125 Best Romance Books of All Time

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Parade, 127 Books

"We spoke to best-selling authors—everyone from Jojo Moyes to Nicholas Sparks to Julia Quinn to Taylor Jenkins Reid—and passionate people at indie bookstores all over the country to create this list".

Who voted and how many people?
Since they don't list an exact amount of authors they asked or how many bookstores they talked to, I am going to go with 20.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
8268 A Caribbean Heiress In Paris Adriana Herrera 2022 American English
7184 The Perils Of Pleasure Julie Anne Long 2008 American English
4549 Forever Amber Kathleen Winsor 1944 American English
166 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez 1985 Colombian Spanish
3600 Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid 2019 American English
4191 Flowers From The Storm Laura Kinsale 1992 American English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
8694 Amberlough Lara Elena Donnelly 2017 American English
8550 Forbidden Beverly Jenkins 2016 American English
9289 It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake Claire Christian 2020 Australian English
1232 Patience And Sarah Isabel Miller 1969 American English
3486 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
9081 The Prince Of Broadway Joanna Shupe 2019 American English
4308 It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover 2016 American English
7762 Butterfly Swords Jeannie Lin 2010 Unknown English
6170 Mrs. Miracle Debbie Macomber 1996 American English
4549 Frederica Georgette Heyer 1965 British English
3430 Get A Life, Chloe Brown Talia Hibbert 2019 British English
842 Outlander Diana Gabaldon 1991 American English
3053 Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston 2019 American English
890 High Fidelity Nick Hornby 1995 British English
4549 Restoree Anne McCaffrey 1967 American English
3608 Virgin River Robyn Carr 2007 American English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
5648 The Prize Julie Garwood 1991 American English
6706 Maggie The Mechanic Jaime Hernandez 2003 American English
5278 Heartbreak Soup Gilbert Hernandez 1985 American English
1510 The Duke and I Julia Quinn 2000 American English
8256 The Kraken King Meljean Brook 2014 American English
2011 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks 1996 American English
7859 Phantom Evil Heather Graham Pozzessere 2011 American English
6096 True Betrayals Nora Roberts 1995 American English
4834 Entwined Destinies Rosalind Welles 1979 American English
5582 This Is How You Lose The Time War Amal El Mohtar, Max Gladstone 2019 Multiple English
5021 Me Before You Jojo Moyes 2012 British English
7192 Heartstopper Alice Oseman 2018 British English
5332 Through A Glass Darkly Karleen Koen 1986 American English
8268 Honey And Spice Bolu Babalola 2022 British English
188 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 1859 British English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
5935 A Promise Of Fire Amanda Bouchet 2016 American English
3317 The Kiss Quotient Helen Hoang 2018 Vietnamese English
4549 Bride Of The Mac Hugh Jan Cox Speas 1954 American English
3252 Endless Love Scott Spencer 1979 American English
9081 Wolf Gone Wild Juliette Cross 2019 Unknown English
8872 Becoming Mrs. Lewis Patti Callahan Henry 2018 American English
9577 The Queer Principles Of Kit Webb Cat Sebastian 2021 American English
1367 Like Water For Chocolate Laura Esquivel 1989 Mexican Spanish
7637 Angels' Blood Nalini Singh 2009 New Zealander English
1203 Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart 1958 British English
9783 The Romantic Agenda Claire Kann 2022 Unknown English
9081 Polaris Rising Jessie Mihalik 2019 American English
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
1009 Love Story Eric Segal 1970 American English
4999 The Sun Is Also A Star Nicola Yoon 2016 American English
9783 Kiss Her Once For Me Alison Cochrun 2022 Unknown English
1863 Katherine Anya Seton 1954 American English
8268 The Dead Romantics Ashley Poston 2022 American English
1056 Maurice E. M. Forster 1971 British English
6987 Just Listen Sarah Dessen 2006 American English
9577 Happy Endings Thien-Kim Lam 2021 Unknown English
6405 Dark Prince Christine Feehan 1999 American English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
9081 Brazen And The Beast Sarah MacLean 2019 American English
8268 That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Demon Kimberly Lemming 2022 American English
3910 Water For Elephants Sara Gruen 2006 American English
9081 Bloom Kevin Panetta 2019 Unknown English
3842 An Extraordinary Union Alyssa Cole 2017 American English
9783 Partners In Crime Alisha Rai 2022 Unknown English
6987 Lord Perfect Loretta Chase 2006 American English
9289 Cemetery Boys Aiden Thomas 2020 American English
765 The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullough 1977 Australian English
5039 Highland Velvet Jude Deveraux 1982 American English
8268 You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty Akwaeke Emezi 2022 Nigerian English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
8550 The Hunter Kerrigan Byrne 2016 Unknown English
9999 Mistakes Were Made Meryl Wilsner 2023 Unknown English
92 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1920 American English
5318 Eleanor And Park Rainbow Rowell 2012 American English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
676 The Princess Bride William Goldman 1973 American English
8550 Coffee Boy Austin Chant 2016 Unknown English
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
8385 A Seditious Affair KJ Charles 2015 British English
8268 The Bodyguard Katherine Center 2022 American English
4549 The Wolf And The Dove Kathleen E. Woodiwiss 1974 American English
9289 The Lost And Found Bookshop Susan Wiggs 2020 American English
1675 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 2003 American English
9783 Chef’s Kiss TJ Alexander 2022 Unknown English
786 The Far Pavilions Mary Margaret Kaye 1978 British English
8268 Before I Let Go Kennedy Ryan 2022 American English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
7637 Soulless Gail Carriger 2009 American English
4549 Mistress Of Mellyn Victoria Holt 1960 British English
9783 Next To You Hannah Bonam-Young 2022 Unknown English
8872 When Katie Met Cassidy Camille Perri 2018 American English
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
3581 Call Me By Your Name André Aciman 2007 Italian English
5465 Gift Of Gold Jayne Ann Krentz 1988 American English
5508 Seven Days In June Tia Williams 2021 American English
7184 The Winter Rose Jennifer Donnelly 2008 American English
2212 Swordspoint Ellen Kushner 1987 American English
4739 When A Scot Ties The Knot Tessa Dare 2015 American English
4145 Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz 2012 American English
2331 Whitney, My Love Judith McNaught 1985 American English
9289 Spoiler Alert Olivia Dade 2020 American English
811 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux 1909 French French
9783 Dead Collections Isaac Fellman 2022 Unknown English
6096 Tonight And Forever Brenda Jackson 1995 American English
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
9577 The Ex Hex Erin Sterling 2021 American English
6901 Raymond And Hannah Stephen Marche 2005 Canadian English
8053 Neon Gods Katee Robert 2021 American English
9783 D'vaughn And Kris Plan A Wedding Chencia C. Higgins 2022 Unknown English
2595 Bid Time Return Richard Matheson 1975 American English
5637 Book Lovers Emily Henry 2021 American English
1128 The Price Of Salt Patricia Highsmith 1952 American English
7859 The Scorpio Races Maggie Stiefvater 2011 American English
9289 Brutal Prince Sophie Lark 2020 Unknown English