I love a good love story. My favorites are typically ones that can also make me laugh (rom-coms). Bonus points if the book gets me to blush while reading.
My top three favorite tropes for a romance book are: grumpy x sunshine, enemies to lovers and fake dating. I love a good grumpy MMC which often goes hand in hand with enemies to lovers.
Here are some of my all-time favorite romance books and why:
- A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn – Meghan can always make me laugh out loud. She is so good at rom-coms. This one contains the ‘fake dating’ trope. The MMC gave me Christian Gray vibes as a billionaire.
- Hearless by Elsie Silver – Small town romance, cowboy/rodeo vibes. This book is an opposites attract with a grumpy x sunshine trope. Elsie nailed a good grumpy MMC with Cade Eaton.
- The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros – This one is not for the faint of heart. No rom-com style here. The Last Letter tugs at your heart strings like no other book. Proceed with caution when starting this one, but it’s worth it. The writing is brilliant and the love story is something beautiful.
- Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez – If you sing Taylor Swift’s song when you read that then you’re in the right place on my blog. Just a side note. This book is far from a slow burn. It’s more of “love at first sight” but circumstances in the FMC’s life make the attraction complicated. This was Abby Jimenez’s newest book for 2025 and even though it is different than what I usually love – it was the best romance I had read in awhile.
- The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center – Fun and cute rom-com book. I enjoyed the tie in to Katherine’s other book “The Bodyguard.” Also, Katherine mentions in this book how we always know how a romance or rom-com is going to end (they fall in love) but it’s how the author or storyteller gets you there that’s the good part. That is so true. I had never put that thought together on my own before and it’s a brilliant point.
- Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez – The Disney girl in me always sings the song from Little Mermaid when I read that title. I would recommend this whole series. Its one of those series that each book is about a different character. This first one was my favorite though. Two different worlds colliding – small town vs city, two completely different career paths and family backgrounds.
- Happy Place by Emily Henry – This was my first Emily Henry book and it made me fall in love with her writing! It is full of friendship, love, lust, careers, family and travel. The main characters call off their engagement but when forced to be together on a friends trip they have to fake still being together since they haven’t told their friends yet. Fake dating, forced proximity and one bed tropes.
- Book Lovers by Emily Henry – Grumpy x sunshine and enemy to lovers trope! My favorite trope! Two rivals collide while they are away from the big city in a small-town, not so meet cute.
- Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door by Lucy Score – I would recommend this entire Riley Thorn series. This series has a little bit of everything all rolled into one (cue Meredith Brooks song) – humor, sarcasm, fun banter, romance, action, drama and clairvoyance (psychic). This was a book that made me so happy that Lucy continued to write more books on the same characters. I finished it wanting more from those characters and Lucy delivered.
My favorite romance authors that I will read anything they write are:
- Meghan Quinn
- Abby Jimenez
- Katherine Center
- Emily Henry
- Lucy Score
- Laurie Gilmore – I haven’t read anything else by her other than her Dream Harbor series, but any book she releases in that series, I will read even though some of them haven’t been my favorite
- Colleen Hoover – would recommend any of her books!
I am looking forward to diving into Elsie Silver more and I have a feeling she will be added to this list. I am loving her Chestnut Falls series so far and have others on my TBR.
Leave me your author or book recommendations below!