The Ultimate Guide to This Century's Top Romance Books and Authors
Romance readers come in all shapes and sizes from hopeless romantics running through the streets of New York to historical fiction lovers courting the most eligible Duke around to spicy readers who are happy to fall into any genre for a good story. While romance novels have been popular for centuries, many of which have become part of Western literary canon, something can be said for a modern classic. Who is the modern Jane Austen? Which novel is the next Jane Eyre?
Now that we are twenty-plus years into this new century (new millennium, too) readers are starting to uplift their favorite authors into “classic” status. To help get all our Modern Romantics caught up on all things romance, we’ve collected a list of must-read books and authors. Here is our ultimate guide to the best romance books and authors this century.
Historical Romance Books
Romancing the Duke
by Tessa Dare
As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.
My Fake Rake: The Union of the Rakes
by Eva Leigh
Oprah Magazine's Best Historical Romances to Read
Meet the Union of the Rakes--a new Regency romance series inspired by the Breakfast Club and other classic 80s films! In the first book, a bluestocking enlists a faux suitor to help her land an ideal husband only to be blindsided by real desire...
Lady Grace Wyatt is content as a wallflower, focusing on scientific pursuits rather than the complications of society matches. But when a handsome, celebrated naturalist returns from abroad, Grace wishes, for once, to be noticed. Her solution: to "build" the perfect man, who will court her publicly and help her catch his eye. Grace's colleague, anthropologist Sebastian Holloway, is just the blank slate she requires.
Outlander Boxed Set: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn
by Diana Gabaldon
There's never been a better time to discover the novels behind the blockbuster Starz original series Outlander. Blending rich historical fiction with riveting adventure and a truly epic love story, here are the first four books of Diana Gabaldon's New York Times bestselling saga that introduced the world to the brilliant Claire Randall and valiant Highlander Jamie Fraser.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Duke and I: Bridgerton
by Julia Quinn
A #1 New York Times Bestseller
In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince--while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable...but not too amiable.
Contemporary ROmance Novels
The Kiss Quotient
by Helen Hoang
From the author of The Bride Test comes a romance novel hailed as one of The Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2018 and one of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2018!
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice--with a professional.
Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars and the forthcoming Someone Else's Shoes, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.
They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life--steady boyfriend, close family--who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life--big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel--and now he's pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
by Sonali Dev
Award-winning author Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.
Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco's most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that's not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who's achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:
- Never trust an outsider
- Never do anything to jeopardize your brother's political aspirations
- And never, ever, defy your family
The Perfect Hope
by Nora Roberts
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts completes the Inn BoonsBoro trilogy with a novel of starting over and star-crosed love.
Ryder is the hardest Montgomery brother to figure out--with a tough-as-nails exterior and possibly nothing too soft underneath. He's surly and unsociable, but when he straps on a tool belt, no woman can resist his sexy swagger. Except, apparently, Hope Beaumont, the innkeeper of his own Inn BoonsBoro…
Dear John
by Nicholas Sparks
When a rebel serving in the Army meets the girl of his dreams, he must face an impossible choice as a national tragedy forces them apart in this powerful New York Times bestseller.
An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who captured his heart.
But 9/11 changes everything.
Neighbors
by Danielle Steel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In Danielle Steel's gripping novel, a reclusive woman opens up her home to her neighbors in the wake of a devastating earthquake, setting off events that reveal secrets, break relationships apart, and bring strangers together to forge powerful new bonds.
Meredith White was one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces. But a personal tragedy cut her acting career short and alienated her from her family. For the last fifteen years, Meredith has been living alone in San Francisco with two trusted caretakers. Then, on a muggy late summer day, a massive earthquake strikes Northern California, plunging the Bay Area into chaos. Without a moment's hesitation, Meredith invites her stunned and shaken neighbors into her mostly undamaged home as the recovery begins.
People We Meet on Vacation
by Emily Henry
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She's a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart--she's in New York City, and he's in their small hometown--but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.
It Ends with Us
by Colleen Hoover
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Starts with Us and All Your Perfects, a "brave and heartbreaking novel that digs its claws into you and doesn't let go, long after you've finished it" (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author) about a workaholic with a too-good-to-be-true romance can't stop thinking about her first love--soon to be a major motion picture starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town where she grew up--she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. And when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life seems too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn't hurt. Lily can't get him out of her head. But Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his "no dating" rule, she can't help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
Best YA Romance Books
Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
#1 New York Times Bestseller - #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller - #1 USA Today Bestseller - #1 International Bestseller
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell
A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013
A New York Times Best Seller!
In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life--and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Anna and the French Kiss
by Stephanie Perkins
"Stephanie Perkins's characters fall in love the way we all want to, in real time and for good." -Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Anna can't wait for her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her crush back home. Will a year of romantic near-misses end in the French kiss Anna awaits?
Let's Talk about Love
by Claire Kann
Alice had her whole summer planned. Nonstop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.
But then Alice meets Takumi and she can't stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!)
Summer I Turned Pretty
by Jenny Han
Now an Original Series on Prime Video!
Belly has an unforgettable summer in this stunning start to the Summer I Turned Pretty series from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before (now a major motion picture!), Jenny Han.
Some summers are just destined to be pretty.
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Selection 5-Book Box Set
by Kiera Cass
All five novels in Kiera Cass's #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series--now available in one beautiful box set
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The chance to live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want.
LGBTQ Romance Novels
When Katie Met Cassidy
by Camille Perri
*One of NPR's Best Books of 2018*
*One of Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2018*
When it comes to Cassidy, Katie can't think straight.
Katie Daniels, a twenty-eight-year-old Kentucky transplant with a strong set of traditional values, has just been dumped by her fiancé when she finds herself seated across a negotiating table from native New Yorker Cassidy Price, a sexy, self-assured woman wearing a man's suit. While at first Katie doesn't know what to think, a chance meeting later that night leads them both to the Metropolis, a dimly lit lesbian dive bar that serves as Cassidy's second home.
The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
A New York Times Bestseller
A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer's enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller's monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction's brightest lights--and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.
Call Me by Your Name
by André Aciman
A New York Times Bestseller | A USA Today Bestseller | A Los Angeles Times Bestseller | A Vulture Book Club Pick
Andre Aciman's Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. Each is unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, when, during the restless summer weeks, unrelenting currents of obsession, fascination, and desire intensify their passion and test the charged ground between them. Recklessly, the two verge toward the one thing both fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy. It is an instant classic and one of the great love stories of our time.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
Winner of the National Book Award
A New York Times Bestseller
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root--that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Boyfriend Material
by Alexis Hall
AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH
Named a best book of the year by Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Goodreads, The Washington Post, and more!
WANTED:
One (fake) boyfriend
Practically perfect in every way
Luc O'Donnell is tangentially--and reluctantly--famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he's never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad's making a comeback, Luc's back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything.
Mortal Follies
by Alexis Hall
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
It is the year 1814, and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider, and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers.
Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape.
Red, White & Royal Blue
by Casey McQuiston
* Instant NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestseller *
* GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER for BEST DEBUT and BEST ROMANCE of 2019 *
* BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR* for VOGUE, NPR, VANITY FAIR, and more! *
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius--his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Popular Romantasy Books
Fourth Wing
by Rebecca Yarros
A #1 New York Times bestseller - Optioned for TV by Amazon Studios - Amazon Best Books of the Year, #4 - Apple Best Books of the Year 2023 - Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023 - NPR "Books We Love" 2023 - Audible Best Books of 2023 - Hudson Book of the Year - Google Play Best Books of 2023 - Indigo Best Books of 2023 - Waterstones Book of the Year finalist - Goodreads Choice Award, semi-finalist - Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of 2023 - Paste Magazine's Best Books of 2023
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them.
A Touch of Darkness
by Scarlett St Clair
Persephone is the Goddess of Spring in title only. Since she was a little girl, flowers have only shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hoped to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist. All of that changes when she sits down in a forbidden nightclub to play a hand of cards with a hypnotic and mysterious stranger.
Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible. But nothing has ever intrigued him as much as the goddess offering him a bargain he can't resist.
Half a Soul
by Olivia Atwater
It's difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you're a young lady with only half a soul.
Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment--an unfortunate condition that leaves her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season--but when Elias Wilder, the handsome, peculiar, and utterly ill-mannered Lord Sorcier, discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into strange and dangerous faerie affairs.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
by Sarah J Maas
The sexy, action-packed first book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series from Sarah J. Maas.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he's not a beast all the time.
From Blood and Ash
by Jennifer L Armentrout
Captivating and action-packed, From Blood and Ash is a sexy, addictive, and unexpected fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Laura Thalassa.
The Cruel Prince
by Holly Black
By #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, the first book in a stunning new series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue.
Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
FInal Recommendations
Whether you are seeking a captivating historical epic, a heartwarming contemporary read, a romantasy adventure, or an LGBTQ+ love story, may these timeless tales fill your world with passion, desire, and endless possibility. As readers, we have the power to lift our favorite authors into "classic" status and cherish the stories that resonate with us. Which of these amazing 21st-century romance novels will be the next Pride and Prejudice?