[tps_header]6 Swoon Worthy Romantic Novels and Novellas[/tps_header]
On any given day you’ll probably catch millions of people reading a really good romance novel. Most of the time the biggest clue is the half-naked man on the cover and a ripped dress. I usually turn a blind eye to these covers just to save myself the embarrassment of probably having the same book on my shelf at home, but sometimes I’ll wonder what scene the person is on. Is it when they finally kiss? Have they just met in a sea of people, locked eyes, and then stupidly allowed the ocean of bodies to swallow them up? Or is it when they’ve touched accidentally and the inevitable realization that they’re in love with each other begins to eat them up inside?
All of the above and then some, of course. I devour all of these scenes ten times over, because I am a sucker for a good romance. There’s about a thousand or more different types of romances this day in age, but the swoon worthy romances? The baited breath, the squeal at the top of my lungs that I hold in for public personas?
Those are my favorite ones. I’ve compiled six romance novels that are so swoon worthy I have rested my cheek against the book cover or my tablet, and wished for the love of a fictional characters lifetime.
Let’s get started.
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Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins
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A novel so packed to the brim full of swoon worthy moments, you’ll be clutching it to your chest in the hopes it seeps into your own heart.
Anna and Etienne are the perfect balance of falling in love and everything that comes along with it. Their love is sweet and tender, with moments that are as beautiful as the city you come to believe as a character in itself. Paris is the backdrop for this timeless romance novel, and it paints itself across page after page as Perkins builds it a mind of its own.
You need to own this book.
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Book summary reads as:
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris–until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.
But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?
Anna and The French Kiss is available for purchase wherever books are sold.
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You can find all things “Anna” on The Young Folks here.
Maybe Someday, Colleen Hoover
I’ve recommended this before, and I will recommend it always. Hoover’s finest creation lies within the pages of this lovely novel, and it will also be the book that has you weeping over love. It’s a book that sparks a fond, soft feeling for diving headfirst into an ocean of love and discovering the secrets and hardships underneath.
Book summary reads as:
At twenty-two years old, Sydney is enjoying a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers that Hunter is cheating on her—and she’s forced to decide what her next move should be.
Soon, Sydney finds herself captivated by her mysterious and attractive neighbor, Ridge. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either. They soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one.
A passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance, Maybe Someday will immerse readers in Sydney’s tumultuous world from the very first page.
Maybe Someday is available for purchase wherever books are sold.
Saint Anything, Sarah Dessen
Dessen’s newest novel is her greatest comeback, with a love story that’s as unique and beautiful as the cover of the novel suggests. It’s a tale of finding not only a romantic love, but a familial one, too. Dessen creates a divine telling of the young, the troubled, and the strong.
Book summary reads as:
Peyton, Sydney’s charismatic older brother, has always been the star of the family, receiving the lion’s share of their parents’ attention and—lately—concern. When Peyton’s increasingly reckless behavior culminates in an accident, a drunk driving conviction, and a jail sentence, Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world. When everyone else is so worried about Peyton, is she the only one concerned about the victim of the accident?
Enter the Chathams, a warm, chaotic family who run a pizza parlor, play bluegrass on weekends, and pitch in to care for their mother, who has multiple sclerosis. Here Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance. And here she meets Mac, gentle, watchful, and protective, who makes Sydney feel seen, really seen, for the first time.
The uber-popular Sarah Dessen explores her signature themes of family, self-discovery, and change in her twelfth novel, sure to delight her legions of fans.
Saint Anything is available for purchase wherever books are sold.
You can also read The Young Folks’ review over this novel here.
Carry the Ocean, Heidi Cullinan
This book is truly a diamond in the rough. The swoon worthy rough. If you’ve read anything else I’ve written regarding novels of any sort, you know my heart lies within the LGBT+ genre and my desperate yearning for great novels still burns brightly. I have finally found a novel that quenches that flame (but not for long).
Cullinan not only serves up a novel rich with feeling and depth, but also gifts the world with a love story that is not only swoon worthy, but is a landmine of tender-hearted moments.
Go read it.
Book summary reads as:
High school graduate Jeremey Samson is looking forward to burying his head under the covers and sleeping until it’s time to leave for college. Then a tornado named Emmet Washington enters his life. The double major in math and computer science is handsome, forward, wicked smart, interested in dating Jeremey—and he’s autistic.
But Jeremey doesn’t judge him for that. He’s too busy judging himself, as are his parents, who don’t believe in things like clinical depression. When his untreated illness reaches a critical breaking point, Emmet is the white knight who rescues him and brings him along as a roommate to The Roosevelt, a quirky new assisted living facility nearby.
As Jeremey finds his feet at The Roosevelt, Emmet slowly begins to believe he can be loved for the man he is behind the autism. But before he can trust enough to fall head over heels, he must trust his own conviction that friendship is a healing force, and love can overcome any obstacle.
Warning: Contains characters obsessed with trains and counting, positive representations of autism and mental illness, a very dark moment, and Elwood Blues.
Carry the Ocean is available in e-book format, and in stores.
On The Fence, Kasie West
I am the biggest sucker for a best friend romance. Although in real life it’s difficult to even understand such a concept, on paper it’s the greatest thing to happen since I discovered listopia on goodreads.com.
West does a fantastic job of keeping the book light and cute, and the romance is teeth -sweet and swoon worthy. The family dynamic is layered without taking up the whole space, which creates the perfect set up for the boy to swoop in and sit “by the fence” with open ears.
Book summary reads as:
For sixteen-year-old Charlotte Reynolds, aka Charlie, being raised by a single dad and three older brothers has its perks. She can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows—including her longtime neighbor and honorary fourth brother, Braden. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn’t know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world of makeup, lacy skirts, and BeDazzlers. Even stranger, she’s spending time with a boy who has never seen her tear it up in a pickup game.
To cope with the stress of faking her way through this new reality, Charlie seeks late-night refuge in her backyard, talking out her problems with Braden by the fence that separates them. But their Fence Chats can’t solve Charlie’s biggest problem: she’s falling for Braden. Hard. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.
On The Fence is available wherever books are sold.
You can also check out The Young Folks’ review of the novel here.
This Quiet Sky, Joanne Bischof
SWOON, INDEED.
Most of the time if you can guess the ending of the book you’re reading by the first chapter, it’s a bad sign. This particular book propelled me to read that ending scene. Bischof creates a novella that caters to the sweetness of a romance novel, but is in no means “light.” Sure, it’s not riddled with heavy, deeper meanings, or bogged down by a person’s innermost demons, but it still has its darker qualities. The pages are filled with an ache between the sentences of friendship, and then love. The love is its greatest quality, and it’s a swoon worthy book at a high caliber. It’s short in length, obviously, but the romance develops at a good pace, and I didn’t realize how much I cared about the characters until the ending (that I already saw coming) swarmed my soul. It’s the definition of hope in about 158 pages.
Good luck.
Book summary reads as:
There is nothing extraordinary about Tucker O’Shay’s dreams. Go to college. Become president. Fall in love. And pretend like he has enough time to get it all done.
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Miller doesn’t expect anything out of the ordinary when she begins her first day at the one-room-school house in her new hometown of Rocky Knob. But when she meets seventeen-year-old Tucker O’Shay—the boy with the fatal illness who volunteers to tutor her in algebra—she finds herself swept up in a friendship that changes the way she sees the world and a love that changes her life.
This Quiet Sky is available online and in stores.
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