I love romance books, but I also just love a romance storyline in any book! So in this video, I talk you through my favourite romance books and the tropes I love, …
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Favourite Romance Books & Tropes (+ Non-Romance Recommendations for Those Tropes!!)
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Pip Reads
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I love a good romance in a fantasy book!
alexink
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I actually like romances in SFF books, but my tastes are very special and half the time I don't know them myself 😂 Doesn't help that I also really dislike sex scenes in books 😅
I'll definitely check out Criers War, since it's so well loved, and Night Circus is already on my TBR! I'm also really interested in This is How You Lose The Time War, so maybe I'll check that one out as well!
Morgan
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I don't know if Red, White & Royal Blue can really count as rival/ennemies to lovers since it was so short and clearly one sided. I would say it fits more the forbidden romance trope because of their situation.
A year later and I'm still so disappointed that I ended up disliking this book. It was one of my most anticipated release and it just fell flat for me. The romance felt more like a subplot with the huge amount of politics throughout the books and how one sided it was since there's only one pov. The clear good guys and the clear bad guys between the 2 countries was so frustrating and that abrupt ending with no moment with just the 2 of them didn't help for me. Sorry it still makes me feel a lot of things even after all this time 😅
Sheila Espina
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
you should read "you deserve each other". its a 2nd chance romance which i thought i wouldnt like because i dont like that trope but i ended up really loving it. easily the best romance ive read this year so far. its a love to hate to love. and the banter is so so good. also maybe made me cry a little.
Cori
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
Boyfriend Material is a male/male romance (actually written by a male author!) set in the UK. It felt suuuuper British to me to the point where I, as an American, was having a hard time keeping up sometimes! It's a fake dating with a bit of enemies to lovers adult romance book and it's gloooorious.
Booksnink
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I absolutely adored The Binding…
Griff Reads
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
Mhairi McFarlane is one of my favourite romance authors. "If I Never Met You" has a fake dating storyline and I really enjoyed it!
Beach Read is also really good if you like "enemies to lovers." It's about two rival authors who are living in neighbouring beach huts for the summer and they decide to swap genres to try and help each other get out of their writing slumps. I gave it 5-stars 💛
Kerry Ann G
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I got really into Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham back in 2011 who is an English romance/contemporary author. I have not read her recent stuff but I remember loving her writing.
Books with Clementine
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
One recommendation for an urban fantasy romance, with the hate to love trope (and not instantly too) is the Relentless trilogy by Karen Lynch ?
Also, thanks for your videos and recommendations today !
Jessica Williamson
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
Well Met by Jen Deluca is great for an enemies to lovers trope, especially if you like renaissance festivals =)
Mänō
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I love romance in my books, but I don't tend to read true "romance" books. However, I did read the "new adult" romance, Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas, and I absolutely LOVED it. If you don't mind a straight, age gap & slow burn and also don't mind more explicit intimate scenes than the more cutesy romances, then this is worth a read. It's often described as a "taboo" romance, but it is a very slight taboo if you can call it that(I can't describe without giving too much info). The only other "romance" book that I would recommend is The Unhoneymooners which I actually found to be quite cute and fun.
Jess Nipper
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
My dude! SAGA! It's star-crossed lovers set in an intergalactic war! Chef's kiss! I'm not usually a romance reader, I like it as B plots, but I like my romance to come with other plots, like a fantasy world with political upheaval, but I am so intrigued by the Brown sisters books.
Aleksi Äikää
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
i love the book: date me bryson keller
Books with Ike
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I don't have any recommendations for fake dating, but for enemies/rivals-to-lovers I can recommend:
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. It's a classic booktube choice, but for good reason. (I really did not like the sequel, but the first book absolutely works as a standalone).
The Diviners by Libba Bray. My new favourite series (as in, it's a new favourite, not that it overtook all of my old favourites), it's a YA prohibition era supernatural horror about eugenics and the failure of the American Dream, and more things besides. This is actually, I'm pretty sure, the only series where I have cared more about the M/F couples than the M/M or F/F ones. But all the romances are great. And one in particular absolutely fits enemies-to-lovers, but I won't spoil which.
Legend by Marie Lu. Another booktube classic. This is a YA dystopian series about a boy who is public enemy number one, and a girl who is an officer of the law dedicated to catching him. Pretty much the only big dystopian series of that era I ever got into.
and Proxy by Alex London (yes, the same guy who wrote the Skybound trilogy). It's a YA dystopian series set in a world where some people are proxies, people who are punished for the crimes of a rich patron – like a futuristic whipping boy. Syd, the main character, only has one year left of being a proxy. Then his patron kills someone, and Syd is sentenced to 14 years in a labour camp in his place. Syd is gay, and there are some very cute M/M romances in this series, both of which are enemies-to-lovers, to varying degrees.
As for star-crossed lovers/forbidden romance:
My go-to has to be Timekeeper by Tara Sim. It's a YA historical steampunk fantasy M/M romance set in an alternate Victorian London where time is controlled by magic clock towers. It's about a young clock mechanic who falls in love with a time spirit, which is illegal. Meanwhile terrorists are bombing the clock towers and stopping time. It's one of my favourite series of all time, and the romance is my favourite book romance ever.
There's also my favourite book of all time, Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak. It's a lot more of a subtle use of this trope than is typical, but it absolutely fits. It's about a boy called Aidan Lockwood who is just kind of drifting through his life growing up in the small, sleepy town of Temperance, Ohio. Then his best childhood friend, Jarrod, returns to Temperance after years away, and starts talking about things that Aidan doesn't remember, but definitely should, such as the strange man in the black suit that only he could see. The two of them decide to find a way to recover Aidan's memories, and along the way they discover the history of the Lockwood family. It's M/M, in case that wasn't obvious.
And I guess there's also Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz. It's about a boy called Rudy whose family moves to a remote island where there are magic fish which might be able to cure his little brother's cystic fibrosis. One day on the island, Rudy sees something he can't believe – a boy who is part fish. It is SUPREMELY disturbing, and I would definitely look up content warnings, but it is an incredibly poignant and beautiful story.
May as well also throw in The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I feel like that counts.
Sarah_L_ N
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
Beach Read by Emily Henry is really good, it's rivals/enemies to lovers. I also loved The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary, although that's more strangers to lovers I guess? But those two and The Kiss Quotient are my favourite romances this year.
Stacey
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
A couple adult contemporary romances that combine both fake dating & enemies/rivals to lovers that you might want to check out are: The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren and Well Met by Jen Deluca!! =)
Another rivals (minor, pranking each other type rivals etc.) to lovers adult romance that I really loved was The Simple Wild (and its' sequel Wild At Heart) by K.A. Tucker and they have the added bonus of being set in Alaska. =D *There's also a novella in this series coming soon called Forever Wild.
For an adult romance where it's the guy being mushy and putting in the work highly recommend The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams! Its' sequel is a rivals to lovers however most people dislike the female mc in the second book (she's the sister in the first book) so if you have a strong reaction to her in the first book then maybe pass on the second. 😛
For a forbidden type romance I enjoyed Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
If you're also looking for YA romance then there's another fake dating one that I've enjoyed: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
elenathegreat
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I didn’t know that Gideon the Ninth has enemies/rivals to lovers 👀👀👀omg
Brightness Katy Reads
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
yessss love romance <3
zafir and dani UWU
Spoopyhol
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
I never knew how to pronounce Quotient so today we have learned something😂
Arya_foot 12
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
One of my favourites this year that is hate to love & fake dating that I absolutely recommend is the Unhoneymooners
SaphiniaWinter
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
First book that comes to mind, especially as you mentioned bi characters in opposite sex relationships, that i would recommend is Xeni by Rebekha Weatherspoon, marriage of convenience more so than anything else but it fits many of these things. I mean the tag line is "marriage of inconvenience" so there you go. it's very.. um.. explicit. but also super heartwarming too.
meanwhile adds books to tbr dammit
Jord
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
The unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren has fake dating and hate to love !!
captainleoniexo
July 12, 2021 at 11:31 am
Hate to love is also my favourite romance trope, so I‘ve read quite a lot of books that feature it. Some of the best are The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (hate to love AND fake dating), From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata (very slowburn but sooo good cause they develop a friendship first, it‘s enemies to friends to lovers), Landon and Shay by Brittainy C. Cherry (so much deeper than it seems, it deals with heavy topics such as depression) and Scorpio hates Virgo by Anyta Sunday (male/male frenemies to lovers) 🥰