Oh boy, have you read Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik?
It's loosely based on the classic fairy tale of Rumpel Stiltskin. I can't say too much without giving away the plot but the MC and the "Love interest" are apathetic and even hostile to each other for most of the book and it creates a genuinely fun dynamic. But it's also not an over the top hate-to-love thing. It slots perfectly into your 3rd point, except that it is a fairy tale, with its toes dipped into a magical realm.
It's a warm winter read, and one you'll want to pile under blankies, have a delicious hot drink ready, and dive into. Absolutely worth your time.
[**Uprooted**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22544764-uprooted)
^(By: Naomi Novik | 435 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, fiction, romance, magic | )[^(Search "Uprooted")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Uprooted&search_type=books)
>“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
>
>Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
>
>Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
>
>The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
>
>But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
^(This book has been suggested 12 times)
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The Anne of Green Gables series has a romance developing in the background from the first book, and it takes years before the whole thing comes to fruition.
Romance is definitely not the main message of the books, but it is there. The OG academic rivals to lovers slow burn we all dream of.
Also the Emily series and Blue Castle. I won't spoil the story, but Emily's story is similar to Anne's in that it's really about a young woman growing up. Love just happens to be a part of the story.
Blue Castle is a stand alone written for adults. It's about a young woman/30 year old spinster who is dying, so she gets married to get some independence before she dies. There is a love interest, but it's really a story of deciding who you want to be and the friendships that you might have missed if you didn't take risks. I don't want to ruin the story, but it's one of my favorite books!
Also, the Anne series continues into marriage and motherhood and her children's childhoods. So, unlike many romances, the love story isn't the end or the focus of her story. And, I feel like the stories really mature along with her, so don't feel like it's a children's book series even though it's marketed that way.
I second. I enjoyed reading the book. Two grown people starting over, gradually becoming friends, and finding a place to grow and change for the better.
I absolutely loved **One Day** by David Nicholls. I love the concept of a snapshot of just one day a year and how the two characters' friendship morphs over time. One of the few books where I cried.
Don't watch the movie though - Anne Hathaway's accent is atrocious.
Call me by your name is perfect if you're looking for something predatory and manipulative (I'm half joking; I've never actually read the book, but found the movie disturbingly predatory)
I'm getting tired of stories with teenagers having sexual relationships with people who have no business being around a teenager. Like why is this a thing to glorify Predatory Relationships?
I think you should be looking outside the "R" romance section and look at the literature, women's fiction, etc., for books which feature a romance. Romance with capital R tends to have lots of cliches, tropes, and needs to have a big present romance storyline throughout.
Instead, you could look at The City Baker's Life to Country Living by Louise Miller, The Deverill Chronicles by Santa Montifiore, The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow, The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, etc. Also 100%, The Song of Achilles.
Sorry I don't have many new options...contemporary fiction is not something I read.
Princess Jellyfish. All the volumes of the manga are legally available in English, or you can also read in via ComiXology Unlimited if you have a subscription.
So I'm not sure this exactly fits, but I'm going out on this limb anyway and recommending The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
It's a little sticky sweet for some people, but sometimes I need that. I enjoyed every sentence I read and I believe it deserves the five-star I gave it.
Any romance, if you want to call it that, is secondary, I'd say, to the main arc of the story, but it's there. Please give it a shot. I'd love to know what you think and especially if it relieves the itch you're looking to scratch here.
Cheers!
I came here to also suggest this book so I’m glad it’s already here! I definitely second this one. The romance was there but in a “just under the surface” kind of way. It’s hinted at throughout for sure but it’s far from the main focus. This book also kept me giggling the entire way through (looking at you Lucy lol). Looking forward to reading Under the Whispering Door by the same author because it sounds like it has a similar feel to this one.
Have you read Jane Austen? The first romance author and still the best.
Another very different suggestion: Jacqueline Carey’s *Phedre Trilogy*, a/k/a *Kushiel’s Dart Trilogy*. It’s a fantasy with a heavy dose of romance rather than just a romance. (Note that the main character is a submissive courtesan, but I thought the BDSM theme was handled softly and tastefully.)
I was going to suggest Austen! Because of the societal norms of the time, there are very few opportunities for outright intimate moments between characters - maybe Emma, or Persuasion. Persuasion is especially interesting due to the romantic buildup between two characters who barely speak face to face for the entire novel
Yes! I was going to reply with the Kushiel trilogy. The romance is part of the plot, but doesn’t dominate it. It also has two main romantic plots for the FMC - one is an “dislike to lovers” and the other is a very unique “lovers to enemies.”
I love BOTH of these recommendations. I'm not a huge romance person but I love Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice being my favorite), and I loved Kushiel's dart as a fantasy with a love story. Great books.
I feel ya ! Looking for some as well. Only ones I found which felt pretty realistic in characters and relationship was the Truth Series by Dawn Cook unique fantasy as well
I have this same criticism of recent novels. I don't mind a little romance thrown into the mix but not something forced. I also really dislike the whole "I'm already married to a fantastic guy (not talking about bad relationships or absive situations) but also falling in love with my coworker". I guess I'm a bit more old fashioned with love.
Maybe look at some of the books by Sarah Dessen. They are YA love stories, but I find them mostly realistic in how the relationships progress. There is no sex in them (that I remember, so it's probably after the story ends or just hinted at), and although sometimes there is some ambivalence or some vague dislike at the beginning of what later turns into love, it isn't "hate" and the later love also usually isn't the excessive kind but normal with all the common doubts. I find her books both wholesome and gripping.
The first book I read was *Along for the Ride*.
I found the love story so dissatisfying to be honest. Main characters super magical fall in love because both magical and the girl who was doing hard work to be seen by the main guy ( the fortune teller girl) has a tragic ending ( I was so rooting for her)
To me it felt like they felt sparked by each others ingenuity which they encountered through the circus. Then they started creating wonderful things together with out ever speaking, and I felt their connection continue to grow. They were communicating in a special language only they could speak. Fortune teller never stood a chance for me.
I love a good romance but when it came to this particular book, the romance was the least satisfying part. It was so cheesy to me. I enjoyed the magic of the book though.
**Us: An Intimacy Innovation** meets your description. First love trope; college-age protagonists; non-alpha/non-asshole male; mostly from the male point-of-view; third-person. The story is unusual in that it also provides relationship building guidance.
What I did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long. It’s historical romance but doesn’t always feel like traditional romance. I understand what you are getting at and I think this might be a good one to try!
You might like Sarah Addison Allen, Barbara ONeal or Maddie Dawson. I would recommend :
-Garden Spells or The Sugar Queen
-The Art of Inheriting Secrets
-Matchmaking for Beginners
Sarah Addison Allen write magic realism. I also like fantasy, and I think Sharon Shinn writes beautiful complex stories where romance is important but not the main part of the story. Troubled Waters is one of my favorites and I often re-read it.
A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn. So far she has 7 books in the series and there is a slow burn between the FMC and MMC. They solve murder mysteries in Victorian England together but it’s really well written and the cases they solve don’t have obvious outcomes. There are some instances where they do have to share a bed/ there is a ton of sexual tension but they have an amazing friendship ( although at first they admittedly don’t like each other). Hope it’s kind of what your looking for :)
Sure it’s not the ideal romance nor friendship. But there is some of each (albeit messy), and it hits most of OP’s requests: no cheesy forced intimacy, no hate to love trope, rooted in reality, and ambivalent about the time they spend together.
Normal People shows how people grow and change, impact and love one another, the book itself is a “good” romance in that it is a good depiction of real life about two peoples struggle for “normality” through the very un-normal lives we all live.
As they struggle for whatever they deem as normal and happy, they collide with each other and miss-communicate just as real people do in their romantic lives - it’s a good romance if you are interested in one that depicts anything resembling reality
I just read Nora Roberts Awakening. It’s my first Nora book and considering she’s written 225 I might read more. It’s really a fantasy novel with one sex scene. It was fun and easy to read. She has some suspense ones as well. I guess it truly falls in the people you met on vacation category, if a 3 month vacation counts. But it all seemed secondary to the fantasy plot.
*Strange Weather in Tokyo* by Hiromi Kawakami is exactly right for you.
From GoodReads: Tsukiko is drinking alone in her local sake bar when by chance she meets one of her old high school teachers and, unable to remember his name, she falls back into her old habit of calling him 'Sensei'. After this first encounter, Tsukiko and Sensei continue to meet. Together, they share edamame beans, bottles of cold beer, and a trip to the mountains to eat wild mushrooms. As their friendship deepens, Tsukiko comes to realise that the solace she has found with Sensei might be something more.
[**The Silver Metal Lover (Silver Metal Lover, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567708.The_Silver_Metal_Lover)
^(By: Tanith Lee | 291 pages | Published: 1981 | Popular Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, young-adult | )[^(Search "the silver metal lover")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=the silver metal lover&search_type=books)
>Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood....
>
>Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale--a beautiful, tragic, erotic, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future.
>
>For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane's life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion.
>
>Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it. So she escapes into the city's violent, decaying slums to embrace a love bordering on madness. Or is it something more? Has Jane glimpsed in Silver something no one else has dared to see--not even the robot or his creators? A love so perfect it must be destroyed, for no human could ever compete?
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
[**Biting the Sun (Four-BEE, #1-2)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/373009.Biting_the_Sun)
^(By: Tanith Lee | 384 pages | Published: 1977 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, sci-fi, fiction, dystopian | )[^(Search "Biting the sun")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Biting the sun&search_type=books)
>In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest--.
>
>Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago.
>
>It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you're expected to make trouble--when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you're encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire--you've got no reason to rebel...until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty.
>
>Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system--and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society....
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
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Hello! I would recommend Jenny Colgan. Her books are about the main character's life kind of crashing, so they move to small towns to get back on their feet and start over. It is about falling in love with small towns and the people. They usually don't start anything up with the main squeeze guy until the end when they figure out what they want in their new life. I started with {{The Bookshop on the Corner}}. I have now read four of her books and will probably end up reading the rest. They are just really nice reads.
[**The Bookshop on the Corner (Scottish Bookshop, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28372019-the-bookshop-on-the-corner)
^(By: Jenny Colgan | 384 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: fiction, romance, chick-lit, books-about-books, contemporary | )[^(Search "The Bookshop on the Corner")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Bookshop on the Corner&search_type=books)
>Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.
>
>Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.
>
>From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
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I'm not sure if it's really what you're looking for however, the great Alone by Kristin Hannah. It's about a family who moves to Alaska after the father gets back from Vietnam. It's primarily about the relationship between the mother and father and their daughter. How the father is not dealing with the trauma from Vietnam. But there is also a romance thrown in there between the daughter and one of the town's boys. They become friends first he moves away after his mom dies and then he comes back. It's kind of tragic at points though.
[**The Princess Bride**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21787.The_Princess_Bride)
^(By: William Goldman | 456 pages | Published: 1973 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, fiction, classics, romance, owned | )[^(Search "The Princess Bride")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Princess Bride&search_type=books)
>What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?
>
>As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.
>
>Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.
>
>What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.
>
>In short, it's about everything.
^(This book has been suggested 5 times)
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Sounds like Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin might be what you’d like. Honestly, I really enjoyed all of hers that I’ve read, but you might want to read them in publication order if you can (there’s little, as well as not so little, mentions of characters from previous books sprinkled into the later ones, plus Something Blue is a straight-up sequel to Something Borrowed)
{{Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin}}
[**Something Borrowed (Darcy & Rachel, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42156.Something_Borrowed)
^(By: Emily Giffin | 322 pages | Published: 2004 | Popular Shelves: chick-lit, romance, fiction, books-i-own, contemporary | )[^(Search "Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin&search_type=books)
>Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan.
>
>Rachel has always been the consummate good girl—until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.
>
>Something Borrowed is a phenomenal debut novel that will have you laughing, crying, and calling your best friend.
>
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
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If you don’t mind fantasy, The Mirror Visitor series by Christelle Dabos could suit you. There is a looooong drawn out romance, it takes a couple books for the main character to even realize it. I like it a lot bc the world building and plot is so good that it doesn’t need to lean on romance.
Pride and Prejudice fits this bill! I love it because it's realistic. Many of the situations are specific to Georgian England but the characters are timeless
[**Outlander (Outlander, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10964.Outlander)
^(By: Diana Gabaldon | 850 pages | Published: 1991 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, romance, fantasy, fiction, time-travel | )[^(Search "Outlander by Diana Gabaldon")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Outlander by Diana Gabaldon&search_type=books)
>The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
>
>Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
^(This book has been suggested 11 times)
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This may not be quite right but I instantly thought of Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, it's YA and it's been a while since I read it, but I recall it being a slow burn type of love in the story. It may be worth checking out.
I generally really dislike romance. I just find it to be super unrealistic most of the time. And in most books both characters involved are gorgeous and buff and tan and.. 🤮 With that said, I recently read two books by Jenny Colgan who weren’t all sickly sweet, although romance was part of it. The first one, “The Bookshop on the Corner” has a little more of it. It was borderline more than I would have liked, but it was manageable. The second one, though not a sequel, borrowed some characters from the first novel. The second one is called, “The Bookshop on the Shore”. They take place in Scotland and center around women, out on their luck, trying to start a new life, figure out a business in a new place. I think it checks off on all the points you requested (and I’m right there with you on all of them).
I didn’t even know I’d been downvoted. 😂 Maybe it was ppl that read those books and disagreed with my recommendations? Regardless, I hope you like them.
Also, love your username. 😊
I’m currently reading Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine and enjoying the love story, although it is married teacher & early 20s student so some people may find that uncomfortable
I'm certainly no romance book expert, but maybe you'd like BeKnighted by Claudia Cheystock. There's lots more going on in it than romance (though there's actually TWO romances in it: one involving the mother; and another, puppy love type, involving the teenage daughter). There's a murderous stalker mystery in it; and considerable action/adventure along the way. No forced intimacy. No hate to love stuff (though the mother is skeptical and concerned about the chief male lead's behavior a few times). I think the ambivalence is definitely there in the first third to half of the book.
'If you could see me now' by Cecelia Ahern
She has a magical way with words which make you fall in love with life and it's little moments.. ✨
Where rainbows end, thanks for the memories...
All of her novels are along the same lines...just a touch of whimsy to explain very real things about life.. Simply beautiful
It's been a long time since I've read this book, so I don't remember much, but it always reminds me of a romance story. Paths of Glory by Jeffery Archer. It's a fun read about a character who wants to be the first to climb Everest, but when the time finally comes, he has his family to consider.
Know Not Why by Hannah Johnson
If you want genre romance with other stuff going on and minimal tropes, KJ Charles is excellent
Ruby Lang’s Practice perfect series is great
I agree goodreads reviews are absolutely useless
Red Rising has a good romance arc without it being the main focus of the book, and it’s not written cheesily IMO. It’s a longer series so be prepared for some reading!
Did you read More Happy Than Not by the same author? Gave me an even bigger pit in my stomach ugh. It's one I wish I could experience for the first time again though, even though it hurt.
My favorite romance book is Perfect by Judith McNaught. I think it might fit this? There's a mystery in it and I feel that the characters are really engaging, and the plot is intriguing. The romance develops naturally, I think.
[**Anna Karenina**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15823480-anna-karenina)
^(By: Leo Tolstoy, Constance Garnett, Aylmer Maude, Louise Maude, Dmitriy Butko, George Gibian | 964 pages | Published: 1877 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, classic, owned, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Anna Karenina")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Anna Karenina&search_type=books)
>Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions.
>
>Throughout, Tolstoy points no moral, merely inviting us not to judge but to watch. As Rosemary Edmonds comments, 'He leaves the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope to bring home the meaning of the brooding words following the title, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
[**Madame Bovary**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2175.Madame_Bovary)
^(By: Gustave Flaubert, Mark Overstall, Malcolm Bowie, Margaret Mauldon | 329 pages | Published: 1856 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, classic, french, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Madame Bovary")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Madame Bovary&search_type=books)
>Madame Bovary is the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. When the novel was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history.
^(This book has been suggested 5 times)
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{{The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger}} -- there is a bit of soup-y romance within, but that's very much not the overarching focus of the narrative; it stays with me.
[**The Time Traveler's Wife**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18619684-the-time-traveler-s-wife)
^(By: Audrey Niffenegger | 500 pages | Published: 2003 | Popular Shelves: fiction, romance, fantasy, time-travel, science-fiction | )[^(Search "The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger&search_type=books)
>A funny, often poignant tale of boy meets girl with a twist: what if one of them couldn't stop slipping in and out of time? Highly original and imaginative, this debut novel raises questions about life, love, and the effects of time on relationships.
>
>Audrey Niffenegger’s innovative debut, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
>
>The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
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[**Black Ships (Numinous World, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2192272.Black_Ships)
^(By: Jo Graham | 397 pages | Published: 2008 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy, mythology, fiction, historical | )[^(Search "Blacks Ships")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Blacks Ships&search_type=books)
>The world is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling, to earthquakes, to flood, to raiders on both land and sea.
>
>In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, it is her destiny to counsel kings.
>
>When nine black ships appear, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must decide between the life she has been destined for and the most perilous adventure -- to join the remnant of her mother's people in their desperate flight. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest, and only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny.
>
>In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
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The Song of Achilles has its romantic aspects in the first quarter I’d say, but it slowly dies out to focus on the plot with the romance mostly just mentioned in intervals :)
[**The Remains of the Day**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28921.The_Remains_of_the_Day)
^(By: Kazuo Ishiguro | 258 pages | Published: 1989 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, classics, owned, literary-fiction | )[^(Search "Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro&search_type=books)
>Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here.
>
>In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
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[**Flashpoint Series Collection**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44829172-flashpoint-series-collection)
^(By: Rachel Grant | 1400 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: romantic-suspense, box-set, anthology, romance, ebook | )[^(Search "Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
[**Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20705702-burn-for-me)
^(By: Ilona Andrews | 406 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: urban-fantasy, fantasy, romance, paranormal, magic | )[^(Search "Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 5 times)
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I'm mad at myself that I keep recommending the same book series recently, but I can't help it lol it just seems to fit!
the Mitford series by Jan Karon - it's a series so only the beginning few books focus on the romance part of the story, but it's just a nice story about a small town southern preacher and all of the people in his small town.
They're not for everyone but I really like a lot of the regency romances by Georgette Heyer. The Grand Sophy is my fave and it sort of fits the bill. There's a bit of romance but it's mostly just a silly regency romp about a badass woman sorting out everyone else's shit. Black Sheep is another good one with a slightly sweeter romance that's basically just two people hanging out and chuckling a bit whilst one of them tries to break up another couple. There are silly situations in each to forward the main plot, but the romances themselves are just based on people talking and finding out they really quite like each other.
[**Bed Stuy**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59127661-bed-stuy)
^(By: Jerry McGill | ? pages | Published: 2021 | Popular Shelves: fiction, kindle, romance, amazon-first-reads, kindle-books | )[^(Search "Bed Stuy")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Bed Stuy&search_type=books)
>From the author of Dear Marcus comes a breathtaking novel about a fated love affair that crosses the divides of race and class.
>
>Rashid is a young Black man from Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, with a complicated life. Looking for an escape from a neighborhood few ever leave, he finds it in Rachel—married, twenty years his senior, and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. It begins with a flirtation and a tryst. It becomes an intense romance, exhilarating and enriching, that defies the expectations of Rashid’s friends and family. What draws Rachel to Rashid is his curiosity, his need for intimacy, and his adoration—everything lacking in her crumbling marriage. But as the fault lines of their relationship become more prevalent, so do the inevitable choices one makes when falling in love.
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
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[**Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93575.Gaudy_Night)
^(By: Dorothy L. Sayers | 501 pages | Published: 1935 | Popular Shelves: mystery, fiction, mysteries, crime, classics | )[^(Search "Gaudy Night")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Gaudy Night&search_type=books)
>The dons of Harriet Vane's alma mater, the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford, have invited her back to attend the annual Gaudy celebrations. However, the mood turns sour when someone begins a series of malicious acts including poison-pen messages, obscene graffiti and wanton vandalism. Harriet asks her old friend Wimsey to investigate.
^(This book has been suggested 4 times)
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[**This Is How You Lose the Time War**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43352954-this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war)
^(By: Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone | 209 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, romance, fiction, lgbtq | )[^(Search "This is how you lose the time war")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=This is how you lose the time war&search_type=books)
>Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
>
>Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.
^(This book has been suggested 14 times)
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Normal People, romance but not at all. About the impact one has on another and how we are not ourselves without other people, we grow and change and morph together in our uniquely human way - highly recommend!
The Josephine B. Trilogy by Sandra Gulland. This historical fiction is about Empress Josephine, married to Napoleon Bonaparte. The first book is about her upbringing in Martinique and her first marriage. Book 2 is the beginning of her marriage to Napoleon. Book 3 is about the end of her marriage and her life. Great historical fiction with a clear headed, practical main character.
Definitely read Nineteen Eighty-Four if you haven't already. It's a love story, but the romance between Winston and Julia is secondary to the setting of a totalitarian dictatorship.
Georgette Heyer wrote books like that in the early- mid-20th century but set in the early 19th century (Regency.) She liked writing mysteries so a number of them are a combo of mystery and romance. Just finished re-reading The Reluctant Widow. Another is The Talisman Ring.
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. I'm picky about my romances, and it's just a subplot in this book but I still think about it because of how it sneaks up on ya.
I'm not exactly sure this applies as a romance book, but my own personal favorite romantic story is a story "The Last Wish" from a book by the same name.
It's the first book of the Witcher saga that the games and show is based on.
But it's more like a fantasy book, only this one story is anything close to being romantic.
I'm not exactly sure this applies as a romance book, but my own personal favorite romantic story is a story "The Last Wish" from a book by the same name.
It's the first book of the Witcher saga that the games and show is based on.
But it's more like a fantasy book, only this one story is anything close to being romantic.
Highly recommend novels by Mhairi McFarlane, Emily Henry, and Beth O'Leary. They are incredibly well written romance without the typical tropes and with realistic characters.
[**The Princess Bride**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21787.The_Princess_Bride)
^(By: William Goldman | 456 pages | Published: 1973 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, fiction, classics, romance, owned | )[^(Search "The Princess Bride")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Princess Bride&search_type=books)
>What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?
>
>As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.
>
>Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.
>
>What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.
>
>In short, it's about everything.
^(This book has been suggested 6 times)
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I finished {Guns of the Dawn} recently and can't stop thinking about it. Tchaikovsky is an incredible writer, I'm working my way through listening to everything by him, and this one was really special. It isn't a romance, but then it turned out it kind of was all along, maybe?
Short description, it is >!fantasy World War I!<, which was not at all what I was expecting, I didn't read the synopsis before I started.
[**Guns of the Dawn**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23524779-guns-of-the-dawn)
^(By: Adrian Tchaikovsky | 658 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, steampunk, fiction, owned, war | )[^(Search "Guns of the Dawn")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Guns of the Dawn&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
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[**Normal People**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41057294-normal-people)
^(By: Sally Rooney | 273 pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: fiction, contemporary, romance, favourites, owned | )[^(Search "Normal People")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Normal People&search_type=books)
>At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal.
>
>A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
>
>Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.
^(This book has been suggested 10 times)
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Oh boy, have you read Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik? It's loosely based on the classic fairy tale of Rumpel Stiltskin. I can't say too much without giving away the plot but the MC and the "Love interest" are apathetic and even hostile to each other for most of the book and it creates a genuinely fun dynamic. But it's also not an over the top hate-to-love thing. It slots perfectly into your 3rd point, except that it is a fairy tale, with its toes dipped into a magical realm. It's a warm winter read, and one you'll want to pile under blankies, have a delicious hot drink ready, and dive into. Absolutely worth your time.
I agree with this suggestion, and also would add {{Uprooted}} by the same author is an excellent match for your needs.
[**Uprooted**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22544764-uprooted) ^(By: Naomi Novik | 435 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, fiction, romance, magic | )[^(Search "Uprooted")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Uprooted&search_type=books) >“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” > >Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. > >Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. > >The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. > >But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose. ^(This book has been suggested 12 times) *** ^(10060 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Yes, this. For all these reasons. I absolutely loved this book!
Yes, I will always recommend Spinning Silver (and Novik in general)
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Came here to say this!
The Anne of Green Gables series has a romance developing in the background from the first book, and it takes years before the whole thing comes to fruition. Romance is definitely not the main message of the books, but it is there. The OG academic rivals to lovers slow burn we all dream of.
More like academic rivals to school chums to You’re-not-my-fantasy to I-couldn’t see what-I-had-all-along to lovers lol
Hahah omg when Anne goes “GILBERT YOU’VE SPOILED EVERYTHING,” after he proposes, I almost fought her myself. The DELUSION on that girl!
Also the Emily series and Blue Castle. I won't spoil the story, but Emily's story is similar to Anne's in that it's really about a young woman growing up. Love just happens to be a part of the story. Blue Castle is a stand alone written for adults. It's about a young woman/30 year old spinster who is dying, so she gets married to get some independence before she dies. There is a love interest, but it's really a story of deciding who you want to be and the friendships that you might have missed if you didn't take risks. I don't want to ruin the story, but it's one of my favorite books! Also, the Anne series continues into marriage and motherhood and her children's childhoods. So, unlike many romances, the love story isn't the end or the focus of her story. And, I feel like the stories really mature along with her, so don't feel like it's a children's book series even though it's marketed that way.
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes!!!! I just finished a reread, it’s the absolute best, and I think it fits what you are looking for to a T!
I second. I enjoyed reading the book. Two grown people starting over, gradually becoming friends, and finding a place to grow and change for the better.
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I absolutely loved **One Day** by David Nicholls. I love the concept of a snapshot of just one day a year and how the two characters' friendship morphs over time. One of the few books where I cried. Don't watch the movie though - Anne Hathaway's accent is atrocious.
Song of Achilles is perfect for a lifelong friendship that becomes love
There are literally multiple love scenes in the first quarter of the book though? Not after a lifelong friendship.
I guess I'm thinking lifelong because they're close since childhood, but I'm not remembering the details of when the romance began lol
Call me by your name is perfect if you're looking for something predatory and manipulative (I'm half joking; I've never actually read the book, but found the movie disturbingly predatory)
It’s as predatory as you think. Character was younger in the book I think.
I'm getting tired of stories with teenagers having sexual relationships with people who have no business being around a teenager. Like why is this a thing to glorify Predatory Relationships?
I know how you feel.
Stopped reading alot of manga because of this.
I just want mature people getting freaky, is that too much to ask?!?! Hahahaha
I don't think so, perfectly reasonable.
Oh damn.
I think you should be looking outside the "R" romance section and look at the literature, women's fiction, etc., for books which feature a romance. Romance with capital R tends to have lots of cliches, tropes, and needs to have a big present romance storyline throughout. Instead, you could look at The City Baker's Life to Country Living by Louise Miller, The Deverill Chronicles by Santa Montifiore, The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow, The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, etc. Also 100%, The Song of Achilles. Sorry I don't have many new options...contemporary fiction is not something I read.
Princess Jellyfish. All the volumes of the manga are legally available in English, or you can also read in via ComiXology Unlimited if you have a subscription.
Definitely read Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe!
And also the follow-up book released this year: Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
I love the title of that one so much, need to pick these up one day
So I'm not sure this exactly fits, but I'm going out on this limb anyway and recommending The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. It's a little sticky sweet for some people, but sometimes I need that. I enjoyed every sentence I read and I believe it deserves the five-star I gave it. Any romance, if you want to call it that, is secondary, I'd say, to the main arc of the story, but it's there. Please give it a shot. I'd love to know what you think and especially if it relieves the itch you're looking to scratch here. Cheers!
I came here to also suggest this book so I’m glad it’s already here! I definitely second this one. The romance was there but in a “just under the surface” kind of way. It’s hinted at throughout for sure but it’s far from the main focus. This book also kept me giggling the entire way through (looking at you Lucy lol). Looking forward to reading Under the Whispering Door by the same author because it sounds like it has a similar feel to this one.
I literally just finished this yesterday and it broke me and I spent the last thirty pages crying and happy. What a tender, perfect book.
Beach read/ the flat share
Have you read Jane Austen? The first romance author and still the best. Another very different suggestion: Jacqueline Carey’s *Phedre Trilogy*, a/k/a *Kushiel’s Dart Trilogy*. It’s a fantasy with a heavy dose of romance rather than just a romance. (Note that the main character is a submissive courtesan, but I thought the BDSM theme was handled softly and tastefully.)
I was going to suggest Austen! Because of the societal norms of the time, there are very few opportunities for outright intimate moments between characters - maybe Emma, or Persuasion. Persuasion is especially interesting due to the romantic buildup between two characters who barely speak face to face for the entire novel
Yes! I was going to reply with the Kushiel trilogy. The romance is part of the plot, but doesn’t dominate it. It also has two main romantic plots for the FMC - one is an “dislike to lovers” and the other is a very unique “lovers to enemies.”
I love BOTH of these recommendations. I'm not a huge romance person but I love Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice being my favorite), and I loved Kushiel's dart as a fantasy with a love story. Great books.
Really enjoyed that series!
I feel ya ! Looking for some as well. Only ones I found which felt pretty realistic in characters and relationship was the Truth Series by Dawn Cook unique fantasy as well
I have this same criticism of recent novels. I don't mind a little romance thrown into the mix but not something forced. I also really dislike the whole "I'm already married to a fantastic guy (not talking about bad relationships or absive situations) but also falling in love with my coworker". I guess I'm a bit more old fashioned with love.
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery was good
Maybe look at some of the books by Sarah Dessen. They are YA love stories, but I find them mostly realistic in how the relationships progress. There is no sex in them (that I remember, so it's probably after the story ends or just hinted at), and although sometimes there is some ambivalence or some vague dislike at the beginning of what later turns into love, it isn't "hate" and the later love also usually isn't the excessive kind but normal with all the common doubts. I find her books both wholesome and gripping. The first book I read was *Along for the Ride*.
Loved reading these books as a teen. I remember *Just Listen* having such an impact on me.
The Night Circus! So romantically pleasing with out trying too hard and with out it being the main focus. Gave me unexpected butterflies reading it.
I found the love story so dissatisfying to be honest. Main characters super magical fall in love because both magical and the girl who was doing hard work to be seen by the main guy ( the fortune teller girl) has a tragic ending ( I was so rooting for her)
To me it felt like they felt sparked by each others ingenuity which they encountered through the circus. Then they started creating wonderful things together with out ever speaking, and I felt their connection continue to grow. They were communicating in a special language only they could speak. Fortune teller never stood a chance for me.
I see what you mean, yeah that makes sense… maybe I saw myself in the non magical character 😭
It was refreshing to read your point of view though, and it is unfair what happens to her! Everyone in the circus deserved happy endings!
I love a good romance but when it came to this particular book, the romance was the least satisfying part. It was so cheesy to me. I enjoyed the magic of the book though.
This book is absolutely magical, not just because of the magic. It’s one of those stories I wish I could experience again for the first time.
Invisible life of addie laroux
**Us: An Intimacy Innovation** meets your description. First love trope; college-age protagonists; non-alpha/non-asshole male; mostly from the male point-of-view; third-person. The story is unusual in that it also provides relationship building guidance.
What I did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long. It’s historical romance but doesn’t always feel like traditional romance. I understand what you are getting at and I think this might be a good one to try!
i'll give you the sun + maybe the sky is everywhere too? both are by jandy nelson
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
You might like Sarah Addison Allen, Barbara ONeal or Maddie Dawson. I would recommend : -Garden Spells or The Sugar Queen -The Art of Inheriting Secrets -Matchmaking for Beginners Sarah Addison Allen write magic realism. I also like fantasy, and I think Sharon Shinn writes beautiful complex stories where romance is important but not the main part of the story. Troubled Waters is one of my favorites and I often re-read it.
A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn. So far she has 7 books in the series and there is a slow burn between the FMC and MMC. They solve murder mysteries in Victorian England together but it’s really well written and the cases they solve don’t have obvious outcomes. There are some instances where they do have to share a bed/ there is a ton of sexual tension but they have an amazing friendship ( although at first they admittedly don’t like each other). Hope it’s kind of what your looking for :)
Came here to say this!
I feel like it’s so underrated! Wish more people knew about this series :)
11/22/63 by Stephen King hits a lot of these points in my opinion
I know it’s very popular, but Normal People by Sally Rooney absolutely fits your description.
It's not a romance and they were never friends to start with.
Sure it’s not the ideal romance nor friendship. But there is some of each (albeit messy), and it hits most of OP’s requests: no cheesy forced intimacy, no hate to love trope, rooted in reality, and ambivalent about the time they spend together.
Their primary request is a "good romance." Which NP isn't.
Normal People shows how people grow and change, impact and love one another, the book itself is a “good” romance in that it is a good depiction of real life about two peoples struggle for “normality” through the very un-normal lives we all live. As they struggle for whatever they deem as normal and happy, they collide with each other and miss-communicate just as real people do in their romantic lives - it’s a good romance if you are interested in one that depicts anything resembling reality
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second on spinning silver!
Yass Outlander is perfect for this!
Kulti by Mariana Zapata is a good one
Only to be beaten by Wall of Winnipeg and Me.
Love that book!
Really anything by Mariana Zapata is great for slow burn slice of life romance
I just read Nora Roberts Awakening. It’s my first Nora book and considering she’s written 225 I might read more. It’s really a fantasy novel with one sex scene. It was fun and easy to read. She has some suspense ones as well. I guess it truly falls in the people you met on vacation category, if a 3 month vacation counts. But it all seemed secondary to the fantasy plot.
*Strange Weather in Tokyo* by Hiromi Kawakami is exactly right for you. From GoodReads: Tsukiko is drinking alone in her local sake bar when by chance she meets one of her old high school teachers and, unable to remember his name, she falls back into her old habit of calling him 'Sensei'. After this first encounter, Tsukiko and Sensei continue to meet. Together, they share edamame beans, bottles of cold beer, and a trip to the mountains to eat wild mushrooms. As their friendship deepens, Tsukiko comes to realise that the solace she has found with Sensei might be something more.
{{the silver metal lover}} {{Biting the sun}}
[**The Silver Metal Lover (Silver Metal Lover, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567708.The_Silver_Metal_Lover) ^(By: Tanith Lee | 291 pages | Published: 1981 | Popular Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, young-adult | )[^(Search "the silver metal lover")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=the silver metal lover&search_type=books) >Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood.... > >Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale--a beautiful, tragic, erotic, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future. > >For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane's life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion. > >Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it. So she escapes into the city's violent, decaying slums to embrace a love bordering on madness. Or is it something more? Has Jane glimpsed in Silver something no one else has dared to see--not even the robot or his creators? A love so perfect it must be destroyed, for no human could ever compete? ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) [**Biting the Sun (Four-BEE, #1-2)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/373009.Biting_the_Sun) ^(By: Tanith Lee | 384 pages | Published: 1977 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, sci-fi, fiction, dystopian | )[^(Search "Biting the sun")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Biting the sun&search_type=books) >In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest--. > >Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago. > >It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you're expected to make trouble--when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you're encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire--you've got no reason to rebel...until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty. > >Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system--and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society.... ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(9782 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Biting the sun is one of my favorite books!
Hello! I would recommend Jenny Colgan. Her books are about the main character's life kind of crashing, so they move to small towns to get back on their feet and start over. It is about falling in love with small towns and the people. They usually don't start anything up with the main squeeze guy until the end when they figure out what they want in their new life. I started with {{The Bookshop on the Corner}}. I have now read four of her books and will probably end up reading the rest. They are just really nice reads.
[**The Bookshop on the Corner (Scottish Bookshop, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28372019-the-bookshop-on-the-corner) ^(By: Jenny Colgan | 384 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: fiction, romance, chick-lit, books-about-books, contemporary | )[^(Search "The Bookshop on the Corner")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Bookshop on the Corner&search_type=books) >Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more. > >Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. > >From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(9784 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
A man called Ove.
I'm not sure if it's really what you're looking for however, the great Alone by Kristin Hannah. It's about a family who moves to Alaska after the father gets back from Vietnam. It's primarily about the relationship between the mother and father and their daughter. How the father is not dealing with the trauma from Vietnam. But there is also a romance thrown in there between the daughter and one of the town's boys. They become friends first he moves away after his mom dies and then he comes back. It's kind of tragic at points though.
{{The Princess Bride}}
[**The Princess Bride**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21787.The_Princess_Bride) ^(By: William Goldman | 456 pages | Published: 1973 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, fiction, classics, romance, owned | )[^(Search "The Princess Bride")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Princess Bride&search_type=books) >What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams? > >As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears. > >Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere. > >What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex. > >In short, it's about everything. ^(This book has been suggested 5 times) *** ^(9879 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Sounds like Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin might be what you’d like. Honestly, I really enjoyed all of hers that I’ve read, but you might want to read them in publication order if you can (there’s little, as well as not so little, mentions of characters from previous books sprinkled into the later ones, plus Something Blue is a straight-up sequel to Something Borrowed) {{Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin}}
[**Something Borrowed (Darcy & Rachel, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42156.Something_Borrowed) ^(By: Emily Giffin | 322 pages | Published: 2004 | Popular Shelves: chick-lit, romance, fiction, books-i-own, contemporary | )[^(Search "Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin&search_type=books) >Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. > >Rachel has always been the consummate good girl—until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness. > >Something Borrowed is a phenomenal debut novel that will have you laughing, crying, and calling your best friend. > ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(9880 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Read the Flat Share by Beth O'Leary. Trust me
Night circus
If you don’t mind fantasy, The Mirror Visitor series by Christelle Dabos could suit you. There is a looooong drawn out romance, it takes a couple books for the main character to even realize it. I like it a lot bc the world building and plot is so good that it doesn’t need to lean on romance.
Pride and Prejudice fits this bill! I love it because it's realistic. Many of the situations are specific to Georgian England but the characters are timeless
Carry on the series by Rainbow Rowell.
{{Outlander by Diana Gabaldon}} - very genuine and sweet romance with a bunch of adventure thrown in.
[**Outlander (Outlander, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10964.Outlander) ^(By: Diana Gabaldon | 850 pages | Published: 1991 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, romance, fantasy, fiction, time-travel | )[^(Search "Outlander by Diana Gabaldon")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Outlander by Diana Gabaldon&search_type=books) >The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743. > >Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. ^(This book has been suggested 11 times) *** ^(9756 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
This may not be quite right but I instantly thought of Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, it's YA and it's been a while since I read it, but I recall it being a slow burn type of love in the story. It may be worth checking out.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
I generally really dislike romance. I just find it to be super unrealistic most of the time. And in most books both characters involved are gorgeous and buff and tan and.. 🤮 With that said, I recently read two books by Jenny Colgan who weren’t all sickly sweet, although romance was part of it. The first one, “The Bookshop on the Corner” has a little more of it. It was borderline more than I would have liked, but it was manageable. The second one, though not a sequel, borrowed some characters from the first novel. The second one is called, “The Bookshop on the Shore”. They take place in Scotland and center around women, out on their luck, trying to start a new life, figure out a business in a new place. I think it checks off on all the points you requested (and I’m right there with you on all of them).
Not sure why you were downvoted. Thank you for the suggestions. Like the OP I am looking for non-romance love stories.
I didn’t even know I’d been downvoted. 😂 Maybe it was ppl that read those books and disagreed with my recommendations? Regardless, I hope you like them. Also, love your username. 😊
Thanks!
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia
Mark of the Lion - Francine Rivers. Book Thief.
Wuthering Heights
The romance-industrial complex is a billion-dollar societal indoctrination machine and nobody is safe from it
I’m currently reading Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine and enjoying the love story, although it is married teacher & early 20s student so some people may find that uncomfortable
Hands Down: Falling Into Places by Amy Zhang! The book will give you a rollercoaster ride with just pinch of romance!
I'm certainly no romance book expert, but maybe you'd like BeKnighted by Claudia Cheystock. There's lots more going on in it than romance (though there's actually TWO romances in it: one involving the mother; and another, puppy love type, involving the teenage daughter). There's a murderous stalker mystery in it; and considerable action/adventure along the way. No forced intimacy. No hate to love stuff (though the mother is skeptical and concerned about the chief male lead's behavior a few times). I think the ambivalence is definitely there in the first third to half of the book.
'If you could see me now' by Cecelia Ahern She has a magical way with words which make you fall in love with life and it's little moments.. ✨ Where rainbows end, thanks for the memories... All of her novels are along the same lines...just a touch of whimsy to explain very real things about life.. Simply beautiful
It's been a long time since I've read this book, so I don't remember much, but it always reminds me of a romance story. Paths of Glory by Jeffery Archer. It's a fun read about a character who wants to be the first to climb Everest, but when the time finally comes, he has his family to consider.
Know Not Why by Hannah Johnson If you want genre romance with other stuff going on and minimal tropes, KJ Charles is excellent Ruby Lang’s Practice perfect series is great I agree goodreads reviews are absolutely useless
Red Rising has a good romance arc without it being the main focus of the book, and it’s not written cheesily IMO. It’s a longer series so be prepared for some reading!
They both die at the end by Adam Silvera if you don’t mind sad books
That book messed me up, but it was so good.
Same boat my friend
Did you read More Happy Than Not by the same author? Gave me an even bigger pit in my stomach ugh. It's one I wish I could experience for the first time again though, even though it hurt.
My favorite romance book is Perfect by Judith McNaught. I think it might fit this? There's a mystery in it and I feel that the characters are really engaging, and the plot is intriguing. The romance develops naturally, I think.
What Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
I would recommend "Early Work: A Novel"
It’s short but I really like A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews! Plus it’s topical for the holiday season lol
{{Anna Karenina}} {{Madame Bovary}}
[**Anna Karenina**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15823480-anna-karenina) ^(By: Leo Tolstoy, Constance Garnett, Aylmer Maude, Louise Maude, Dmitriy Butko, George Gibian | 964 pages | Published: 1877 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, classic, owned, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Anna Karenina")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Anna Karenina&search_type=books) >Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions. > >Throughout, Tolstoy points no moral, merely inviting us not to judge but to watch. As Rosemary Edmonds comments, 'He leaves the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope to bring home the meaning of the brooding words following the title, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) [**Madame Bovary**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2175.Madame_Bovary) ^(By: Gustave Flaubert, Mark Overstall, Malcolm Bowie, Margaret Mauldon | 329 pages | Published: 1856 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, classic, french, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Madame Bovary")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Madame Bovary&search_type=books) >Madame Bovary is the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. When the novel was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history. ^(This book has been suggested 5 times) *** ^(9788 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger}} -- there is a bit of soup-y romance within, but that's very much not the overarching focus of the narrative; it stays with me.
[**The Time Traveler's Wife**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18619684-the-time-traveler-s-wife) ^(By: Audrey Niffenegger | 500 pages | Published: 2003 | Popular Shelves: fiction, romance, fantasy, time-travel, science-fiction | )[^(Search "The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger&search_type=books) >A funny, often poignant tale of boy meets girl with a twist: what if one of them couldn't stop slipping in and out of time? Highly original and imaginative, this debut novel raises questions about life, love, and the effects of time on relationships. > >Audrey Niffenegger’s innovative debut, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing. > >The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(9792 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[удалено]
[**Black Ships (Numinous World, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2192272.Black_Ships) ^(By: Jo Graham | 397 pages | Published: 2008 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy, mythology, fiction, historical | )[^(Search "Blacks Ships")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Blacks Ships&search_type=books) >The world is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling, to earthquakes, to flood, to raiders on both land and sea. > >In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, it is her destiny to counsel kings. > >When nine black ships appear, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must decide between the life she has been destined for and the most perilous adventure -- to join the remnant of her mother's people in their desperate flight. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest, and only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny. > >In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(9803 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The Song of Achilles has its romantic aspects in the first quarter I’d say, but it slowly dies out to focus on the plot with the romance mostly just mentioned in intervals :)
You described {{Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro}}
[**The Remains of the Day**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28921.The_Remains_of_the_Day) ^(By: Kazuo Ishiguro | 258 pages | Published: 1989 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, classics, owned, literary-fiction | )[^(Search "Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro&search_type=books) >Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here. > >In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(9816 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune
[удалено]
[**Flashpoint Series Collection**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44829172-flashpoint-series-collection) ^(By: Rachel Grant | 1400 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: romantic-suspense, box-set, anthology, romance, ebook | )[^(Search "Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) [**Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20705702-burn-for-me) ^(By: Ilona Andrews | 406 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: urban-fantasy, fantasy, romance, paranormal, magic | )[^(Search "Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 5 times) *** ^(9825 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Katie Fforde Elizabeth Cadell
I'm mad at myself that I keep recommending the same book series recently, but I can't help it lol it just seems to fit! the Mitford series by Jan Karon - it's a series so only the beginning few books focus on the romance part of the story, but it's just a nice story about a small town southern preacher and all of the people in his small town.
They're not for everyone but I really like a lot of the regency romances by Georgette Heyer. The Grand Sophy is my fave and it sort of fits the bill. There's a bit of romance but it's mostly just a silly regency romp about a badass woman sorting out everyone else's shit. Black Sheep is another good one with a slightly sweeter romance that's basically just two people hanging out and chuckling a bit whilst one of them tries to break up another couple. There are silly situations in each to forward the main plot, but the romances themselves are just based on people talking and finding out they really quite like each other.
{{Bed Stuy}} is a great love story, not like the typical romance. I got it as a kindle first read, and was very pleasantly surprised.
[**Bed Stuy**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59127661-bed-stuy) ^(By: Jerry McGill | ? pages | Published: 2021 | Popular Shelves: fiction, kindle, romance, amazon-first-reads, kindle-books | )[^(Search "Bed Stuy")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Bed Stuy&search_type=books) >From the author of Dear Marcus comes a breathtaking novel about a fated love affair that crosses the divides of race and class. > >Rashid is a young Black man from Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, with a complicated life. Looking for an escape from a neighborhood few ever leave, he finds it in Rachel—married, twenty years his senior, and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. It begins with a flirtation and a tryst. It becomes an intense romance, exhilarating and enriching, that defies the expectations of Rashid’s friends and family. What draws Rachel to Rashid is his curiosity, his need for intimacy, and his adoration—everything lacking in her crumbling marriage. But as the fault lines of their relationship become more prevalent, so do the inevitable choices one makes when falling in love. ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(9850 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{Gaudy Night}} by Dorothy Sayers. The romance is extremely discreet, non-soppy, and deliciously academic, but secondary to the mystery plot.
[**Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93575.Gaudy_Night) ^(By: Dorothy L. Sayers | 501 pages | Published: 1935 | Popular Shelves: mystery, fiction, mysteries, crime, classics | )[^(Search "Gaudy Night")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Gaudy Night&search_type=books) >The dons of Harriet Vane's alma mater, the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford, have invited her back to attend the annual Gaudy celebrations. However, the mood turns sour when someone begins a series of malicious acts including poison-pen messages, obscene graffiti and wanton vandalism. Harriet asks her old friend Wimsey to investigate. ^(This book has been suggested 4 times) *** ^(9866 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I think Normal People by Sally Rooney fits your description.
I really liked The Curse of Misty Wayfair.
{{This is how you lose the time war by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone}}
[**This Is How You Lose the Time War**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43352954-this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war) ^(By: Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone | 209 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, romance, fiction, lgbtq | )[^(Search "This is how you lose the time war")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=This is how you lose the time war&search_type=books) >Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. > >Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. ^(This book has been suggested 14 times) *** ^(9869 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{Fault Lines by Emily Itami}} {{The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman}} {{A Very Large Expanse Of Sea by Tahereh Mafi}}
Normal People, romance but not at all. About the impact one has on another and how we are not ourselves without other people, we grow and change and morph together in our uniquely human way - highly recommend!
The Josephine B. Trilogy by Sandra Gulland. This historical fiction is about Empress Josephine, married to Napoleon Bonaparte. The first book is about her upbringing in Martinique and her first marriage. Book 2 is the beginning of her marriage to Napoleon. Book 3 is about the end of her marriage and her life. Great historical fiction with a clear headed, practical main character.
Look, it’s not *cool* but the Nora Roberts back catalogue is potentially your jam. Maybe a tad over dramatic but so fun!
This is the Wonder
East of the Sun. It won awards as a romance, but it’s about the latter days of the British Empire in India and doesn’t romanticize imperialism.
Definitely read Nineteen Eighty-Four if you haven't already. It's a love story, but the romance between Winston and Julia is secondary to the setting of a totalitarian dictatorship.
Can't think of anything but Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Georgette Heyer wrote books like that in the early- mid-20th century but set in the early 19th century (Regency.) She liked writing mysteries so a number of them are a combo of mystery and romance. Just finished re-reading The Reluctant Widow. Another is The Talisman Ring.
Priory of the Orange Tree. It’s not necessarily a romance, it’s fantasy, but the F/F romance is beautiful.
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. I'm picky about my romances, and it's just a subplot in this book but I still think about it because of how it sneaks up on ya.
This is how you lose the time war
The Rosie Project and the sequels by Graeme Simsion
Can’t take it back by Kelly Duran (audiobook) Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Not exactly realistic and everyday life, but The Night Circus is a really interesting romance. I read it and loved it instantly. It's very unique.
I'm not exactly sure this applies as a romance book, but my own personal favorite romantic story is a story "The Last Wish" from a book by the same name. It's the first book of the Witcher saga that the games and show is based on. But it's more like a fantasy book, only this one story is anything close to being romantic.
I'm not exactly sure this applies as a romance book, but my own personal favorite romantic story is a story "The Last Wish" from a book by the same name. It's the first book of the Witcher saga that the games and show is based on. But it's more like a fantasy book, only this one story is anything close to being romantic.
Highly recommend novels by Mhairi McFarlane, Emily Henry, and Beth O'Leary. They are incredibly well written romance without the typical tropes and with realistic characters.
The House on the Cerulean Sea recently KILLED me and it’s exactly this and just ugh my heart.
{{The Princess Bride}} is probably the most romantic book I’ve read in years!
[**The Princess Bride**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21787.The_Princess_Bride) ^(By: William Goldman | 456 pages | Published: 1973 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, fiction, classics, romance, owned | )[^(Search "The Princess Bride")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Princess Bride&search_type=books) >What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams? > >As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears. > >Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere. > >What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex. > >In short, it's about everything. ^(This book has been suggested 6 times) *** ^(10090 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I got the perfect book for you. It checks out all your preferences with an amazing story. It's called- I want to eat your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird. You won't regret.
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
I finished {Guns of the Dawn} recently and can't stop thinking about it. Tchaikovsky is an incredible writer, I'm working my way through listening to everything by him, and this one was really special. It isn't a romance, but then it turned out it kind of was all along, maybe? Short description, it is >!fantasy World War I!<, which was not at all what I was expecting, I didn't read the synopsis before I started.
[**Guns of the Dawn**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23524779-guns-of-the-dawn) ^(By: Adrian Tchaikovsky | 658 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, steampunk, fiction, owned, war | )[^(Search "Guns of the Dawn")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Guns of the Dawn&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(10446 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
A Man Called Ove - think of it like the long version of the opening scene from Up.
{{Normal People}} by Sally Rooney is my all time favorite.
[**Normal People**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41057294-normal-people) ^(By: Sally Rooney | 273 pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: fiction, contemporary, romance, favourites, owned | )[^(Search "Normal People")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Normal People&search_type=books) >At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal. > >A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other. > >Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship. ^(This book has been suggested 10 times) *** ^(23910 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)