The Best Romance Books of All Time

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor. On Nick’s arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. But when their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion, they’ll discover that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting their heart under the microscope.

When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident — in a Mercedes no less — Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist … On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend … A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in this fun and flirty multicultural romance debut by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic … and then her bus drives away. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming, and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne’s uncanny perception of its buyer’s private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Chocolat’s every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere. It’s a must for anyone who craves an escapist read, and is a bewitching gift for any holiday.

It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day — July 15th — of each year. They face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. Dex and Em must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself. As the years go by, the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed.

The most beguilingly seductive novel to date from the author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman.

She’s off-limits, but he’s never been good at following the rules … Discover the sizzling, small-town brother’s best friend romance that went viral on TikTok.

They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart. Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek — the man she never thought she’d have to live without … Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic story of love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Wedding photographer Mackensie “Mac” Elliot is most at home behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into the bride-to-be’s brother … an encounter that has them both seeing stars. #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents a novel of love, friendship, and family in Book One in the Bride Quartet.

“This love story between Lucy & Gabe spans decades and continents as two star-crossed lovers try to return to each other … Will they ever meet again? This book kept me up at night, turning the pages to find out, and the ending did not disappoint” (Reese Witherspoon).

When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the North of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate … only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family — and a new love — changes the course of her life. As she begins to find her place, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, she will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for …

Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. But it turns out they have a gift for her as well: The news that the young Australian soldier, Joe Harmon, who had risked his life to help the women, had miraculously survived. Jean’s search for Joe leads her to a desolate Australian outpost, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.

A twist you won’t see coming. A love story you’ll never forget. From the acclaimed author of The Notebook comes a powerful novel about risking everything for a dream — and whether it’s possible to leave the past behind. We don’t always get to choose our paths in life; sometimes they choose us …

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life — big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel — and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy — but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living. A heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan who agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position … Before long, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.

Dutiful Newland Archer, an eligible young man from New York high society, is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a suitable match from a good family, when May’s cousin, the beautiful and exotic Countess Ellen Olenska, is introduced into their circle. A classic love triangle takes shape as the three young people find themselves drawn into a poignant and bitter conflict between love and duty. Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a time and place long gone by beautifully captures the complexities of passion, independence, and fulfillment, and how painfully hard it can be for individuals to truly see one another and their place in the world.

The renowned author of The Women presents a poignant, funny, luminous novel about a mother and daughter — the complex ties that bind them, the past that separates them, and the healing that comes with forgiveness.

Nora Stephens’s life is books. As a cutthroat literary agent, she works hard to land enormous deals for her clients. It is a job she loves but it definitely doesn’t make her the heroine. Which is why her little sister Libby begs for a sisters’ trip away — with visions of a small town transformation for Nora. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute …

Tiernan de Haas doesn’t care about anything anymore. She’s grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. And when her parents suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But she’s always been alone, hasn’t she? Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother, assumes guardianship of Tiernan. Sent to live with Jake and his two sons, Tiernan quickly learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore. As the men take Tiernan under their wing, she slowly finds her place among them …. Because lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching … One of them has her. The other wants her. But he’s going to keep her.

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness … He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I’d never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily … Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other’s most private wounds … and desires. The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn’t tear us apart …

The classic story that has captured the hearts of millions worldwide: A tragically wounded soul, the man called to marry her, and the only love that heals all. Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.