Seven Romance Novels You Should Read
Today (Saturday, August 20, 2022) is Bookstore Romance Day, a campaign started to help independent bookstores celebrate romance books, authors, and readers. The genre has changed a lot in the past few years as a more romances featuring queer characters and characters of color have been published by large romance publishers like Berkley. A huge shift has also come in covers; fewer and fewer books are keeping the Regency covers with busty women or the cowboy romances with shirtless men. Many books now have illustrated covers. Some readers have suggested that the illustrated covers are now taking over in a way not unlike the days of shirtless male covers, but I personally prefer the brightly colored covers to the old ones.
I started reading romance novels when I joined Bookstagram (book-centered Instagram) in December 2020. I was stuck at home with a local bookstore close by and a digital library at my fingertips, so I began reading like I had when I was a kid. Romance novels quickly jumped to the top of my reading list because 1) I could read them quickly, 2) I always knew there would be a happy ending, and 3) I became super invested in the characters.
I grew up with some stigma behind “beach reads” which were defined as books women picked up at the grocery store or airport to read on vacation. They were lesser literature. However, going through my bachelor’s degree in English, I realized that there really isn’t such a thing as “lesser” literature. Reading was reading. Books were books. If the writing was captivating and I could invest time in the characters, those things made it a good book for me. Reading, like most things, is entirely subjective. That’s great because it means that there is space on the market for nearly every writer and reader. Of course, not all books are going straight to the New York Times’ Bestseller List, but that’s okay.
In honor of Bookstore Romance Day and to encourage you too to fall in love with romance novels, here are my top seven favorite romance novels I’ve read recently (in no particular order).
1. Beach Read by Emily Henry
January Andrews is a romance author with writer’s block. Augustus Everett is a grumpy literary fiction author. When life throws them together in a small Michigan beach town, they have to learn to get along. It’s a romance, so you know what’s going to happen. This setting and these characters set the stage for me and locked me in as an Emily Henry fan, maybe for life. Her writing is easy while giving you depth, so you genuinely care about the characters. If you like this one, check out People We Meet on Vacation and Book Lovers too!
2. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
Vivienne Jones and Rhys Penhallow have a history, and when the small, witchy town of Groves Glen, Georgia needs their help, they have to set aside their chemistry to ensure magic exists for generations to come. This book is somewhat predictable, but it’s also the perfect book to you get you in the fall season mood. If you’re looking for a lot of sexual tension and a story of friendship, this might just be the book for you.
3. Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
This is a graphic novel that is perfect for the aging Percy Jackson and the Olympians fans. Smythe’s book started as a Webtoons comic where she continues to post little sections while publishing the next volume. Volume 1 follows Hades and Persephone’s story as they navigate the politics of Olympus and their thousand-year age gap. The illustrations are colorful and add to the characters’ personalities, and the story progresses quickly. I read this book in two days because I was invested in both the graphics and the storyline. If you’re new to them, this is a good place to start.
4. While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
Bookstagram introduced me to the wonderful Jasmine Guillory, and I started with her latest release because why go in series order when you don’t have to? This novel follows movie start Anna Gardiner and advertising executive Ben Stephens as they flirt their way from San Francisco to Los Angeles and back again. As a Los Angeles native living in the Bay Area, the language disputes between the two characters are particularly entertaining. Even if you don’t know the California regional beef, this novel looks at the way careers, family, and romance can all mash together to create who we are. I have since read several other Jasmine Guillory books, and I highly encourage following her on social media.
5. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Well, this one is just steamy. Ali Hazelwood is a professor with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and an absolutely fabulous romance writer. Without the shirtless men on the cover, Hazelwood’s novel bridge feminism and romance in some of the best ways possible. She has also recently published a series of three novellas currently available as eBooks that are also worth the read. The Love Hypothesis follows graduate student Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen as they navigate their respective projects and try not to fall in love. I think it’s worth noting that this novel as a THIRTY PAGE sex scene that is built up with just the right amount of will they/won’t they that it makes it worth the wait.
6. The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
If you’re a writer and you love romance, this book is for you. Written by a husband-and-wife duo, The Roughest Draft throws Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen into a home where they are forced to cowriter one more book together per their contract. The catch? They can’t stand each other. Add a manipulative fiancé and some forbidden romantic chemistry and you have one of the best romance novels I’ve read recently. After writing YA books together for a while, Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka have now launched into the world of contemporary romance and have a second adult novel coming in 2023.
7. Blackout by Angie Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, Ashley Woodfolk, Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, and Tiffany D. Jackson
This is the only Young Adult book on this list and it is a collection of short stories written by the above YA authors. I’ve not read a book by any of these authors, but after reading Blackout, I know I need to change that. This collection is a series of interconnected stories during a New York City blackout in the middle of summer. There are bonfires to get to and libraries to hide in, and what isn’t explicitly said is that these characters are passing each other and existing in the same spaces without knowing it. I read this book story by story, but there were nights when I couldn’t put it down because I wanted to know what would happen next.
Let me know if you’ve read any of these books or have any other recommendations to celebrate a new age of romance novels!
