The 10 Best Romance Books

Nearly every enemies-to-lovers story borrows from Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's 1813 comedy about sharp-tongued Elizabeth Bennet and proud, wealthy Mr. Darcy. Each badly misjudges the other, and the pleasure is watching both admit they were wrong. Austen's jokes about money, marriage and meddling relatives still land. This Penguin Classics paperback adds an introduction and notes on old customs. The formal language takes a few chapters to settle into, and the passion stays in glances and letters.

Big, sweeping and hard to put down, Outlander sends Claire Randall, a former World War II nurse, through a ring of standing stones into 18th-century Scotland. There she is forced to marry Jamie Fraser, a young Highland outlaw, while her husband waits in her own time. Diana Gabaldon mixes history, adventure and a slow-burn romance that turns fiery. It contains graphic violence, including sexual assault, and it opens a long series.

Readers who want passion with a dark streak should try Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel about an orphan who becomes a governess at gloomy Thornfield Hall. She falls for its moody owner, Mr. Rochester, until a secret hidden in the house blows everything apart. Jane tells the story in a frank, fierce voice that still feels modern. The early school chapters are bleak and slow, and Rochester can seem controlling to today's eyes.

Emily Henry flips a familiar movie plot in Book Lovers: Nora Stephens is the brisk big-city career woman who usually loses the guy to a small-town sweetheart. On a summer trip with her sister to a North Carolina town, she keeps running into Charlie Lastra, a prickly book editor she already can't stand. The banter is quick, and the bond between the sisters gives the story weight. Expect strong language and a few open-door scenes.

Bring tissues for Me Before You, Jojo Moyes's story of Louisa Clark, a chatty small-town woman who takes a job caring for Will Traynor, a once-adventurous banker paralyzed in an accident. Their sparring turns into something deeper as she tries to show him life is still worth living. It is warm and often funny, but it is not a happy-ever-after book. Its handling of disability and assisted dying drew protests from disability-rights groups.

The Hating Game turns office rivalry into a slow-simmer romance: executive assistants Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman share an office after two publishers merge, and they trade petty insults all day. Then both go up for the same promotion. Sally Thorne's debut is told by Lucy, whose quirky inner voice drives the jokes. The scenes heat up fast in the second half, and Josh's cold act can read as mean early on.

Fake dating meets lab science in The Love Hypothesis. Olive Smith, a biology PhD student at Stanford, kisses the first man she sees to convince her best friend she has moved on, and he turns out to be Adam Carlsen, a famously harsh young professor. He agrees to play along. The academic details ring true, from grant worries to conference nerves. It began as Star Wars fan fiction, and the last third is explicit.

Spanning more than half a century, The Thorn Birds follows Meggie Cleary from childhood on Drogheda, a vast sheep station in the Australian outback, through a lifelong, forbidden bond with Ralph de Bricassart, an ambitious Catholic priest. Colleen McCullough fills it with droughts, fires and family secrets, and it remains the best-selling book in Australian history. Be ready for a long read that offers heartbreak as often as romance.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a page-turner about an aging Old Hollywood star who picks an unknown magazine writer, Monique Grant, to tell her life story. Evelyn walks through each marriage, but the real love story is with fellow actress Celia St. James, hidden from the public for decades. Taylor Jenkins Reid makes fame, ambition and secrecy feel personal. It reads more like drama than genre romance, and the ending is bittersweet.

Teens and adults alike reach for The Fault in Our Stars, John Green's novel about Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old with cancer who meets Augustus Waters at a support group. Their bond grows over a shared favorite book and a trip to Amsterdam to find its reclusive author. Hazel's voice is dry and funny, which keeps the story from turning preachy. It was written for teens, and the ending is heartbreaking.