40 of the best romance novels of all time

Aiden, host of the Heartstrings romance hotline, has fallen out of love with love. Which is an issue. His show, however, has really taken off, after a young girl calls in for romance advice for her mom, and the conversation goes viral. The mom in question, Lucie, thought she was doing just fine until everyone in Baltimore started discussing her love life. Maybe a little more romance wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Maybe she should let the Heartstrings guy set her up on dates. Maybe she shouldn't fall for him instead. . .

Connie Evans has always distrusted nice guys. In her experience, they’re just waiting to reveal some horrible secret. And then she meets big, adorable Henry Samuel Beckett, whose secret isn't so horrible: he’s been single all his life, but somehow seems to have told everyone he works with that he’s married. And, when Connie can’t help but defend him, she ends up being the wife he doesn’t have.

After a social media scandal, Formula 1 driver Dev Anderson is in the middle of a career crisis. He encounters Willow Williams at a Monaco party, the one person who could mend his shattered image, and immediately hires her. However, she's not just any assistant – she's his best friend's sister, and the person Dev has been unable to forget since they shared a kiss. Willow and Dev are determined to keep things strictly professional, regardless of old feelings and the blazing chemistry between them, but in the glittering and high-stakes world of Formula 1, some lines are meant to be crossed.

When Franny Doyle is rescued from outfit embarrassment by a mysterious stranger with a Gucci jacket who can’t escape her fast enough, she thinks nothing of it and gets on with her fateful day. Until she logs onto social media and sees that the meet-cute has gone viral and users are shipping her non-existent love story with her rescuer, Hayes Montgomery. When Franny and Hayes keep running into each other, it seems they may be meant to be, but can they get over their differences and give love a chance? 

Lovelight Farms is a wholesome rom-com featuring a handsome, freckled data analyst, a messy, optimistic Christmas tree farm owner, and a small town with the best hazelnut lattes on the east coast. In an effort to save the Christmas tree farm she’s loved since she was a child, Stella enters a contest with insta-famous influencer Evelyn St. James. There’s just one problem; she lied on the application and said that she owns Lovelight Farms with her boyfriend. Only . . . there is no boyfriend. Enter best friend Luka Peters. Will their fake love affair save Lovelight Farms in time for Christmas?

I'll Look for You, Everywhere is an intoxicating love story for the ages following Theo and Magdalen, childhood neighbours, as they are reunited for the first time in seven years to celebrate a family wedding in the sleepy Italian village they grew up in. Confronted with the ghosts of their pasts, Theo and Magdalen must face both the burning tension between them and the long-buried secrets that threaten to tear their worlds apart – and could possibly separate them forever. This is the unmissable romance debut from TikTok sensation, Cameron Capello. 

Renee lives a seemingly perfect life in London – she runs a successful fashion company and is dating a celebrity. Until she's dumped. Isolated from her family in Singapore, her world darkens until an offer from her father beckons her to potentially head the family's vast business empire. However, a rekindled flame with her first love, Yap Ket Siong, threatens to keep her from starting afresh in Singapore. But he left her heartbroken at university – will either of them dare to share their feelings the second time around? Or will family business mean they can’t bank on each other . . .

Kate is the ultimate planner, including for her upcoming wedding and a Las Vegas hen party with her best girlfriends. Even running into her DJ ex, Trevor Rush, won’t ruin Kate’s vision for the perfect girls’ trip. But when an alcohol-fuelled night out leaves Kate and Trevor accidentally hitched, her plans are officially out the window. To make matters worse, Trevor has decided he wants Kate back, and won’t sign the annulment papers until she agrees to go on three last dates with him. In the scorching heat of Sin City, is it time for her to tear up the rule book, and finally take a gamble on love?

Theo and Kit's journey from childhood friends to lovers turned estranged exes takes an unexpected turn when they unknowingly book the same dream European food and wine tour. Exploring the romantic landscapes and indulgent flavors of France, Spain, and Italy, they're determined to prove they're over each other. So, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is game. In fact, why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition? But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can’t have.

In Paris, a woman wakes up with no memory. She only knows three things: she has a headache, the hottest guy she has ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run, and people keep trying to kill her. Apparently she's a spy – or rather she's a spy's identical twin sister. Too bad the only person who knows her true identity is this very secret agent who agrees to help her disappear. Which is easier said than done when a criminal organisation wants you dead. Luckily, no one is looking for a pair of newlyweds on their honeymoon, so soon they’re lying their way across Europe as they race to unravel a deadly conspiracy and clear her sister’s name.

Ex-footballer Alfie Harding, reluctant to reveal his past and emotions, gets pushed into selling his memoirs. Knowing he can't write them himself, in steps ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, skilled in bantering and bickering her way into extracting details from Alfie for his biography. When their professional partnership is misconstrued as romance, they play along to feed the public's hunger for a fairy-tale-like story. Now faced with the predicament, they must determine whether their faux relationship is a facade or a budding reality leading to their happy ending.

Flora MacQueen, from the remote Scottish island of St Kilda, yearns for more than her simple life. So when she meets James Callaghan, a wealthy businessman, her future feels brighter. After being separated by winter seas, an island evacuation promises to unite them – until tragedy strikes. Heartbroken and needing to support her family on the mainland, a second chance meeting offers hope. Soon, Flora is the toast of glamorous Paris; fame and fortune are hers for the taking – but at a price. The Lost Lover is a story of an epic first love and a second chance.

Viola and Jack do not get along. Jack Orsino may be popular, but he is also careless and lazy and annoying. That he is Student Body President is another thing Viola is pretty annoyed about. Her escape is the online game Twelfth Knight, where she plays under a masculine alter-ego in order to be taken more seriously (having to do this: also annoying). When a football injury leads Jack to start playing Twelfth Knight too, their two worlds are set to collide. And as it becomes increasingly difficult for Vi to hide her true identity, Jack might just be falling for her offline . . .

This sweet, funny, and heartfelt romance presents a different angle to the forbidden love trope. The golden child of his strict Pakistani parents, Yousef has his life planned out for him – medical degree and a wife chosen by his family. But then he meets Jess. A fellow medical student, Jess presents a complication to the plan. Suddenly, Yousef finds himself torn between two worlds, keeping each a secret from the other. Then, as graduation looms, Yousef’s mother informs him that she’s started looking for his wife. . .

When Melody accepts her dream job at an LA aerospace company, the last thing she expects is to run into a college one-night stand. But, not only does he work at the same company – he's the CEO's son. Jeremy's got a girlfriend and a reputation as a bad boy, so Melody resolves to keep her distance and focus on building a new life for herself. But despite her good intentions, she can't seem to stay away from him. Opposites attract in this geek girl meets a bad boy billionaire rom-com.

The Pre-Loved Club is the perfect feel-good read to remind us to never give up on love. Ned is in IKEA with his wife, Tanya, when she breaks the news that their marriage is over. For Gemma, it's when she opens the glove compartment of her husband’s car to find a pair of women’s sunglasses that aren’t hers. When Ned and Gemma meet at a support group for single parents, they don't exactly hit it off. But as they've both learned from bitter experience, life is full of surprises. And maybe they have more in common than they think. 

Gemma is scared that if life slows down she'll have to face up to how lonely she is having lost her true love. She crams her days with work and taking her dog Bear to visit young hospital patients. Dan is scared of anyone knowing the real him. He is the life and soul of the party, but he's hiding a deep secret. And Casey is Dan's twelve-year-old daughter, though they hardly know each other. She's scared too, as she begins treatment for a tumour. When the three meet one hot July day, they instantly bond. Fate – and a scruffy terrier - have brought them together. But can they overcome their fears and truly connect?

Nazeli 'Ellie' Gregorian is navigating the ups and downs of her tech marketing job. Post-breakup, an escape to a Chicago to secure a Superbowl ad for her family's business, Hagop's Fine Armenian Foods, seems like the perfect distraction. There, she meets Vanya Simonian, sparking an immediate connection over shared heritage and family business in food. However, the budding romance hits a snag when Ellie's parents reveal Vanya as the offspring of their business rivals, accused of diluting Armenian culinary traditions. A tale of love, family loyalty, and cultural heritage, Lavash at First Sight is a delectable queer romantic comedy.

Singer-songwriter Riley Wynn skyrockets to fame with her breakup concept and hit single. When her ex-husband falsely claims the song focuses on him, she reaches out to Max Harcourt, her college ex and the real song inspiration, after a decade. Max, managing his family's retirement home, misses his music-filled dream life. He consents to reveal himself as Riley's muse on a condition - to join her band tour. On tour, Riley and Max find their past errors may lead to a remarkable future, in a relationship that might kindle forever or burn out.

With Writers & Lovers, Lily King became one of our most acclaimed writers of contemporary fiction. And now, with Five Tuesdays in Winter, she gathers ten of her best short stories. These intimate literary stories tell of a bookseller who is filled with unspoken love for his employee, an abandoned teenage boy nurtured by a pair of housesitting students and a girl whose loss of innocence brings confident power. Romantic, hopeful, raw and occasionally surreal, these stories riff beautifully on the topic of love and romance.

Faith Ferguson is one of New York’s most sought after wedding planners. Usually, she thrives on realizing dreams and making magic happen, but this year she faces both professional and personal challenges. And when the Alberts' showstopper wedding is nearly derailed by both a last minute invitee and the groom himself, Faith cannot avoid the warning signals. Desperate to provide the perfect day for all her clients, Faith has often neglected her own love life, but amidst planning –  and saving – this tumultuous wedding she will learn to 'never say never'.

Jane Austen gave life to the fictional Watson family in 1803, but sadly abandoned them five chapters in. Now, acclaimed author Joan Aiken completes the story in Emma Watson. Emma has been brought up by her aunt, far removed from her widowed father and five siblings. She is wealthy, educated and refined – perfectly fitting the lifestyle she was born into. That is until her aunt enters into a second marriage and Emma is sent to join her sisters in their pursuit of a husband. Expertly narrated with confidence and skill, Aiken entwines themes of loss and love in this regency pastiche. 

This New York Times instant bestseller and now an Amazon film is a royal romance with a twist, featuring Alex Claremont-Diaz who becomes the USA's first son when his mum becomes president, and his relationship with Henry, the remarkably un-stuck-up Prince of Wales. What starts as a transatlantic spat grows – through a PR-focussed intervention which was only ever meant to create a fake Instagram friendship – into something deeper and more dangerous, as Alex and Henry search for the courage to be their true selves and let their love shine through.

How do you move forward when everything you love in on the line? Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out: move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone.

The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mum that she has no idea who she really is anymore. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York to stay with her best friend Tom and do everything on The Getaway List. Riley isn't sure what to expect from Tom, but when she arrives in the city, their reconnection is effortless. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the delightfully chaotic items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.

It was never Tilly's intention to fall in love, but Cupid will get you when you least expect it . . . Tilly isn't looking for a girlfriend, but her best friend Teddy is. Enter Katherine Cooper-Bunting: beautiful, charming, and perfect for Teddy. So why does Tilly find herself using any excuse to join the theatre production they're starring in? And why can't she stop thinking about Katherine? Cupid's Revenge is a hilariously honest novel full of heart, from Wibke Brueggemann, author of Love is for Losers. 

Kadou, the modest prince of Arasht, has no plans to wrestle for imperial control with his sister, the queen. Yet he is in conflict with the father of queen's new child, who is a powerful ambassador at the court. Then a hunting expedition goes badly wrong, and Kadou finds himself accused of murder. The Ottoman-inspired setting is the perfect backdrop to this sensual tale of courtly intrigue, backstabbing politics and romance.

Back in the late sixties, Leo Gazzara left Milan and his family and shifted to Rome for work. Soon he finds himself unemployed and in a haze of romantic liaisons and alcohol. Leo drifts, aimless and alone. The night he turns thirty, Leo meets fragile Arianna, and they drive the streets in his Alfa Romeo, then escape to the sea together. What follows is the story of the year Leo fell in love and lost everything. This intense love story is a newly found classic of Italian writing, with echoes of The Great Gatsby.

For fans of Bridgerton who'd like to welcome magic into their lives. Set in an alternative Edwardian England, this is a comedy of manners, manor houses, and hedge mazes: including a magic-infused murder mystery and a delightful queer romance. Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he's actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society, and he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his adversarial magical-society counterpart, as together they discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.

Meet Philip Thane: an unrepentant rogue and a scoundrel. He never wanted to come to little Whittlesey to make a speech, and he certainly didn't want to be stuck in a loop, living the same day over and over again. He takes the chance though to get close to Miss Margaret Allen, who is in town to research a book. Philip is astonished to find she can resist his charms. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for Philip to take a good look at himself and win her heart the right way. A must for fans of Bridgerton.

In the award-winning Noughts and Crosses sequence, Malorie Blackman creates a dystopian world in which the white Noughts are treated as an inferior race, while the black Crosses are born into privilege and perceived as superior in every sense. It follows Sephy and Callum, who, despite the friendship they have shared since they were children, are fated to be bitter enemies. Sephy is a Cross, dark-skinned, beautiful and the daughter of a powerful politician, while Callum is a Nought, white and poor, existing to serve Crosses and nothing more. But against all odds, star-crossed lovers Sephy and Callum choose each other. 

In Jane Austen’s classic romantic novel Pride and Prejudice, Mary is the plain, pious, overlooked middle sister. But in The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow shines a light on Mary. She’s an introvert in a family of extroverts, a disappointment to her mother and with little in common with her sisters. As she watches her sisters marry, it seems Mary is destined to be single forever. But will Mary find there is hope for her after all? This life-affirming, uplifting story of a woman finding her place in the world is a wonderfully warm and witty homage to Jane Austen.

Perfect for fans of One Day, Miss You is the story of Tess and Gus, who are meant to be. They just haven’t met properly yet . . . Both on holiday in Florence, their paths cross for just one day. Over the next sixteen years, life and chance keeps them apart, but will fate eventually bring them together?

Adapted into the hugely popular film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to shed a tear at the ending of Nicholas Sparks’ first novel. This is one of the most-loved romance novels in recent history and is a love story you won't forget. 

Whitney is not having a merry Christmas. In the last three weeks she’s lost her boyfriend and a promotion. Forced to gather at her grandparents’ cosy cabin for the holidays with her large family, the only way she’s going to get into the holiday spirit is with the help of three wise men: Johnnie Walker, Jack Daniel's, and Jim Beam. However, nothing offsets the shock of discovering her old boyfriend, Eli, on the doorstep. Now she’s stuck for a week with Eli, the only man to ever break her heart. And he’s ready to win her back . . .

Reyna, the private guard to the queen, and Kianthe, the most powerful mage in existence, have one wish, and that’s to open a cosy little bookshop where folk can drink tea before an open fire, surrounded by plants and company while reading their favourite books. However, furious monarchs, magical creatures, and the citizens of Tawney all have other ideas. Combining high stakes with cosy fantasy, this hugely anticipated read wraps sapphic representation, healthy relationships, powerful women and comfortable fireside chats into a warm hug of a story. With dragons. Don’t forget the dragons. Or the other books in the The Tomes & Tea Quartet.