Best romance novels are comforting and captivating, with great plots, snappy dialogue, and gorgeous details to keep you enthralled. You don’t even have to cozy up by the fireplace in your favorite chair. A romance novel is perfect for an airplane ride or any place where you’d like to be transported to another world.
The greatest romance novels of all time” is a tough category to quantify. Divided into sub-categories of contemporary romance, fantasy romance, historical romance, and many more, it’s one of the best-selling genres in the world.
With a mix of historical fiction, literary fiction, and contemporary fiction, we’ve created a list of the greatest romance novels, across a range of sub-genres, for you to explore.
Love at First by Kate Clayborn
One of the best romance novels to make it to the top of several book lists is Love at First, where beautiful writing meets an affecting story with endearing characters. Will’s a busy doctor who inherits an apartment he plans to sell. But that doesn’t work for the other tenants, especially Nora, who’s determined to keep things as they were when her grandmother owned her unit. She sets out to sabotage his plans, but love has a way of foiling them. You’ll dog-ear this one for its excellent storytelling—it rivals the writing in any of these romantic movies.
Twisted Lies by Ana Huang
The final book in the Twisted series, is an intense, chemistry-filled fake-relationship romance with an irresistible, broody antihero, and the woman who is his only weakness.
Stella is the fourth member of a group of best friends with books in this series. She is the shy one of the group but is a well-known fashion blogger who works hard for the success that she longs for. She sees the love that her friends have found, and though she wants that for herself, it’s in more of an abstract kind of way, because she’s happy being single and doesn’t really have the time, or the desire, to go out and look for love. Stella has been quiet in previous books, and I was excited to get to know her, and we very quickly learned that she’s dealing with challenges that not even her friends are aware of.
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.
On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about each other…
They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long-distance dating disaster of the century—or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want.
Meet Me in Paradise by Libby Hubscher
Ever since her journalist mother died on assignment, Marin has played it safe, refusing to set foot outside the state of Tennessee. Her wild-child younger sister, Sadie, has trotted the globe as a photographer, living off of art and adrenaline.
When Sadie returns from a tough assignment abroad and looks a little worse for wear, Marin reluctantly agrees to a sisters’ spa weekend on the tropical island of Saba. But her lifelong fear of travel is affirmed when Sadie misses the flight, Marin’s luggage gets mixed up with another passenger’s, and an episode of turbulence sends her hurtling into the lap of Lucas Tsai, the handsome stranger who stole her sister’s seat.
For the first time in a long time, Marin has to step outside of her comfort zone as she explores the island with Lucas and learns what she’s been missing out on. With each breathtaking new experience, Marin gets closer to her real self, the man she’s falling for, and the heart-wrenching truth about why she’s there in the first place.
My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey
It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. A rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true-crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders.
A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team no one asked for, but thanks to these pesky attempts on my life, we’re stuck together, come hell or high tide.
I’m just here to do a job, not babysit an amateur sleuth. Although…it is becoming less and less of a hardship to have her around. Sure, she’s stubborn, distracting, and can’t stay out of harm’s way. She’s also brave and beautiful and reminds me of the home I left behind three years ago. In other words, the insatiable hunger and protectiveness she is waking up in me threaten my peace of mind. Before I sink any deeper into this dangerous attraction, I need to solve this murder and get back on the road.
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain, is big, bad, and dangerous to know. No respectable woman would have anything to do with the “Bane and Blight of the Ballisters”—and he wants nothing to do with respectable women. He’s determined to continue doing what he does best—sin and sin again—and all that’s going swimmingly, thank you . . . until the day a shop door opens and she walks in.
She’s too intelligent to fall for the worst man in the world . . .
Jessica Trent is a determined young woman, and she’s going to drag her imbecile brother off the road to ruin, no matter what it takes. If saving him—and with him, her family, and future—means taking on the devil himself, she won’t back down. The trouble is, the devil in question is so shockingly irresistible, and the person who needs the most saving is—herself!
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
While we have Daphne and Simon from The Duke and I to thank for starting off this bestselling eight-book series (and eventually, the Bridgerton Netflix craze), it’s The Viscount Who Loved Me that never fails to make us swoon. In the novel, shameless rake Anthony Bridgerton has finally decided it’s time to find a wife. He has the perfect prospect in the beautiful Edwina, but it’s her older half-sister Kate who proves to be too tempting.
Contrary to popular belief, Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands—and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. Kate’s determined to protect her sister—but she fears her own heart is vulnerable. And when Anthony’s lips touch hers, she’s suddenly afraid she might not be able to resist the reprehensible rake herself.
