What Is Contemporary Romance?
What Is Contemporary Romance?
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Books come in a variety of categories, each catering to a specific reader's interests and preferences. These categories can be based on the book's genre, theme, intended audience, or even the author's style. Some common book categories include fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, biography, autobiography, and self-help. Each category has its unique characteristics and features that appeal to different readers. For instance, fiction books usually tell a story that is not true, while non-fiction books provide factual information about a particular topic. Knowing the different book categories can help readers choose books that align with their interests, making reading a more enjoyable experience.
Romance stories are a highly popular genre in literature that has the most number of best-sellers. The romance genre typically features stories about love and relationships between characters, often with a happy ending. However, within the romance category, there are numerous sub-genres, each with their own unique elements and themes. Some of the most popular romance subgenres include historical romance, erotic romance, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, young adult romance, and contemporary romance. Historical romances typically take place in a specific historical period prior to WWII, while paranormal romance often includes supernatural elements such as vampires or werewolves. Contemporary romance, on the other hand, takes place in modern times and deals with contemporary issues and relationships. With so many sub-genres to choose from, there is something for everyone in the romance category. I’ll be focusing on Contemporary Romance for this post.
What Is Contemporary Romance?
Contemporary romance is a sub-genre of romance novels that takes place in the present day or modern era. Typically set after World War II, these stories often tackle real-life issues and current challenges that people face in their daily lives. Unlike other sub-genres of romance, contemporary romance focuses on the here and now, and often includes social and cultural commentary. One of the biggest draws of contemporary romance is its ability to transport readers to different places and cultures, allowing them to experience new perspectives and ways of life through the lens of characters who fall in love or have romantic relationships. With relatable characters, engaging plotlines that are emotionally satisfying, and a focus on the complexities of modern relationships, contemporary romance has become a beloved genre for romance readers of all ages and backgrounds.
Click here to learn about the best contemporary romance authors.
Best Contemporary Romance Books
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
“...I absolutely love [Sally Thorne’s] writing style, her dialogue, and the chemistry between her characters is always through the roof. Whenever I think of rom-com author goals, she’s the first person that comes to mind. ”
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
2) A person's undoing
3) Joshua Templeman
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can't understand Joshua's joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy's overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.
Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job...But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn't hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn't hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
“Helen Hoang, Chloe Liese, and Talia Hibbert have been trailblazers in portraying neurodiverse love in romance, and I admire their talent endlessly. Liese, Hoang, and Hibbert show such nuance in their characters and never fail to make me laugh. ”
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice--with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan--from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...
Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he's making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.
After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.
Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.
Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.
But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you've never met.
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
“There are so many authors I admire and are inspired by! Lately I’ve been following Jasmine Guillory on social media, especially when she does writing Q&As. She gives such helpful, thoughtful advice!”
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.
On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend....
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other....
They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want....
One Day in December by Josie Silver
“For ALL ABOUT US, I was really inspired by authors like David Nicholls, Marian Keyes, Mike Gayle and Josie Silver - they all write brilliant romantic comedies that manage to be funny, sad, poignant and uplifting at the same time. More generally, I think Dan Rhodes and Sue Townsend are probably my go-to novelists for comedic inspiration - both are ridiculously amusing. ”
One Day in December by Josie Silver
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away.
Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
“I draw inspiration from multiple authors for a variety of reasons. But in terms of pure writing style, my OG inspiration comes from the amazing duo Christina Lauren. Their style is accessible, simple, yet heartfelt and hilarious. They were my gateway into reading contemporary romance so I will always hold a special place in my heart for their books.”
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion...she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.
Olive braces herself for wedding hell, determined to put on a brave face, but when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. Suddenly there’s a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy paradise solo.
Agreeing to a temporary truce, the pair head for Maui. After all, ten days of bliss is worth having to assume the role of loving newlyweds, right? But the weird thing is...Olive doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, the more she pretends to be the luckiest woman alive, the more it feels like she might be.
With Christina Lauren’s “uniquely hilarious and touching voice” (Entertainment Weekly), The Unhoneymooners is a romance for anyone who has ever felt unlucky in love.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
When asked what book character she’d be best friends with, Megan Collins said…
“Alex Claremont-Diaz from RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston. He’s smart, funny, loyal, and if I didn’t already love him from the first chapter, the turkey scene would have sealed the deal for me. (Seriously, if you haven’t read this book, it’s worth it for the turkey scene alone.)”
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
“Book Lovers by Emily Henry. The perfect, breezy summer read. No one writes dialogue like Emily Henry. The best one-liner zingers in the rom-com biz!”
Beach Read by Emily Henry
One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming...
Nora Stephens' life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
“Talia Hibbert is one of my favorite romance authors, and I have so much respect for authors who started out doing self-publishing because it takes such a tremendous amount of work. I also love that Talia’s books are so focused on creating inclusive love stories, and that she’s so willing to share parts of herself and her own experiences through her characters. Plus, her books are hilarious! I would love to be able to write with the kind of distinct voice she infuses into her characters. ”
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?
Enjoy a drunken night out.
Ride a motorcycle.
Go camping.
Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
And... do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
The first rule of book club: You don't talk about book club.
Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.
Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.
Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.
The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
“I am inspired by Kate Clayborn. Her books are the perfect combination of funny and meaningful and I love her writing style. Other favorites of mine are Jodi Picoult, Abby Jimenez, and Katherine Center. ”
The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
Kristen Peterson doesn't do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don't get her. She's also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.
Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen -- especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he'd be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it's harder and harder to keep him at arm's length.
The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.
The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
“I’d love to be stuck in an elevator with Jonah from The Simple Wild by KA Tucker. Not only is he the ultimate book boyfriend, but he’s a handy Alaskan pilot who could probably figure out a way to save us.”
Calla Fletcher was two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan wild, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Calla’s father, Wren Fletcher, in the process. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. But when her father reaches out to inform her that his days are numbered, Calla knows that it’s time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town where she was born.
She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasional—dear God—outhouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she can’t help but care for. While she struggles to adjust to this new subarctic environment, Jonah—the quiet, brooding, and proud Alaskan pilot who keeps her father’s charter plane company operational—can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. And he’s clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that she’s too pampered to handle the wild.
Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. As time passes, she unexpectedly finds herself forming a bond with the burly pilot. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, it’s replaced by friendship—or perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents tried—and failed at—years ago.
It’s a simple truth that turns out to be not so simple after all.
