The 10 Best Romance Books to Read in 2021

Helen Hoang's utterly irresistible novels offer witty and scorching romances featuring neuroatypical heroes and heroines.

The Heart Principle, her third novel, brings back fan favorite Quan Diep, the playboy who has suddenly become hot property with the ladies now that he's the CEO of an up-and-coming retail business. 

Anna Sun, however, isn't interested in him. She just wants to keep him away from her engaged sister Camilla. 

So of course she has to seduce Quan, which is easier said than done for a shy woman with OCD.

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With Red, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston made a major splash in the romance world. That means all eyes are on her for her follow-up, One Last Stop, a new queer romantic comedy with an unexpected time travel twist.

August is a 20-something student unsure of her place in life, who just wants to survive her time in the big scary streets of New York City. Whenever she takes the subway, she encounters Jane, a punk whom August can't look away from. The problem? 

Jane is stuck in 1970s Brooklyn, and can't leave the subway. August wants to help her, but she must stop herself from falling for this disarming woman who can't remember her own past.

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Uzma Jalaluddin made a splash with her delightful debut, Ayesha at Last, which reimagined Pride and Prejudice in the Muslim community of Toronto. 

Her latest read combines all the charm and warmth of her first book, with a You've Got Mail-style plot. Hana is a server at the Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the Golden Crescent neighborhood.

However, her real passion is radio, so Hana pours her energy into a podcast. One of her listeners provides a lot of support and intrigue to her life, which she'll need now that a new, flashier halal restaurant is opening and threatening to run the Three Sisters out of business. 

The owner, Aydin, is an attractive jerk whom she hates instantly, but he knows her better than she's aware of.

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Thien-Kim Lam makes her full-length novel debut!

Trixie Nguyen has moved to Washington, D.C. to make a fresh start with her new career as a sex toy seller. It's not quite what her conservative Vietnamese parents had in mind for her, but she knows she can make it work. 

Trixie is ready to take on the world, but then her ex turns up. Andre Walker had the indecency to dump Trixie by Post-It note, which Trixie is less-than-keen to forgive, but they both need one another to make their businesses work. 

Can they get a vibrator-pop-up-shop-turned-restaurant to succeed? And can second chances really happen?

The Great British Baking Competition has taken the world by storm, and we've waited way too long for romance writers to use the adorable reality series as the perfect backdrop to love, cake, and soggy bottoms. 

The eponymous Rosaline is a single mother competing on the UK's most popular baking show. Amid the innuendo and disastrous challenges, she strikes up a charming and hilarious flirtation.

Princess Sarani Rao seems to have the perfect life as an Indian royal, but her status as a mixed-race woman with a white British mother has made her a target. 

After her beloved father is murdered, she must escape the country, and it is on the next ship out to sea that she falls onto the lap of Captain Rhystan Huntley, the reluctant Duke of Embry. 

The two fall in love, but duty, class, and the overwhelming force of the Empire stand in their way.

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It wouldn’t be a good year in the romance world without at least one new Nora Roberts book!  

The Grand Dame of the genre typically graces us with two or three new reads a year (and that doesn’t even include her output as J.D. Robb). Legacy promises that classic Nora combination of romance, thriller, and high drama. 

Adrian is a troubled young woman. The daughter of a wildly famous fitness guru, she's still recovering from the trauma of her abusive father almost killing her, and she's determined to start her own career in the lifestyle world, independent of her mother.

But things are getting dangerous for Adrian. Can she and her childhood crush Raylan find a way to stop the chaos and be happy for once in their lives?

Z.R. Ellor's contemporary YA debut brings together former friends turned enemies on the path to romance. 

Jeremy Harkiss recently came out as trans, but he refuses to let bigots ruin his senior year, and decides to make a splash by running for Homecoming King. 

However, Jeremy will have to face Lukas Rivers, the beloved football star of the school, the head of the Homecoming Committee — and his ex-boyfriend. 

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Ann Aguirre is an expert at sci-fi and fantasy romance. Her latest series, Galactic Love, combines the speculative, the sexy, and the epic. 

The first book featured a dorky hot alien love interest, and now, she introduces readers to Helix, an amnesiac AI who has been put into an organic host body by a genius scientist named Qalu. 

One needs a mate to be happy, so Qalu decides to do the sensible thing and have her adorable AI-creature pretend to be her other half. Who doesn't love a new twist on the fake relationship trope? 

Who says that paranormal romance is dead? Suleikha Snyder dives into the world of shifters with the first book in her latest series. 

New York is a sanctuary city for all supernatural beings, which means there's now a need for an elite team of operatives tasked with exposing the gritty underbelly of the city's criminal-supernatural underworld. 

Joe Peluso sought vigilante justice against the Russian bear shifter who killed his foster brother. Lawyer and psychologist Neha Ahluwalia is determined to help him craft a strong defense against his army of powerful enemies. 

When they're forced on the run, Joe and Neha must trust one another and nobody else in the fight for their lives.