Readers' Top 100 Romances of the Past Three Years
Posted by Sharon on February 1, 2024
For dedicated book readers, Valentine’s Day always brings to mind a specific book genre. No, not horror; we’re talking about romance! In honor of the impending holiday, we decided to pose a simple but interesting question: What are the most popular recent romance books among Goodreads regulars—let’s say, books published in the past three years?
Well, we crunched the numbers, and the results are below. For this collection, we determined overall popularity based on the books that Goodreads members have put on their Read and Want to Read shelves. (For book series that had multiple titles in the top 100, we included only the book with the most shelvings.)
Veteran romance readers will note the undeniable influence of BookTok here (Hi, Colleen! Hi, Emily! Hi, Rebecca!), as well as the encouraging presence of quite a few self-published romances. And if you click around for a bit, you’ll notice a strong showing from recent popular subgenres like dark romance, sports romance, and romantasy.
Speaking of subgenres, keep in mind that this list represents mass member interest on Goodreads. So if your favorite niche or beloved trope is underrepresented, or you feel too overwhelmed to know where to start here, pop on over to our curated romance recommendations article. Or check out the reading groups on Goodreads, wherein your irrepressible fellow Goodreaders get super-specific with their reading recommendations and lists.
Meanwhile, click on the cover images below for more details about each book, add any good leads to your Want to Read shelf, and feel free to swap further recommendations for books to love in the comments section below.
Now it's your turn! How many of these popular romances have you read? And what are your favorite recent romances?
Check out more romance coverage here:
Check out more romance coverage here:
E.M. Williams
You should really have some Jenny Holiday on there.
Susan
I find it bizarre that there is not a single historical romance on this list. In fact, all the Goodreads lists I've seen recently have completely ignored that subgenre.
In terms of contemporary authors, I'm disappointed to see nothing from Lexi Ryan.
In terms of contemporary authors, I'm disappointed to see nothing from Lexi Ryan.
Heather
Susan wrote: "I find it bizarre that there is not a single historical romance on this list. In fact, all the Goodreads lists I've seen recently have completely ignored that subgenre.
In terms of contemporary au..."
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels is historical fiction
In terms of contemporary au..."
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels is historical fiction
Susan
My bad. But one book out of 100 suggests it wasn't classified as such and instead snuck in under some other category. "Historical romance" used to be its own category on Goodreads, but it seems to have been replaced on all the lists by "romantasy" without combining the historicals into the overarching "romance" category. Which is really frustrating when you're looking for more authors like Lorraine Heath, Lisa Kleypas, Grace Burrowes, etc.
Edited to note that, yep "Wisteria Society" has the "fantasy" tag as well as the "romance" tag so it's likely here representing "romantasy".
Edited to note that, yep "Wisteria Society" has the "fantasy" tag as well as the "romance" tag so it's likely here representing "romantasy".
Lynn
Most of the books on this list are very popular, which makes sense based on the way they were chosen, but just like The Goodreads Choice Awards, they aren't necessarily the best books. However, I do think there is a wide variety of authors even though historical romance is really not represented.
Andi Rappleye
Do y’all know any no spice off this list? Like YA?
Berenice
Does anyone know of any good adult, (no ya) romance books with baseball?
Jessica
Would love to see Jenny Hickman in the top 100!!!
Amy Harth
To not have a single book by Alexis Hall is a bizarre oversight.
Laceygoodbooks
I have a few of these books, the rest looks interesting to me
