In Rebecca Yarros’s Peculiar Stars, a cyclone strands newly engaged Callista Moran on an island with a sailing crew and Dominic, her fiancé’s cousin. Over eighteen months, she grows closer to Dominic and begins to question the life she’d planned. Then rescue brings family, the press, and all those old expectations back into the picture.
If you’re looking for books like Peculiar Stars, start with On the Island for the closest castaway setup or Gone Too Deepfor a quieter slow burn in dangerous terrain. Float Plan is the pick if you’re drawn to a woman figuring out what she wants from life while sailing far from home. And if you mostly want the isolation and danger, start with Shiver, where the mystery takes center stage.
For more on Callista and Dominic’s story, see our guide to Rebecca Yarros’s Peculiar Stars.
Which book should you read first?
| Book | Pick it for | How much romance? |
|---|---|---|
| On the Island | A long island stranding and a bond tested by homecoming | High |
| Gone Too Deep | A reserved wilderness guide and trust that builds step by step | High |
| The Mountain Between Us | A plane crash, a brutal winter, and lives waiting back home | Moderate |
| Whiteout | Antarctic survival, a killer in pursuit, and a faster, steamier romance | High |
| Float Plan | Caribbean sailing, grief, and falling in love again | High |
| The Great Alone | An unforgiving Alaskan winter and a first-love subplot | Light |
| Shiver | A snowbound reunion, old attraction, and a locked-room mystery | Light |
The romance ratings describe how much the relationship drives the story. High means it’s central, moderate means it shares the focus with another major storyline, and light means it’s a subplot.
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1. On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves
Thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is heading to the Maldives to tutor sixteen-year-old T.J. Callahan when their plane crashes. They make it to an uninhabited island, where finding water and weathering tropical storms take priority. As months pass and birthdays go by, the two grow closer. The novel also asks what happens to a bond forged in isolation once other people have a say in it.
That return to ordinary life makes this the closest match for Yarros’s premise. It also has a significant age gap and starts with a teacher and her teenage student, a dynamic worth knowing about before you choose it.
Romance level — High. Companionship develops over an extended period, and the relationship becomes central to the story.
Read this if you want a long castaway story with a relationship that has to make sense back home, too.
2. Gone Too Deep by Katie Ruggle
Ellie Price heads to the Colorado Rockies after a frightening call from her father. By the time she arrives, he’s missing. She recruits George Holloway, a man of few words who knows the wilderness well enough to guide her into it. George earns Ellie’s trust through what he does, which makes each new bit of openness between them feel earned. The book is third in Ruggle’s Search and Rescue series, and an ongoing mystery carries over from the earlier books.
Romance level — High. Ellie and George’s relationship develops gradually alongside the search and the suspense.
Read this if you want a quiet, capable love interest and a slow burn where showing up counts for more than saying the right thing.
Check the mass-market paperback on Amazon
3. The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin
Surgeon Ben Payne and magazine writer Ashley Knox share a charter flight after a blizzard disrupts their travel plans. When the plane goes down in the Utah wilderness, they’re injured, far from help, and facing weeks of exposure. Ashley was on her way to her wedding, so every step toward rescue also takes her closer to decisions she expected to make before she ever met Ben.
Romance level — Moderate. There’s an early connection, with much of the book devoted to getting off the mountain and reckoning with the lives Ben and Ashley left behind.
Read this if you want the physical ordeal to have as much weight as the growing attachment between the survivors.
Check the movie tie-in paperback of the novel on Amazon
4. Whiteout by Adriana Anders
Angel Smith is about to leave Antarctica when the research station where she’s been working comes under attack. She escapes with glaciologist Ford Cooper, and they have to survive the cold while staying ahead of a killer. The isolation makes every decision matter, including whether they can trust each other when there’s nobody else to turn to.
Romance level — High. The attraction intensifies quickly under pressure, with a steamier payoff and more action than the other wilderness romances here.
Read this if you want two people relying on each other in a lethal landscape and you like a chase that keeps the romance moving.
Check the Kindle edition on Amazon
5. Float Plan by Trish Doller
After losing her fiancé, Anna sets sail on the Caribbean trip they’d planned together. A rough night on the water convinces her to hire an experienced sailor, Keane, to help with the voyage. The islands mark stages of Anna’s decision to build a life she can imagine on her own terms. The dangers come from the sea in stretches, while grief and the possibility of loving again shape the whole journey.
Romance level — High. The relationship grows gradually as Anna and Keane share the work and the small routines of life aboard.
Read this if you’re drawn to Yarros’s sailing setup and the question of what happens when the future a woman planned is suddenly gone.
6. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
In 1974, thirteen-year-old Leni Allbright moves to a remote part of Alaska with her parents. The family has to learn how to get through a brutal winter, and Leni and her mother also have to live with her father’s growing violence. Leni’s bond with Matthew gives her a place to imagine a future beyond the family’s cabin. The long stretches of isolation make the kindness of neighbors and the dangers at home feel equally consequential.
Romance level — Light. First love matters to Leni’s coming-of-age story, while the mother-daughter relationship and the dangers at home drive the novel.
Read this if you want a remote setting that changes someone’s idea of what she can endure and who she can depend on.
Check the paperback on Amazon· Read our review of The Great Alone
7. Shiver by Allie Reynolds
Milla joins four old friends at a remote resort in the French Alps where they once trained as competitive snowboarders. A storm moves in, escape becomes harder, and someone wants answers about a woman who disappeared ten years earlier. The story shifts between the old competition and the reunion, so what once looked like loyalty or attraction can take on a different meaning in the present.
Romance level — Light. Old attraction adds tension to the reunion, while the disappearance and the threat at the resort drive the plot.
Read this if your favorite part of an isolated setting is watching people decide who they can trust when leaving is impossible.
Check the Australian trade paperback on Amazon
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