Ever since I was little, love stories have been a big part of everything I read and watched. Maybe it’s because my parents never shied away from showing us how much they loved each other, or all the Disney princess movies I watched on VHS on repeat, maybe it’s a little bit of both. But I grew up loving romance, and over the years I’ve read so many amazing, heart-stopping books.
So, I’m here to tell you all about my favorite love stories in literature, from contemporary rom-coms, to classic fiction, to historicals, fantasy, and more. These are all incredibly well-written books, with actually good romantic plots, and characters who will stay with you for a very long time. They will make your breath catch, your heart beat faster, and maybe even make you cry (who knows!).
Editor’s Note: I update this page constantly with new titles that I loved. The last update happened on October 12th, 2026, in order to add Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson, and re-adjust some other placements. If there’s a book you think would be my next favorite, leave me a comment below and I’ll do my best to read it as soon as possible!
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
| Tropes | enemies to lovers, slow burn, class differences |
| Heat Level | 0/5 🌶 (no spice) |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | happily ever after! |
| Page count | 400 pages |
| Read if | You want a classic romance book, with the best enemies to lovers tension |
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most famous books ever, and the romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is legendary by now, the blueprint for so many love stories written today. If you haven’t read it yet, you definitely should. It has everything a good romance novel needs: good banter, humor, a swoony love confession, and characters that grow and learn from their mistakes.
The story is familiar, but let me tell you about it anyway. Mr. Bingley moves into Netherfield and with him is his best friend Mr. Darcy. The Bennet family is beyond excited because they’re hoping to marry one of their daughters to him, but they’re also desperate and embarassing, each member in their own way.
Elizabeth immediately writes Mr. Darcy off as dull and stuffy, especially after he calls her “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him”. However, throughout their acquaintance, this changes, but their pride and prejudice (hah) towards each other keeps them apart for a good long while.
Watching those first impressions unravel, one stubborn conversation at a time, is basically the reason the enemies-to-lovers trope exists. And this is one of my absolute favorite classics!
“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
| Tropes | relationship in trouble, enemies to lovers, second chance romance, slow burn |
| Heat Level | 1/5 🌶 (one spicy scene, several steamy) |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | Happily ever after! |
| Page count | 368 pages |
| Read if | You want a second chance romance slow burn with tons of humor and tender moments |
You Deserve Each Other is my favorite contemporary romance book, and one I hope will steal your heart too. It was very popular a few years ago, but I feel like readers today are sleeping on it, which is unfair with how good this book actually is. It’s superbly written, with excellent humor (à la 90s rom-coms), and tons of swoon among all the pranks.
This book follows Naomi, who finds herself dissatisfied and distant from her own life. She dreamed of the perfect marriage and romance with her fiance Nicholas, but their relationship is far from what it used to be. They pretend to be perfect on social media and in front of other people, but the truth is, they barely talk, they never fight, and their upcoming wedding is basically his mother’s wedding.
One night, they come back from a disasterous house party, and Naomi realizes that Nicholas has been trying to get her to react to his provocations for a while. He wants out of the engagement too, and he’s been trying to get her to back out first. Because, you know, whoever is left at the altar will get all the sympathy and the other will have to foot all the (ginormous) bills.
So, Naomi decides to do the same. She finally feels this energy in her life. She cuts her bangs weirdly, does a bunch of questionable stuff (as does Nicholas, don’t worry) and together they start showing their real selves to each other. Their high-stakes game of chicken might drive both of them crazy, but it also might make them find themselves (and their love) again.
See my full review of You Deserve Each Other here!
“I say it all the time, I just say it very, very quietly. I tell you when you’re in another room, or right after we hang up the phone. I tell you when you’ve got headphones on. I say it after you shut the door behind you. I say it in my head every time you look at me.”
Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson
| Tropes | enemies to lovers, slow burn |
| Heat Level | 1/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | Happily ever after! |
| Page count | 400 pages |
| Read if | You want true enemies to lovers and a slow burn that will have you on the edge of your seat |
Bad Words captured my heart from the moment I started reading it. This is everything I want in a book, everything I want from a love story, and I cannot recommend it enough. Right now, it’s probably my favorite love story in literature.
It’s about Selina Chan and Parker Navarro. Years ago, Selina gave Parker’s million-dollar deal book a very bad review, and his career has been hanging on by a thread ever since. Now his new book is about to be released and he desperately doesn’t want Selina to get her hands on it. Unfortunately, she does, and she gives him another scathing review.
Instead of keeping his cool, Parker confronts her at a party, someone films their fight, and the next day, it’s all over the internet. Both find it mortifying, but it turns out to be good for business, so Parker’s agent and Selina’s editor encourage them to continue.
But even as they verbally spar online, something quieter brings them closer, and soon becomes irresistible.
Bad Words is a slow burn of the highest order, so don’t expect high steam or quick gratification. You’ll spend most of this novel wondering if they’ll even manage to speak enough to realize how similar they are. But it’s so tender and lovely and beautifully written. Just read it, you won’t be sorry!
Normal People by Sally Rooney
| Tropes | on-and-off romance, opposites attract, miscommunication |
| Heat Level | 2/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | It ends on a happy for now scene. |
| Page count | 273 pages |
| Read if | You want something literary, that feels like real life, modern relationships, and slightly philosophical but in a very readable way |
Normal People got me into literary fiction and Sally Rooney (who is now one of my favorite authors). I can’t describe the way this book made me feel. I loved it and was repelled by it at the same time, the way Rooney zooms in on the intimacy between these characters; you want to look closer and look away at the same time.
But the more I thought about it, the more time passed, I realizes just how magnificent this story actually is, how good the romance. None of it is for the reader, it’s more like watching two broken people live their lives. And the author doesn’t hold your hand either, she doesn’t overexplain, so you have to draw your own conclusions.
The story is about Marianne and Connel, two teenagers living in a small Irish town. Marianne is rich, her family cold and distant, her brother abusive. She’s rejected by the whole school, some of it through her own faults like pushing people away and being contrary on purpose.
Connel is poor and his mother cleans Marianne’s house. His father was a deadbeat and many people in their small town hated him, so Connel is doing everything in his power to remain likable and popular. He gets anxiety from doing anything out of the ordinary.
And yet these two very different people are drawn to each other, and they begin a secret romance that continues throughout their college years and beyond.
There’s a lot of miscommunication, which is usually based on the fears these characters have, but there’s also so much love between these two, love of all sorts, that it’s just mesmerizing to read.
“I’m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.”
Black Silk by Judith Ivory
| Tropes | slow burn, opposites attract, forbidden desire |
| Heat Level | 2/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | Happily ever after! |
| Page count | 468 pages |
| Read if | You want a really well-written historical romance with complex characters and a slow burn love story |
Black Silk is a historical romance which I’ve yet to recover from. It tells you a story about Submit, a young widow of a much older man, and her dead husband’s former ward, Graham. And where Submit is proper, stern, scholarly, Graham is wild, a rake who lives life to the fullest.
When they meet, they see they’re opposites, and neither is exactly looking for love — but it finds them anyway, despite their better judgement, as they spend more and more time together. First because of something Submit’s husband left for Graham (and ordered Submit to give it to him) and later because they end up becoming friends.
This is a true slow burn, and you’ll have to wait and wait for these two to get together (wondering if they’ll even be able to). Graham is not perfect (far from it), and Submit isn’t either. To paint you a picture, he gets sued by a scullery maid for paternity, and his lover has a husband. Submit is judgy and does something awful to Graham too (spoilers!). So, yeah. Watch these two imperfect people fall in love.
And the writing! Oh my, the prose is gorgeous in this book. It makes you imagine everything so perfectly and you want to linger and roll around in those lush descriptions. I loved everything about this, so I highly recommend it!
See my full review of Black Silk here.
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
| Tropes | time-travel romance, fated/doomed love, slow burn, lady knight, nerdy hero |
| Heat Level | 0/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | Happily ever after! |
| Page count | 320 pages |
| Read if | You want an epic, emotional love story |
The Everlasting is one of my favorite books ever written and I will sing its praises until everyone reads it. It’s literary and lyrical, and so much like an old folk tale, but also modern and full of really great themes.
In it, a historian Owen Mallory has spent his life obsessed with the legend of Sir Una Everlasting, the knight whose death built a nation, until he’s flung back through time to actually meet her, and discovers the story he’s been told is nowhere near the truth.
See my full review of The Everlasting here!
“I have come to know you in time, and I have come to know you in eternity. What I am is this: your lover, in this life and in the next.“
Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long
| Tropes | class difference, sort of enemies to lovers, he falls first and harder, slow burn |
| Heat Level | 2/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | HEA! |
| Page count | 384 pages |
| Read if | You want an emotional and swoony age gap historical romance |
This is one of the most recent romance books I loved and it’s definitely a book for my love story hall of fame. You wouldn’t expect it based on the synopsis or the cover, but this is one of the most tender, almost heartbreaking romances ever told, and I applaud this author for making me both laugh and cry this much.
Game of Rogues follows Ginny, the eldest daughter of her family, and the one who had to take care of her younger siblings all of her life after her parents died. Now her brother gambled away her sisters’ dowries and she is on a mission to get the money back. The mission takes her straight into the gambling den (or gentlemen’s club) of the notorious Gabriel Marchand, where she confronts him.
After he makes an indecent offer for some part of the debt forgiven, she escapes, but they end up sharing the same inn for two weeks as Ginny continues to search for a way to get the money back. Gabriel decides to help, if only so she doesn’t ruin the reputation of his club, and so they spend more and more time together. But Gabriel is not gentry, and Ginny is an Earl’s sister, so their budding feelings have no place in reality.
As I said, this is one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever read, and I highly recommend giving it a try if you want something very slow burn, very aching, tender, but also funny and light.
See my full review of Game of Rogues here!
“I am who I am, and you are who you are. I will give you the whole goddamn world. But I can’t change who I am.”
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
| Tropes | childhood friends to lovers, mythological retelling, tragic/doomed romance |
| Heat Level | 1/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | to me, personally, it felt HEA, but I would say it depends on your interpretation |
| Page count | 408 pages |
| Read if | You want something incredibly written, based in Greek mythology, with as much plot as there is romance |
The Song of Achilles is probably one of the most heart-breaking, beautifully written love stories ever told. If you love Greek myth and especially its retellings, you cannot do better than this because Madeline Miller took a familiar story and made it into something brand new and so, so good.
You follow Patroclus (the book is in his point of view) as he sees Achilles run in a race when they’re children, and he is immediately fascinated by him. Later, when he accidentally murders a boy who bullied him, Patroclus is sent into exile, to live with Achilles’ family and there the boys become close friends. Their relationship develops and only grows deeper as they go into the mountains for training and then later into war.
You’ll definitely cry, especially towards the end, but it’s worth it for a story as good as this.
“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
| Tropes | friends to lovers, slow burn, artistic connection |
| Heat Level | 0/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | It’s a deliberately open, bittersweet ending. |
| Page count | 145 pages |
| Read if | You want something lyrical and short, with other themes woven throughout |
Open Water is such a gem of a book. If you haven’t read it already, give it a chance because it’s so short yet so powerful in what it does. It depicts love and yearning so beautifully, as well as other themes. Some of the quotes from this book struck me so powerfully that I still remember them, word for word, even though I read this book years ago at this point.
It’s about two young Black British artists in London, a photographer and a dancer, who fall in love. Unfortunately, there are many things keeping them apart. She’s his friend’s girlfriend, and then their families have separate issues, and it somehow seems to never quite work out, but there’s so much yearning and tenderness and understanding between them.
I wouldn’t call this purely a romance book; it’s far too literary and it contains a lot of other important themes like family and race and how Black men in particular are seen in society, but there is a romantic thread throughout and it’s wonderful.
“You are a breath, you are a heartbeat, you are an infinite poem I’ll never finish writing.“
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
| Tropes | enemies to lovers, slow burn, hidden past |
| Heat Level | 3/5 🌶 |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | HFN |
| Page count | 272 pages |
| Read if | You want something historical, sapphic, and well-written with an unlikable main character |
The Safekeep is one of those books I had my eye on for ages before I finally decided to jump in and read. And I’m so happy I did because it’s one of my favorite love stories ever written. For one, it has beautiful imagery and such immersive, evocative prose. I could picture everything so clearly and the atmosphere of this one sticky, sultry summer is so good.
But then the story itself is also great; there’s some mystery, some suspense, some drama, and definitely a lot of romance (and self-discovery).
The Safekeep is set in 1960s, Netherlands, after the war, when the whole world is recovering and trying to put the whole thing behind them. Isabel mother has died, her two brothers are living their lives elsewhere and she’s still alone in her family home, which she loves. She’s a crotchedy, particular woman who always believes her staff is stealing from her and people are out to get her. As you can imagine, she doesn’t make friends easily and she’s not easy to like.
And then her older brother decides to leave his new girlfriend Eva (whom Isabel dislikes immensly and is suspicious of) with Isabel for the summer while he travels for work. Eva has this bubbly, vapid blonde persona that she always displays around men, but with Isabel she drops it almost entirely and so they begin living together in this animosity, but as the summer progresses, secrets come out and things change.
You can find my full review of The Safekeep here.
“She had held a pear in her hand and she had eaten it skin and all. She had eaten the stem and she had eaten its seeds and she had eaten its core, and the hunger still sat in her like an open maw. She thought: I can hold you and find that I still miss your body. She thought: I can listen to you speak and still miss the sound of your voice.“
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
| Tropes | opposites attract, self-discovery, marriage of convenience |
| Heat Level | Nope |
| Ending (HEA/HFN)? | Happily ever after! |
| Page count | 255 pages |
| Read if | You want a story about growing a spine and fighting for the life you want, along with a beautiful, tender romance |
The Blue Castle is such a criminally underrated classic, and more people definitely need to read it. Everyone always talks about Anne of Green Gables, but no one ever mentions this book. By some miracle I found it (via Pinterest, of all things!) and I’m so glad I did because it’s one of my favorite books of all time.
So, the story follows Valancy Stirling who has spent her whole life being miserable and dutiful to her overbearing family. Her mother is controlling, everyone thinks she’s stupid, sickly and uninteresting, and she’s a spinster with no prospects to boot. But she has a rich inner life, a love of books, and an imaginary home she calls The Blue Castle, where she can truly be herself.
And then she goes to a doctor one day in secret and he tells her she’ll die soon. When, he doesn’t know, but she doesn’t have long to live. This changes Valancy’s life entirely. She starts speaking her mind (which shocks her family) and eventually even moves out to help a sick friend from school. This puts her in close proximity to one very charming, daredevil man and her life suddenly changes for the better.
Blue Castle is definitely a comfort read for me, and it’s a wonderfully short and romantic tale to read. I love Valancy and how hard she works on herself, and I love that she finds a life she enjoys. I have to admit, I even kind of like her family, as annoying as they are, I thought they were funny!
“Love you! Girl, you’re in the very core of my heart. I hold you there like a jewel. Didn’t I promise you I’d never tell you a lie? Love you! I love you with all there is of me to love. Heart, soul, brain. Every fibre of body and spirit thrilling to the sweetness of you. There’s nobody in the world for me but you, Valancy.”
Final Thoughts
I hope you found what you were looking for on this list. If not, drop a comment below on what kind of romance you want, and I’ll do my best to help you. And if you don’t want to chat at all, there are other places on this blog where you can find your next favorite, like:
- If you want something more magical, check out the best fantasy romance books here.
- If you want more of that long ago swoon, my favorite historical romance books are here.
- If you’d rather read something set in modern times, the top tier contemporary romance books are here.
- If you want to be sure 100% that what you’re reading is not insta love, I recommend checking out some slow burn romance novels here.
- If you’re a fan of suspense in addition to all the love, then you should take a look at my top romantic suspense books here.
- If, on the other hand, you only care about a certain fated mate-y fantasy creature, you’ll find the greatest werewolf romance books here.
- But if you’re okay with vampires, witches, ghosts, etc. as well, then paranormal romance books are for you.
- If you don’t want to read quite this much and want something more… visual, I recommend checking out these amazing romance graphic novels.
What’s your favorite romance book (or love story) of all time? Let me know in the comments below and we can chat!
Thank you so much for this list! Absolutely loved the recommendations!
Hi the novels are fun
Like the novels
Ugandans truly love them
Thank you for all your recommendations.