Before 2018, I was quite vocally against Romance Novels. I like a little romance as a sub-plot, I don’t mind if my heroine finds time to fall in love while fighting off dystopian enemies, but most romance novels (and their covers) made me cringe. But after a few great reads, I realized that what I needed was solid writing, investment in character development, and a cover that didn’t make my grandmother blush to really enjoy Contemporary Romance novels.
Here are some Contemporary Romance novels worth reading, especially if you usually avoid the genre:
Love and Other Words
by Christina Lauren
Love and Other words is a second chance love story told in alternating timelines about two people who met and fell in love while growing up and then reunite eleven years later.
What makes it great
Character Chemistry – I have never (and I read over 100 books this year ) had two fictional characters personify chemistry and tension like the two leads in this book. The sparks between them is palpable. I could feel it in my mind and my skin.
The Journey – the story follows a “then” and “now” narrative progression between the characters 14/15-year-old and 28/29-year-old selves and a well-paced tale to friendship, first love, great heartbreaks and deep secrets wraps around the readers mind and suck you all the way in.
Not your Average Contemporary Romance Novel – This story feels real. It’s complex. It’s rich. It’s pretty smart. It’s an emotional rollercoaster in the best ways.
Things to keep in mind: Trigger warning for the loss of a parent and reference to non-consensual sex with male character as victim.
Emergency Contact
Mary H.K. Choi
This is a book that most folks either love or hate, and I loved it. Best consumed as an audiobook (in my singular opinion), Penny Lee is a college freshman and a prickly young adult whose secrets slowly and fully reveal itself over the course of the book. Sam is stuck in the lowest season of his life and struggling to get past a break up from a girl he still kind of loves and a mother who is hard to love.
(Per Goodreads) When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.
Things to keep in mind: Trigger warning for sexual assault.
It Ends with Us
Colleen Hoover
This is the first and only book that I have ever read by Colleen Hoover and I am prepared to make the statement that “Colleen Hoover is the baddest chick in the traditional romance game.” She came all the way correct and she told a modern romance story filled with pain, passion and humanity. Her characters were rich and real. Their situations layered and well crafted. When I ended this book, I stopped holding my breath and I felt filled by her words and her world.
First and foremost, this book is about:
– First love
– Lost Love
– Falling in Love
– Toxic and Abusive Love
– Self Love
If books with attempted rape or domestic violence are a difficult read for you, this book may be a bit much. But if you can, give it a try.
This book is about a girl sharing the story of a past love while living the story of a new love that is just as beautiful and hope filled, until it isn’t. It’s a story about how easy it is judge the choices of domestic violence victims as an outsider looking in and how complicated love is when toxic. I have never read a writer who has tackled domestic violence and abuse as well as Colleen Hoover does with this gem of a book. This book is real. It is eye opening. It is mind changing. It’s a great romance novel but a even better story about surviving love.
Things to keep in mind: All the trigger warnings for physical abuse and one scene of attempted rape. This book is about romance and love with one portion focusing on first love and another on toxic love. It deals heavily with how easy it seems to leave an abusive relationship, and how far from the truth that really is sometimes. This book does not glorify abuse or excuse it, but forces the reader to see feel the struggle abuse victims feel when being in love with their abusers.
The Wedding Date
Jasmine Guillory
Alexa Monroe agrees to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator, something she wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist. Drew and Alex discover if a fake date can go the distance in this fun and flirty debut novel.
I found this book to be an incredibly cute and laid back read. The conflicts, which includes managing long distance dating, balancing two high-powered careers, navigating an interracial romance and maintaining a relationship via text, feels real. The novel is truly contemporary. I must admit some degree of bias toward this book because the lead female is a (not skinny) career driven black woman. I might have been projecting.
Things to keep in mind: the sex scenes are pretty descriptive, so avoid is this is not your thing.
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