I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix shows (and Hulu and Disney+) during lockdown. I’ve also been reading a decent amount. So, based completely on shows/movies I’ve recently watched on Netflix and books I’ve read this year, here are some book recommendations based on Netflix shows you may have watched recently.

*This post include affiliate links for Bookshop.

If you “liked” Emily in Paris…

Check out Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed.

Okay, hear me out on this one. I know we all loved to hate Emily in Paris, which really is pretty cringey and a hot mess but which I definitely binge watched in one sitting. Mad, Bad & Dangerous is different (and better). But if you’re looking for exciting Paris vibes and a well-written story, I highly recommend the book. It’s more a mystery/adventure and less of a romance, although there’s some light romantic tension as well. You get an American/USian in Paris…but actually done well.

It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads. This holiday with her parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is probably ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and now all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life instead of brooding in the City of Light.

Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted” her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron.

If you liked Dash & Lily…

Check out One Way or Another by Kara McDowell, and Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest.

I mean, yes, you could just read Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, which the show is based off of. But both One Way or Another and Now That I’ve Found You are perfect, too, for fans of the show.

One Way or Another gives you the same winter/holiday vibes as Dash & Lily. One of the storylines even follows Paige going to New York City for the first time over the Christmas holiday. So you get the winter/holidays in New York City vibe, but from an outside perspective. You also get a sweet romance. (The book is also a great look into how some people experience anxiety, which I immensely appreciated.)

The average person makes 35,000 decisions every single day. That’s about 34,999 too many for Paige Collins, who lives in debilitating fear of making the wrong choice. The simple act of picking an art elective is enough to send her into a spiral of what-ifs. What if she’s destined to be a famous ceramicist but wastes her talent in drama club? What if there’s a carbon monoxide leak in the ceramics studio and everyone drops dead? (Grim, but possible!)

That’s why when Paige is presented with two last-minute options for Christmas vacation, she’s paralyzed by indecision. Should she go with her best friend (and longtime crush) Fitz to his family’s romantic mountain cabin? Or should she accompany her mom to New York, a city Paige has spent her whole life dreaming about?

Just when it seems like Paige will crack from the pressure of choosing, fate steps in—in the form of a slippery grocery store floor—and Paige’s life splits into two very different parallel paths. One path leads to New York where Paige falls for the city…and the charms of her unexpected tour guide. The other leads to the mountains where Paige might finally get her chance with Fitz…until her anxiety threatens to ruin everything.

However, before Paige gets her happy ending in either destiny, she’ll have to face the truth about her struggle with anxiety—and learn that you don’t have to “perfect” to deserve true love.

Now That I’ve Found You is like the summer complement to Dash & Lily. Also set in New York City, the book also takes you around various NYC landmarks. The running around NYC trying to find Evie’s grandma plot is similar to Dash and Lily running around NYC fulfilling their dares. The book also has the same level of cuteness and swoon-worthy romance. Kristina Forest just does romance/rom-com style books so well! So if you want a summer-y, film/music-y version of Dash & Lily, this is the perfect book for you.

Following in the footsteps of her überfamous grandma, eighteen-year-old Evie Jones is poised to be Hollywood’s next big star. That is until a close friend’s betrayal leads to her being blacklisted…

Fortunately, Evie knows just the thing to save her floundering career: a public appearance with America’s most beloved actress—her grandma Gigi, aka the Evelyn Conaway. The only problem? GIgi is a recluse who’s been out of the limelight for almost twenty years. Days before Evie plans to present her grandma with an honorary award in front of Hollywood’s elite, Gigi does the unthinkable: she disappears.

With time running out and her comeback on the line, Evie reluctantly enlists the help of the last person to see Gigi before she vanished: Milo Williams, a cute musician Evie isn’t sure she can trust. As Evie and Milo conduct a wild manhunt across New York City, romance and adventure abound while Evie makes some surprising discoveries about her grandma—and herself.

If you liked The Babysitters Club…

Check out Miss Meteor by Anna-Marie McLemore and Tehlor Kay Mejia.

Miss Meteor is like a YA Babysitter’s Club. Friendship is really at the forefront of the story, and it’s a story about a whole cast of characters, each with their own struggles and unique personality. Miss Meteor has less of the awkward middle school vibes that make you shudder to remember, but the characters do struggle to fit in at their high school, which is a whole other level of relatable.

There hasn’t been a winner of the Miss Meteor beauty pageant who looks like Lita Perez or Chicky Quintanilla in all its history. But that’s not the only reason Lita wants to enter the contest, or why her ex-best friend Chicky wants to help her. The road to becoming Miss Meteor isn’t about being perfect; it’s about sharing who you are with the world—and loving the parts of yourself no one else understands. So to pull off the unlikeliest underdog story in pageant history, Lita and Chicky are going to have to forget the past and imagine a future where girls like them are more than enough—they are everything.

If you liked Enola Holmes…

Check out The Gentleman and the Thief by Sarah M. Eden.

If Miss Meteor is the high school version of The Babysitters Club, The Gentleman and the Thief could be the adult and light romance version of Enola Holmes. The book is set in Victorian London and involves a bit of a mystery. It’s sweet and intriguing, with penny dreadfuls woven into the book itself, making it a multi-faceted read. It reads slower than the pace of Enola Holmes, but it’s still enjoyable and exciting!

From the moment Hollis Darby meets Ana Newport, he’s smitten. Even though he’s from a wealthy, established family and she isn’t, he wishes he could have a life with her by his side. But Hollis has a secret: the deep coffers that have kept his family afloat for generations are bare, so he supports himself by writing penny dreadfuls under a pseudonym. If not for the income from his novels, he would be broke.

Ana Newport also has a secret. Though she once had a place in society thanks to her father’s successful business, bankruptcy and scandal reduced his fortune to nothing more than a crumbling town house. So Ana teaches music during the day, and at night she assumes the identity of the “Phantom Fox.” She breaks into the homes of the wealthy to reclaim trinkets and treasures she feels were unjustly stolen from her family when they were struggling.

When Hollis’s brother needs to hire a music tutor for this daughter, Hollis recommends Ana, giving him a chance to spend time with her. Ana needs the income and is eager for the opportunity to get to know the enigmatic gentleman. What neither of them expects is how difficult it will be to keep their respective secrets from each other.

When a spree of robberies rocks the city, Ana and Hollis join forces to solve the crimes, discovering that working together deepens the affection between them. After all, who better to save the day than a gentleman and a thief?

If you liked Julie and the Phantoms and/or Miss Americana…

Check out Open Road Summer by Emery Lord.

Open Road Summer is definitely not as cute and wholesome as Julie and the Phantoms. But then again, Julie and the Phantoms does get into some difficult topics too. Open Road Summer is one of my all time favorites, and I read it almost every summer. It has the musical element, the intense element, the romance element, and just the this-is-amazing factor that the show has. And just as much as the book is focused on romance, there’s an even bigger focus on friendship, just like the show.

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind…and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts.

But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking.

If you liked The Umbrella Academy…

Check out Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and the Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco.

I’ve only recently started The Umbrella Academy, so I can’t say that much about it, but if you’re looking for a dark-ish, mystery and/or adventure story with a great cast of characters, I’d definitely recommend Six of Crows. And although it’s not an ensemble cast type of book, the Stalking Jack the Ripper series fits all those categories too. They’re all fast-paced and leave you guessing at every turn.

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . .

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

(Synopsis for the first book, Stalking Jack the Ripper.)

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

If you liked Rebecca…

Check out Ten by Gretchen McNeil.

Okay. This is another Netflix show that garnered a lot of mixed reactions, with most people thinking that it fell flat. But anyway, of the few dark mysteries I read this year, Ten is the one I’d recommend most to complement Rebecca. It’s dark. It’s twisty. It’s a bit of a mystery. It has a very good sense of place and uses the remote island setting to provide atmosphere. You don’t know who exactly to trust.

Ten teens. Three days. One killer.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie are looking forward to two days of boys, booze, and fun-filled luxury. But what starts out as fun turns twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine. And things only get worse from there.

With a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the outside world . . . so when a mysterious killer begins picking them off one by one, there’s no escape. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on one another, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

If you liked Snowpiercer…

Check out The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken, or These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner.

I know this is an old movie, but I only got around to watching it on Netflix this year! So I guess it’s fitting that my book recommendations for the movie are also a few years old too. The Darkest Minds was a re-read for me, but it has the dystopian, trying to survive situation. There’s also a great cast of characters and some leaders you can’t exactly trust. And because it’s a dystopian novel, of course you also have the whole corrupt, problematic government thing.

(Synopsis for the first book, The Darkest Minds.)

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader.

But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

These Broken Stars has the stranded with nowhere else to go, dystopian, and trying to survive situation that Snowpiercer has. It’s more of a romance, but you are also constantly trying to figure out who to trust. There are other plot points that also remind me of things in the movie.

It’s a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.