Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
Center writes what she calls ‘laugh-and-cry’ novels — romantic comedies that take grief, disability, and trauma seriously without losing their warmth or humor, several adapted into Netflix films. This list is for readers who want more of that specific tonal balance: romance that doesn’t flinch from real difficulty but never abandons its fundamental hope.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Romantic Comedy · Laugh-and-Cry Fiction · Updated August 2026
Emily Henry
Henry’s romantic comedies, including Beach Read and Happy Place, share Center’s commitment to genuine emotional depth underneath comic, propulsive plots, and both authors are frequently recommended together as leaders of the current romantic comedy renaissance.
The most frequently paired contemporary peer — if you love Center’s blend of humor and heart, Henry is the most obvious next stop.
Jasmine Guillory
Guillory’s warm, character-driven romantic comedies, including The Wedding Date, share Center’s accessible, feel-good tone while centering Black protagonists and a slightly more contemporary, urban setting.
A close genre match with a different cast of characters and settings than Center’s typically white, often Texas-set novels.
Christina Lauren
The writing duo behind books like The Unhoneymooners works similar territory to Center — likable, funny, emotionally warm romantic comedy — though generally with a lighter touch and fewer heavy themes like disability or grief.
Useful if you want Center’s warmth and comic timing without the heavier emotional material some of her books carry.
Abby Jimenez
Jimenez writes romantic comedies that, like Center’s, deliberately take on difficult subjects — grief, chronic illness, mental health — while maintaining genuine humor and warmth throughout.
Perhaps the closest tonal match on this list — Jimenez’s willingness to sit with real hardship inside a fundamentally hopeful romance mirrors Center’s exact formula most closely.
Elin Hilderbrand
Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels share Center’s combination of accessible warmth and genuine emotional stakes, though Hilderbrand typically works larger ensemble casts across a beach-vacation setting rather than Center’s single-couple focus.
A useful pairing if it’s specifically the laugh-and-cry balance, rather than the romantic comedy structure, that draws you to Center.
Sally Thorne
Thorne’s The Hating Game and subsequent novels share Center’s blend of sharp comic banter and genuine emotional payoff, generally with a more workplace-comedy structure to the central romance.
A good next read if the banter and comic timing in Center’s books are what you enjoy most.
Where to start if you loved Katherine Center
If you want the most obvious next author, then read Emily Henry.
The most frequently paired peer for the current romantic comedy renaissance both writers lead.
If you want the closest tonal match, then read Abby Jimenez.
The same willingness to sit with real hardship inside a fundamentally hopeful romance.
If you want a different cast of characters, then read Jasmine Guillory.
The same warm, accessible tone, centering Black protagonists in more urban settings.
If you want her own work first, then start with her books.
My complete guide to Katherine Center’s own novels is the place to begin.
If you want more of this tradition, then keep exploring it.
My best romantic comedies list has the natural successors.
