It’s no secret that the romance genre is currently dominating the publishing industry, especially with so many subgenres to choose from. From historical romance to contemporary, “romantasy,” and even the paranormal, the romance genre continues to be one of the single most popular book genres across the United States, according to industry research and bestseller lists.
With such versatile offerings across the genre, it’s no wonder readers from all walks of life have found their home in romance, especially those that portray common themes from modern life.
One popular contemporary romance author, Emily Henry, is renowned for doing exactly this: examining both the beauty and complexity of being human, while also experiencing the challenges of love and life. With flawed heroines, charming male leads, and witty dialogue, Henry’s bestselling novels challenge the preconceived notions of the genre, and continue to inspire contemporary authors to aim for the same.
Whether you’re in search of another tense, enemies-to-lovers novel like Henry’s Beach Read or Book Lovers, or you’re in search of a new heartwarming romance trope to try, Tule has the best contemporary romances for you!
Check out our top nine romance recommendations below based on your favorite Emily Henry books—it’s never too late to find a new favorite!
Emily Henry Book #1: Beach Read
Henry’s Beach Read is a beloved fan favorite for a reason, challenging the romantic notions of two characters who couldn’t be more opposite, yet continually find themselves drawn to each other. What starts as a heated encounter between rivals gradually turns into something more. Now all they have to do is overcome their complicated feelings for each other…
Tropes: Rivals to lovers, opposites attract, forced proximity, competition
Monopoly (n.) 1) the exclusive possession, control, or exercise of something. 2) a classic board game with all the answers to Harper Sloane’s problems.
If Harper Sloane has learned anything, it’s that you can’t throw money at a problem. So, when she learns the beloved game store she owns with her sister and best friend is struggling, instead of mortgaging her pride and grabbing the pile of uncashed checks from her absentee father, she rolls up her sleeves and enters the city’s Monopoly tournament to save Love & Games.
Declan Wilde is a handsome, new-in-town doctor looking to set his karma straight. When he pays for Harper’s coffee, she’s horrified. She quickly repays her debt—with interest—to prove she doesn’t need his charity. But when Declan turns up at Love & Games to enter the tournament, refusing his business isn’t an option.
Forced to see each other at every practice, the tension starts to feel like a challenge beyond the game board. As they go over strategies for play, is their rivalry still just enemies playing games, or has it turned into something more?
Monopolove is perfect for fans of board games, rivals-to-lovers, and competitive tournaments. Order your copy HERE!
An Acquired Taste by Kelly Cain
May the best chef win…
After four years at the country’s top culinary school and several years as head chef in her mother’s restaurant, Rowan Townsend has built a notable reputation. Her farm-to-table collard greens have long been bringing everyone to the yard, but limits on the restaurant’s size have led to long waits. Looking to expand the restaurant, she enters a televised chef competition. The problem? Her infuriatingly-talented nemesis from culinary school also enters.
To the culinary world, Knox Everheart is restaurant royalty. As much as Rowan wants to deny it, he’s a gifted chef. Rowan knows her arrogant arch-nemesis is confident he’ll win—he’s certainly given her a run for her money more times than she’d like to admit. But this time, she’s ready to show him who’s boss.
Their rivalry soon sparks fireworks in the kitchen and, as the competition heats up, so does Rowan’s attraction to Knox. And somewhere between pasta and gumbo, they both need to decide what’s worth fighting for.
An Acquired Taste combines the culinary atmosphere of The Bear with the competitive rivalry of The Hating Game. Get your copy HERE!
Emily Henry Book #2: People We Meet on Vacation
For the readers that love that slow burn, friends-to-lovers romance, books like Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation are perfect for you! With two main characters that are forced to reconcile their once-childhood friendship with the growing chemistry between them, these books contain the very best of the pining tropes you know and love.
Tropes: Friends to lovers, opposites attract, childhood friends, long-term crush
The Key to Forever by Kelly Cain
She doesn’t need a man, but she does want a family.
Tori Matheny comes from a family of strong women who are all close and happily single. She plans to live the same way—an occasional fling, but never settling down. What’s the need? She is, however, curious about her birth family despite her adoptive mom and aunts strongly discouraging her search. Tori’s always known she was adopted and has never been able to shake her lifelong curiosity. When she runs into a childhood friend with plenty of time on his hands, he seems like the ideal candidate to help with her search.
After a nomadic lifestyle serving for years in the Veterinarians Without Borders program, Ethan Borden is permanently home and finally ready to settle down—buy a home, marry, and have children. He’s always had a crush on Tori, so when she asks him for help, he’s hopeful it’s the beginning of so much more.
Ethan is happy to help Tori find her birth family, but when Tori learns Ethan is hiding a deep family secret, can their budding relationship survive the generational betrayals?
Cain’s The Key to Forever examines the complexities of a friendship where one character is already pining for the other, but can’t (or won’t) express it. Get your copy HERE!
Charmed by Chocolate by Steena Marie Holmes
When Leah ran off to Southern California, she hoped to leave freezing cold winters and unrequited love behind. She was never meant for a small town life and the timing with her longtime best friend–and secret soulmate–was always hopelessly off.
But after a mishap on the hit reality show Charming, Leah declares her love for Wade nationwide and is publicly dubbed “Lonely Leah.” She returns to Marietta to hide at her family’s home–from the media who wants to turn her into a human interest story, from the townspeople upset with her blunder, and most of all, from Wade, who wants to talk.
It took Leah leaving town to wake Wade Burns up to the reality that he’s head over heels in love with his best friend. But now that she’s back home, she’s giving him the cold shoulder. With chocolate and a grand gesture, can Wade charm his way back into Leah’s heart?
Charmed by Chocolate is perfect for fans of addictive reality shows, warm, small-town settings, and complicated friends-to-lovers romances. Claim your copy HERE!
Emily Henry Book #3: Book Lovers
Similar to Beach Read, Henry’s Book Lovers employs the rivals-to-lovers trope, but in this novel, those initial strong feelings of dislike are revealed to be nothing more than preconceived notions and misconceptions. When those misconceptions are finally shattered, the two once-rivals begin to see just how alike they are, and how blurred the line between dislike and attraction really is.
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, forced proximity, misconceptions, instant spark
Cupid Tricks by Michelle Dayton
The internet complicates everything—especially love.
Jo Harper isn’t always who men think she is. Every day she dons her psychology PhD and above-average computer skills like a super cape to right love’s wrongs. She and her team of four young women run an elite, undetectable online romance scam designed to trick married cheaters.
Jamie March, Bay Area royalty known as “The Conscience of Silicon Valley,” hates every aspect of online crime, especially those who defraud people. And when it appears that his brother is the victim of a sophisticated romance scam, he can’t stand idly by.
What’s weird, though, is that when Jo and Jamie meet, they don’t hate one another. Not at all. He makes her laugh and feel alive again. She challenges his intellect like no other. And their compatibility is off-the-charts sexy between the sheets. But enemies-to-lovers is only a fantasy.
Or is it?
Cupid Tricks is Book Lovers, if its niche was a love of computers instead of books. Begin the Tech-nically Love series HERE!
Emily Henry Book #4: Happy Place
Everyone loves a second chance, and these two novels like Henry’s Happy Place are full of them! With two characters that are forced to face past regret from their relationship, new silly encounters, and burgeoning friendship, these selections are perfect for a snowy, heartwarming read.
Tropes: Second chance romance, forced proximity, friends-to-lovers
Clued in Christmas by Mia Heintzelman
Nadia Sikes usually loves the holidays—cozy game nights, snowy mountain girls’ trips, hours decking the halls at Love & Games. But when her two best friends and co-owners find love, all she wants is to tuck away her heart and make it through the season.
Quietly handsome bookstore owner and single dad Micah Hamilton is determined to a) build lasting Christmas memories with his little girl and b) avoid Nadia. When his daughter asks to attend the holiday festivities at Love & Games, though, Micah is forced to introduce the woman who broke his heart, to his child she never knew existed.
The scene would drive anyone to plot their romantic reunion…and someone does. Between turkey dinners, tree decorating, and mistletoe kisses, mysterious notes begin showing up at the game store. As Nadia strings together clues, motives, and suspects for this twisty whodunit, she and Micah are blindsided by the return of their desire.
Is it a mistake to lose themselves in each other again? Or will a Christmas miracle bring them back to where they belong?
Heintzelman’s Clued in Christmas is a perfect seasonal read, combining the holiday spirit, a love of board games, and that special someone. Get your copy HERE!
The Dating Contract by Stacey Agdern
Sports Agent Leah Nachman is knee deep in her sister’s wedding drama and inches away from her biggest career goal when she runs into the high school boyfriend who broke her heart. The last thing she needs is another confrontation with the man too many people are convinced is her bashert. But perhaps he can be of use. After all, she’s totally over him. Right?
Sofer and Comic Letterer Samuel Levine is at a professional crossroads when he runs into what he believes is a fated second chance. He hasn’t seen Leah in ages, but the guilt over how they broke up still eats at him. When Leah proposes a fake ‘dating contract’ to help her make partner at her agency, and thwart her sister’s matchmaking, Samuel agrees. His goal is forgiveness, after all.
But the more time they spend together as ‘plus ones,’ the more like fate the dates feel. Leah is convinced love and ambition can’t co-exist and Samuel’s convinced he’s losing her. Will they let their dating contract expire or give love another chance?
Emily Henry Book #5: Funny Story
It starts with a mutually-beneficial arrangement, nothing long term or too complex. After all, the two love interests are only interested in their short-term alliance, not each other. Right? Wrong. Once they realize that they don’t want their time together to end, and that their friendly feelings have grown into something mutual and unavoidable, they will be forced to come to terms with a new arrangement. But will it satisfy them both?
Tropes: Fake dating, mutually-beneficial arrangement, friends-to-lovers, opposites attract
The Rachel Experiment by Lisa Lin
Who knew that one night out would change everything?
As a financial analyst, Rachel Bai is more comfortable with numbers than people. When her boss promotes her to head a team in San Francisco, his message is clear—she has one year to build a successful team and become an effective leader. Rachel sets out to discover how to be more comfortable interacting with people, but a drunken night meant for research results in a mechanical bull ride and a one-night stand with a sexy stranger—definitely not part of her plan.
Attorney Luke Trudeau is intrigued by the mysterious woman who’s determined to put their night together firmly in her rearview mirror. So when Luke sees Rachel again, he proposes a deal: he’ll smooth out her rough social edges and teach her to charm clients if she’ll help him devise a financial plan to open his own practice.
It seems like a win-win, but Luke breaks the rules by falling in love. Can he convince Rachel that what they have is real and, when it comes to love, there are no set rules?
The Valentine Quest by Melissa McClone
Keep your competition close…and your heart even closer.
When Nevada Parker travels to Marietta, Montana, she anticipates enough peace and quiet to finish her PhD dissertation. Cupidville turns out to be anything but quiet. In fact, it looks like Valentine’s Day—her least favorite holiday—exploded all over the small town.
Among the sea of red hearts, “Be Mine” signs, and pink, pink, pink, Nevada spots a flyer for a multi-day race called The Valentine Quest. The grand prize—a luxury tropical vacation—would be the perfect welcome-home gift for her brother who’s leaving the military.
Dustin Decker sure could use a break from giving city slickers sleigh rides—and from the now ex-girlfriend who issued an ultimatum. Even with a bum knee from his bull riding days, the race’s grand prize is as good as his—until he realizes he needs a partner for some of the more complicated tasks.
He makes a strategic pact with the prim, bookish Nevada. But with a kiss, their unlikely alliance turns into something more…and soon racing isn’t the only thing on their minds. As the finish line nears, they must decide if the grand prize is worth more than what they’ve found together…or if one of them will walk away empty handed—and broken-hearted.
The Valentine Quest is funny, charming, and heartwarming… Start reading it HERE!
There’s something to love for everyone in any romance! Stay up to date with Tule’s newest romance releases, blog posts, and giveaways by signing up for our newsletter HERE or subscribing to our news feed!
Written by Tule Marketing Intern, Kristina Gaffney
Kelly Cain is a native Californian but has spent the last couple of decades in Texas, currently residing in the live music capital of the world, Austin. Consequently, most of her books are set somewhere between those two locations.
