Hey everyone!
Within the past year or so I have really tried to branch out my reading a little bit more so I wasn’t just reading the same types of books by the same types of people. One genre I started dabbling in a bit more that I want to talk about is romance novels.
Something that really interests me about this genre is how it almost seems taboo to read, at least in my personal opinion, I always felt like I was going to be judged if I was reading a romance novel instead of literary fiction or something more “esteemed”. However, I do not think there should be any stigma around romance novels. Therefore I am here to share three of my favorite romance novels that I have read in the past year. In no particular order:
1. Beach Read by Emily Henry
This book follows two authors of different genres who end up sharing neighboring beach houses for a summer. As stated before, both authors write different genres and both think that their genre is superior, but they also both happen to be having writers block.
So this novel follows our two main characters as they challenge each other to write a story of the other’s genre and of course since it is a romance novel, they form a relationship in the process.
I really liked this novel because it wasn’t just a cute nice love story. Both of the main characters have flaws and things in their life that they have to deal with and work through. I feel like it was easy to connect with both of these characters, and in return it made it super easy to root for their romance because you are rooting for both of the characters individually.
Despite what its title implies, this novel does deal with some serious topics as January, our main character, is struggling with some heavy topics (I won’t tell you because I don’t want to spoil anything). But because of this I feel like this is a good novel for someone trying to dip their toes into romance because its not all just a happy-go-lucky story.
2. This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
This novel follows two people who were born on the same day at almost the exact same time, and this day just happened to be New Years Day.
Our main female character believes that her birthday is cursed and that her life is unlucky because of it. Our main male character seemingly has life made and nothing goes wrong for him. Although we all know that not everything is as it seems and our main characters will soon find that out.
This novel was a lot of fun as there are a lot of really fun characters and it was a fairly quick read. We follow out main characters as they work out their relationship together, and there are a lot of ups and downs.
I would recommend reading this book around the holidays (though they are a ways off, it isn’t critical but it will set the mood) and just be prepared for lovable characters you just want to see succeed.
3. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Firstly, this book has such amazing representation, literally everyone needs to read it. Our main female character is a black woman who struggles with chronic pain, and our main male character is so open about his mental health which is something hardly ever talked about in novels.
This story follows Chloe Brown, who is determined to “get a life” so she creates a list of things she needs to do to “get a life”. Then along comes her landlord Redford Morgan who helps her complete her list.
Both of these characters are once again very lovable and I think that this story is so worth the read for anyone even slightly interested in romance novels. I once again read this one fairly quickly because I just had to know what was going to happen next.
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to drop some of your romance recommendations for me in the comments of this post!