Exploring from

When You Reach Me

Rebecca Stead

Find similar books by

Combine common axes

Similar in tone + premise

These books are ranked using the tone + premise labels extracted for When You Reach Me. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Tone labels used: sweet, sad, heartbreaking, poignant, emotional, suspenseful, intriguing, charming, wistful, funny, quietly moving, warm, heart-warming, uncanny, thoughtful

Premise labels used: mysterious notes, future knowledge, time-travel mystery, friendship rupture, saving a life, coming-of-age

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their tone + premise embeddings are close.

Exclude same author

Max ratings No limit

Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 1

Ichigo Takano · 2016 · Orange: The Complete Collection

A shy high schooler gets a letter from her future self urging her to save a new classmate from a tragic fate.

Why this is here

Tone labels: bittersweet · heart-wrenching · cute · sweet · tender · emotional · sad · warm · heartwarming · tearful · hopeful · melancholic

Premise labels: future letter · time travel · save a friend · change the future · regret · second chance · prevent tragedy · future self

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1646

Continue from here

君の名は 2 [Kimi no Na wa 2]

Ranmaru Kotone, 琴音らんまる, Makoto Shinkai, 新海誠 · 2016 · 君の名は。[Kimi no Na wa]

In the second volume of a body-swapping romance, a teenage boy searches for a girl who may be tied to a bigger time mystery.

Why this is here

Tone labels: emotional · beautiful · mysterious · tragic · dramatic · suspenseful · heartbreaking · tender · bittersweet · exciting

Premise labels: body swapping · search for missing person · time mystery · fated connection · save a town · crossed timelines

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1706

Continue from here

Tuned Out

Keith A. Pearson · 2019

A frustrated millennial is thrust back to 1969 and must navigate a stranger, harsher past that reshapes his life.

Why this is here

Tone labels: funny · humorous · witty · heartwarming · bittersweet · poignant · emotional · moving · sentimental · thought-provoking · touching · nostalgic · lighthearted · earnest · tender

Premise labels: time travel · fish out of water · generation gap · self discovery · past revisit · alternate choices

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1709

Continue from here

A Time to Change

Callie Langridge · 2023 · A Mandeville Mystery

A grieving history lover slips between 2013 and 1913 inside a magical manor, trying to save its family and its future.

Why this is here

Tone labels: emotional · heartbreaking · bittersweet · romantic · atmospheric · magical · gentle · hopeful · melancholic · sentimental · suspenseful

Premise labels: time travel · house mystery · ruined house · save the family · save the house · past-and-present entanglement · destiny · second chance

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1745

Continue from here

And Then She Vanished

Nick Jones · 2021 · Joseph Bridgeman

A grieving man discovers time travel and races to save his vanished sister before the past runs out on him.

Why this is here

Tone labels: emotional · hopeful · wistful · melancholy · urgent · suspenseful · heartfelt · witty

Premise labels: missing sibling · time travel · psychic gift · save the past · race against time · family tragedy · mystery disappearance · do-over wish

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1751

Continue from here

Lightbreakers

Aja Gabel · 2025

A grieving physicist and his artist wife are drawn into a secret time-travel project that forces them to face memory, love, and loss.

Why this is here

Tone labels: luminous · heartbreaking · melancholy · emotional · poignant · tender · thought-provoking · slow · heavy · hopeful · bittersweet · intellectual

Premise labels: grief · memory · time travel · marriage in crisis · lost child · second chance · scientific experiment · art and science · past revisiting

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1756

Continue from here

Forgotten

Cat Patrick · 2011 · Forgotten

A teen who forgets each day but sees the future must navigate love, secrets, and a dark mystery.

Why this is here

Tone labels: romantic · mysterious · angsty · sweet · heartbreaking · intriguing · light · swoony · tense · frustrating

Premise labels: memory loss · future memories · notes to self · hidden condition · romantic complication · family secrets · mystery hook

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1757

Continue from here

Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 2

Ichigo Takano · 2016 · Orange: The Complete Collection

Future letters push a shy high schooler and her friends to try to save a troubled boy and rewrite regret.

Why this is here

Tone labels: heartbreaking · sweet · cute · emotional · uplifting · bittersweet · warm · melancholic · angsty · hopeful

Premise labels: future letters · time travel · fate change · suicide prevention · friendship support · second chance

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1767

Continue from here

A Page in Your Diary: An 1980s Time Travel Adventure

Keith A. Pearson · 2020

A middle-aged man is sent back to 1980s Britain for one last chance to change a devastating love story.

Why this is here

Tone labels: warm · engaging · feel-good · heartwarming · heart-wrenching · nostalgic · funny · moving · thought-provoking · gentle · bittersweet

Premise labels: time travel · second chance · lost love · righting wrongs · preventing tragedy · return to the past

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1798

Continue from here

Waking in Time

Angie Stanton · 2017 · Carillon Time Travel

A grieving college freshman keeps waking in earlier decades and must solve a family mystery to find her way home.

Why this is here

Tone labels: sweet · romantic · mysterious · hopeful · heartfelt · light · fluffy · wistful · dramatic · suspenseful · fun · engaging

Premise labels: time travel · opposites in time · college freshman · family mystery · lost baby · forbidden love · fated meeting · cross-time communication

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1798

Continue from here

The Memory Collectors

Dete Meserve · 2025

Four strangers get one hour in their past, but a time-travel glitch strands them together and exposes a shared tragedy.

Why this is here

Tone labels: emotional · heart-wrenching · poignant · suspenseful · hopeful · thought-provoking · nostalgic · sentimental · mystery-driven

Premise labels: time travel experiment · past revisit · shared tragedy · second chances · closure quest · intertwined strangers · hidden secrets

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1799

Continue from here

Life Is Strange Vol. 2: Waves

Emma Vieceli · 2019 · Life is Strange Comics

A displaced time traveler tries to live in an alternate reality while old bonds, new powers, and hidden truths unsettle everything.

Why this is here

Tone labels: emotional · angsty · melancholic · wistful · bittersweet · quiet · dreamy · heartbreaking · tender · atmospheric

Premise labels: alternate reality · time travel · parallel timelines · multiple realities · powers · new mystery · identity crisis · displaced protagonist · missing life

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1799

Continue from here