We chose the 10 best romance books of 2023. See the full list.

Falling in love with love has never been easier. Here are some of my favorite recent romance novels — steamy historicals, cutting-edge contemporaries and more. I’ll be updating this list all year, so check back for more recommendations.

I want a scorching-hot Regency romp

Wake Me Most Wickedly, by Felicia Grossman

In this “Snow White”-inspired romance set amid the complicated histories of Regency London’s Jewish families, we meet Hannah — a fence, and the daughter of two convicted thieves — and Solomon, the saucy scion of a once-wealthy family trying to brush off the cobwebs of debt and disgrace. Grossman will be writing two more books in this rich, complex series, and I cannot wait for the next one.

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Take my breath away

You Should Be So Lucky, by Cat Sebastian

The journalist Mark Bailey is 16 months out from the death of his partner. He’s coasting. It’s when he’s assigned to write about a flailing baseball player on the sad-sack local team that he finds someone to connect to: “What’s happening to Eddie O’Leary is an end. That’s something Mark knows about; that’s something Mark can write about.” People think the ending is what defines a romance, and it does, but that’s not what a romance is for. The end is where you stop, but the journey is why you go. And this journey is breathtaking.

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I want something completely exuberant and over-the-top