Best Romance Books of All Time

October 8, 2024

After publishing the Best of the Best Romance Books of 2023 list last month, I decided to apply the same meta-analysis methodology to lists of the best romance books of all time.

And when I learned that The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list didn't include any romance books, I was even more excited to do this analysis. Shout out to Sarah MacLean, who represented the genre well with her ballot!

Without further ado, I present the Best of the Best Romance Books of All Time: a meta-analysis of 26 best romance book lists to find out which books appeared on the most lists and can be named the best of the best.

Note: This list has been compiled based on research and should not be considered my own personal recommendations or endorsements.

Based on my analysis, 70 books rose to the top and appeared on 4 or more best romance book lists. The top book, Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, appeared on 18 of the 26 lists!

Given that there are numerous ties on the list, the books are listed alphabetically by title within each tied group.

A few highlights:

• Duplicate authors: 8 authors have 2 books on the list – Alyssa Cole, Ali Hazelwood, Emily Henry, Talia Hibbert, Helen Hoang, Lisa Kleypas, Christina Lauren and Julia Quinn.
• Genre: roughly half of the books on the list are contemporary (47%) and a quarter are historical (27%), while the remaining quarter is comprised of fantasy/paranormal (13%), classic (7%), young adult (4%) and erotic (2%).
• Publish date: 76% of the books were published in the 21st century, 18% in the 20th century and 6% in the 19th century.
• Representation: 30% of the books have BIPOC representation and 10% have LGBTQ+ representation among the main characters.
• Series: 61% of the books are part of a series.

It's also debatable whether some of the books on the list should be categorized as romance—namely because they don't have an HEA (happily ever after), which is generally seen as a required element of romance books. However, this wasn't a consideration in my analysis.

Here is the final list!

1. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (2019)

2. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1991)

4. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (2019)

5. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (2018)

6. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (1996)

7. Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (2021)

8. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (2018)

9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

10. Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (2020)

11. Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (2007)

12. An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole (2017)

13. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (2016)

14. Indigo by Beverly Jenkins (1996)

15. Vision in White by Nora Roberts (2009)

16. Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas (2006)

17. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (2000)

18. The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (2019)

19. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase (1995)

20. Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean (2010)

21. Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh (2006)

22. Virgin River by Robyn Carr (2007)

23. Book Lovers by Emily Henry (2022)

24. A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera (2022)

25. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2012)

26. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (2016)

27. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (1985)

28. Normal People by Sally Rooney (2018)

29. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011)

30. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han (2014)

31. The Bride by Julie Garwood (1989)

32. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)

33. The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston (2022)

34. Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake (2022)

35. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (2012)

36. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)

37. Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola (2022)

38. It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey (2021)

39. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (2023)

40. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (2012)

41. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)

42. Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez (2022)

43. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (2019)

44. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1977)

45. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005)

46. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (2000)

47. When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare (2015)

48. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

49. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (2022)

50. Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (2021)

51. Bared to You by Sylvia Day (2012)

52. Beach Read by Emily Henry (2020)

53. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (2019)

54. Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (2019)

55. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015)

56. Dark Lover by J.R. Ward (2005)

57. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (2011)

58. Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai (2017)

59. Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren (2018)

60. A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux (1989)

61. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1989)

62. Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan (2018)

63. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (2021)

64. Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas (2016)

65. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (1973)

66. A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole (2018)

67. The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (2021)

68. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2003)

69. Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught (1985)

70. You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria (2020)