After is a popular romance series which contains five books. It follows our main character, Tessa, a good girl. She comes from a single home family, and she was going to college when we were first starting this book off. She has a boyfriend who is a year younger. So college itself is scary for her because she has no one. She will know at this state university, and she’s very insecure about that factor.
Tessa finds that she has the complete opposite of her roommate and has friends opposite her. One of the roommate’s friends is named Hardin, a typical bad boy. In this book, we have an element of self-journey in discovering who Tessa is and what she wants in for herself, and she’s splitting away from a lot of what she was raised upon being. Also, we are dealing with Hardin Scott’s past as these two characters come together. If you want to read books like the After series, keep scrolling.
10 Books Like After (Adult Romance)
After is an overhype romance series book and a most-watched movie on Netflix. This romance does have some form of cheating involved in it. Here, you will find an enemy-to-lover, friend-to-lover, bully, angsty, campus romance, one-night stand, and many popular tropes. If you like these tropes, then you will love my lists. So I will review 10 books similar to the After series for you. Let’s go!
1. Beautiful Disaster
It’s insanely close to the After series. You’re going to be obsessed with it. The story is about a girl, Abby, who is in college. She has a best friend named America. America’s boyfriend is Travis Maddox. He and Abby don’t get along when they first meet, but somehow they end up striking this bet with each other. If Travis loses, he has to stay abstinent for one month. But if Abby loses, then she has to live with Travis in his apartment for the same amount of time.
So from there, we’ll see a little bit of growth in the relationship. One of the main reasons this story reminds me of After is that Abby and Tessa’s characters are very similar, as are Travis and Hardin. So if you do like the characters from After a lot, you will like Beautiful Disaster. It’s also a very similar circumstance and takes place in college.
Author: Jamie McGuire
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Women Fiction, College Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
2. Breathe (Sea Breeze)
This is a new adult companion novel series which means that each book follows a new set of characters, but all of the characters are related. There are nine books in all, so eight couples. This book series takes place in Alabama and follows many college students and their relationships. That is similar to After.
There are many characters in this series, but many of them are very similar to Tessa and Hardin and share different characteristics. The writing style and the general feel of the books are very reminiscent of After.
Author: Abbi Glines
Average Customer Review: (4.3 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Emotions & Feelings Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
3. Did I Mention I Love You? (DIMILY)
This is a young adult series. All the book in the series carries a lot of similarities to After. The two main characters in the DIMILY series are Eden and Tyler. Tyler and Hardin are similar. They’re both bad boys, and they both have troubled family lives. Troubled pasts got into the wrong things at the wrong time.
Also, Eden and Tessa might share their need to want to save people. The series is super drama-packed and intense, and many similar struggles go on between Hardin and Tessa. Eden and Tyler are slightly different because even in Tyler, step-siblings had never met before and met for the first time and ended up falling for each other.
It is unconventional and sounds super weird when you first hear about it. There are also a lot of similarities that go on in the series. So if you like the different plot things that go on in After and you like bad boy characters with the soft side, you will enjoy that series a lot.
Author: Estelle Maskame
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | MP3 CD
4. True (True Believers)
This book follows a girl named Rory who’s in college. She’s a nursing student, and when her roommates find out she’s never had sex before, they decide to make it their mission to help her lose her virginity. To do that, they get a guy named Tyler, who one of the roommates had hooked up within passing. Also, he is known for hooking up with girls around school and in their friend group. They decide to hire him to help her lose her virginity, but they don’t tell her.
So Tyler is going after her, and she’s falling for him. Just from that synopsis, you might be able to find similarities to Hardin as well. Tyler has a very similar troubled past type deal that many of these male characters tend to have. He has a troubled family life. Moreover, he’s having trouble with school, like many different things that Hardin goes through.
Author: Erin McCarthy
Average Customer Review: (4.3 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Sports Romance
Available: Paperback | Kindle
5. Lost & Found
It’s a companion series, but three books about this initial couple and two books about a different couple. It’s a role reversal, but it still has a similar feel to After. So the story follows a girl named Rowen, who gets sent to Montana for the summer because her mother is done dealing with her anties.
Rowen wants to get into art school, and her mother is against it. So she sends her to Montana to her best friend’s farm, and she goes to stay there for the summer, to work for them. On this farm, she meets the people’s son, whose name is Jesse, who’s a sweetheart guy. He’s so perfect, and it follows the relationship. There are many similarities between the main girl, Rowen, and Hardin. Also, Tessa and Jesse have that much in common.
Author: Nicole Williams
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: College Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
6. The Deal (Off-Campus)
There are four books, and they all take place at this college, and every single book follows a different couple in this one friend group who go to Briar University in Massachusetts. It’s a fake college, and it’s super fun and cute, and you’re going to love this series if you haven’t checked it out yet. Every person in the series has fallen in love with the four boys featured.
The Deal is about Hannah and Garrett. The main basis of the story is them in college living life. If you’re a fan of After, you’ll like it because it has that similar college vibe great characters. Every single one of the boys will be your new book boyfriend. You’ll be like Hardin.
Author: Elle Kennedy
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Sports Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
7. Wait for You
This is a new adult series, and it’s about a girl (Avery) and her experience as a freshman in college. She meets a boy (Cameron) on the first day of college. She runs into this guy in the hallway, and he’s super cute good-looking. But Avery finds out that he has a big reputation for being a player.
Cameron lives across the hall from her apartment, and they become friends. Many things happened in it that I was not expecting at all. It’s all different couples from the friend group aspect.
Author: J. Lynn
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Women’s Literary Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
8. Bully (The Fall Away Series)
This book follows two neighbors who grew up as best friends, but they suddenly become enemies for some reason. It’s a boy and a girl. Tate and Jared are their names. Also, they become mortal enemies. Jared is so mean to Tate. She goes away, and she comes back for her senior year, and she’s done putting up with him. Jared and Hardin (After) are mean and bad boys but have a good heart.
It does occur in high school, not college, but it’s still fun in their seniors. So it’s not too different of age, but I recommend this. It was super fast to read, and you will enjoy it.
Author: Penelope Douglas
Average Customer Review: (4.5 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Romance Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
9. Paper Princess (The Royals)
It’s about a girl named Ella, who has grown up with her mom. She’s never known about her father, and her mother passes away. She’s left to fend for herself. Ella is working at a strip club, and she’s in high school still. Then, suddenly, this guy shows up named Callum.
Callum claims to be her father’s best friend. Ella goes with this man and decides to stay because he forces her. His four sons are brutal, and they all hate her. Somehow it turns into a romance, and a lot of crazy stuff happens at rich kid schools. Like the After series, there are many characters and plot similarities that you can relate to easily.
Author: Erin Watt
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
10. Stuck-Up Suit
It’s a romance book about a girl, Soraya. One day she’s on the train, going to her work in New York City. There’s a guy (Graham) standing next to her. But Graham is on the phone, barking at somebody, being rude, and annoying. She’s disgusted by his behavior. He gets up to leave the train, and his phone falls. So she picks up his phone has to find a way to give it back to him, and their story doesn’t end there.
They all start with this simple little plot that these two people meet somehow. But a whirlwind of events that has to happen that’s a huge plot twist. There are some similarities with the After series. Soraya reminds you sometimes, Tessa, because of the observation and attitude. She is independent and has a particular essence that Tessa doesn’t hold. They have a different type of independence. Graham could be compared to Hardin a little bit.
Author: Vi Keeland
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Women Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
Read More Similar Books: 15 Bad Boy Romance Books
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