It’s been a decent reading year for me and I’m happy to note that I read quite a few romance novels. I’ve always loved romance novels but in 2020 – one of the toughest years ever, I found myself weirdly gravitating towards heavier books. 2021 was the year I made a bit of a conscious effort to read light. In this post, I’ll be sharing my top 8 romance books of the year.
Looking to read more romance novels? Start with these!
The love hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
This was probably my favorite romance novel of 2021. I can’t recommend this enough. It’s so good with the right amount of everything. The characters were memorable and I connected to them more than I would like to admit.
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
This is also a highly recommended book of the year. The Flatshare was my introduction to Beth’s work and I couldn’t get over how perfect it was. The most wholesome slow burn romance !
Until it fades by K.A. Tucker
Such a sweet book! It’s a bit too long and it took forever to kickstart the romance. You finish this and you just want more. The first thing I did was try to find out if there is a second book. It gave me Fifty shades of grey vibes but with a more interesting main character and a lot less sex scenes. If you’re looking for a not so short love story, this is for you.
Seven days in June by Tia Williams
This book gave me the ultimate black love feels! I mean, yes it is heavy on the trauma but it’s also heavy on the love and it’s so well written that you almost start to imagine these characters are real. Shane remains one of my favorite characters this year.
You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry
This book is fun, the banter is great, the chemistry was amazing, the style of writing is just right and the ending was perfect. Emily does a great job developing the characters in this book and their friendship. You can’t help but love and feel every single emotion with them.
Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola
This book was really good. I didn’t read it when it first came out and the hype around it was insane. I just knew I wanted to wait a bit. I’m glad I did because I enjoyed every single story in this book. Bolu’s stories are so memorable and relatable. They centre around love; women choosing love and letting themselves be loved. It was beautiful to read these stories and I definitely need it.
Act your age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Book 3 in the Brown sisters series. It wasn’t my favorite book in the series but I enjoyed it so much. Eve and Jacob being enemies just wasn’t working for me. Lol it wasn’t believable but I didn’t mind. I still recommend reading the first two books before this.
One to watch by Kate Stayman-London
I basically just read an entire season of “The bachelor” or should I call it “The main squeeze”? I loveee the bachelor and I have watched it for years so I was excited to start this. It perfectly matched my expectations. I’m so happy with how it ended. The contemporary style of writing made it super enjoyable and easy to read (the live tweets, the emails, the blog posts) I loveeeed it!
If you’re looking to get into romance novels, this is a great list to start with. I thoroughly enjoyed these books and can confidently say they’re my favorite romance books of the year!
Have you read any of these books? Feel free to share your favorite romance novel of the year!
Ooh! I’m saving this list. Thank you! I’ve been waiting to borrow the Love hypothesis from the library! As you can imagine, the waiting list is long
Also curious about the Emily Henry novel. Love in color was such a bright spot in my romance reading this year!! My favorite from this year is a tie between “the heart principle” by Helen Hoang and “instructions for dancing” from Nicola Yoon.
You’ll love The love hypothesis! I have been wanting to read Instructions for dancing. It’ll definitely be one of the books I pick up in January.
Just found my new reading list for next month