100 books like You Deserve Each Other

This novel is about a PH.D. candidate, Olive, who fake-dates a professor to make her best friend feel better about falling in love with her ex-boyfriend. It’s a wild premise, but I love suspending my own beliefs and falling into a romance novel.

This is another one of those single point-of-view books where the main character is incredibly dense, and we KNOW her fake boyfriend, Adam, is so in love with her.

There are also hints of sexism in the STEM field, which is very realistic, and this story touches on it exactly how a romance novel should, with a few moments of despair and a happy ending. 

This book follows a writer named January, who goes to her father’s beach house that he shared with his mistress after his passing.

I love it when a character's backstory has a unique twist to it, and I could feel January’s pain and confusion as she navigated her father’s complicated past. We get to see January grow as a person and also have a romance with the writer next door.

Love stories with complex character growth are my bread and butter, and this was the novel that started it all for me. 

This book is about a woman named Stella, who enters a competition to save her Christmas Tree farm from financial ruin, but she needs a fake boyfriend to sell the story.

Who is better than her best friend, Luka, who she secretly has a crush on?

I am a sucker for Christmas romance novels, and the obvious LONGING from Luka was my favorite part of the book. We spend the entire novel in Stella’s head, and I love it when the main male character is obviously in love with them but she can’t see it yet. 

This novel is set in the fictional amusement park of Honeywood Acres, and it follows two characters who pretend to date as their characters in the park. I love a good fake dating story, especially when it’s for a job, and the two leads hate each other at the start of the book.

It’s a slower burn, which is always fun because it gives us time to fall in love with the characters. The author has a talent for world-building, and I got lost in this book! 

I adore Kate’s writing. She’s brilliant at it. This romance starts with Will making quick enemies with Nora when he moves into her treasured apartment building with plans to rent out a room as an AirBnB.

The tight-knit building community is up in arms over the stranger (Will) and they expect Nora to solve the problem. Meanwhile, Will has been pining over a girl he saw on a balcony for years—Nora as a child.

When I tell you I melted the first time he called her baby (also a classic sick-bed scene) I am not lying. Will loves Nora with his whole chest and he’ll move heaven and earth to win her hand. Poetry is involved.

Roshani Chokshi is my author idol. I found out about her work years ago through the Rick Riordan Presents imprint and have read everything she’s written.

As we write in similar genres, she gives me hope that I will also achieve success like hers one day. The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is her adult debut, a dark fantasy that draws on myths, legends, and fairytales across the cultures of her heritage.

I listened to the audiobook, often in bed late at night, and the darker parts sent chills down my spine. Be prepared for a twist at the end!

This book had a main character who had a major flaw – she couldn’t allow herself to feel emotions otherwise she’d be outcast from her own kind.

She was a strong female lead but strong in a way that almost destroyed her. It was a great premise for a book with a romance at the centre. But it wasn’t only romance, there was a big mystery to solve making this an addictive read.

I loved following the development and evolution of the characters and their relationship throughout the book and was so sad when it ended. Singh is such a talented writer, I love everything she writes!

I literally could not stop crying through this entire book. When this novel first begins, we find Kenna Rowan has just been released from jail. She is alone, penniless, and scared with all the cards stacked against her, and she is on a mission to find her daughter. Despite the mystery surrounding the incident that causes Kenna’s incarceration, you are instantly drawn into this character’s vulnerability and sheer force of will and determination. She is at once utterly alone on an island while also strong and brave like a warrior, ready to face the demons in her past in order to find a path back to the daughter that was taken from her. I love all of Colleen Hoover’s novels, but this one shredded me. I couldn’t put it down, had to find out what happened, had to know that Kenna was safe, understood, and vindicated.   

Abbi Glines is the best at writing fun, steamy, New Adult summer romances.

You can’t help but be immediately immersed into the story, especially with all of the angst and drama and tension that leaves you needing to see how it’ll all work out. This book has got all those fun tropes that make a great poolside read: bad boy/good girl, enemies to lovers, step-siblings, forced proximity, and a coastal beach town.

I believe in second chances. That’s why Forget Me Not is one of my favorite romance reads of the year!

Ama Torres is a wedding planner who (ironically) doesn’t believe in marriage. This may or may not be the reason why handsome and brooding florist Elliot Bloom seems so distant and broken-hearted. They were an item—until something went terribly wrong!

This is a swoon-worthy read with snappy banter and plenty of spice. Watching these two fall in love all over again is sweet enough to give me cavities.