The world has fallen in love with romance again. Romantasy has become its own multi-million-pound industry, with sales up considerably in the past year, but romance and erotic fiction also saw sales value increases of 9.8% and 18.1% respectively last year. As Valentine’s Day approaches, here are romantic reads to set your heart racing.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
“The Empyrean” romantasy series by bestselling author Rebecca Yarros has sparked a “global phenomenon like the Harry Potter and Twilight books before it”, said Marie Claire. It centres around cadets in military training in a fantasy world where dragons roam. The series is “hugely addicting, very steamy” and promises to further ramp up the “adventure, political tensions and, of course, romance” that “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” have become so well-known for.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
If you’ve figured out how every romcom ends, this unpredictable story is the book for you, said The Guardian. Phoebe Stone is the only hotel guest at the grand Cornwall Inn in Rhode Island who isn’t there for a huge wedding. Instead, she is planning “to end her life in the most expensive suite”. When spoilt Lila, the bride-to-be, realises that something may get in the way of her perfect day, “mayhem breaks loose – but not in the way you might expect”. This is “unexpected and delightful, funny but never cruel”.
The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood
When Delphie chokes on a burger, she finds herself in actual limbo – halfway between life and death – and it is here she meets the man of her dreams. Of course, things can’t go smoothly with that kind of start, and he is sent back to earth when it emerges he was merely unconscious and hadn’t actually died. But when Delphie is offered a celestial deal, can she find him (and kiss him) “before her days are quite literally up?” asked The Independent. “You’ll be smiling, laughing and kicking your feet as Delphie tries to not only save her life but find her soulmate.”
What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella
A novella about being diagnosed with brain cancer doesn’t feel like the thing to be reading on the most romantic day of the year. But this story, which depicts a “true love that will stay solid as a rock over a lifetime” is “incredibly affecting”, said The Guardian. Kinsella herself had the same diagnosis in 2022, and it is against this history, that she “explores what happens when the person you love has to tell you over and over again that you have cancer, because the cancer means that you keep forgetting.” This sense of “romance as something that persists when everything else is gone” is “life-affirming”.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
This “flips the traditional romance script”, said The Independent. Realising that you’re in love with your best friend is the well-worn happy ending to many a romcom, but that plot twist becomes Daphne’s source of pain after her fiancé Peter leaves her for his old pal Petra. When she needs a new roommate, who better, thinks Daphne, than Petra’s ex Miles, who understands exactly what she’s going through? It’s packed with “plenty of great banter, a brilliant take on the fake dating trope and a fun story”.
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Romance writers love a split-time novel and although this is not quite one of those, this “charming and vibrant” romance does stretch from the “Harlem Renaissance to the modern day”, said The New York Times, with a hint of the “light supernatural”. When Ricki rents the bottom floor of a brownstone she meets a stranger, Ezra, who will change her life. There’s a “delicious bite of uncertainty” that there will be a happy ending, but that only makes Ricki and Ezra’s final chapters “so much sweeter”.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
One of the “most poignant” LGBTQ+ romances, this coming-of-age tale follows two young boys as they prepare to head off to war in 1914. The multi-award-winning “tender love story” sees them struggle to admit their feelings for one another, unsurprisingly so, considering homosexuality was a criminal offence at the time. Love runs as a theme throughout, “from the love for one another to their family, friends and comrades, to the love for one’s country,” said The Independent.