Best Romance Books to Add to Your Reading List This Year
Romance novels are the perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon, curled up in bed with a cup of coffee. Authors like Jane Austen and Nicholas Sparks have made a million go aflutter with their stories of love, life, and loss. From timeless classics to contemporary tales, there is nothing that a good romantic novel cannot make better. If you’re a hopeless romantic like us, go ahead and pick up some of the best romance books that will surely transport you into a whole other world.
Our Top Recommendations
20 Best Romance Books for the Fiction Lover in You
It Ends With Us: Colleen Hoover
It Ends With Us is a tale about Lily, a girl who grew up in the small town of Maine and moved to Boston to start her own business. The story unfolds with Lily falling in love with a gorgeous neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid who is assertive and stubborn but also sensitive and brilliant. As Lily becomes an exception to his ‘no dating’ rule, she also wonders what made him this way in the first place.
One of the best romance novels from a bestselling author, it presents many surprising questions when Atlas, her first love reappears, and everything that Lily has built with Ryle comes to risk.
Pride And Prejudice: Jane Austen
Unravelling a romantic clash between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride and Prejudice is a witty satire about life in the eighteenth century. In the first encounter of Elizabeth and Darcy, Darcy comes off as an arrogant and obnoxious man, much to Elizabeth’s dismay. However, time pits them together in different situations making them question if they really are meant to be.
Darcy falls for Elizabeth, who also starts to wonder if her pride has prejudiced her opinion of Darcy. One of the best romantic novels of all time, it also features three other Bennet sisters and their personal escapades.
Gone With The Wind: Margaret Mitchell
Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, Gone With The Wind is a historical epic that tells the tale of magnificent love and loss. The story describes how the beautiful but ruthless, Scarlett O’Hara survives through the tragic history of the South during war times, and showcases her tangled love affairs with Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Bulter.
More than just a love story, it goes ahead to describe the lurid state of the nation and its people, and is deemed as one of the best romantic novels to read time and again.
Me Before You: Jojo Moyes
Me Before You is an epic saga of love between two people who have nothing in common. Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an even more ordinary life and never venturing out of the borders of her sleepy village. When the café where she works shuts down, she takes up the job of Will Traynor’s caretaker. Will, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident, is rather moody, bossy and acerbic.
His conditions and temperament force him into taking shocking actions only until Lou sets out to show him that life is still worth living. One of the best romance novels to read especially by beginners, it is a fresh take on love.
Love Story: Eric Segal
If you’re a fan of dramatic plots, this might prove to be one of the best romantic novels to read this year. Love Story is a dramatically stated tale of Oliver Barret IV, a wealthy jock, and Jenny Cavilleri, a bitter, witty, and mesemrising beauty. Different in all ways possible, both the individuals get attracted to each other at the first site.
However, their tale is a short-lived one filled with unforeseeable sorrow. But hang on, lest their attraction should turn the tables.
The Kiss Quotient: Helen Hoang
The Kiss Quotient is a novel that revolves around Stella, a wealthy and successful woman who has no dating experience. For her, analysing data is easy but conversing over one-on-one dates is hard. To overcome her lack of experience with men, she hires Michael Phan, a male escort who teaches her how to excel at being a girlfriend.
Soon enough, their no non-sense partnership starts to make sense and Stella realises that love defies all logic. One of the most spicy and exhilarating reads for young audience, it has been deemed as some of the best romance books.
Eleanor & Park: Rainbow Rowell
Packed with fun and drama, Eleanor & Park is a novel that beautifully ties the sweet and sour memories of first love. Eleanor shifts into a new town feeling lonelier than ever. As she tries to adjust to her new life, her hope and wits start to fall. Her life takes a steep turn when she sits next to Park, a cool, quiet and attractive sixteen-year-old during a bus ride and is immediately drawn towards him.
Soon enough, Eleanor and Park feel love take over their lives. A tale of nostalgia, inundated with late-night conversations and mix-tapes, it is one of the best romantic teenage books.
The Notebook: Nicholas Sparks
The Notebook is an undying love story that starts with Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returning from the Second World War back to the North Carolina coast. While restoring his plantation home, he is haunted by the images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years ago and loved like no other. Unable to find her, he settles to live with her memories until a miracle happens.
One of the best romance books of all time, their twisted tale unfolds miracles and emotions that will stay with you forever.
The Hating Game: Sally Thorne
The Hating Game revolves around Lucy Hutton who is charming, accommodating, and quirky, and Joshua Templeman who is coldly efficient, physically intimidating, and uptight. Both of them hate each other but have to sit across one another in a publishing company for hours. Their battle of will comes to a head when they compete for the same promotion.
As the tension between Lucy and Joshua rise, they start to realise that maybe the hate between them embodies some other mutual emotions as well.
Dark Lover: J. R. Ward
If you think the best romantic novels are the ones that go beyond ordinary human stories, Dark Lover must be your next read. It is a story that revolves around the only purebred vampire left on the planet and the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Wrath. Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago.
When their most trusted fighter is killed, Wrath puts down his dagger to usher the orphaned half-breed beautiful female into another world. Racked by restlessness, Beth feels rather helpless around Wrath whose desire consumes and petrifies her.
Whitney, My Love: Judith Mcnaught
Looking for the best romantic novels to read with your partner? Rich with emotion and brimming with laughter and tears, Whitey, My Love is a spellbinding novel that defines the dream of forever. Fresh from her triumphs in Paris society, Whitney Stone returned to England to win the heart of her childhood love, Paul. However, to save himself from ruin, Whitney’s father bargains her to marry the handsome yet arrogant Duke.
Ravished by her physical desires that the Duke can relinquish, she still does not give up her hope for finding real true love.
Fallen Too Far: Abbi Glines
Fallen Too Far begins with Blaire Wynn moving in with her father and his new wife in a beach house along the Florida gulf coast after her mother passes away. Finding that her father’s off to Paris and knowing that she will never fit in, Blaire is left alone with her new stepbrother, Rush Finlay. The cynical, condescending and unapologetic son of the infamous rock star, Rush is a spoilt yet gorgeous man who immediately catches Blair’s attention.
As the summer proceeds, Blaire witnesses the side of Rush that she never expected to see and discovers that he holds a secret that could destroy Blair’s entire world.
The Mister: E. L. James
The Mister revolves around Maxim Trevelyan, a good-looking man for whom life has been easy with aristocratic connections and unlimited wealth. His life takes a massive turn when tragedy strikes and he inherits the family’s noble title, wealth, estates, and all the responsibilities. However, the biggest challenge he must fight is his desire for an unexpected and enigmatic young woman who arrived in England holding a dangerous and troublesome past.
A rollercoaster of love that has taken over Alessia Demachi and Maxim’s life, this is a story or half truths and unwilling revelations.
Bared To You: Sylvia Day
Tired of conventional love stories? Looking for the best romance books to read this year? Bared To You is a novel that describes Eva Tramell’s infatuation for Gideon Cross, a beautiful and flawless man who is damaged and tormented on the inside. Eva’s past is as violent as his, making her believe that the two of them will never work out. However, their passion takes them beyond their limits to the sweetest and sharpest edge of an obsession for each other.
Whether that obsession blows into their faces, or blooms into something pure is what you will be left to seek till the very end of the book.
Beautiful Disaster: Jamie McGuire
Beautiful Disaster is an appealing tale about Abby Abernathy, a good girl who does not drink and swear anymore. Believing that she has left her past behind, Abby arrives at college to start a new path but finds herself challenged yet again. Travis Maddox is lean and covered with tattoos, the exact person Abby yearns for but must avoid. He spends his nights winning money in floating fights and days being the college’s charmer.
Intrigued by Abby’s resistance, Travis tricks her into his daily life through a simple bet without realising that he has met the match of his life.
This Man: Jodi Ellen Malpas
This Man is a gripping novel about Ava O’Shea, a young interior designer who falls in the arms of Jesse Ward. Not only is he a charming, handsome, and confident man but also, conceited and a hedonistic playboy with no boundaries. As Ava reaches to meet Jesse for her first consultation, she is immediately attracted towards ‘This Man’. His overwhelming effect on Ava gives her all the signals to run away but when she does, Jesse is not so willing to let her go.
Their love grows profound and their connection more powerful and soon enough, Ava realises that Jesse may not be the man she initially thought he was. One of the best romance books for beginners, it questions the conventional trajectory of love stories.
Vision In White: Nora Roberts
Vision in White is a story about four childhood friends Mackensie, Parker, Lauren, and Emmaline who form Vow, a successful wedding planning business. Despite helping thousands of happy couples organise their big day, all four of them are unlucky in love. Mackensie’s tough childhood and bad relationship with her mother makes her wary of commitment.
However, Carter Maguire, a stable and safe English teacher changes her ideology. With the help of her three best friends, Mackensie learns how to create her own happy ending. An unconventional tale, it is one of the best romantic novels with a female protagonist at the centre.
A Knight In Shining Armor: Jude Deveraux
A Knight in Shining Armor is a glorious love story that spans centuries, worlds, and souls. Abandoned by a cruel fate, Dougless Montgomery lies weeping upon a cold tombstone in an English church. There walks in an extraordinary man, Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, who according to his tombstone had died in 1564.
Douglass is immediately drawn to his side by a compelling bond believing that Nicholas is nothing more than a miracle. The book unnervingly explores the great adventures that lie before them and their past so strong.
The Princess Bride: William Goldman
Thrilling and timeless, The Princess Bride is an exceptional story about the quests for riches, revenge, power and true love. The novel exhibits the undying romance between Westley and Buttercup set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an abridged retelling of a centuries-old tale. The book combines elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, and fairy tale and was also adapted as a film in 1987.
One of the best romance books for young readers, it offers a portal into an alternate universal that is as real as this one.
After Forever Ends: Melodie Ramone
After Forever Ends is a simple yet uniquely written novel about Silvia Cotton who was orphaned by her mother and brushed off by her dad at the age of fifteen. Her life seemed lonely until she was enrolled in Bennington, a private boarding school where she met the charming and rebellious twins, Oliver and Alexander.
Having locked herself in a fierce friendship with Alexander, she gets lost in a whirlwind romance with Oliver. The book unravels the entangled web of the future coming her way.
