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Readers' Top 100 Romances of the Past Three Years
Since the dawn of publishing—of storytelling itself, really—people have been drawn to romance. As a culture, we seem to appreciate the idea of people falling in love with other people (or, occasionally, vampires). Sometimes the love is elevated and noble. Sometimes it’s dangerous and exciting. Often it’s delightfully explicit. Everybody wins!
We wanted to see what romance has been looking like lately during our particular slice of history, so we’ve collected below the 100 most popular romances of the past three years, as determined by Goodreads regulars. Specifically, we looked for individual romance novels that Goodreaders have rabidly shelved and recommended—each title listed here has an overall rating of 3.5 stars or higher.
The results below are split into contemporary and historical romances, but you’ll find plenty of variety within those broad designations, including lots of queer love stories and a good dose of fantasy elements. Also: Scotsmen.
Trendwise, it’s clear that the top of the list has been informed by the constantly churning online conversation known as #BookTok. The viral nature of such discourse tends to favor contemporary rom-coms from a handful of authors you'll spot again and again in the rankings—Colleen Hoover, Ali Hazelwood, and Tessa Bailey, to name three. It also seems that Goodreaders tend to find an author they like, then drill down into their backlist of available books. Can’t argue with that. It’s a reliable strategy.
Check out the list below, add anything interesting you spot to your Want to Read shelf, and feel free to register your delight and/or disagreement in the comments section below. But play nice! Be the comments section you wish to see in the world.
Contemporary Romance
Historical Romance
What's your favorite romance published in the past three years? Let us know in the comments below!
Find more romance recommendations in our recent coverage:
Comments Showing 101-124 of 124 (124 new)
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Precious wrote: "How is this list missing books by Kennedy Ryan? Christina C. Jones? Alexandra Warren? Nora Roberts? Who made this list?"Agreed!
Nessa (Tell the Books im Home) wrote: "For readers, it does seem some people in the comments are not really paying attention to the words."It ends with us" is not even on the list.
And it states "of the past 3 years", last I heard, Jan..."
While yes, It Ends With Us is not technically on this list, It Starts With Us, the sequel to It Ends With Us, is definitely on the list.
Rose wrote: "Can you read? The book's title is "It STARTS with us". I'm currently reading it and so far it is a romance.".The person you're responding to wasn't talking about the book It Starts with Us. She was talking about the book It Ends with Us, which--as I assume you know--is an entirely different book by the same writer. As far as I can tell, she simply used that Colleen Hoover book as an example of why she doesn't like Hoover's books.
Becky wrote: "None of them I read lol. What is first book I should read?Feel free to send me message or add me first! :)"
Half a Soul
Half a soul is best!! historical romance with fantasy elements
Janine wrote: "Goodreads seems to have lumped historical romances together with fantasy novels. And there is not a single paranormal romance (shifters, vampires etc. in a contemporary setting) or SFR (romance in ..."exactly. romance has so many sub genre its not just contemporary. I don't even like that genre. Where is fantasy romance?? Paranormal?
Pixie 🍜 wrote: "Can you stop putting Colleen hoover books on romance lists? It ends with us etc is not a romance but an abusive relationship and written by someone who defends her own son sexually assaulting someo..."Totally agree, not a romance book
Precious wrote: "How is this list missing books by Kennedy Ryan? Christina C. Jones? Alexandra Warren? Nora Roberts? Who made this list?""Readers' Top 100 Romances of the Past Three Years"
"Specifically, we looked for individual romance novels that Goodreaders have rabidly shelved and recommended—each title listed here has an overall rating of 3.5 stars or higher."
It's the top Romances of the last three years--top in shelving and recommending and rating highly. I don't know most of the authors you're talking about, but nearly every author I see on this list has been very hyped in the past few years--so much so that even I, who doesn't really read much Romance, have heard of them--so I'm guessing that the authors you are talking about here have not put anything out in the past three years that has become as popular with the demo that tends to use Goodreads as these books have. Which is a long way of saying I don't think they're, uh, booktok famous.
I've got a few of these on my Want to Read shelf, cool!!Where are the PNRs though?
I am guessing the curation of this list is mostly about quantity more than anything else? I know they selected books with a rating of 3.5 or better, but by their own definition 3 stars = 'I liked it" which I think most users translate to be very middle of road.When I click on a random selection of the books in this list that rated between a 3.5 and a 4.0 and read the first several reviews, most are along the lines of "well, it was nice, I guess..." LOL.
So my feel is that while these are popular books that fall within the current marketing zeitgeist I am not getting a real sense of ringing endorsement on most of them. Just that they are books that are a lot of people's radar and get shelved. But Not getting the sense that the people that read them collectively really loved them.
I am a long time romance reader and contemporary is my favorite of the subgenre and even I haven't read many of these. And the ones I have read, I see my star rating on them and very few rise above 3 stars.
Becky wrote: "Sweetener ™ wrote: "Where the gay at??"One Last Stop
Boyfriend Material
Take a Hint, Dani Brown
Honey Girl
[book:Delilah Green Does..."
I mean, you got pretty much all of them. You Had Me at Hola, You Made a Fool Out of Death With Your Beauty, and Act Your Age Eve Brown all have bi protagonists, I think, and Written in the Stars has a lead Sapphic relationship. But other than those four and the ten you listed, I think those are the only queer books out a list of 100.
I love reading Blue Saffire, Katie Dowe, Posy Park, Tiffany Patterson, Sonja B,and Kenya Wright these women can write some great books.
Tracy Sumner’s The Duchess Society (specifically The Brazen Bluestocking and the Wicked Wallflower) need to be on the list.
I've read 10 of the books here, and most of them were fine. This is definitely not a list for those of us who have been reading romance for many years, this is mostly a list of cutesy cover pop romance. I could say more, but I'm sure some overly sensitive person would take offense to my other thoughts on this list, so I'll keep them to myself.
"Love in the Time of Serial Killers" (2022) was so good! I wish that had made the list.
I love all the historical romances on here!
Pixie 🍜 wrote: "Can you stop putting Colleen hoover books on romance lists? It ends with us etc is not a romance but an abusive relationship and written by someone who defends her own son sexually assaulting someo..."Can we stop doing this ^
Patty wrote: "Pixie 🍜 wrote: "Can you stop putting Colleen hoover books on romance lists? It ends with us etc is not a romance but an abusive relationship and written by someone who defends her own son sexually ..."facts
Katsuro wrote: The person you're responding to wasn't talking about the book It Starts w..."
Hi Katsuro,
I know exactly what this person was talking about. That's the thing. This person wrote: "It ends with us etc is not a romance but an abusive relationship...". Why whining about a book from 2016, which isn't even on the list? I agree that this wasn't a romance book but "It starts with us" definitely is and deserves to be on the list.
I wouldn't normally respond to that comment but those words pissed me of: "Can you stop putting Colleen hoover books on romance lists?". Like who the (d)uck this person thinks he is? Don't like an author? Ok, don't buy his/her books, don't recommend them to your friends, etc. but don't pressure anyone to do something just because of your dislikes.
(D)ucking cancel culture :-/
Who compiled this list? It’s awful and does not reflect some of the best authors: Rebecca Yarros, Lauren Blakey, Sylvia Day, Kristen Ashley, Vi Keeland….. and so many more.
How is there NO PENNY REID on this list?!?! Like, who even put this list together?
Flock by Kate Stewart
Exodus by Kate Stewart
The Finish Line by Kate Stewart
The Plight Before Christmas by Kate Stewart"
YES to Reverse. Holy crap!!