The 32 Best Romance Books of 2024...So Far

Here are 32 of the best romance books of the year...so far. I’ve rounded up the best romances I’ve read and the ones my friends have read and loved, the best reviewed, the breakout success stories and the bubbling under contenders that deserve a shot at the spotlight.

Romance novels take many forms and this year some of the best come in every variety. We’ve got contemporary romances, Western romances, sci-fi romances (not to mention romantasies), historical romances, sports romances, romances on the sets of movie and TV shows, summer romances, real life romances, high school romances and even high school reunion romances. Not all of them have guaranteed Happy Endings. Some great Romances end with a good cry, you know. But whatever type you appreciate, you’re sure to find some here, along with others off the beaten path you might just want to give a try. You never know where you’ll stumble across true love.

So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade are…

The 32 Best Romance Books of 2024…So Far

1. Funny Story by Emily Henry
2. Good Material by Dolly Alderton
3. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

If you love romance novels, you know all about the enemies-into-lovers idea or the forced-proximity dilemma. With Emily Henry’s latest charmer, you get a double treat. It’s the “we’re just posing as boyfriend and girlfriend” trope crossed with the head-spinning situation of falling in love with your ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex! What was that again? Anyway, Henry had us at a heroine who is also a children’s librarian.

The New York Times calls Dolly Alderton a British Nora Ephron and that’s enough for us. In Good Material, a struggling stand-up comic named Andy is trying to figure out why Jen dumped him. It’s a new, more nuanced and heartbreaking spin on High Fidelity, with less music, just as much humor and the real possibility of friendship. While some romance novels insist only a Happy Ending is a happy ending, Alderton offers a more likely option: life goes on and maybe that person you dated will make you a better person.

Rainbow Rowell delivers her first work for adults in a decade and fans will wonder why she waited so long. Sure, it includes two people who were best friends in high school (and too dumb to realize they loved each other). But this is a mature work in every sense, with people who’ve put on some mileage, made some mistakes and are ready to work on their relationships…especially one that might just be a second chance at first love. 

Funny Story by Emily Henry ($29; Berkley) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Good Material by Dolly Alderton ($28; Knopf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell ($28; William Morrow) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

4. Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
5. The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
6. In A Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander

Kevin Kwan! Author of Crazy Rich Asians! His new comic romance/caper/beach read extraordinaire! You need details? A bankrupt–but handsome–future Earl of Greshambury (and son of a Hong Kong supermodel, hence the handsomeness) must go to a wedding attended by the super rich and snag a woman of means before his fancy life implodes for good. Problems ensue, like a secret liaison that comes to light, a volcanic eruption and worst of all, falling in love with the relatively penniless girl next door. Amusement guaranteed.

If you can’t go to the Caribbean, you can at least read the romance In A Not So Perfect World, which is set in the Caribbean. That’s where a video game designer who pledged to her bosses she’d remain single finds herself pretending to be the girlfriend of a man so she can get a free trip and he can win back the woman who dumped him. Then she starts to fall for him? Game over.

And nestled in the middle is Ruth Reichl, the high water mark of food writing, who delivers a light novel that romps through the City of Lights with the delicious ease of Nora Ephron.

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan ($29; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl ($29; Random House) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

In A Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander ($17.99; Harper Perennial) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

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7. An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin offers a dual biography of sorts, telling the story of her lifelong romance with husband Dick Goodwin as together they chart their remarkable seat at the table of power during the tumultuous 1960s. They share their separate memories of working for LBJ and Dick’s role on the campaign of Bobby Kennedy. The era ended in tragedy but their belief that government can make society better for everyone endured.

An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin ($35; Simon & Schuster) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

8. The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
9. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 
10. Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Three novels toy with science fiction and fantasy elements so winningly that people who think they don’t really like those genres are happily devouring them.

In The Husbands, Holly Gramazio takes a clever spin on the swipe-right dating world by letting a woman discover a wonderful attic. Down comes a man and her life is transformed. And if she tires of him, he can be sent away and another very different man comes out of the attic so she can see what life with him has to offer. And on and on, in a parade of husbands and instant gratification and a sneaking realization that always being able to try something else might just be its own trap.

With The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley has what might turn into the unclassifiable debut of the year: a time-traveling/workplace comedy/romance between a civil servant in the near future and her unexpected roommate: an Arctic explorer who perished back in 1845…at least until the Ministry of Time got a hold of him. Nutty, surprising and just as easily filed under Romance or Literary Fiction, for the snobs who can’t bear to read sci-fi, even one as acclaimed as this.

Finally, in Expiration Dates, a woman is cursed (or blessed?) to be informed at the start of every relationship how long they’ll last: three hours, the weekend, four months? It’s all spelled out in advance. Should commitment have an expiration date? And how will our hero react when this magical predictor stops working?

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio ($29; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley ($28.99; Avid Reader Press/S&S) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle ($27; Atria Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

11. A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell
12. The Outlaw Noble Salt by Amy Harmon
13. You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

In A Shore Thing, queer love blossoms in Victorian England in one of the best reviewed romances of the year. Kit embraced his male identity and a new life as a bicycle enthusiast, even if it meant giving up the painting he loved. And now he’s head over heels in love with Muriel, a botanist cruising through town who might just give Kit the full life he never imagined possible.

Butch Cassidy in love? That’s the premise for this historical romance. Like many outlaws before him, Cassidy decides he’s done with the adrenaline rush of outlawry and goes straight. Or tries too, at least. He also falls hard for a singer named Jane Toussaint and she falls for him…even after discovering his brutal past. Jane convinces Butch to be her bodyguard on a tour of the West and well, if you’ve seen the movie with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, you know where this is headed.

Cat Sebastian excels at queer romances, this time the unlikely but inevitable (?) sparks flying romance between a closeted baseball player in 1960s New York and the lonely arts reporter somehow assigned to write a profile. Sigh. Why does this have to be just a story, says the lonely arts reporter writing this roundup? 

A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell ($19; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

The Outlaw Noble Salt by Amy Harmon ($16.99; Lake Union Publishing) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian ($18.99; Avon) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

14. I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

After 9/11, Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like A River arrived just in time as a balm for troubled souls. He has a knack for tackling difficult, troubled subjects and yet claiming a hopeful optimism as our right. Enger does it again with this picaresque tale set in a near-future America. The country is collapsing but our hero Rainy takes to the waters of Lake Superior in search of his beloved wife (a bookseller!) and with a naive openness that makes him a radical when the world around Rainy is so troubled, fearful and full of apprehension.

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger ($28; Grove Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

15. When I Think Of You by Myah Ariel
16. How To End A Love Story by Yulin Kuang
17. Under Your Spell by Laura Wood

In this second-chance romance by debut author Myah Ariel, two college sweethearts who reunite on a film set aren't the bickering couple of Hollywood rom-coms destined to reunite. They're real people. Kaliya is frustrated by her lack of opportunity in the studio system, where she's stranded at a reception desk. Danny has a new project taking off and offers Kaliyah a chance to work together. Flashbacks to their days in college make clear why sparks still fly and Danny's home life adds a serious backdrop. And a crisis means a happy ending isn't always the way the story ends.

Lovers turned enemies turned…writing partners on a TV show? That’s the premise of red-hot screenwriter Yulin Kuang. She’s adapted a novel by bestseller Emily Henry. She’s writing and directing the upcoming movie Beach Read. And here’s her debut novel, the story of a best-selling author of fiction for teens. Her heart was broken. She takes a job in the writer’s room on a TV show based on one of her books…and finds her ex sitting next to her. Sparks fly, naturally. How do you write the ending of a love story, especially when maybe you don’t want to?

Author Laura Wood enjoys success as an author for kids and young adults. Her Poppy Pym series is perfect for those who can’t get enough of British boarding school novels and The Agency For Scandal–about an all-female detective agency in the 1800s–is surely fated to become a TV series. Now Wood jumps into adult fiction with this romance. In it, Clementine Moore is the daughter of a rock star so she is determined never to date somebody famous. Yes, she’s cornered into taking a summer job working alongside the hottest pop star on the planet, in every sense of the word. Yes, he’s unexpectedly delightful. Yes, sparks fly. And no no no, it’s not gonna happen.

When I Think Of You by Myah Ariel ($18; Berkeley) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

How To End A Love Story by Yulin Kuang ($18.99; Avon) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Under Your Spell by Laura Wood ($18.99; Atria) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

18. Don’t Want You Like A Best Friend by Emma R. Alban
19. Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
20. Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

Three romances for the women in your life…and the people who just love good stories. Don’t Want You Like A Best Friend crosses Bridgerton with The Parent Trap in a queer Victorian romance that marks a very promising debut for Emma R. Alban. Author Alison Cochrun is also a relative newcomer, but her third novel proves her first two successes weren’t beginner’s luck. In Here We Go Again, two one-time best friends now in their 30s and spinning their wheels in life are forced into a cross country road trip. Their passenger? A beloved English teacher who only has months to live. Cue the montage of humor, heartbreak and a happy ending (I hope!). Opposites attract when two women both claim they are the rightful owners of the Thistle and Bloom Farms. If you believe they’ll start working together to put the ailing North Carolina flower farm back on its feet and yet disagree on practically everything about how to do so and try and fight off their growing attraction to each other, well, congratulations! You’ve been paying attention.

Don’t Want You Like A Best Friend by Emma R. Alban ($18.99; Avon) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun ($17.99; Atria Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings ($18; Griffin) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

21. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

Surely you’re already a fan of Helen Simonson. She takes her time, but over the past 14 years she’s delivered three gems. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a contemporary story about a stiff upper lip Brit falling in love with the Pakistani woman running his local food shop. It has old-fashioned written all over it. So it was no surprise when Simonson explored earlier eras. In the delightful The Summer Before The War, she captures romance in East Sussex just as World War I is about to break out. Simonson knows a good era when she sees one, so Hazelbourne is set in a seaside town just after World War I, with romance and women chafing under the constraints of society after war showed them what is possible when they’re given the chance. 

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson ($29; The Dial Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

22. Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
23. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
24. Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindel

Bestseller Mary Kay Andrews offers frothy fun and if we valued that as much as we should, Andrews would be on every "best of" list. In Summers at the Saint, Traci Eddings is determined to revive the fortunes of her late husband’s hotel on the coast of Georgia, if only interfering in-laws, a motley staff, an unexpected death and long-ago scandals don’t stop her. Fans say it's one of her best.

In the social media whirl of Just For The Summer, two reluctant dating app stars are cursed by a terrible track record: everyone who goes out with them rebounds and immediately finds a soul mate. So naturally, everyone wants to have a whirl, dump them and find true love. So why not date each other? That should break the curse! Real life intrudes into this fun premise when the guy suddenly needs to care for his siblings and the gal must deal with her poisonous mom. 

Summer Fridays heads back to the New York City of 1999 for its dash of romance. Sawyer is unhappy when her fiancé spends more and more time at work with his colleague Kendra. When Kendra’s boyfriend Nick reaches out to Kendra, they compare notes about what seems like an affair, butt heads…and become friends. Suddenly, Fridays become their afternoon for exploring the city, enjoying themselves and figuring out who they are and what they really want.

Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews ($29; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez ($17.99; Forever) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindel ($18; Dutton) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

25. The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
26. Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin

"Romantasy" is a hot new genre. It mixes fantasy with romance in a way never imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien, who felt even hand-holding was a bit much for Middle Earth. Not anymore, where dragons and magic might be the backdrop for a steamy affair that would make Jackie Collins blush. In his polished, acclaimed debut, Justinian Huang proves romantasy can also be a launchpad for great writing. He combines reincarnation and a love that crosses millennia to share a story of an emperor and courtier fated to be. They meet in a palace and again 1700 years later at an isolated inn...and again at an underground rave in LA. So they're fated to be...but it's going to take a while.

Combine the classic gothic drama of Rebecca with Chinese folktales and you get a magical new novel by Judy I. Lin. Nominally pitched to Young Adult fans who loved her Book of Tea duology, it’s actually perfect for anyone who enjoys romantasy or myths steeped in cultures far afield of America. A young woman finds herself trapped as an indentured servant at the House of Flowing Water, where Xue must perform music for wealthy customers. The nobleman Duke Meng seems to offer a way out of this restricted life. But, in fact, he draws our hero into the Celestial Realm. There Xue must fend off demons, dredge up painful memories and save the Six Realms, all by creating the best songs of her life…and decide along the way if Meng should be trusted or feared. Or both.

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang ($28.99; MIRA) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin ($20.99; Feiwel and Friends) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: Is This Horse-Crazy Author The Next Colleen Hoover?

27. A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

A Novel Love Story takes the premise of Pleasantville, The Purple Rose of Cairo and other “jump into the world you’ve been imagining” tales and gives it a clever spin. Our hero Eileen Merriweather is a professor of literature so she’s the perfect person to maneuver through danger when she somehow ends up in the fictional setting for her favorite romance novels. If only that annoyingly handsome bookstore owner wasn’t standing in her way!

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston ($19; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

28. Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
29. A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
30. Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang

Three more works of literary fiction likely to be on many lists of the best books of the year–not just the best Romance or LGBTQI+ books of the year, but the best, period. Housemates is enjoying the most attention so far. It’s a road trip story of two queer roomies who bond over their love of art (Leah is a writer and Bernie a photographer) while striving to honor the legacy of Bernie’s mentor and college professor. Author Rose Sutherland offers a modern sapphic updating of the selkie wife folk tale that’s already scoring with readers and those critics smart enough to seek it out. And Cinema Love travels from rural China to Chinatown in New York City with a story transcending decades. In Jiaming Tang’s novel, love and friendship are inextricably intertwined for a closeted man and the woman he marries so they can escape to America. It too is universally admired by critics.

Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg ($29; Hogarth) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland ($18; Dell) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang ($28; Dutton) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

31. Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro
32. The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram

Two high school students get together at summer arts camp–and only summer arts camp–one night a year. I mean, they call it Sunrise Nights so surely they’re giving a knowing nod to Before Sunrise? Here, Jude is an aspiring photographer and Florence is a dancer who discovers her career is probably over before it ever began, due to a degenerative eye disease. Is a relationship that only takes place one night a year too rarefied to survive the other 364 days? And will Jude and Florence be brave enough to find out? It’s written in relay fashion by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro and we assume the Netflix deal is already in place.

In The Breakup Lists, the high school drama department provides all sorts of drama for stage manager Jackson Ghasnavi, who is definitely not crushing on the swim team captain Liam when said Liam becomes the leading man of the school’s new production. Both books are very well reviewed and both are pitched to the Young Adult market. But why let labels get in the way of a good romance?

Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro ($19.99; Quill Tree Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram ($19.99; Dial Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: The 46 Best Books of 2024…So Far