What to read after “Terms and Conditions” by Lauren Asher: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.
Rivals at a Seattle public radio station, veteran producer Shay and know-it-all newcomer Dominic are forced to host a relationships show while posing as exes. Working side by side on air, their barbed banter draws listeners and slowly turns into a connection neither of them planned.
ER doctor Briana blurts out that she is dating a colleague to escape an awkward moment, and anxious Dr. Jacob plays along. Pretending to be a couple at his family gatherings brings the two reserved people closer, one quiet gesture at a time.
Lucy and Joshua are assistants at the same publishing house, forced to share an office while competing for one promotion. Their open hostility and elaborate office games hide an attraction neither will admit, until a single reckless moment changes the rules between them.
Vanessa spends years as the assistant to Aiden Graves, a silent, demanding football star, and finally quits. He then turns up at her door to ask her back and follows it with a bigger request: a marriage of convenience that helps his immigration case. The practical bargain and the time it forces them to spend together wear down his reserve.
Shy Maddie Gracechurch invents a soldier suitor to escape the London season and writes to him for years. Then the real Captain Logan MacKenzie appears, demanding the bride he never knew he had. To keep her home, they marry as strangers, and the arrangement slowly becomes something more.
Hannah, a small but capable bodyguard, is sent to protect movie star Jack Stapleton at his family ranch after a stalker threat. To keep the assignment secret she poses as his girlfriend, sharing his home and his family's grief while trying to stay professional.
When their mutual friends keep scheming to set them up, prickly artist Bea and reserved doctor Jamie decide to fake a whirlwind romance to teach the matchmakers a lesson. The plan works too well once genuine attraction gets involved.
Disgraced rock star's son Luc needs a respectable boyfriend to save his job, and buttoned-up barrister Oliver needs a date for his parents' party. They agree to fake a relationship for a few weeks, but the arrangement keeps blurring into real affection.
Catalina needs a date for her sister's wedding in Spain and claims she is bringing her American boyfriend. Her infuriating coworker Aaron volunteers to play the part, and the two must keep up the act through a week of family dinners, sightseeing and shared hotel rooms.
Astrologer Elle sets her sceptical friend Darcy up on a blind date that ends in disaster. To appease Darcy's brother they pretend the evening went well, then keep fake-dating through the holidays, even as real feelings complicate the act.
Maybell inherits her great-aunt's crumbling house in the Smoky Mountains, only to learn the grouchy groundskeeper Wesley is a co-inheritor with very different plans. Forced to renovate together, the dreamer and the shy, scowling loner slowly find in each other the safety they have always wanted.
Olive Taylor has been infatuated with Jason Thorn since he was her brother's best friend and the boy next door. Years later Jason is a movie star and Olive a novelist; when his career needs a clean image and her book becomes a film, a fake marriage brings them back together.
Olive, a third-year biology PhD student, kisses the first man she sees to convince her friend that her dating life is fine, and it turns out to be the famously severe Professor Adam Carlsen. To keep the story convincing, the two agree to fake a relationship, and their staged arrangement slowly becomes real.
Stuck in a hotel elevator together at a wedding, Alexa agrees to be Drew's date for the weekend to avoid awkward questions. The pretend couple keeps meeting up in their two cities, and what began as a convenient arrangement becomes something they are both afraid to name.
LaRynn and Deacon married young, divorced, and hoped never to see each other again. When they inherit a crumbling building that must be renovated before it can be sold, they are stuck working side by side and confronting why they failed the first time.
Clara leaves her buttoned-up East Coast life to move across the country to the man of her dreams, only to find he has sublet her room to someone else. Sharing the apartment with easygoing Josh, whose job would scandalise her family, forces an uneasy friendship that slowly becomes more.
Zahra Gulian works at Dreamland's Magic Wand Salon and has long been frustrated by the park's uninspired new rides. After a drunken critique of Dreamland accidentally lands in the company's creative proposal contest, she is promoted to the Creator team—directly under Dreamland's cold, exacting director, Rowan Kane. Working for him was not part of her plan, and neither was the attraction that grows between them.
Chloe Mills is finishing her MBA while interning at Ryan Media Group, where Bennett Ryan, the boss's son, demands perfection and makes her work late. Their arguments turn into a charged contest of wills, and neither can stay away from the other. The affair is reckless, secret, and complicated by the fact that Bennett signs her paychecks.
Stevie takes a job as a flight attendant on a hockey team's private plane, determined to keep her distance from players. Evan Zanders, the team's most disliked star, seems equally determined to provoke her. Long road trips and shared flights blur the line between irritation and attraction, even though both have reasons to stay away.
Scarred and bitter, the Duke of Ashbury needs an heir, so he offers a plain marriage of convenience to Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress. She accepts on her own conditions. Inside his forbidding house, two wary strangers slowly discover warmth, trust and unexpected love.
Stand-up comic Farley and her grumpy manager Meyer have been best friends and secret crushes for years. When a television opportunity requires a stable image, they fake a relationship, and the line between performance and real love disappears.
Romance writer January and literary novelist Gus become summer neighbours in a lakeside town, both blocked and both skeptical of each other's genre. They make a bet to write in the other's style and slowly trade barbs for late-night talks, discovering the grief and hope behind their different worldviews.
Glenna Dobbs is already the town pariah after taking the blame for her father's exposé of the local sheriff. When the backlash turns threatening, Cash Wall—the loud, cheerful man who bullied her in school—offers to be her fake boyfriend, and Glenna has to survive the arrangement with the town's most popular man and his stubborn, gentle heart.
Anxious tech genius Charlie is the reluctant star of a reality dating show, and producer Dev is tasked with helping him connect with the contestants. Behind the cameras their unlikely friendship turns into a romance that neither can script.
Start with “The Ex Talk”, “Yours Truly”, “The Hating Game”: they are the closest to “Terms and Conditions” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “Terms and Conditions” these are Office Romance, Marriage of Convenience, Fake Dating), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “The Ex Talk”, “Yours Truly”, “The Hating Game”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
