Books like Things We Never Got Over

By a Thread is Lucy Score's other fan-favorite, and it distills the grumpy-sunshine dynamic of Things We Never Got Over into a workplace romance that runs on pure antagonistic chemistry. Dominic Russo is a fashion magazine executive who clashes immediately with Ally Morales when she takes a job at his company. Score brings the same rapid-fire banter and escalating tension that made Knox and Naomi electric, but the corporate setting adds a layer of professional stakes that small-town Knockemout does not have.

Both books feature heroes who use gruffness as armor and heroines who see right through it. Score's humor is consistent across both novels, with supporting characters who steal scenes and running jokes that build throughout the story. The slow burn here is slightly longer than in Things We Never Got Over, with Dominic's resistance lasting well past the halfway point.

Readers who want another Score book with the same emotional DNA will find this satisfying from the first page. The tension between wanting someone and refusing to admit it drives every chapter.

It Happened One Summer drops a fish-out-of-water heroine into a small coastal town with the same comedic precision that Score uses when Naomi lands in Knockemout. Tessa Bailey's novel follows Piper, a Los Angeles socialite sent to her late father's bar in a Washington harbor town as punishment for a public embarrassment. The grumpy local fisherman, Brendan, wants nothing to do with her, and the clash between her glamour and his practicality generates the same friction as Knox's resistance to Naomi's presence.

Bailey writes dialogue that reads like a tennis match, fast and sharp with both players scoring points. Both books use their small-town settings as characters in their own right, with local businesses, gossip networks, and community events creating a lived-in world. The heat level in Bailey's book runs higher than Score's, but the emotional core is comparable.

Readers will recognize the same arc: two people who seem completely wrong for each other turning out to be exactly what the other needs. The transformation of Piper from party girl to someone who belongs in this town mirrors Naomi's slow adoption into Knockemout.

The Gamble trades Virginia for the Colorado mountains but keeps the exact grumpy-hero-meets-stranded-heroine setup that launches Things We Never Got Over. Kristen Ashley's novel follows Nina, who arrives at a remote mountain lodge expecting a quiet solo vacation, only to find the owner, Max, sick and surly and unwilling to share his space. Ashley pioneered the alpha-hero small-town romance that Score builds on, and reading The Gamble after Things We Never Got Over feels like finding the blueprint.

Both books feature tight-knit communities that rally around the heroine while the hero resists his own attraction. Ashley's writing style is more stream-of-consciousness than Score's polished prose, with longer books and more internal monologue, but the emotional payoff is just as strong. The Colorado setting gives the romance a rugged, outdoorsy backdrop that contrasts nicely with Knockemout's small-town Southern feel.

Max is grumpier and more commanding than Knox, but both heroes share the trait of showing love through protective actions rather than words. This is the recommendation for readers who want the formula turned up to maximum.

All Rhodes Lead Here is Mariana Zapata's take on the grumpy-hero small-town romance, and it brings a patience and emotional depth that complements Score's faster pace. Aurora returns to the small Colorado town where she grew up after her life falls apart, renting a garage apartment from the surly local game warden, Tobias Rhodes. Zapata is the queen of the slow burn, and this book takes its time letting Aurora and Rhodes circle each other with mutual wariness that gradually softens into trust.

Where Things We Never Got Over throws Naomi and Knox together through chaos and crisis, All Rhodes Lead Here builds connection through daily proximity and small kindnesses. Both books feature single fathers, though Rhodes's relationship with his teenage son adds a different dimension than Knox's dynamic with Waylay. The outdoor adventure elements give the book a different texture than Score's more social small-town setting.

Zapata's fans are devoted for a reason: she writes slow-burn romance where every tiny step forward feels earned, and the eventual payoff hits harder because of the wait. This is the pick for patient readers who savored Knox's resistance.

Wait for It is another Zapata gem that shares Things We Never Got Over's found-family heart. Diana moves next door to Dallas Walker, a tattooed, intimidating man who coaches her nephews' baseball team. The setup mirrors Score's formula of two prickly people forced into each other's orbits by circumstances involving children, and both books understand that watching a tough man be gentle with kids is romance gold.

Zapata's writing is warmer and more interior than Score's, spending long stretches inside Diana's head as she processes her growing feelings. Both novels feature heroines who have taken on parental responsibilities that were not originally theirs, and both treat that responsibility with the seriousness it deserves rather than using the children as mere plot devices. The baseball setting gives Wait for It a seasonal rhythm that structures the romance naturally.

Dallas is less outwardly grumpy than Knox but equally protective, and his growth from guarded neighbor to devoted partner unfolds with the same inevitability. Readers who loved the Waylay-Knox dynamic and want another story where falling for the right person means joining a ready-made family will connect with this one deeply.

In a Jam is a newer small-town romance from B.K. Borison that captures the cozy, community-driven feel of Knockemout in a setting all its own. The story follows Lovelight Farm owner Stella and a quiet, brooding man named Luka who shows up in her small Maryland town under mysterious circumstances.

Borison writes small towns the way Score does: as places with distinct personalities, where everyone knows everyone's business and the local businesses are characters in their own right. The humor here is gentler than Score's, more dry wit than slapstick, but it serves the same purpose of keeping the tone light even when the emotions run deep. Both books feature heroines who have built something meaningful in their communities and heroes who arrive as outsiders and must earn their place. The cozy aesthetic of In a Jam, with its farm-to-table settings and seasonal warmth, offers a softer landing than Knockemout's rougher edges.

Borison is building a world readers want to live in, much as Score has done with her series. This is the hidden gem pick for readers who want the small-town romance comfort without the intensity of Score's alpha heroes.

Forever Never is Score's own island-set romance that proves her magic is not limited to Knockemout. Set on Mackinac Island, Michigan, the book follows the long-simmering tension between Remi Ford and Brick Callan, a protective police chief who has kept his distance from her for years. The small-island setting intensifies the everyone-knows-everyone dynamic that makes Knockemout feel real, and the years of suppressed attraction between the leads gives the romance a weight that newer relationships lack.

Score delivers the same mix of humor, heart, and community that defines Things We Never Got Over, with an ensemble cast that could carry their own books. Brick is cut from the same cloth as Knox: protective, stubborn, and convinced he knows what is best for everyone. The difference is that Brick's resistance has lasted years rather than weeks, making his eventual surrender all the more satisfying.

The island setting adds a vacation-read quality that makes this perfect for summer, while the emotional depth keeps it from being disposable. Readers who powered through the entire Knockemout trilogy and need more Score will find this hits every note they are looking for.

Elsie Silver's Flawless is the book Things We Never Got Over readers hand each other first. A disgraced professional bull rider with a wall of scowls gets saddled with a chatty, sunny British woman his sister sent to keep him out of trouble, and the two of them end up under one roof with sparks neither wants.

Silver runs the exact grumpy-sunshine current that powers Score's Knockemout, right down to the gruff man who softens only for the one person who refuses to be scared off. The small-town ranch community folds the heroine in the same way Knockemout adopts Naomi, and the banter carries real heart under the heat.

Recommended for readers who loved watching Knox thaw and want another emotionally guarded hero who falls hard, in a setting full of nosy neighbors, big families, and a slow burn that pays off.

Lyla Sage's Done and Dusted is the book that launched the Rebel Blue Ranch craze, and it hits the Things We Never Got Over notes with a Wyoming twist. Emmy Ryder comes home to her family ranch to heal after a barrel-racing accident, and the man waiting there is Luke Brooks, her brother's gruff best friend who has quietly cared about her for years.

Sage writes a protective, tight-lipped hero in the Knox mold, the kind who shows love through action rather than words, opposite a warm heroine who cracks him open. The Ryder family and the surrounding ranch town deliver the same found-family glow that makes Knockemout feel like a place you want to move to.

Recommended for readers who want a shorter, cozy small-town romance with a growly cowboy, plenty of banter, and steam that earns its slow build.

Angelina M. Lopez's After Hours on Milagro Street trades the growly-man setup for a growly-woman one, and Things We Never Got Over readers will find the same crackling grumpy-sunshine energy in the flip.

Alex Torres blows back into her Kansas hometown to save her grandmother's failing bar, only to find a buttoned-up professor renting the room next door and standing in her way. Lopez writes the Torres family with the same rowdy warmth that makes Knockemout feel lived-in, and the town rallies around its people the way Score's does.

The heat between the tattooed bartender and the mild-mannered academic runs hot, and underneath the banter is a real story about home, legacy, and letting someone in. Recommended for readers who want the small-town found-family glow with a fresh enemies-to-lovers spin and a heroine who scowls first.

Lucy Score's No More Secrets is the hidden gem for readers who finished the Knockemout books and want more of exactly her, from earlier in her career. It opens the Blue Moon series, set in a quirky, weed-friendly little town in upstate New York, and it pairs a gruff, ambitious businessman with a warm, grounded woman who sees straight through him.

All the DNA that makes Things We Never Got Over sing is already here: the protective growly hero, the sunny heroine who refuses to flinch, the meddling small-town cast that becomes family, and the banter that keeps the pages turning. Blue Moon flies under the radar next to Knockemout despite being pure Score.

Recommended for readers who want the same voice and the same grumpy-sunshine chemistry in a cozier, funnier town, with a whole series waiting behind it.

K.A. Tucker's The Simple Wild is the hidden gem for Things We Never Got Over readers who love the fish-out-of-water setup and want it dialed all the way up.

Calla Fletcher is a polished Toronto city woman who flies to rural Alaska to reconnect with her dying father, and the man who keeps getting in her way is Jonah, a bearded, blunt bush pilot who thinks she is soft. Tucker builds the same grumpy-sunshine friction that powers Score's books, then adds a layer of real emotional weight around family, grief, and belonging. The tiny Alaskan community becomes its own kind of found family, folding Calla in the way Knockemout folds in Naomi.

Recommended for readers who want the same slow-burn banter and softening-hero payoff wrapped around a story that will make them cry as much as swoon.

Penny Reid's Neanderthal Seeks Human is the hidden gem for Things We Never Got Over readers who come for the banter and the grumpy-sunshine spark more than the small-town map. Janie Morris is a brilliant, socially awkward woman who blurts out random facts when she panics, and Quinn is the broody, silent security specialist who keeps turning up in her life.

Reid writes a hero as tight-lipped and guarded as Knox and a heroine whose sunny, oddball warmth wears him down, and the slow burn between them is pure delight. The Knitting in the City friend group that forms the series backbone gives the same found-family glow readers love in Knockemout.

Recommended for readers who want the sharpest, funniest grumpy-sunshine banter around, with a nerdy heroine and a hero of few words who falls hard.

Lyla Sage's Lost and Lassoed, released in 2024, is the recent pick that lands closest to the exact Things We Never Got Over recipe. Gus Ryder is a growly single dad running a huge family ranch with a spunky six-year-old daughter staying for the summer, and Teddy Andersen is the sunny, unmoored woman who steps in to help care for the girl.

That grumpy-single-dad-meets-caretaker setup echoes Knox and Naomi almost beat for beat, complete with a small-town ranch community that wraps around its people. Sage writes the softening-hero arc with real tenderness, letting a guarded man open up to trust as the summer turns something temporary into something that feels like home.

Recommended for readers who want a brand-new, cozy, steamy small-town romance built on the single-dad and grumpy-sunshine tropes that made Knockemout impossible to put down.

Laurie Gilmore's The Pumpkin Spice Café, a 2023 release that exploded on TikTok, is the recent pick for Things We Never Got Over readers who want the coziest possible version of the formula. A cheerful woman leaves her city job to run her aunt's café in a small town, and the man who keeps scowling at her is a gruff local farmer with a soft center he tries to hide.

Gilmore runs the grumpy-sunshine dynamic at full sweetness, with a town so warm and welcoming it practically qualifies as a found family from page one. The heat is present but the comfort is the point, making this the readalike to reach for when you want the Knockemout feeling without the darker edges.

Recommended for readers who want a brand-new small-town romance that is pure cozy autumn warmth with a grumpy hero worth thawing.