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The 52 Most Popular Romances of the Past Three Years
Ah yes, the allure of new love! Be prepared to be charmed, wooed, and—of course—seduced by these most popular romance novels of the past three years, according to Goodreads members.
These recent romances include new crushes in the form of blockbuster debuts from Casey McQuiston, Jasmine Guillory, and Helen Hoang. There's also the return of many longtime loves, including Colleen Hoover and the writing duo Christina Lauren. To create our list, we looked through our data to find the romance novels published since 2018 that have the most Want to Read shelvings (that's how we measure buzz).
So, here they are! Readers' most popular romance novels on Goodreads, listed from 1 to 52. Scroll over the book covers to learn more about each novel, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!
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What are some of your favorite recent romance novels? Let’s talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 1-50 of 94 (94 new)
message 1:
by
Will
(new)
Feb 02, 2021 01:55AM
The placement of Red, White and Royal Blue is just right.
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Strange that none of Lisa Kleypas,Tessa Dare`s or Nora Roberts aren`t in the list.
Where are all the historicals? Why so many from the same authors?
Azet wrote: "Strange that none of Lisa Kleypas,Tessa Dare`s or Nora Roberts aren`t in the list."So few historical romances!
Where are the Historical Romances and Mass Market Romances?
They clearly didn't foresee the Bridgerton trend!
I'm surprised that Stephanie Laurens did not make the list or Nora Roberts.
How on earth is The Hating Game not on this list?! What about A Rogue of One’s Own?!
Axel wrote: "Where is the hating game on that list?!!"The Hate Game is too old for inclusion here, we only looked at the past three years. Thanks!
Don't y'all have statisticians to tell you what good data looks like?? This data collection is rubbish lol.
I think a better measure would be to look at the ROMANCE (emphasis since not all of these are) books people actually read. I have a lot that I want to read, but I might never get to. Meanwhile there’s a lot of good books that have been read and shared and deserve the hype. Maybe overall user ratings would be a better data source. Also, where’s the HR?? There’s like one. Also also, I can’t take seriously any list that still includes authors that have been proven to be shit human beings **cough cough LJ Shen**.
I have some thoughts over on twitter, but God save us from these terrible lists. https://twitter.com/JenReadsRomance/s...
Your criteria for how you arrived at this list is beyond ridiculous. Not that I don't agree with some of the choices but using 'want to read' as the basis of the voting? Oh c'mon.
Chris wrote: "The placement of Red, White and Royal Blue is just right." :)
All I see is mostly RomComs or want to be RomComs. Which is fine; I have read a lot of these. But this list is not representative of the WHOLE Romance genre. This info is based on "Want to Read," which is not great data, and one could argue not data.
Yall picked a stupid way to see which books are buzzing. I have like 2000 books on my tbr and I will probably only read a super small fraction of those.
Pamela wrote: "Sad not to see LGBT represented"literally the top book is lgbt...
From everything I have seen In Five Years is not even properly placed in the romance genre. Some publishers marketing department has hijacked this list
Jessica wrote: "From everything I have seen In Five Years is not even properly placed in the romance genre. Some publishers marketing department has hijacked this list"Yes, I've read it and I wouldn't really call it romance but yes, it seems to be marketed as one. (Good book though.)
A list that looks at only the last three years of course is going to skew toward the recent rom-com /illustrated cover trend or books.A list that looks at "popularity" amongst of all GR readers of books shelved a romance is going to skew toward those books that are designed to appeal to the casual non-romance reader who will pick up a buzzy book but otherwise would not read anything else romance.
Honestly it reminds me of one time a magazine compiled a list of best hip hop/rap artists and put Drake at the top.
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace: an utterly heartwarming, feel good spring romance by Kate Forster and the Cottonbloom series by Laura Trentham.The Kiss Quotient is good as is In Five Years. Sex and the City is another favourite of mine.
All my book reviews and more are on my blog:
https://justkatherineblog.wordpress.com
Chris wrote: "The placement of Red, White and Royal Blue is just right."I completely agree. Red, White and Royal Blue is the best !!
Diane wrote: "And they both die at the end"Who dies?
Great! Now there are even more titles on my endless wants-to-read list...
Tina wrote: "A list that looks at only the last three years of course is going to skew toward the recent rom-com /illustrated cover trend or books."I didn't even notice this "illustrated cover" trend, but now that you brought it to my attention, you're so right. It's literally EVERYWHERE. Thanks for mentioning it! :)
I thought I'd find some historical romances on this list to add to my TBR shelf, but alas...
I loved In Five Years but it is in no ways a romance. To be a romance it has to have a happily ever after, it also has to have an actual romance in it. There are people dating in this book but it is not romance. The book is about friendship and love between two best friends. I feel like this book was marketed completely incorrectly.
Why on earth would you look at the books on the 'want to read' shelf instead of the books people actually read? The 'want to read' shelf is where books go to die.
Y’all need to do your research. You included plagiarizer author L.J. Shen in this list so I’m disappointed in your list and author choice. The Kiss Thief is a copy cat of Judith McNaught’s Whitney My Love. Besides, go to Instagram and look up @romancelandia, you’ll see a lot more of work that L.J. Shen copied.
Melissa wrote: "Diane wrote: "And they both die at the end"Who dies?"
That's the title. They Both Die at the End It's a YA queer romance.
And on that note, I have to complain about the entire lack of a YA Romance list! There have been so many good ones!
Chris wrote: "The placement of Red, White and Royal Blue is just right."agreed
Not on board with the placements 😬 and where’s The Hating Game? Where is the historical fiction? Argh!
Lilly wrote: "You know, none of my favorite books were on here, and almost all of them are romance novels! But anyway, if anyone wants a good book to hold their attention even when you stop reading, read [book:T..."This article is called The 52 Most Popular Romances of the Past Three Years
Oooh I really need to read Well Met - I've heard so many good things about it!
I have read two of the books on the list, with 3 more being on my TBR. I agree that this is list is very weird as to what is the best romance. None of these would have made my top 50 or even my top 200 really...except for the one historical. I liked that one.
Azet wrote: "Strange that none of Lisa Kleypas,Tessa Dare`s or Nora Roberts aren`t in the list."I agree!
Chris wrote: "The placement of Red, White and Royal Blue is just right."While I LOVED Red, White, and Royal Blue, not sure why this book gets all the love when there are so many other really good queer romances out there by writers like: TJ Klune, Keira Andrews, Cat Sebastian, Mackenzi Lee, Darryl Banner, Adam Silvera, Alex de Campi . . . .
Audrey wrote: "Where are all the historicals? Why so many from the same authors?"Yes!
Keri wrote: "I have read two of the books on the list, with 3 more being on my TBR. I agree that this is list is very weird as to what is the best romance. None of these would have made my top 50 or even my top..."Yes.
Mia wrote: "Not on board with the placements 😬 and where’s The Hating Game? Where is the historical fiction? Argh!"Yes.
Look how many lesbian romance books there are! Just kidding, there aren't any.
Bizarre, repetitive list. I had been hoping for some inspiration in this but there's not much here. And no variety!
Romantic suspense must not be as popular as it used to be.
You totally left out Spoiler Alert (which is beyond adorable!) and Winter's Orbit which I am rereading for the 2nd time in a week and would easily count as one of the best romances of this or any year. What, in God's name, did you base your decisions on?
