Friends become lovers. Enemies become lovers. Former lovers get a second chance together. Arranged marriages generate real feelings. A human falls in love with a high lord of the fae. These are just a few of the plots readers can find in modern romance novels, which vary in tone, setting, and characters but are united by one key characteristic: a central love story that culminates in the all-important HEA (happily ever after, for the uninitiated). Everything leading up to that—the meet-cute, the first kiss, the third-act breakup—is left to the author.
In recent years, the expansion of the format, and the plot freedom that followed, have led to a wider diversity of stories for readers who might want something other than the typical supermarket paperback offerings. As Adriana Herrera, a best-selling author of more than a dozen romances, told me, “The great thing about romance is that there is literally a writer or a book for every single reading taste in the moment.” There are historical romances, as well as romances set in futuristic dystopias. There are cozy romances and dark romances. There are holiday romances, cowboy romances, hockey romances.
In other words, anyone open-minded enough to set aside popular preconceptions about the genre really can find their perfect match. The eight books below are all absorbing enough to draw in longtime romance fans and newbies alike. Although their protagonists must walk their own tangled paths to get to their HEA, each book offers the same reassuring guarantee: Everything will work out in the end.
We Could Be So Good, by Cat Sebastian
Nick is a newspaper beat reporter and a gay man in the 1950s who’s determined to keep his personal and professional lives separate. Andy, the son of the paper’s owner, has just been dumped, leaving him in need of somewhere to stay while he learns the ins and outs of his father’s business. Naturally, he ends up crashing at Nick’s apartment. As any romance reader could guess, their forced proximity leads to sexual tension, along with confusion—are they friends? Might they be more than friends? The two present a classic example of what’s known in the genre as a “grumpy-sunshine” pairing, in which Andy’s relentless optimism becomes so irresistible that it brightens Nick’s serious nature. In a refreshing turn, even though Sebastian’s protagonists are queer men living in a homophobic era, the book is more sweet than angsty, spending less time on whether two men can build a life together than on whether these particular two men want to.
Bringing Down the Duke, by Evie Dunmore
Dunmore’s A League of Extraordinary Women series begins in 1879, at the opening of Oxford’s first women’s college (though no degrees would be awarded to women for several decades). Annabelle is selected to attend with a scholarship from a suffragist society. Her advocacy work, aiming to pass the Married Women’s Property Act, puts her in the path of Sebastian, a powerful duke who is working, at Her Majesty’s request, to defeat the progressives in Parliament. Their run-ins quickly set off sparks, and as they spend more time in each other’s company, a mutual respect develops. Although Dunmore’s fictionalization of their conflict elides some of the very real historical stakes for British women, the couple’s genuine tenderness, in between and even during their arguments, makes the story—and their eventual relationship—truly come alive.
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Book Lovers, by Emily Henry
City slicker visits a small town, falls in love with a local shop owner, and learns to appreciate the simple life: Most of us have heard the story before, and Nora, a literary agent in New York, wants no part of it. (In a hilarious twist, she’s been dumped no fewer than three times by boyfriends whose small-town sojourns became permanent.) Her happily married sister, Libby, is determined to change Nora’s mind, and books them a girls’ trip to the town of Sunshine Falls, the setting of a recent best seller by one of Nora’s clients. As the pair work through a to-do list of Hallmark-movie moments (get a makeover, try to save a small business), Libby’s scheming is both successful and not: Nora falls in love, but not with their storybook location or a local eligible bachelor. Instead, she finds herself drawn to a surly book editor she knows from back home, who also happens to be visiting. Ultimately, Henry layers the traditional romance with a love story between the sisters.
The Duke Heist, by Erica Ridley
Yes, another duke. Historical-romance authors love the British peerage system so much that bookstore shelves groan with many, many more dukedoms than the two dozen or so that actually existed in the United Kingdom of the 19th century. But if readers can suspend their disbelief about that, then surely the premise of Ridley’s charming Bridgerton–meets–Boxcar Children series is not too far a stretch: The late, eccentric Baron Vanderbean has left his sizable estate to the half dozen previously unrelated orphans he adopted. Now grown, the siblings use their fortune, along with their own peculiar talents—disguises, forgery, weapons handling—to lead Robin Hood–esque missions throughout London. In the course of one such quest, Chloe takes off in the getaway carriage—accidentally trapping a duke named Lawrence inside. Lawrence is entranced by Chloe, and she by him. There’s just one problem: He needs to marry an heiress to revitalize his destitute estate, and she’s masquerading as a poor orphan until she can safely recover a lost family heirloom. Thankfully, the misunderstandings get sorted out, and everyone gets what they want in the end.
Party of Two, by Jasmine Guillory
Picking a favorite book by Guillory is like picking a favorite cookie. They’re all sweetly satisfying; it just depends on what flavor you’re in the mood for. Perhaps you’re interested in a fake-dating ruse that turns into real love. Maybe you want two rivals to realize how thin the line is between hate and love. In Party of Two—the fifth novel in a series featuring the same group of friends—the protagonist, Olivia, has to navigate the spotlight that comes with dating a senator without dulling her own ambitions. What makes Guillory’s characters shine is their passion: for their work (some, including Olivia, are lawyers, as the author herself once was), for improving their communities, and for the simpler pleasures in life, which here mostly take the form of good food. Olivia and Max meet at a hotel bar, where she’s enjoying an ice-cold martini with her Caesar salad and fries. They strike up a conversation about dessert. Later, he sends a cake to ask her on a date. The whole book offers a feast for both the heart and the stomach.
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The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna
If you take out the witches, the world Mandanna has created is remarkably similar to our own. Even among those with magical abilities, familiar emotions and conflicts tend to surface. Mika is a lonely young woman: Her parents died when she was little, and the aunt who raised her taught her to conceal her powers for safety. The only place she lets them loose is online, where Mika, like so many people, can be whoever she wants. Eventually, her internet fame brings her to a remote spot on the British seaside to guide three young witches, all orphans like her. There she meets Jamie, a librarian who is determined to keep the girls safe in his own, non-magical way. Set in a world where extraordinary abilities mostly bring fear and loneliness, Mandanna’s tale is a cozy meditation on trust and chosen family.
One Last Stop, by Casey McQuiston
Most romance novels have two main characters. One Last Stop arguably has three: August, Jane, and the New York City subway system. All August wants when she moves to Brooklyn is a fresh start; she doesn’t expect the city to make her dreams come true, as some other transplants might. And yet it keeps forcing its magic on her: She lucks out in meeting roommates and co-workers who become real friends, and she keeps running into the same gorgeous girl, Jane, on the train. They fall for each other, and August begins to look forward to the otherwise-tedious task of commuting—until she realizes that their encounters aren’t merely the product of chance. The rest of the story is best uncovered without too much foreknowledge, but it’s safe to say that McQuiston’s tale is part love story and part love letter to the quirks and wonders of public transportation.
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Small Town Girl, by LaVyrle Spencer
While researching the country-music career of her main character, Spencer interviewed Reba McEntire to understand the life of an industry star, and the parts of this 1997 novel set in Nashville feel like a behind-the-curtain peek at Music Row. But when Tess—known as “Mac” to colleagues and fans, if not to her family—is forced to take time off from recording her latest album to care for her mother after surgery, she struggles to fit into the role of the novel’s title. At home, she falls back into childhood dynamics with her mother and sisters. Adding to her disorientation is Kenny, the nerdy boy next door who’s now a single father and beloved member of the community. When Tess takes on the role of mentoring Kenny’s daughter, a talented country singer in her own right, the two get reacquainted. As in any good romance novel, their talking turns to flirting, which turns to kissing, which leads to tense conversations about how to merge their very different lives, which ends in—well, you know the rest.
