A Girl’s Bookshelf

For this week, I promised to rank my favorite romance novels! This feels like an impossible task, but here is my ultimate list of cheesy romance goodness: 

1. “Looking for Alaska” by John Green

Even though this coming-of-age book broke my heart, there’s something about the story that sticks with me. The protagonist, Miles, is a quiet high schooler who starts at a new private school.

The friends he meets are funny and a little crazy, but they bring him out of his shell. When Miles meets Alaska, an outspoken, beautiful girl, it feels like love at first sight for him. 

The big crisis moment happens sort of early on and Miles deals with the aftermath of the horrific event. I won’t spoil anything, even though I am dying to because I love this book so much. 

The love, romantic and platonic, and grief just radiates off of these pages. 

2. “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott 

This classic has my heart for sure. We all know and love the March sisters and their personalities, but what I focus on is the glimpses into love and relationships in this book. 

Meg March marries a poor teacher simply out of pure love. Jo is very against the whole idea of marriage and wants more out of life than being a wife; she turns poor Laurie down, which broke my hopeless romantic soul. The scene where Jo rejects Laurie is honestly burned into my brain. Anyway, even though I love this story of sisterhood, womanhood, and romantic love and marriage, I do have one problem. I cannot stand that after Laurie is rejected by Jo, he is suddenly in love with Jo’s younger sister, Amy. 

Did he settle for Amy? Why did he want to marry into the March family so badly? So many questions, but I love this story. 

3. “Love & Other Words” by Christina Lauren

Oh, this story. Macy and Elliott met when they were preteens, and grew a friendship quickly, mostly surrounding their love of books and words. The story flips back and forth between the past and present, but not in an annoying way. 

Present Macy is married and runs into Elliott after not seeing him for ten years. We learn what happened between them in high school that caused this huge gap in their relationship. 

This trope is called “second chance romance,” which is one of my favorites. I just love the idea of two people being tied to one another for a long period of time, but they just can’t figure out how to be completely together. Sort of the classic, “it’s always been you” kind of vibe. 

If you’re looking for an easy-to-read, second chance romance, this is your next read. 

4. “Normal People” by Sally Rooney 

Another book that ripped my heart out; I’m sensing a weird pattern. 

Connell and Marianne are completely opposite people: Connell is popular and sporty, where Marianne is quiet and extremely smart. Connell’s mother is Marianne’s mother’s house cleaner, so they are forced to interact. 

Their relationship is built off of personal struggles, a secret attraction, and a shared struggle to navigate their worlds. 

One thing that is extremely frustrating with this novel is their communication. They could have been together if they just talked! Despite this extreme frustration I had while reading Connell and Marianne struggle to be with each other over their high school and college years, I fell in love with the story. 

5. “A Walk to Remember” by Nicholas Sparks 

Good old Nicholas Sparks got me with this one. This book is close to my heart because my mom gave me her copy. 

I love the 1950s, southern setting, and the contrast between the two protagonists. Landon falls in love with the reverend’s daughter who has a secret: she is very sick. 

I really don’t know what my obsession with sad romance novels is. Is this its own genre of romance? 

6. “My Policeman” by Bethan Roberts 

Surprise, this is another sad one, in a different way. No one dies or gets sick in this book, but the idea of two people loving each other so much but not being able to be together because of society and the law is incredibly heartbreaking. 

The book switches between the perspective of Marion, Tom’s wife, and Patrick, Tom’s past lover. We see the sadness that Marion holds as a result of the whole love triangle and forbidden romance since the story is set in 1950s England. We also get Patrick’s painful struggles of being a part of the LGBTQ+ community when this was illegal. 

The end is painful and tragic and shows the awful history of the treatment of LGTQ+ individuals. 

The story also switches back and forth between the past and present which is interesting. 

7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

One of my favorite kinds of books is a life story. I love to learn about the entire life of a person because everyone has such interesting stories to tell. Especially Evelyn Hugo, an actress from the 1950s. 

She hires a writer to tell her story of rising to fame, dealing with her very public and also forbidden relationships, and the writer, Monique, finds that in the end, Evelyn’s life intersects with her own. 

The drama and behind-the-scenes detail of Evelyn’s life will leave you hooked. I couldn’t put this book down! Also, her forbidden romance was a very devastating, but important piece of the novel. 

Also only felt appropriate to rank this book 7th. 

8. Love hypothesis 

I love this book so much. It’s low on my list because it is quite cheesy, and the unrealistic fake-dating situation bothers me a bit, but I’ll always recommend it.

However, I can’t deny the cuteness of the story, and the academic setting is something different than my usual books. 

Olive and Adam are one of my favorite book couples for sure. 

Olive is a PHD student, and she finds herself in a situation where she needs to prove to her best friend that she is in a relationship. So, she kisses the first man she knows, who happens to be a young professor at her college. 

They develop a fake relationship situation with perks for both of them, but of course, they fall in love at the end. 

9. “Better Than the Movies” by Lynn Painter

This might be the cutest story I’ve ever read. It’s set in high school, so it was on the younger side, but still satisfied my girly need to read about love. 

Liz and Wes have lived next to each other their whole lives, but Liz hates Wes due to his constant need to torment her. However, Liz has a crush, and ends up needing his help furthering this crush. 

This enemies-to-lovers story made me incredibly happy. I also appreciated the rom-com quotes at the start of each chapter! Nothing better than a nod to movies like When Harry Met Sally or 10 Things I Hate About You. 

10. “Practice Makes Perfect” by Sarah Adams 

Although this was such a sweet story, nothing stuck out to me as my favorite book of all time. Hence the #10 rank. 

Annie is a small town girl looking for love. Her sister-in-law is a famous singer who has a very attractive yet mysterious bodyguard named Will. 

The dual narrative gives us Will’s POV, in which he is completely infatuated with Annie, but unwilling to accept those feelings due to childhood trauma. It also gives us Annie’s POV. 

Their love story is very wholesome, and the dialogue throughout is witty, not cheesy! 

This was harder than I thought, but so fun to talk about my favorite lovey-dovey reads! Next week, I want to talk about the role of cancel culture on BookTok!