteen-year-old daughter, Maddie, survived only because Hannah’s daughter had died. Mesmerized by this fragile connection to her own daughter and afraid to reveal who she actually is, Hannah develops a surprising friendship with Maddie’s mother, Olivia.

The Bells, however, have problems of their own. Once on the verge of leaving her wealthy but abusive husband, Olivia now finds herself bound to him in the wake of the transplant that saved their daughter’s life. Meanwhile, Maddie, tired of the limits her poor health puts upon her and fearful of her father’s increasing rage, regularly escapes into the one place where she can be anyone she wants: the Internet. But when she is finally healthy enough to return to school, the real world proves to be just as complicated as the isolated bubble she had been so eager to escape.

A masterful narrative shaped by nuanced characters whose delicate bonds are on a collision course with the truth, Safe with Me is a riveting triumph.

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The Sweetest Days
by John Hough

In this heartbreaking and unflinchingly honest portrayal of a decades-long marriage, Pete and Jackie Hatch are facing new challenges in their sixties. Their only daughter is grown and has left home, and Jackie’s health is faltering. When they return to their hometown of Cape Code for Pete’s book signing, they run into an old classmate and the encounter brings back the life-changing incident that happened to them in their senior year of high school and nearly broke them up for good.

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The Sweetest Days
John Hough

A riveting and poignant portrait of marriage—lauded by New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand as “gorgeous and heartbreaking”—that explores the long union of a middle-aged couple grappling with secrets, illness, and loyalty.

Pete and Jackie Hatch have been together for decades; they were high school sweethearts, although they didn’t marry until years after an explosive incident at the end of senior year broke them apart. Now in their sixties, with their only daughter grown and facing scary news about Jackie’s health, they travel to their Cape Cod hometown for Pete’s first book signing. But a disastrous encounter with an old schoolmate brings their long marriage to the breaking point and forces them to revisit the long-ago event that changed the trajectory of their lives.

Exceptionally moving and heralded by New York Times bestselling author Mary Beth Keane as “brutally honest and true,” The Sweetest Days is an insightful portrait of a couple in it for the long haul, and of the deepest feelings, both tender and fierce, that are held in the wake of an enduring marriage.

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We Are Not Like Them
by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza

Jen and Riley have always been best friends. Now, Jen is expecting her first child and Riley is set to become one of the first Black news anchors in Philadelphia. But after Jen’s police officer husband is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager and Riley gets the opportunity to cover the story, their friendship will be tested like never before. In this explosive look at race in America, two friends’ experience the personal consequences of systemic violence.

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We Are Not Like Them
Christine Pride & Jo Piazza

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

Named a Best Book Pick of 2021 by Harper’s Bazaar and Real Simple

Named a Most Anticipated Book of Fall by People, Essence, New York Post, PopSugar, New York Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, Town & Country, Bustle, Fortune, and Book Riot

Told from alternating perspectives, this “propulsive, deeply felt tale of race and friendship” (People) follows two women, one Black and one white, whose friendship is indelibly altered by a tragic event.

Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young, and after years of trying, is finally pregnant. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia.

But the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen’s husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. Six months pregnant, Jen is in freefall as her future, her husband’s freedom, and her friendship with Riley are thrown into uncertainty. Covering this career-making story, Riley wrestles with the implications of this tragic incident for her Black community, her ambitions, and her relationship with her lifelong friend.

Like Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage and Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, We Are Not Like Them takes “us to uncomfortable places—in the best possible way—while capturing so much of what we are all thinking and feeling about race. A sharp, timely, and soul-satisfying novel” (Emily Giffin, New York Times bestselling author) that is both a powerful conversation starter and a celebration of the enduring power of friendship.

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This Was Not the Plan
by Cristina Alger

After the death of his wife, Charlie is uncertain how to connect with his eccentric five-year-old son Caleb. Instead, he throws himself into work at his prestigious law firm where he is on the brink of becoming a partner. But after a disastrous office party, Charlie finds himself unemployed and stuck at home with Caleb and his own estranged father. This was Not the Plan is a humorous and poignant story about fatherhood from the bestselling author of GIRLS LIKE US.

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This Was Not the Plan
Cristina Alger

From the New York Times bestselling author of Girls Like Us comes a “funny, bittersweet, and ultimately uplifting look” (Sarah Pekkanen) at fatherhood, love, and family life.

Charlie Goldwyn’s life hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. Widowerhood at thirty-three and twelve-hour workdays have left a gap in his relationship with his quirky five-year-old son, Caleb, whose obsession with natural disasters and penchant for girls’ clothing have made him something of a loner at his preschool. The only thing Charlie has going for him is his job at a prestigious law firm, where he is finally close to becoming a partner.

But when a slight lapse in judgment at an office party leaves him humiliatingly unemployed, stuck at home with Caleb for the summer, and forced to face his own estranged father, Charlie starts to realize that there’s more to fatherhood than financially providing for his son, and more to being a son than overtaking his father’s successes.

At turns heartbreaking and hilarious, This Was Not the Plan is a “sparkling and heartfelt” (Bookpage) story about loss and love, parenthood, and friendship, and what true work-life balance means.

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Multiple Listings
by Tracy McMillan

Nicki, who owns her own home appraisal business, is just starting to feel on solid ground with her work, with her teenaged son Cody, and with her much younger boyfriend Jake. Meanwhile Ronnie, Nicki’s estranged father and a long-time inmate at a nearby prison, has learned that there was a mistake in his sentencing, allowing him to get out early. Just things in Nicki’s life just seem to be calming down, Ronnie, comes knocking on her door asking for a place to stay in this hilarious and profound novel about complicated family bonds.

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Multiple Listings
Tracy McMillan

From Tracy McMillan, an author who counts both Oprah Winfrey and Tina Fey as fans, Multiple Listings is a comedic family drama focusing on a single mother whose ex-con father is released from prison after seventeen years and unexpectedly moves in with her, her son, and her much younger boyfriend.

Nicki Daniels owns a home appraisal business, but real estate is her true passion: she lives for open houses and really knows her way around a floor plan. And especially at this juncture of her life, real estate has come to signify the stability she is trying to build with her teenage son, Cody, and her much younger boyfriend, Jake. She’s finally ready to find the perfect house for the three of them and work on a new business venture with Jake that she thinks will jump-start their lives together.

Meanwhile, Ronnie, a longtime inmate at a nearby correctional facility, is getting some good news for once—there was a mistake in his sentencing, and he’s finally eligible to get out of prison. Ronnie decides his best option to avoid homelessness is to move in with his estranged daughter: Nicki. Even though they haven’t spoken in years, her door is always open to him, right?

Harkening to the work of bestselling author Maria Semple and imbued with wit and profound insight into relationships, Multiple Listings speaks poignantly—and often hilariously—about the ties that bind families of all types together.

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Things You Won't Say
by Sarah Pekkanen

A timely and openhearted novel, THINGS YOU WON’T SAY takes a look inside a family at the heart of a police shooting. Jamie Anderson is devastated when she receives the call that a shooting at police headquarters has left her husband’s partner grievously injured. In the weeks that follow Jamie’s husband Mike becomes increasingly distant until one day there’s another shooting, but Mike pulled the trigger. As the public demands a re-evaluation of police brutality and Jamie’s family threatens to fall apart, she must face her losses and the ripple effect they have caused.

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Things You Won't Say
Sarah Pekkanen

In this timely and provocative novel, internationally bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen takes us inside a family in crisis and a marriage on the brink after a tragic shooting.

How far would you go to save your family?

Every morning, as her husband Mike straps on his SIG Sauer and pulls on his heavy Magnum boots, Jamie Anderson tenses up. Then comes the call she has always dreaded: There’s been a shooting at police headquarters. Mike isn’t hurt, but his long-time partner is grievously injured. As weeks pass and her husband’s insomnia and disconnectedness mount, Jamie realizes he is an invisible casualty of the attack. Then the phone rings again. Another shooting—but this time Mike has pulled the trigger.

But the shooting does more than just alter Jamie’s world. It’s about to change everything for two other women. Christie Simmons, Mike’s flamboyant ex, sees the tragedy as an opportunity for a second chance with Mike. And Jamie’s younger sister, Lou, must face her own losses to help the big sister who raised her. As the press descends and public cries of police brutality swell, Jamie tries desperately to hold together her family, no matter what it takes.

In her characteristic exploration of true-to-life relationships, Sarah Pekkanen has written a complex, compelling, and openhearted novel—her best yet.

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The Kindest Lie
by Nancy Johnson

Ruth is a Black engineer, living in Chicago with her husband. While he wants to start a family, she can’t stop thinking about the baby she was forced to give up when she was a teenager. To face her past, she returns to her hometown in Indiana, where unemployment and racial tensions are running rampant. There, she unexpectedly befriends Midnight, a young white boy who is also adrift. But when a shocking incident ignites the town’s deep-seeded tension, Ruth and Midnight will find themselves in the middle of a conflict that will change both their lives.

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The Kindest Lie
Nancy Johnson

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Other People's Children
by Jeff Hoffmann

In this emotional and suspenseful novel, three mother’s wills converge on a heartbreaking collision course. After a number of miscarriages, Gail Durbin has decided to adopt. But her determination becomes desperation after several adoptions fall through. Meanwhile, Carli, a pregnant teenager from a working-class background, wants to go to college and escape her hometown. While she knows giving up her baby is a big decision, Carli believes the Durbins are the right people to care for her child. But Marla, Carli’s mother, has other plans.

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Other People's Children
Jeff Hoffmann

An “engrossing debut” novel (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me) about a couple whose dreams of adoption push them to do the unthinkable when their baby’s birth family steps into the picture.

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY?

As soon as Gail and Jon Durbin bring home their adopted baby Maya, she becomes the glue that mends their fractured marriage.

But the Durbin’s social worker, Paige, can’t find the teenage birth mother to sign the consent forms. By law, Carli has seventy-two hours to change her mind. Without her signature, the adoption will unravel.

Carli is desperate to pursue her dreams, so giving her baby a life with the Durbins seems like the right choice—until her own mother throws down an ultimatum. Soon Carli realizes how few choices she has.

As the hours tick by, Paige knows that the Durbins’ marriage won’t survive the loss of Maya, but everyone’s life is shattered when they—and baby Maya—disappear without a trace.

Filled with heartrending turns, Other People’s Children is a riveting page-turner you’ll find impossible to put down.

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Photo credit: iStock / Charl Folscher

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