Best Contemporary Romance Authors You Should Know
Best Contemporary Romance Authors You Should Know
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Raise your hand if you’re a romance lover! Romance—whether historical or contemporary—is one of the most popular (and most profitable) genres of all time. But when friends ask for recommendations and shrug by saying “I’m sure that isn’t the literary stuff you’re reading,” I say: read what you love! And if you love contemporary romance, then let’s celebrate it.
One of the things I like about reading in general is how it allows you to travel to different places—but contemporary romance lets you experience a variety of emotions while (usually!) ending on that happy note we all crave.
So what makes contemporary romance different from historical? Just the time period in which it takes place. Contemporary takes place in present time; historical in the past. Today I’m shining a spotlight on contemporary romance authors you might not already have on your radar. Maybe you’ll find your next “must-read” favourite.
And yes, when given a theme or favourite trope, like enemies to lovers or slow burns, I’m especially game—because those are some of my favourite emotional hooks in a story.
What I’m looking for
My criteria: authors writing adult (and some YA) contemporary romance with strong character work, satisfying arcs, diverse voices, and tropes I personally love (like enemies to lovers, slow burns, found-family, second-chance, etc.). These aren’t just “famous for being famous” picks—they’re authors I’ve found myself repeatedly recommending.
Below I am sharing a round-up of the best contemporary romance authors you might not know (Nora Roberts isn’t on this list because I think everyone knows/loves her already) on different themes and sub-genres, but primarily adult romance and some young adult romance. You just might find a new favorite author!
Click here to read about more romance books and expand your romance reading list!
Best Contemporary Romance Authors
Black Contemporary Romance Authors
Talia Hibbert
Talia Hibbert is the award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Indie, and internationally bestselling author of your next romance obsession. From raucous romcoms to breathless new adult romance, Talia is known for writing complicated characters who’ll make you feel seen. Since self-publishing her first novella in 2017 at 21 years of age, Talia has written more than fifteen books and is now a hybrid author. Several of her books, including The Brown Sisters, have been optioned for TV and film.
Christina C. Jones
A timeless storyteller, Christina C. Jones is lauded by readers for her ability to seamlessly weave the complexities of modern life into captivating tales of Black characters in nearly every romance subgenre. In addition to her full-time writing career, she co-founded Girl, Have You Read – a popular digital platform that amplifies Black romance authors and their stories. Christina has a passion for making beautiful things, and be found crafting, cooking, and designing and building a (literal) home with her husband in her spare time.
Danielle Jackson
Danielle Jackson is a contemporary romance author, avid reader, lackluster-yet-mighty crafter, and accomplished TV binge-watcher.
Once upon a time, she was a publicist in publishing and continues to cultivate her love of books and reading by chatting with the best authors in the business as an event coordinator at an independent bookstore and as the co-host of the Fresh Fiction podcast. She also moderates panels, interviews authors, and hosts a romance book club.
Danielle lives in Chicagoland with her very own romance hero husband, darling daughter, and two tempestuous cats.
Jasmine Guillory
Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author of novels including The Wedding Date, the Reese's Book Club selection The Proposal, and Drunk on Love. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time, and she is a frequent book contributor on The Today Show. She lives in Oakland, California.
Denise Williams
Denise Williams wrote her first book in the 2nd grade. I Hate You and its sequel, I Still Hate You, featured a tough, funny heroine, a quirky hero, witty banter, and a dragon. Minus the dragons, these are still the books she likes to write. After penning those early works, she finished second grade and eventually earned a PhD. She now lives in Iowa with her husband, son, and two cute but horrible dogs.
LGBTQ+ Contemporary Romance Authors
Casey McQuiston
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies, including One Last Stop, Red, White & Royal Blue, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and The Pairing. Red, White & Royal Blue was adapted into a movie in 2023 and released on Amazon Prime. Casey was recently named on the 2022 Time100 Next List. Their writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bon Appetit. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City with a poodle mix named Pepper.
TJ Alexander
TJ Alexander writes about queer love. Originally from Florida, they received their MA in writing and publishing from Emerson College in Boston. They live in New York City with their wife and various houseplants.
Bridget Morrissey
Bridget Morrissey lives in Los Angeles, California, but hails from Oak Forest, Illinois. When she’s not writing, she can be found coaching gymnastics or headlining concerts in her living room.
International Contemporary Romance Authors (Including British, Italian, Canadian and Australian)
Jenny Colgan
Jenny Colgan was born in Scotland and has lived in London, the Netherlands, the U.S. and France. She eventually settled on the wettest of all of these places, and currently lives just North of Edinburgh with her husband Andrew, her dog Nevil Shute, and her three children: Wallace, who is 11 and likes pretending to be 19 and not knowing what this embarrassing ‘family’ thing is that keeps following him about; Michael-Francis, who is 9 and likes making new friends on aeroplanes, and Delphine who is 7 and is mostly raccoon as far as we can tell so far.
Amy Andrews
Amy Andrews is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling Aussie author who has written sixty plus contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. She's sold two million books and been translated into over a dozen languages.
Amy Lea
Amy Lea is a Canadian bureaucrat by day and contemporary romance author by night (and weekends). She writes laugh out loud romantic comedies featuring strong heroines, witty banter, mid-2000s pop culture references, and happily ever afters.
When Amy is not writing, she can be found fan-girling over other romance books on Instagram (@amyleabooks), eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and goldendoodle.
Her debut romantic comedy SET ON YOU is forthcoming from Berkley Romance at Penguin Random House in May 2022. It is the first in a series featuring a trio of Chinese-American social media influencers.
Carley Fortune
Carley Fortune is the #1 New York Times and #1 Globe and Mail bestselling author of One Golden Summer, This Summer Will Be Different, Meet Me at the Lake, and Every Summer After. Her novels—translated into more than 30 languages and published in over 50 territories—have sold more than three million copies worldwide.
Before becoming a full-time novelist, Carley built an impressive career in journalism, serving as an editor at several of Canada’s leading publications, including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and Toronto Life. She also launched Refinery29 Canada, where she led the editorial team as Executive Editor until 2021.
Born in Sydney, Australia, and raised in the lakeside town of Barry’s Bay, Ontario—the real-life inspiration behind Every Summer After and One Golden Summer—Carley now lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons. She’s currently at work on her fifth novel.
Paisley Hope
Paisley Hope is an avid lover of romance, a mother, a wife and a writer. Growing up in Canada, she wrote and dreamed of one day being able to create a place, a world where readers could immerse themselves, a place they wished was real, a place they saw themselves when they envisioned it. She loves her family time, gardening, baking, yoga and a good cab sav.
Willow Dixon
Willow Dixon is a Canadian author and military veteran who has loved books for as long as she can remember. She began writing at just eight years old and completed her first novel at sixteen—early efforts that sparked a lifelong passion for storytelling.
Over the years, Willow has written across several genres under different pen names, but her greatest joy comes from sharing heartfelt stories that connect with readers. She currently lives on Canada’s east coast with her child and a pair of beloved cats.
Ali Hazelwood
I’m originally from Italy, lived in Japan and Germany, and eventually moved to the US to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. I recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies me. When I’m not at work you can find me binge-watching shows with my three feline overlords (and my slightly less feline husband), running, or eating candy.
Contemporary Romance Authors
Rebecca Serle
Rebecca Serle is an author and television writer who lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of six novels and codeveloped the hit TV adaptation of her YA series Famous in Love. She received her MFA from the New School in NYC. She loves Nancy Meyers films, bathrobes, and giving unsolicited relationship advice.
Abby Jimenez
Abby Jimenez is a New York Times bestselling author and Food Network champion living in Minnesota. Abby founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen back in 2007. The bakery has since gone on to win numerous Food Network competitions and has amassed an international following. Abby loves a good romance, coffee, doglets, and not leaving the house.
Kerry Winfrey
Kerry Winfrey is the author of the romantic comedies WAITING FOR TOM HANKS , NOT LIKE THE MOVIES, VERY SINCERELY YOURS, and JUST ANOTHER LOVE SONG, all published by Berkley. She’s also the author of two YA novels. She lives with her family in the middle of Ohio.
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Rachel Lynn Solomon is the author of You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, Our Year of Maybe, and Today Tonight Tomorrow. She is a Seattle native who loves rainy days, her tiny dog, tap dancing, old movies, red lipstick, and books with flawed, complicated characters. Learn more at RachelSolomonBooks.com.
Jill Shalvis
Multiple New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is … mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning heartwarming and full of humor novels wherever books are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.
Lyla Sage
Lyla Sage is a hopeless romantic and self-proclaimed sunshine chaser living in the Wild West with her loyal companion, a sweet, blind rescue pit bull. She writes the kind of love stories she loves to read—romances filled with warmth, wide-open skies, and plenty of heart.
A lifelong reader who discovered romance novels long before she was “supposed to,” Lyla credits her early success to her days as a founding member of her junior high’s writing club (even if it only had three members).
When she’s not writing or reading about cowboys and hometown heroes, you might find her curled up under a heated blanket, wandering the aisles of her favorite local bookstore, or adventuring in the mountains. She believes there’s nothing better than love—except, perhaps, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Kate Bromley
Kate Bromley is a writer of romantic comedies and contemporary romance. She lives in New York City with her husband, son, and her somewhat excessive collection of romance novels. (It's not hoarding if it's books, right?) She was a preschool teacher for almost seven years and now focuses full-time on combining her two great passions — writing swoon-worthy love stories and making people laugh.
Michelle Major
Michelle Major is the Publishers Weekly best-selling, RITA award winning author of over thirty sexy and sweet contemporary romances. She loves second-chances love stories, smart heroines and strong heroes. A Midwesterner at heart, she’s made the Rocky Mountains her home for nearly half her life and is thrilled to share her books with readers.
Rachel Lacey
Rachel Lacey is a contemporary romance author and semi-reformed travel junkie. She’s been climbed by a monkey on a mountain in Japan, gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and camped out overnight in New York City for a chance to be an extra in a movie. These days, the majority of her adventures take place on the pages of the books she writes. She lives in warm and sunny North Carolina with her family and a variety of rescue pets.
Sariah Wilson
Sariah Wilson is the USA Today bestselling author of The Seat Filler, Roommaid, Just a Boyfriend, the Royals of Monterra series, and the #Lovestruck novels. She has never jumped out of an airplane, has never climbed Mount Everest, and is not a former CIA operative. She has, however, been madly, passionately in love with her soul mate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She grew up in Southern California, graduated from Brigham Young University (go Cougars!) with a semi-useless degree in history, and is the oldest of nine (yes, nine). She currently lives with the aforementioned soul mate and their children in Utah, along with three cats named Pixel, Callie, and Belle, who do not get along (the cats, not the kids—although the kids sometimes have their issues, too).
Kelle Z. Riley
Kelle Z. Riley, writer, speaker, global traveler, Ph.D. chemist, inventor, and martial arts expert has been featured in local newspapers and on national television. Her varied life experiences have all found their way into her writing.
Amy E. Reichert
Amy E. Reichert, author of six novels, loves to write stories that end well with characters you’d invite to dinner. A wife, mom, amateur chef, Fix-It Mistress, a volunteer baby snuggler, and cider enthusiast, she earned her MA in English Literature and serves on her library’s board of directors. She's a member of Tall Poppy Writers.
Julia Whelan
Julia Whelan is an actor, writer, and audiobook narrator. She is perhaps best known for her acting work on ABC’s Once and Again and her award-winning narration of over 300 audiobooks (including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Tara Westover's Educated, and Kristen Hannah's The Great Alone). After a healthy career as a child actor, Whelan attended Middlebury College and Oxford University, graduating with a degree in English and Creative Writing. Her debut novel, My Oxford Year, was published in 2018 by HarperCollins/William Morrow. In her audiobook career, Whelan has been repeatedly featured on Audiofile Magazine’s annual Best Of lists and has won multiple Audie awards and SOVAS. Among other honors, she was named Audible’s Narrator of the Year in 2014 and is also a Grammy-nominated audiobook director.
Ashley Poston
Ashley Poston is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Dead Romantics.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s in English, she spent the last decade working in the publishing industry before deciding to pursue writing full-time.
When not writing, she likes trying various arts and crafts (she’s currently addicted to building miniature rooms) and taking long walks as an excuse to listen to Dungeons & Dragons podcasts. She bides her time between South Carolina and New York, and all the bookstores between.
Victoria Schade
Victoria Schade has been a dog trainer and writer for over seventeen years. During that time her dog duties have included working behind the scenes on Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl as the lead animal wrangler, appearing on two seasons of the Animal Planet show Faithful Friends, writing dog training content and appearing in educational videos for NBC/Universal, Pet360, PawCulture and petMD, and writing two dog training books, Bonding With Your Dog and Secrets of a Dog Trainer.
Helena Hunting
NYT and USA Today bestselling author, Helena Hunting lives outside of Toronto with her amazing family and her two awesome cats, who think the best place to sleep is her keyboard. Helena writes everything from emotional contemporary romance to romantic comedies that will have you laughing until you cry.
Emily Henry
Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read, as well as the forthcoming Happy Place. She lives and writes in Cincinnati and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.
RaeAnne Thayne
RaeAnne Thayne is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 Publishers Weekly bestselling author of more than sixty books. Her books have been described as “poignant and sweet,” with “beautiful, honest storytelling (that) goes straight to the heart.” She finds inspiration from the beautiful northern Utah mountains, where she lives with her family.
Mazey Eddings
Mazey Eddings is a neurodiverse author, dentist, and (most importantly) stage mom to her cats, Yaya and Zadie. She can most often be found reading romance novels under her weighted blanket and asking her boyfriend to bring her snacks. She’s made it her personal mission in life to destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain. With roots in Ohio and North Carolina, she now calls Philadelphia home.
Click here for the Best Historical Fiction Authors You Should Know.
What Is Contemporary Romance?
Contemporary romance is a subgenre of romance novels set in the present day, focusing on modern relationships, relatable characters, and real-world challenges. Unlike historical or fantasy romance, these stories take place in familiar settings—think cities, workplaces, vacation destinations, and everyday life.
What defines contemporary romance is its emotional realism. These books explore themes like career ambition, family dynamics, friendship, personal growth, and the complexities of modern love. While the tone can range from lighthearted romantic comedy to deeply emotional and introspective, the core promise remains the same: a satisfying, hopeful love story.
Readers are especially drawn to contemporary romance because it reflects the way we live and love today—making it one of the most popular and fastest-growing categories in publishing.
Popular Contemporary Romance Novels
If you’re looking for where to start (or what to add to your TBR next), these contemporary romance novels are widely loved, frequently recommended, and perfect for today’s reader.
Beach Read by Emily Henry
A witty, emotional story about two writers with opposing styles who challenge each other to swap genres for the summer. This is the book that helped define the current wave of smart, voice-driven contemporary romance.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
A sharp, self-aware romance that flips the classic small-town love story trope on its head. Perfect for readers who love bookish heroines and layered relationships.
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
A feel-good, role-reversal romance where a female bodyguard is hired to protect a famous actor—and ends up pretending to be his girlfriend. Charming, funny, and heartfelt.
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
A deeply emotional romance that blends opposites-attract with themes of family expectations and self-worth. Jimenez continues to be one of the most beloved contemporary romance authors today.
And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison
A 2026 release gaining major buzz, this rivals-to-lovers romance between meteorologists delivers cozy vibes, emotional depth, and strong character chemistry.
The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn
A beautifully written, emotionally layered romance set against a dreamy European backdrop—perfect for readers who want something both romantic and introspective.
Contemporary Romance Series
If you love getting attached to characters and staying in a story world a little longer, these contemporary romance series are perfect to dive into.
The Brown Sisters Series by Talia Hibbert
A fan-favorite series that combines humor, heart, and deeply relatable characters. Each book follows a different sister navigating love, identity, and personal growth.
The Knockemout Series by Lucy Score
Small-town romance at its best—full of witty banter, strong personalities, and interconnected storylines that keep readers coming back for more.
The Heartstrings Series by B.K. Borison
A cozy, interconnected romance series known for its “comfort read” vibe. With multiple releases continuing into 2026, it’s quickly becoming a modern favorite.
The Friend Zone Series by Abby Jimenez
Emotionally rich and deeply human, this series blends romance with heavier themes like grief, illness, and self-discovery—while still delivering satisfying love stories.
The Central Park Pact Series by Lauren Layne
Set in New York City, this series follows three women rebuilding their lives after heartbreak—perfect for fans of friendship-forward romance.
New Contemporary Romance Authors to Add
To keep your post fresh and forward-looking, here are newer or rising contemporary romance authors worth adding:
B.K. Borison – cozy, character-driven romances with strong emotional payoff
Sarah Adams – light, uplifting rom-com energy (think In Your Dreams)
Kate Goldbeck – sharp, modern love stories with depth (Daddy Issues)
Hannah Bonam-Young – inclusive, emotionally resonant contemporary romance gaining major traction
Taleen Voskuni – fresh rom-com voice with unique premises (Our Ex’s Wedding)
Amy Lea – fun, fast-paced contemporary romance (The Bodyguard Affair)
