I fell down a romance rabbit hole a few years ago. I’d always read romantic comedies -- and I particularly love(d) Marian Keyes, Jill Mansell, Sophie Kinsella -- but I think I hadn’t read a pure, unabashed romance in a while. And then I started writing a romance, or perhaps I should rephrase that: I started writing, and all I could write about love, and all I wanted to read and consume was romance.

Anyway, it’s been a few years of this and breaking my brain, and bingeing TSITP (weeks after s3 ended, so I could not join in the outrage of how much more Conrad could suffer week after week) and copying the list from one app to another every time someone asked for a recommendation, so I’m going to go through my most recommended books here. I am also halfway through reading Ella Risbridger’s In Love with Love: The Persistence and Joy of Romantic Fiction, and it is excellent, and I have laughed out loud and mentally bookmarked so much of it.

Here goes:

Everything by Ali Hazelwood, obviously. My favourites: Deep End, The Love Hypothesis, Not in Love and Love, Theoretically. Just read everything, I guess! Thank me later!

Laura Woods -- Under Your Spell, and Let’s Make a Scene. Under Your Spell is great, and Let’s Make a Scene is such a delightful pick me up of a book. I could read standalone novels about each of the characters.

Emily Henry -- like everyone, I have my favourites: Beach Read, Book Lovers, Funny Story.

Christina Lauren -- Love and Other Words, Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, The Unhoneymooners. I’ve actually read all of Christina Lauren’s books, and I really enjoy their writing. (I also have a soft spot for the Wild Seasons series, but that really is more on the smut end of things and that’s a different list altogether, friends.)

Betty Corrello -- 32 Days in May. I found this incredibly moving and really beautifully told. I sort of really love the idea of using a classic romance film as a plot hook and recurring reference -- this one takes a cue from Sweet November. [Also see Sleepless in Seattle/BK Borison’s First Time Caller, When Harry Met Sally/Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation, and the While You Were Sleeping bit (and other references) in Woods’ Let’s Make a Scene.]

Catherine Walsh - Snowed In. I inhaled a bunch of her books in one go.

BK Borison - First Time Caller I also do like her Lovelight Farm series, and I think it got stronger with each one, but I know small town romances aren’t for everyone.

Carley Fortune - One Golden Summer. I’ve reread this a few times, and I always come away feeling so charmed by it all. I love how open Alice is about her desire and ambition.

Casey McQuiston - The Pairing. This is a sensory overload of a book in all the best ways -- desire, yearning, romance, food, wine, travel, cravings. Did I say yearning? YEARNING. I was bowled over by this book. I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

Sophia Travers - The Heir. This is a delightful twist on the billionaire trope (Travers has a few billionaire books too.) because they’re both rich! And ambitious! And competitive! (Risbridger points out that even when they’re both rich, they’re not equal, and that’s also true here.) Still, it’s utterly sexy, the whole thing. (For what it’s worth, this might qualify a lot more as smut? What even is the dividing line? Anyway, a romance is a romance is a romance.)