7 Best Authors Like Danielle Steel To Add To Your Romance Reading List

Check out our guide with the best romance authors like Danielle Steel, including Nicholas Sparks and Debbie Macomber.

Danielle Steel has had a stronghold on the romance genre for decades and has astoundingly written and published more than 140 novels. Steel started with her first novel Going Home featured many of the themes that Steel would become known for later in her career, including relationships and family.

Notoriously private, readers are often intrigued by how much of Steel’s writings are based on her personal life–the writer has been married and divorced five times and has nine children. While Steel spends most of her time in the privacy of her San Francisco home and rarely grants interviews, she continues to publish several novels each year.

If you can’t get enough of Steel, you’ll also love these authors who understand the complicated webs woven between romantic pursuits and family. If you’re interested in this topic, you’ll also love our round-up of authors like Colleen Hoover!

Here Are The Best Authors Like Danielle Steel

1. Nicholas Sparks, 1965 –

Nicholas Sparks is an American novelist, screenwriter, and film producer who rose to fame after the success of the 1996 hit film The Notebook, based on his book of the same title. The author is known for writing love story novels (the author doesn’t feel his books fit into the romance category) set in North Carolina, and 10 of his other novels have also been made into feature films including The Choice, A Walk to Remember, and The Longest Ride. Sparks has published 23 novels that became New York Times bestsellers and has sold over 115 million copies of his work worldwide.

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.”

Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

2. Barbara Delinsky, 1945 –

Romance author Barbara Delinsky is an American writer who has achieved 19 New York Times bestsellers so far. The author’s books have been published in more than 25 languages, and she’s sold over 30 million copies around the world. Following the birth of her twins in 1980, Delinsky decided to try her hand at writing – and sold her first book in just three months. Many readers gained an introduction to Delinsky through her first nonfiction work, Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors, published in 2001.

“When we lose someone we love, we can either die with them or live on to celebrate their life. I’m tired of focusing on what we lost. I want to focus on what we had.”

Barbara Delinsky, Before and Again

3. Debbie Macomber, 1948 –

Fiction and romance writer Debbie Macomber is well known for her Cedar Cove series of novels, which was made into a TV series. The author is well-recognized in the field and won a lifetime achievement award from the Romance Writers of America. Starlight, one of Macomber’s first novels, was released in 1983, and she’s enjoyed commercial success ever since. Some of her most famous novels include The Shop on Blossom Street, The Inn at Rose Harbor, Mrs. Mircale, and A Good Yarn.

“I generally read every night before I fall asleep: Brad does too. I find it comforting to lie beside my husband, each of us with a book in our hands. I see it as a period of calm and intimacy, and as the perfect metaphor-together, yet individual-for our marriage.”

Debbie Macomber, Summer on Blossom Street

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4. Fern Michaels, 1933 –

With 150 best-selling books, Fern Michaels is one of the most well-known authors in the romance genre. In addition to love stories, Michaels also writes thriller novels. In addition to her literary career, the author is known for giving back. She stated that her grandmother told her, “when God is good to you, you have to give back.” With this in mind, she created the Fern Michaels Foundation, which provides four-year scholarships to college students in need. As a single mother of five herself, Michaels has also worked to support others in the same boat, creating daycare and preschool programs that meet the budgetary needs of single moms. 

“You’d think after all I’ve done for my cat—the belly rubs, the back scratches, the endless cans of Fancy Feast—you’d think she could at least wear a pair of reindeer antlers for three minutes while I took her picture for my annual Christmas card. But, no, Prozac, the little drama queen, had decided that the fuzzy felt antlers I’d ordered online were emissaries from the devil and was determined to avoid them at all costs.”

Fern Michaels, Secret Santa

5. Barbara Taylor Bradford, 1933 –

Barbara Taylor Bradford, OBE, is a British author best known for her 1979 bestseller A Woman of Substance, which has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Throughout her career, she’s written 39 novels, all of which became bestsellers in the U.S. and England. While she got her to start writing suspense novels, she later realized that romance was a better fit. In total, her novels have sold more than 92 million copies. Some of her most popular novels include Cavendon Hall, To Be the Best, Power of a Woman, and Hold The Dream.

“It’s different when the person you love dies. There’s an awful finality to death. But it is final. The end. And there’s the funeral, family gatherings, grieving, all of those necessary rituals. And they help, believe me. When the object of your love just disappears, there’s no way to deal with the grief and pain.”

Barbara Taylor Bradford, Three Weeks in Paris

6. Nora Roberts, 1950 –

The first author inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, Nora Roberts, has spent a combined 861 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Roberts often wrote in trilogies, allowing readers to get to know their favorite characters over a period of time. Roberts has also written under two pen names: Jill March and Sarah Hardesty. Some of her most notable works include The Awakening, The Choice, Nightwork, Year One, and Vision in White.

“When you find somebody you love, all the way through, and she loves you—even with your weaknesses, your flaws, everything starts to click into place. And if you can talk to her, and she listens, if she makes you laugh, and makes you think, makes you want, makes you see who you really are, and who you are is better, just better with her, you’d be crazy not to want to spend the rest of your life with her.”

Nora Roberts, Happy Ever After

7. Mary Higgins Clark, 1927 – 2020

Suspense author Mary Higgins Clark got her start as a copy editor and wrote her first novel, a fictional account of the life of George Washington before she realized that edge-of-your-seat writing was more her style. Her first suspense novel, 1975’s Where Are the Children?, was a nearly-immediate bestseller, and her second, 1977’s A Stranger is Watching, sold for $1.5 million. Her most notable works include The Cinderella Murder, Remember Me, A Cry in the Night, and Two Little Girls in Blue. Looking for more? Check out our round-up of the best dark romance authors!

“From the vanity in her bathroom she took her seldom-used cosmetic case. The image of her mother in her shell-pink dressing gown, so naturally pretty, so endearingly maternal, telling her to put on eyeshadow brought at last the scalding tears she had forced back for Laurie’s sake.”

Mary Higgins Clark, All Around the Town