Happy forever. These three words form the backbone of the romance genre. Because no matter how difficult the journey is, in romance, the protagonists will be together at the end of the story. This is why so many readers return to these books again and again – in a tumultuous world, novels offer reassurance.
And they have never felt more needed or enjoyed such a popular celebration as in recent years. Sales of the genre began to soar as COVID-19 shut down the world and readers sought a dose of warmth and levity in 2020; the emergence of TikTok As a platform for word-of-mouth book recommendations, around the same time, novels new and old went viral, pushing a handful of authors into the rarefied territory of non-repeat. 1 New York Times best sellers. Last year, romance book sales increased even further, with nearly 40 million printed copies sold, according to a market research firm. Circana. And the number of romance-specific bookstores in the US – from Tropes & Trifles in Minneapolis to the torn bodice in New York City and Los Angeles – has grown from just two in 2020 to more than 20 today.
If you don’t understand the appeal of romance novels, we bet you’ve never read one. Reading romance can be an escape to a sweeter, gentler version of our world – or it can be a risky adventure into strange new lands. Romance can be contemporary, historical, paranormal, erotic. It can tell stories of enemies who turn into lovers, of childhood sweethearts who reunite as adults, of strangers reluctantly forced together who find themselves catching feelings, of unwilling bedfellows, of bloodthirsty vampires and clandestine witches and doctors Overworked and amnesiac spouses learning to love each other. once again. Romance can take place in a Regency mansion, in a boardroom, on the side of a football field, in a small town. There is a subgenre, a trope, and a plot for every reader – a story to satisfy any particular taste.
To create our list of the 50 best novels to read now, we started in early 2024 by talking to booksellers, publishers, authors, and other industry experts who helped us understand the nuances and evolution of romance. These conversations helped shape this list’s entries (all books in the English language), which TIME editors refined by considering key factors including ingenuity, commercial success, acclaim, and impact, with the goal of compiling a list that celebrates the growing gender inclusion. .
The resulting list features books spanning hundreds of years, starting with Frances Burney’s 1782 novel. Cecilia—a book that influenced one of the genre’s most beloved novels—and ending with Ali Hazelwood’s 2023 novel STEM Love, theoretically. No writer’s work appears more than once. Spanning diverse subcategories and tropes, the books on this list feature gripping, poignant, and often steamy narratives that represent the best the genre has to offer. Not only do they provide satisfying resolutions for their characters, but they also touch on big ideas about grief, identity, vulnerability, empathy, and acceptance—all the things that strengthen our most powerful relationships.
That’s why, as bestselling author Casey McQuiston argues in an essay for this project, anyone who dismisses romance as nonsense or something like a guilty pleasure is missing the point. “If we expect a great novel to tell us about humanity, the novel is a mirror of our wants and needs,” writes McQuiston. “If we want to study works that are part of a larger literary tradition, the novel has one of the richest.”
This story is as complex as social attitudes about gender roles and sexuality. Following the evolution of the romance genre means confronting popular narratives that deal with sex and consent in outdated and sometimes harmful ways. Many books that are considered foundational to the modern novel by authors such as Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and Judith McNaughtfeature narratives of rape and coercion—and while we recognize the ground they broke in helping to establish a broad readership for the genre, we choose not to recommend these books to today’s readers.
Also not on TIME’s list: The notebook. Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 hit may come to many people’s minds when they think of romance, but – forgive us if you’ve managed to remain untouched for nearly 30 years – it doesn’t end happily. Similarly, E.L. James’s 2011 erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of grey it didn’t meet our criteria, because of its ending (although the series as a whole could). A happy foreveror at least one fortunately for now, was our first non-negotiable in selecting the titles on this list. Our second was less black and white: the love story needed to be the central focus of the plot. For this reason, popular romance series like Sarah J. Maas’ Cutting thorns and roses and Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing do not appear on this list, as we intend to draw a line between fantasy books with romantic elements and romance books with fantastic elements.
Despite these absences, there are many familiar names on TIME’s list, from Nora Roberts and Beverly Jenkins to Nalini Singh and Stephenie Meyer to Jasmine Guillory and Emily Henry. Whether you’re a veteran romance reader, a newcomer to the genre, or somewhere in between, you’ll find something to love here.
See the full list
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Special thanks to Bolu Babalola, Eliza Berman, Clair Brett, Samantha Cooney, Helen Fielding, Erin Galloway, Katie Garaby, Melissa Gill, Jasmine Guillory, Jenny Han, Bea Hodges-Koch, Cindy Hwang, Jayashree Kamblé, Kevin Kwan, Leah Koch, Wes Lukes, Belinda Luscombe, Erin McMullen, Casey McQuiston, Caitlin O’Neil, Julia Quinn, Lauren Richards, Tessa Berenson Rogers, Simone Shah, Emma Straub, Chelsea Stringfield, Becca Title, Tia Williams and Rebecca Yarros
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
