
These Broken Stars
Starbound #1 (works standalone)by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Why you'll love it:
This romance shares a hopeful and intimate tone that will resonate with This Could Be Forever fans.
If you loved This Could Be Forever by Ebony LaDelle, here are the most similar books our readers recommend.
The best books like This Could Be Forever are:

When Deja, a driven Black girl pursuing chemistry through a summer college program, meets Raja, a Nepali boy secretly following his passion for tattoo artistry against his parents' wishes, they fall hard for each other over the course of one transformative summer. But as their relationship deepens, they discover that loving someone who doesn't fit their families' expectations creates challenges they never anticipated. Now they must find a way to honor their heritage while fighting for the future—and love—that feels like destiny.
We may earn a small commission from purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.

by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Why you'll love it:
This romance shares a hopeful and intimate tone that will resonate with This Could Be Forever fans.

by Tahereh Mafi
Why you'll love it:
This romance shares a angsty and dramatic tone that will resonate with This Could Be Forever fans.
| Book | Author | Rating | Year | Pages | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| These Broken Stars | Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner | 3.9 | 2013 | 417 | Closest match |
| The Summer I Turned Pretty | Jenny Han | 4.4 | 2010 | 304 | Similar vibes |
| The Romance Rivalry | Susan Lee | 4.0 | 2025 | 368 | Similar vibes |
| Check & Mate | Ali Hazelwood | 3.9 | 2023 | 353 | Similar vibes |
| Wandering Wild | Lynette Noni | 4.4 | 2025 | 384 | Similar vibes |
| Shatter Me📚 Series starter | Tahereh Mafi | 3.8 | 2011 | 339 | Start a new series |
| Better Than the Movies | Lynn Painter | 4.3 | 2021 | 356 | Similar vibes |
If you enjoy Ebony LaDelle's writing style, explore these similar authors.
The most similar books to This Could Be Forever are These Broken Stars, The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Romance Rivalry.
After finishing This Could Be Forever, readers most commonly pick up These Broken Stars next.
Authors similar to Ebony LaDelle include Elsie Silver, Lucy Score, Brynne Weaver, Jenny Han, Christina Lauren.
This Could Be Forever is a Romance novel by Ebony LaDelle, published in 2025.
This Could Be Forever is 384 pages long.
This compelling and complex romance about love across cultures follows a Black girl and Brown boy who find themselves-and each other-while pursuing their passions the summer before college.Deja’s got a plan. The first in her large family to go to college, she wants to study chemistry and sell natural skin care products, like the ones she already creates from plants grown on her family’s North Carolina farm. It all starts with the Onward Bound summer program at the University of Maryland, the summer before school officially starts.Raja’s got a dream. His traditional Nepali parents want him to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage, but his passion is art, and he wants to open his own tattoo parlor one day. In the meantime, he’s apprenticing at a tattoo shop in College Park, Maryland.When Deja walks into the shop where Raja’s working, they both start crushing hard-over the course of the summer, they fall more and more deeply for one another. But the closer they get and the more their lives entwine, the more they find that dating someone who doesn’t match your parents’ expectations is harder than they ever imagined.Can they bridge the divide between the vision their families have for their futures and the lives-and love-that are starting to feel like destiny?