29 of the Best Friends-to-Lovers Romance Books

After years of communicating only through messages and video chats, best friends Levi and Tabatha are reunited at the wedding of Levi’s sister. Levi, a bookstore manager, is critical of Tabatha’s career as a romance writer. He finds all of the stereotypical romance tropes she and her fellow authors use in their love stories to be silly and unrealistic. 

To settle their difference of opinion, they decide to experiment with some of the tropes in real life. When they try out the classic “friends-to-lovers” trope, their friendship starts to heat up. 

Gideon likes to have his whole life planned out. He has already planned that he will run for class president, lead the yearbook committee, and have his choice of colleges. There is no room in his plans for falling in love with his best friend and neighbor Kyle. 

Kyle is more than happy with the way his life is going. He is dating the beautiful and popular head cheerleader, Ruby,  he’s the captain of the basketball team, and he has an awesome best friend. But when both Gideon and Ruby start acting strange towards him, everything is thrown into flux. 

Amy Bright spends her time setting up perfect pairs as the best matchmaker in Destiny, Ohio. But when it comes to her own love life, Amy is at a loss. She’s in love with her best friend Logan Whitaker but doesn’t want to ruin their special friendship. So, she decides to express her feelings through anonymous love letters. 

Firefighter Logan is going through a hard time and is so grateful to have best friend Amy there with him. When a woman from his past returns at the same time as he starts receiving the steamy letters, Logan doesn’t know what to do. 

Will the pair risk their strong friendship for something more, or do they already have all they need? 

If you’ve never read an Amish romance novel, you should give this sweet story a try. Living peacefully in the Amish community, Annie Mast lives a quiet and trouble-free life. That peace is turned upside down when Levi Miller, her childhood best friend, returns to town. Once inseparable, the pair were torn apart when Levi's father was shunned by the church. 

Now, with their bond as strong as ever, Annie and Levi start to wonder if there's something deeper in their relationship worth exploring. Yet their differences may have more sway than their similarities, especially since Levi is now fully an Englisher and Annie remains a committed Amish girl at heart.

Tracie is a simple woman with a type: more than anything else, she loves a bad boy. Put a rebel in a leather jacket and sit him on top of a motorcycle and she'll quickly go weak at the knees. Her best friend, Jon, is decidedly not that kind of guy. He like khaki pants, computers, and being nice to his mother. And though he has a thing for Tracie, she seems depressingly uninterested in him as more than her friend. 

So, he does what any lovestruck nerd would do and asks for bad boy lessons from Tracie. It pays off, but as Jon becomes the most eligible bachelor in Seattle, she wonders what she's at risk of losing.

Casino mogul Alexa Lawson likes to keep clear lines drawn. That’s why she would never jeopardize her meaningful friendship with her best friend Carter Hayes, even though he has grown from a nerdy kid into a sexy genius and the tension between them is undeniable. 

When Alexa’s luck changes for the worst and Carter announces he’s leaving Las Vegas, she is on the verge of losing everything. Alexa devises a plan to fix all of her problems: have Carter act as her fake fiance until things blow over. But Carter has his own idea. He uses the fake engagement as an opportunity to show all of the passion and heat she’s been missing. 

The writerly duo behind the pen-name Christina Lauren have quickly become contemporary romance favorites over the past few years, and it's not hard to see why in this spitfire rom-com from 2018. 

Hazel Bradford and Josh Im are polar opposites. She's brash and extroverted and has zero filter between her brain and her mouth. He's mellow, quiet, and kind of judgmental. Yet they've managed to be friends for a long time, even though they first met when Camille threw up on his shoes. 

After Josh's girlfriend cheats on him, Hazel comes up with a "great" idea: she'll organize a series of blind double dates for them and hopefully they can both find love. Just not with one another, right?

Lauren Layne's Central Park Pact series follows a trio of friends on the Upper East Side of New York as they navigate life, work, and hopefully love. In the final title in the trilogy, Audrey Tate and Clarke West are best friends and have been since childhood. They don't prescribe to that outdated nonsense that claims men and women can't be just friends without love or sex complicating manners. 

Well, that is until Clarke suddenly announces that he and Audrey are engaged. This slip is his way of keeping his meddling matchmaking mother out of the picture, and Audrey's happy to go along with the fun for a while. Then things start to get complicated, and the date for their supposedly fake wedding looms ever nearer. What if they don’t want to go back to the way things were?

A quartet of disgraced aristocrats form the backbone of Sarah MacLean's Rules of Scoundrel series. Exiled from society, they have pulled together their resources and skills to become the leaders of the London underworld. 

For a supposedly irredeemable hellion like the Marquess of Bourne, love is not on the table. His main priority is to regain the inheritance he was cheated out of, and he'll do anything to get it back. That includes proposing marriage to an old childhood friend, the exceedingly proper Lady Penelope Marbury. He's determined to keep her shielded from the darkness of his life, but she has her own desires that he can hopefully aid her in exploring.

Verity Plum is the joint owner of a publishing company left to her and her brother Nate by their late father. She runs the day-to-day operations and Nate writes increasingly radical polemics that they fear will end with him in prison. Their good friend John Ashby has lodged with them for the best part of a decade, and even though he and Verity have clearly desired one another for years, they keep things strictly platonic. 

Things get much more complicated when Nate is sent to America, Ash discovers he's the legitimate heir to a dukedom, and Verity has to juggle her complicated emotions with her publishing of a deeply scandalous novel that he hopes will keep her business afloat. A Duke in Disguise also features a bisexual heroine, a virgin hero, and flirting via hairpins!

You just can't go wrong with the legendary Loretta Chase. The final book in the Carsington Brothers quintet introduces Miss Olivia Wingate-Carsington, a descendent of notorious aristocratic scammers. Olivia also has her own history of swindling and decidedly unladylike shenanigans, and she especially loves dragging her friend Peregrine Dalmay, Earl of Lisle, along for the ride. 

After he returns to England following many years in Egypt, Olivia sees a perfect opportunity for one more adventure with her beloved friend before a life of domesticity and respectability beckons. Lisle has been forced to the wilds of Scotland to supervise the renovations of his family's castle, one that is reportedly haunted. The last thing he needs is Olivia looking for trouble. But how could anyone resist passion in a ghost-filled castle on the rolling Scottish hills?

Where would we be without Jane Austen? Pride and Prejudice may be the undisputed queen of the genre, but for our money, Emma is easily her most singularly delightful novel. You've probably seen a dozen adaptations, from Clueless to last year's version starring Anya Taylor-Joy, but nothing beats the book. 

Emma Woodhouse is beautiful, spoiled, funny, and one of the great meddlers of her time. Seeing herself as a prime matchmaker, she takes it upon herself to pair up her friends and the inhabitants of her sleepy home village. It doesn't always work out, of course, but at least her friend Mr. Knightley is there to console her and provide good advice, even if she isn't necessarily inclined to follow it.

Everyone's got Bridgerton fever right now thanks to the Netflix series. In the sixth book in Julia Quinn's series, readers are introduced to a character who barely appears on the show: Francesca Bridgerton. Perhaps the most enigmatic of her large family, Francesca spends much of her time abroad in Scotland. When Michael Stirling lays eyes on her, he's immediately smitten, but she's engaged to his cousin. Cut to two years later and Francesca is a young widow trying to process her grief, and the prospect of blossoming feelings for Michael, a dear friend, terrifies her. 

Where her siblings dealt with the flush of first love, Francesca must reconcile her future with her past and the pain she cannot shake. It's a unique spin on the friends-to-lovers trope, and it's always refreshing to see widowed heroines find romance once more.

Who does romance better than Nora Roberts? In this single-mom story from the bestselling author, Hester Wallace finds herself captivated by her new neighbor, Mitch Dempsey. Not only is Mitch kind, charismatic, and confident, but he's also a comic-book writer who created her son's favorite superhero. 

A quick read you can finish in a single sitting, Local Hero is a fun, heartwarming story of learning to love again.

Can you resist a title like that?! Amanda moves to London in the midst of the burgeoning punk scene and forms a band, Lesbian Raincoat. As time passes, Amanda deals with the threat of deportation, participates in ACT UP protests, confronts her own struggles with OCD, and finds love in dark places. Befitting a punkish novel, Pissing in a River is bold and energetic, but also unafraid to get serious. This is one for music nerds.

Kate loves her job in finance but her bosses are ultra-conservative and don't see a woman with a fun-loving single party-girl image as potential senior VP material. So she decides to reinvent herself as a settled mature adult with a fiancé. Enter Adam, her best friend from high school who is happy to enter the sham romance but has the real thing on his mind. The Job Proposal is a smart, sexy, and quick read with a heroine working on letting her guard down in favor of something special.

The creative duo of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings (a.k.a. Christina Lauren) have been delighting romance readers for many years now with their steamy contemporary titles that come with a perfect dash of chick-lit beach read goodness. Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating follows the eponymous duo, friends since college and seemingly incompatible, who keep setting one another up on progressively terrible double blind dates. 

This one is a great clash of opposites attract and banter—a top Christina Lauren trait—with a heroine who so easily could have descended into Manic Pixie Dream Girl cliché but remains fresh and appealing. Moreover, this book is just incredibly good fun, and who can say no to that? 

Dallas has had a tough life, but one welcome constant presence has been that of her best friend, Valerie. However, that bond is tested when both women fall for the same man. Ex–Navy SEAL Alex Marco has his own tragic past that haunts him, but his connection with Dallas is evident, and soon she must face the reality that romance with Alex could cost her friendship with Valerie. A unique take on friends-to-lovers with a love triangle spin, Between Friends is a strong blend of passion and conflict with a central dilemma that will leave you wondering what choice you would make if you were in Dallas’s shoes. 

Two years ago, Via DeRosa threw Sebastian Dorner a lifeline. When they reconnect, Sebastian immediately feels a spark, but there are plenty of hurdles, too. To start, Via is a teacher at the school of Sebastian's son. Then there's the age difference: Is twenty-something Via too young for the forty-something Sebastian?

For Via, the last thing she needs is drama or rumors about her and one of the single dads. Both of them can feel the tension building around their friendship, but can they keep it at bay? Do either of them even want to?

Parker and Ben met in their freshman year of college and immediately formed a loving but platonic bond. Six years later, they're still friends and living together. He's a guy-about-town and she's just been dumped by her long-term boyfriend, so Parker decides to try out this whole no-strings-attached sex life that makes her friend so happy. Nothing seems to work—until she tries it with Ben. What starts as a simple arrangement becomes very messy, but in all the best ways, something Lauren Layne is extremely good at!

David March isn't just friends with college freshman Beth Caplan. He's best friends with her older brother, and when he learns that Beth is enrolling at his school, he promises to look after her. What starts as a protective instinct shifts to friendship as David spends more time with her.

But when her toxic ex reappears in her life, and a student with a stalking habit shows up wherever she goes, David realizes he doesn't just want Beth to be safe. He wants her to be his.

Rancher Kingston Roper has been friends with his eccentric neighbor Elissa Dean to ask her for an unconventional request. When King's sister-in-law puts the moves on him, he needs a fake girlfriend to run interference. He never imagined that Elissa's part in the deception would change the way he sees her…

Freda Wilson is brash and completely without filter, which makes her something of an acquired taste. So it's a surprise to her when her hot new neighbor wants to be friends. Nicholas is charismatic and extremely handsome, but it's still a shock to Freda when he reveals himself to be a drag cabaret performer. Fiery and passionate and oh so hot, Painted Faces is one you’ll want to revisit time and time again. 

The second part of Cat Sebastian's Regency Imposters series, A Duke in Disguise combines friends-to-lovers with historical thrills and literary drama. Verity Plum runs a publishing house with her younger brother Nate, although the lion's share of the responsibilities fall on her shoulders. John Ashby, a friend and lodger, is called upon to help illustrate a new novel for Verity. Add to that family drama over a secret dukedom, burgeoning passion between friends, and a proudly bisexual heroine, and this is a great starting point for readers new to Sebastian's work.

Not only is this a friends to lovers story, but it also features man's best friend! When K-9 cop Jedediah Burke's long-time friend Hazel is threatened by a sadistic stalker, Jed will do anything to protect her. In this forced proximity romance, though, keeping close to the woman Jed secretly loves might prove more challenging than he originally imagined.

K.J. Charles's historical and fantasy romance, primarily m/m, have proven deliciously addictive to many a reader. An Unseen Attraction is a slow-burner Victorian romantic mystery that features everything that makes Charles so wonderful. Clem Talleyfer prefers a quiet life and domestic peace with his lodger and friend, Rowley Green. But their calm companionship is interrupted when another lodger is found brutally murdered on their doorstep and they must investigate the crime. An Unseen Attraction has a bit of everything for your perfect historical friends-to-lovers romance.

In this Regency romance, Luciene Marvaine never thought he had a shot with Katherine. But when fate steps in and Luciene becomes the newest Earl of Roxbury, he sees an opportunity… and he's determined to seize it. 

Katherine, for her part, always saw Luciene as a dear friend. When he waltzes into the Kingsborough Ball, however, she finds herself drawn to him. She didn't think she was looking for a husband until now…

This adorable YA romance graphic novel has taken the internet by storm. Charlie is a young gay teen attending an all-boys grammar school. He befriends Nick, an older rugby player who he is made to sit with in form group. They seem to get one another, but Charlie's also developing a crush on the presumably straight Nick and doesn't know how to deal with it. This story started off as a comic on Tumblr and has won over many a fan since then, and for good reason. An achingly sweet slice-of-life story, Heartstopper will easily leave you swooning.