With Valentine's Day fast approaching, now is the perfect time to curl up with a heartwarming love story. I asked the experts--romance novelists, of course!--to share some of the most romantic books they've read recently. Check out their recommendations--ranging from classic novels and old skool romance to new adult and sexy contemporary romance--to get you in the mood for love!
There's so much wonderful about Forbidden; Jenkins's lulling but quietly powerful prose, uplifting storytelling, smoldering sensuality. In her hands, a scene about making marmalade demands as much surrender as a stolen kiss in a cupboard. But above all else, Forbidden is a romance, a tale of a love so powerful and commanding it leads two quietly suffering people from the dreams they'd knit from ash and teaches them how to transform love, honesty, and devotion into a perfect, soaring happily ever after.
--Heidi Cullinan, author of Clockwork Heart
I can't think of a book I've read in the last year that left me so enthralled, so utterly entranced by the romance. This isn't some shades of plaid sort of Scottish tale, but rather A Desperate Fortune is the quiet love story of Hugh and Mary, who fall in love slowly and so deeply that final moment between them that left me swooning.
--Elizabeth Boyle, author of The Knave of Hearts
This is a beautiful, compelling romantic read about an emotionally damaged man who has shut himself off from the small town where he lives, following a family tragedy. Enter the bright, nurturing woman who lands in town, hoping to escape reminders of her own trauma--and by chance, she is able to communicate with Archer the only way he is capable. Through sign language. The dance the characters execute had me holding my breath as I read. It has the feel of an old classic and it will always stick with me.
--Tessa Bailey, author of Boiling Point
Ellie Cahill creates a sweet and original take on the "friends with benefits" narrative. Joss and Matt are funny, lovable, and worth rooting for.
--Zoraida Córdova, author of Life on the Level
Even the title, The Prince Of Midnight by the fabulous Laura Kinsale, is romantic. Kinsale's books always transcend the genre but here she is magic. She takes two broken, lonely souls, unites them on a quest for vengeance and honor, and stars collide. Lady Leigh Strachan has traveled a great distance in search of the infamous highwayman known as the Prince of Midnight. She wants him help her avenge her family's deaths. S.T. Maitland hung up his highwayman spurs long ago when he realized he was all too human. He suffers vertigo, is deaf in one ear and is crippled with doubt. But he has a fiendish sense of humor and the heart of a hero. The Prince Of Midnight reminds me that it isn't our strengths that open us to love but our vulnerabilities.
--Cathy Maxwell, author of The Match of The Century
Take bad azz female fire fighter Alex Dempsey throw in combustible Mayor Eil Cooper and a five alarm fire breaks out. Hot, sexy, wonderful.
--Beverly Jenkins, author of Edge of Midnight
To me the most romantic stories are the ones where the connection between the lovers is a character in itself-- equal parts friendship and chemistry and that certain undefinable something that you just know they can never find with anyone else. And when you set that kind of connection against the backdrop of World War 2 and the Siege of Leningrad, 'love against all odds' takes on a whole new meaning. Paulina Simmons' The Bronze Horseman is so insanely romantic it's almost dangerous because it will make you useless for days after you've finished the book, unable to burrow out of Tatiana and Alexander's heart-wrenching, life-affirming story of love.
--Sonali Dev, author of The Bollywood Bride
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The books that are the most romantic to me are those where the author takes the
reader through an emotional wringer, only giving us the satisfying ending after making us doubt it will ever happen. Jane Austen's Persuasion is one of these; how many near misses did Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot have before finding their Happy Ever After? Not to mention, Captain Wentworth's "You pierce my soul..." is one of the most gloriously romantic letters ever written. Happy sigh.
--Megan Frampton, author of One Eyed Dukes Are Wild