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And they lived happily ever after. These three words form the backbone of the romance novel genre. Because no matter how arduous the journey, in romance novels the protagonists are together at the end of the story. That’s why so many readers keep coming back to these books – in a turbulent world, romance novels offer a guarantee.
And they have never felt more necessary or received as much public recognition as they have in recent years. Sales in the genre began to rise when COVID-19 shut down the world and readers sought a dose of warmth and levity in 2020; the emergence of TikTok as a platform for word-of-mouth book recommendations around the same time sent romance novels both new and old going viral, catapulting a handful of authors into the rarefied territory of repeat No. 1 New York Just Bestsellers. Last year, romance sales increased even further, with nearly 40 million copies in print sold, according to market research firm Circana. And the number of bookstores specializing in romance novels—from Tropes & Trifles in Minneapolis to Ripped Bodice in New York City and LA—has grown from just two in 2020 to more than 20 today.
If you don’t understand the appeal of romance novels, we bet you’ve never read one. Reading romance novels can be an escape to a sweeter, gentler version of our world—or a risky adventure to strange new lands. Romance novels can be contemporary, historical, paranormal, or erotic. They can tell stories of enemies who become lovers, of childhood sweethearts who get back together as adults, of strangers reluctantly forced together who find they develop feelings for each other, of unwanted bedfellows, of bloodthirsty vampires and secret witches and overworked doctors and amnesiac spouses who learn to love each other again. Romance novels can be set in a Regency mansion, a boardroom, the sidelines of a football field, or a small town. There’s a subgenre, a device, and a plot for every reader—a story to satisfy every taste.
To create our list of the 50 best romance novels to read now, we spoke with booksellers, editors, authors and other industry experts in early 2024 who helped us understand the nuances and evolution of romance novels. These conversations helped shape the entries on this list (all books in English), which TIME editors refined by considering key factors such as ingenuity, commercial success, acclaim and impact, with the goal of compiling a list that celebrates the growing inclusivity of the genre.
The resulting list includes books spanning hundreds of years, beginning with Frances Burney’s 1782 novel Cecilia—a book that influenced one of the genre’s most popular novels—and ends with Ali Hazelwood’s 2023 STEM romance Love, theoretically. No work by a single author appears more than once. Covering a variety of subcategories and tropes, the books on this list feature thrilling, heartwarming, and often juicy narratives that represent the best the genre has to offer. Not only do they provide satisfying resolutions for their characters, but they also tackle big ideas around grief, identity, vulnerability, empathy, and acceptance—all the things that drive our strongest relationships.
That’s why, argues bestselling author Casey McQuiston in an essay for this project, anyone who dismisses romance novels as superficial nonsense or the stuff of guilty pleasures is missing the point. “If we expect a great novel to tell us something about humanity, then a romance novel holds up a mirror to our wants and needs,” writes McQuiston. “If we want to study works that are part of a larger literary tradition, then the romance novel is one of the richest.”
This story is as complex as societal attitudes toward gender roles and sexuality. Tracing the evolution of the romance genre means grappling with popular narratives that treat sex and consent in outdated and sometimes harmful ways. Many books considered foundational to the modern romance novel, by authors such as Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and Judith McNaught, contain narratives of rape and coercion—and while we recognize that they did groundbreaking work in bringing the genre to a wide readership, we have chosen not to recommend these books to today’s readers.
Also not on TIME magazine’s list: The notebook. Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 hit may spring to mind when many people think of romance, but – forgive us if you’ve managed to avoid being spoiled for nearly 30 years – it doesn’t have a happy ending. Likewise, EL James’ 2011 erotic bestseller Fifty shades of grey didn’t meet our criteria because of its ending (although the series as a whole could have). happily ever afteror at least a happy for nowwas our first criterion when selecting the titles on this list. Our second was less black and white: the love story had to be the focus of the plot. For this reason, popular romantic fantasy series such as Sarah J. Maas’ A courtyard of thorns and roses and Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth wing do not appear on this list because we wanted to draw a line between fantasy books with romantic elements and romance novels with fantastical elements.
Despite these absences, there are plenty of familiar names on TIME’s list, from Nora Roberts and Beverly Jenkins to Nalini Singh and Stephenie Meyer to Jasmine Guillory and Emily Henry. Whether you’re a seasoned romance reader, a genre newbie, or something in between, you’ll find something you like here.
View full list
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Special thanks to Bolu Babalola, Eliza Berman, Clair Brett, Samantha Cooney, Helen Fielding, Erin Galloway and Katie Garaby, Melissa Gill, Jasmine Guillory, Jenny Han, Bea Hodges-Koch, Cindy Hwang, Jayashree Kamblé, Kevin Kwan, Leah Koch, Wes Lukes, Belinda Luscombe, Erin McMullen, Casey McQuiston, Caitlin O’Neil, Julia Quinn, Lauren Richards, Tessa Berenson Rogers, Simmone Shah, Emma Straub, Chelsea Stringfield, Becca Title, Tia Williams and Rebecca Yarros
Write to Annabel Gutterman at [email protected], Lucy Feldman at [email protected] and Megan McCluskey at [email protected].