The 25 Best Romance Books of 2024 (So Far)

From boy-meets-girl page-turners to queer retellings of classic lit.

book covers of the best romance novels of 2024
(Image credit: Various Publishers)

Good news for those who enjoy getting swept up in a swoon-worthy love story: Romance remains one of the fastest-growing (and most lucrative) book genres, giving authors plenty of room to churn out love stories of all shapes and sizes. Modern romantic fiction has also taken on its own form, as it's no longer confined to the standard boy-meets-girl pattern or dominated by Fabio-laden paperbacks of the regency variety. It features romantic leads that look and act more like the readers themselves.

That’s especially true of this year’s batch of new additions to the genre, which have been some of the most highly-anticipated books of the year. The best romance books that 2024 has to offer so far feature protagonists of all races, genders, and sexual orientations and cross into so many other genres—while still playing into all of our favorite classic romance and rom-com tropes, from friends-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers to love triangles to fake-relationships and forbidden-love and beyond. Here, find 25 of the best romance novels published so far in 2024 that will tug at your heartstrings and leave you giggling and kicking your feet.

Andrea Park

Andrea Park is a Chicago-based writer and reporter with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the extended Kardashian-Jenner kingdom, early 2000s rom-coms and celebrity book club selections. She graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism in 2017 and has also written for W, Brides, Glamour, Women's Health, People and more.