Books like Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck

Twenty‑five year‑old Belly Conklin returns to the family summer home on the coast, where a cancer diagnosis forces her to confront love, loss, and growing up amid the familiar rhythm of beach life.

Amid writer's block and a looming deadline, a skeptical romance novelist and a disenchanted literary author trade their craft: she must write a happy ending, he a Great American Novel, as they race to finish before summer ends.

Lost Highway spans the years between World War II and the Vietnam era to tell the story of an artist and his divided life. In the early days of modern country music, Reeves and his group travel the back roads of the Appalachian South, searching for an audience that will understand the power and grace of their music. Leaving his wife and son at home and virtually penniless in the small town of Maxwell, West Virginia, Reeves finds that his talent is as underappreciated as the country he travels through, a realization that precipitates a crisis of faith and personal vision that devastates his marriage and career. Years later, when his son returns from Vietnam both physically and emotionally maimed, the family faces a turning point that ultimately serves to reunite them - and guides Reeves to a rediscovery of himself as a man and as a musician.

Yadin Park is a talented alt-country musician whose career has floundered, doomed first by his homely looks and lack of stage presence and then by a progressive hearing disorder. His girlfriend, Jeanette Matsuda, might have been a professional photographer but for a devastating heartbreak in her teens. Now Yadin works for Jeanette's father's carpet-laying company in California while Jeanette cleans rooms at a local resort. When Yadin's former lover and musical partner, the celebrated Mallory Wicks, comes back into his life, all their most private hopes and desires are exposed and their secret fantasies about love and success put to the test. Drawn to the music of indie singer-songwriters like Will Johnson, who helped shape the lyrics in this book, Don Lee has written a novel that unforgettably captures America's deepest yearnings. Beautifully sad and laced with dark humor, Lonesome Lies Before Us is a profound, heartfelt romance, a soulful and memorable song.

Lilian Girvan, a young widow and single mother, balances an illustrating career, two children, and a newfound love for gardening at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden. Through composting and new friendships she learns to bloom again.

Mary Alice Monroe’s newest entry in her popular Beach House series offers another heartfelt escape to the coast, weaving family, romance, and the quiet joys of South Carolina life.

Caroline Adams, a striking beauty from a gambling club, is drawn into the political intrigue of Regency England when she becomes Lord Carrisford’s confidante and discovers a French plot against the nation.

Parker James, a rising Nashville singer‑songwriter, battles cutthroat competition, industry corruption, a mysterious stalker and a young woman's murder—each threat forcing her to confront her talent, future and faith.

A tale of love and intrigue in 18th-century Philadelphia, where a handsome and dashing rake falls for a woman with a mysterious past.

After her husband’s sudden death, mother Stephanie Adams navigates grief and a new path when she meets country star Chase Taylor, learning to balance family, freedom, and a thrilling journey across America.