The best love stories feel like magic. Cue the rain-soaked dock kiss in The Notebook, the plane proposal in Crazy Rich Asians, or when Patrick serenades David in Schitt’s Creek.
One thing these scenes all have in common—besides reducing me to tears—is that they serve as the swoonworthy centerpiece of each couple’s story.
But what if the sparks flying between two people were more than a metaphor? These eight books take “falling in love feels like magic” literally—with time jumps, spells, portals between worlds, and more.
If you loved The Seven Year Slip—with its time-slip apartment and closed-heart romance—you’ll want to take a chance on these magical realism romances.
In Five Years
Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan has perfected her five-year plan. After nailing her interview, she accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal and falls asleep—only to wake up in a different apartment, with a very different man by her side.
It’s the same night, December 15, but five years in he future. After one shocking hour, she returns to 2020, but can’t shake the feeling of what happened—it felt far too real to be a dream.
As New York Times-bestselling author Chloe Benjamin writes, the novel asks, “What would you do if you glimpsed your life five years from now—and found that it was different, in every way, from what you hoped for and expected?”
When the Moon Was Ours
Best friends Miel and Samir are different—roses sprout from Miel’s wrists, and Samir paints murals of the moon he hangs in the trees.
Although they long to make friends, they stay clear of the Bonner girls, four enchanting sisters rumored to be witches.
But the sisters want Miel’s flowers, believing they can make anyone fall in love—and they will use anything, even Miel’s secrets and Samir’s past, to get what they want.
A moving queer romance and celebration of transgender love, “[Anna-Marie] McLemore mesmerizes once again with a lush narrative set at the thresholds of identity, family, and devotion” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
Ricki Wilde is born to star alongside her famous socialite sisters, but she knows a different life waits for her somewhere else.
Leaving Atlanta for Halmen, she says goodbye to her family and wealth to open a flower shop. One night, she meets a charming stranger who will turn her world upside down—in more ways than one.
What follows is “the kind of book you wish you could slip bodily into, live within its warm and magical world for as long as it would have you” (Emily Henry, #1 New York Times-bestselling author).
This Spells Love
After her boyfriend dumps her, Gemma decides to take matters into her own hands. With help from her sister, witchy aunt, and best friend Dax, she casts a love-cleansing spell—sealed with a platonic kiss from Dax.
But when Gemma wakes up, not only has the spell worked, but her life is completely unrecognizable—even Dax doesn’t remember her. To get her old life back, Gemma must get her once best friend, now a stranger, to kiss her.
But as her plan works, she begins to develop real, romantic feelings. The perfect mix of “a romcom-meets-magic delight, and absolutely perfect for the friends-to-lovers enthusiasts who are looking for something unique,” This Spells Love brings all the whimsy (Sarah Adams, New York Times-bestselling author)!
Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop
Vanessa has always had the gift, or in her eyes, burden of seeing people’s fortunes in the tea leaves. She even tried converting to coffee, but nothing can stop her from blurting out the destinies of the people around her.
To make matters worse, her love life is so nonexistent that her parents have enlisted a matchmaker from Shanghai.
When her Aunt Evelyn proposes a trip to Paris, Vanessa leaps at the chance to wear a beret. But she soon learns that, no matter how far she goes, she cannot outrun her fate…
The Ministry of Time
“Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow,” and you’ve got the “smart, witty novel” that is The Ministry of Time (Ron Charles, Washington Post).
Set in the near future, a civil servant is offered the position of her dreams at a newly established government ministry. As a “bridge,” she’s tasked with discovering if time travel is feasible, working with a group of selected “expats” across history. Her assigned expat is known as “1847,” or Commander Graham Gore, who died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 Arctic expedition.
It’s all a little jarring for him to be living with an unmarried woman who speaks of things like “Spotify” while regularly showing her calves. But over the next year, what the bridge thought would be a way to make money turns into much, much more.
Like Water for Chocolate
“A mystical Mexican love story that will charm the palate and the heart,” Like Water for Chocolate is a staple of the magical realism genre (USA Today).
Mama Elena is chopping onions at her ranch, only days away from delivering her baby. While still in her womb, her daughter weeps and weeps, sending Elena into an early labor.
Raised around food, she becomes immersed in the spices and fixings, becoming a master chef in a story that is “a tall-tale, fairy-tale, soap-opera romance, Mexican cookbook and home-remedy handbook all rolled into one” (San Francisco Chronicle).
Featured image: Canva
