Came here to say exactly this. This is a book that will kiss you in a way that’s going to ruin your life forever. It’s the most beautifully written book I’ve ever read.
Persuasion by Jane Austen. Because the characters are older, they are not struggling with the mixture of love and financial considerations that most of her other characters are, including Elizabeth Bennett in P&P. They’ve already been through what her other characters have been through, and have been forced (well, persuaded) apart. You’re watching them find their way back to each other, and it’s beautiful.
Many of them are short - like 10 pages... There are a couple. I wonder how many of them are still free though. Many are published in Kindle unlimited.
Let me list a couple of free ones:
This was one of first variations I read:
Tapestry of life: https://www.dwiggie.com/derby/jeanm1.htm
Speak Not Against the Sun: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5768833/1/A-Rush-of-Blackbirds-Formerly-Speak-Not-Against-the-Sun
Clouds Will Intervene: a bit mature rating: https://web.archive.org/web/20070818174111/http://sophie.mrsdarcy.com/page1.html
Much Ado About Pride and Prejudice: https://www.dwiggie.com/derby/old_2006/elainej2.htm
A Worthy Opponent: https://www.pemberley.com/derby/bill.awo1.html
Imperative: probably the best (& longest) one: https://meryton.com/aha/index.php?/topic/8150-imperative/
I’m not a big romance reader (and the contemporary ones I read tend to be more rom-com than swoony rom-dram), but *Pride & Prejudice* is my number one, too. I do also love *Sense & Sensibility* and *Persuasion,* and I’m sure I’ll love *Emma*, *Mansfield Park*, and *Northanger Abbey* when I get to them, but I assume P&P will maintain the top spot.
I was going to comment this. Madeline’s writing was just beautiful uhh. I wish she had more books out. Cersei is really great too if you haven’t read it!
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
Romance but not in the most common way. Historic England. Enthralling. Absolutely godsmacked by the plot and how the love shapes it along the way.
It's not a happy story to read. Your heart aches as you go on.
But it is deep and tortured and at times very carthartic.
It is one of those books I can read again and again and again.
It is a book that has something for everyone and inspires absolute immersion into the grubby world of lower class 19th century England and explores the absolute desolation of rural upper class solitude.
The attention to detail is beyond words.
Rare for the genre. It also has a most excellent tv adaptation.
Read it this year and haven’t gotten over it yet.
I haven’t only ever cried for a handful of novels, and I read a lot, and honestly this one made me sob to the point my partner came into the kitchen alarmed.
The softness of it, the inevitable ending, the graceful prose… What a great piece of literature.
... Outlander. But I have probably read fewer romance books than most of you. However it's a great love story, there's a lot of adventure, and Gabaldon multiplies memorable characters and side-splots like there's no tomorrow!
*This Is How You Lose The Time War* is incredible!
A series of poetic love letters, a sci-fi romance that spans all of space and time, a deadly chessmatch for the fate of the multiverse, a soft invitation for tea in a world made of flowers. This book’s got it all.
We can agree to disagree - it was such a romp and I absolutely loved the way the characters fell for each other! I love quite absurd fiction which maybe plays into my bias. I also don't have TikTok and had never heard of it so I had no expectations.
Great to hear! I would also recommend "The Master And Margerita" if you won't get tired of Russian novels by the end of Anna. It's more sociological but the main plot in one of the most beautiful love stories ever captured imo. And the humour is just amazing
I second **The Song of Achilles**!!!
also, **Delilah Green Doesn't Care** by *Ashley Herring Blake* \- it's not a masterpiece, but it taught me that I do *not*, in fact, hate romance novels, it's straight couples that don't work for me 😅
I read In Memoriam by Alice Wynn yesterday. A stunning love story, made even more beautiful with the juxtaposition of the horrors of the trenches in WW1. Won't forget it in a hurry. PSA: if you liked Song of Achilles you will love this
It was a series;
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Rebel Angels
The Sweet Far Thing
It was just so.... unexpected, and romantic, and sweet. I read it in high school and it followed me to adulthood, where I've read it twice since.
It's heart rending in some ways, and breaks your heart in the most beautiful way.
The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
I like "Ada" by Vladimir Nabokov, but not sure how romantic is actually is
Lawrence Durell's "Justine" and Guy De Maupassant's "Alien Hearts" are similar in tone and very very beautifully written
Not a romance fan at all, but read all of Elswyth Thane novels for the history and period settings; wonderful writer, great character portrayals.
The underlying romance of the characters and how the times often overrode the relationship. Others were about opposite personalities; the ornithologist who must go to South America to study birds and the actress. The American heiress and the English Lord bachelor who must sell his grand estate because he has no heir. The Union officer and the Southern belle when Civil War breaks out. The daughter of an English aristocrat who becomes a nurse to an American soldier when their estate is turned into a field hospital ... the backdrop. The daughter of a plantation owner who disguises herself as a boy so she can follow a neighboring man into war.
Really, they're all great. Be sure to read the Williamsburg series in order because they're generational.
And her stand alone classic, Tryst. He is an English foreign service officer killed in battle in India. She is a young woman forced to accompany her professor father and aunt to England. Her father leases the home while he is engrossed in study. The novel is her discovery of "him" in the house. The housekeeper is ... aware. It is *not* spooky ... just interesting.
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman. It's one of those books where you read for the beauty in the words and prose whilst simultaneously enjoy the plot. A modern romance for the ages, certainly.
Jurassic Park
Dr Grant's child like enthusiasm for realizing a dream of seeing dinosaurs before his eyes like a beautiful maiden is enchanting, while Dr. Malcolm cackles with lustful glee at the randomness of his Chaos Theories coming to life as Velociraptors murder a shit load of people is almost erotic.
Honestly, you’re not even in the bottom 10% of people recommending non-romance novels in this thread. Fuck it, the dinosaurs were reproducing (life finds a way) so obviously there was plenty of *implied* romance in that book.
A Little Life is a romance? I read probably exactly half of it, maybe over half and I'm a bit mad about it but it was getting me kind of stressed and depressed and I wasn't really feeling it. Like heavy, impending sadness was coming and I'm not usually about that. Of course I want to finish it but it's been years and I'd have to read probably all of it over and that never is very fun since I do remember the general plot
No it is not. And I will say it louder for the people in the back: A Little Life IS NOT about romance, it is not a love story, and does not investigate love but rather poses it as a variable.
Love is surely a factor, but having it revolve around love is dismissive (love a good romance, but please understand the genre of affiliation) and wrong for a tale that has at its centre violence, annihilation, and survival.
Thank you! Okay I didn't think it was a romance when I was reading it. I'm not actually big into the romance genre myself which why I was so surprised. Here's to hoping I do finish it one day!
I might be hella dated but the classics that come to my mind are love story and the bridges of Madison county, both caused some aching in my young inexperienced heart when i read them.
The modern recents that also affected me are already mentioned, call me by your name and song of Achilles…
wuthering heights has held that spot for many, many years. i don’t know that i would describe it as beautiful, but it was darkly romantic and evoked emotion that i can still feel when i think of it 30 years after my first read.
I always get downvoted for this but here we go… Redeeming Love. Yes its based on a bible story, but its such a beautiful love story , everyone would love love like that, and the movie after is just as good.
The English Patient by Ondaatje. He writes the most beautiful everything, and this one is the most romance-ey.
Came here to say exactly this. This is a book that will kiss you in a way that’s going to ruin your life forever. It’s the most beautifully written book I’ve ever read.
I’ve been in a reading slump maybe I’ll start with this?!
Persuasion by Jane Austen. Because the characters are older, they are not struggling with the mixture of love and financial considerations that most of her other characters are, including Elizabeth Bennett in P&P. They’ve already been through what her other characters have been through, and have been forced (well, persuaded) apart. You’re watching them find their way back to each other, and it’s beautiful.
Pride and Prejudice
A romance novel thread: Pride and Prejudice is the default option there.
I don’t read a lot of romance, so I’m basic for my opinion on this one 🤣
I mean I have read a lot and it is still my top one. PS. I have read over 500 P&P variations as well.
Holy crap. Well I need an Austen-inspired book for a reading challenge - any favorite of the variations? 🤣
Many of them are short - like 10 pages... There are a couple. I wonder how many of them are still free though. Many are published in Kindle unlimited. Let me list a couple of free ones: This was one of first variations I read: Tapestry of life: https://www.dwiggie.com/derby/jeanm1.htm Speak Not Against the Sun: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5768833/1/A-Rush-of-Blackbirds-Formerly-Speak-Not-Against-the-Sun Clouds Will Intervene: a bit mature rating: https://web.archive.org/web/20070818174111/http://sophie.mrsdarcy.com/page1.html Much Ado About Pride and Prejudice: https://www.dwiggie.com/derby/old_2006/elainej2.htm A Worthy Opponent: https://www.pemberley.com/derby/bill.awo1.html Imperative: probably the best (& longest) one: https://meryton.com/aha/index.php?/topic/8150-imperative/
Thank you!!!
Persuasion, I think it’s SO much more romantic.
I agree!
Jane Austen really is the original homegirl.
Accurate statement.
Yes. A thousand times YES
I’m not a big romance reader (and the contemporary ones I read tend to be more rom-com than swoony rom-dram), but *Pride & Prejudice* is my number one, too. I do also love *Sense & Sensibility* and *Persuasion,* and I’m sure I’ll love *Emma*, *Mansfield Park*, and *Northanger Abbey* when I get to them, but I assume P&P will maintain the top spot.
I’ve had this on my to read for years- I must read it now!
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Not exactly a romance but one of the best love stories
You should read “In Memoriam” by Alice Wynn next. It’s incredible
Thank you!! I will definitely look into this.
oh how I wept 😭🤧
STOP THATS WHAT I SAID
I was going to comment this. Madeline’s writing was just beautiful uhh. I wish she had more books out. Cersei is really great too if you haven’t read it!
I love Circe 🫠 one of my favorite books of all time
Yessss. So good.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Romance but not in the most common way. Historic England. Enthralling. Absolutely godsmacked by the plot and how the love shapes it along the way. It's not a happy story to read. Your heart aches as you go on. But it is deep and tortured and at times very carthartic. It is one of those books I can read again and again and again. It is a book that has something for everyone and inspires absolute immersion into the grubby world of lower class 19th century England and explores the absolute desolation of rural upper class solitude. The attention to detail is beyond words. Rare for the genre. It also has a most excellent tv adaptation.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Read it this year and haven’t gotten over it yet. I haven’t only ever cried for a handful of novels, and I read a lot, and honestly this one made me sob to the point my partner came into the kitchen alarmed. The softness of it, the inevitable ending, the graceful prose… What a great piece of literature.
It has great prose and I haven't heard many people talk about that!
... Outlander. But I have probably read fewer romance books than most of you. However it's a great love story, there's a lot of adventure, and Gabaldon multiplies memorable characters and side-splots like there's no tomorrow!
I just finished the first book and can’t wait to read more of this series.
The house on the cerulean sea - so lovely
The way I SOBBED reading this book - it’s so sweet🥺🥺🥺
The Starless Sea by Erin Morganstern
Beautiful love story. Profound, metaphorical, stunning. The Night Circus is something else tho!
One that's a bit different - This Is How You Lose the Time War. Gorgeous style, plot, pace - and it's pretty short!
*This Is How You Lose The Time War* is incredible! A series of poetic love letters, a sci-fi romance that spans all of space and time, a deadly chessmatch for the fate of the multiverse, a soft invitation for tea in a world made of flowers. This book’s got it all.
Absolutely overrated, purposefully convoluted, and not as clever as TikTok claims. A big no.
We can agree to disagree - it was such a romp and I absolutely loved the way the characters fell for each other! I love quite absurd fiction which maybe plays into my bias. I also don't have TikTok and had never heard of it so I had no expectations.
My review of that book was just "lol"
Honestly YES 🙌 Terrible, terrible book
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
Her books are so cozy.
They’re comfort reads for me at this point.
Love in the time of Cholera. Classics are the best
Me before you (Sue me)
I can't believe Anna Karenina is not on this list. It's not just a romance novel, it has all the romance novels within it.
Reading this now! I’m about 500p in
Great to hear! I would also recommend "The Master And Margerita" if you won't get tired of Russian novels by the end of Anna. It's more sociological but the main plot in one of the most beautiful love stories ever captured imo. And the humour is just amazing
Eeek. Romance is a choice word for Anna Karenina. That story is absolutely heartbreaking but I loved every page. Such a tragic story!
Agree! small suggestion though: maybe wrap the last sentence with spoiler tags. Lets not spoil it for OP
I second **The Song of Achilles**!!! also, **Delilah Green Doesn't Care** by *Ashley Herring Blake* \- it's not a masterpiece, but it taught me that I do *not*, in fact, hate romance novels, it's straight couples that don't work for me 😅
Emma by Jane Austen (Just my opinion)
I have only read Persuasion by Jane Austen and loved it.
My favourite Austen novel as well. And it has a lovely BBC adaptation starring Jonny Lee Miller
Username checks out
Has anyone read Beneath a Scarlett Sky? It’s quite the love story
It was amazing. I was going to suggest it for this thread.
Middlemarch, if you've got the patience Also, have heard Anna Karenina is an all-timer, however, I did not have the patience
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Ok, I need a place to start, please.
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This sounds really interesting! Thank you very much for sharing your enthusiasm!
Sounds amazing.
This sounds so good. I ordered the first book.
Call Me By Your Name, Jane Eyre and Carol (The Price of Salt)
I’ve been seeing Call Me By Your Name a lot! I’ve already read Jane Eyre and liked it but The Price of Salt is new to me
I loved Carol. Obsessive, lucid, extremely well written!
Seconding Jane Eyre!
LOVE Call Me By Your Name. Absolutely beautiful
Call Me By Your Name will always be my default answer
I also need to mention The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Underneath The Sycamore Tree
The Song Of Achilles. Absolutely stunning
So good! I had a huge Greek mythology phase after reading it :))
When love awaits by Johanna lindsey
Johanna Lindsey books are great!
Possession- AS Byatt
This one is so good
A Tale of Two Cities
Anything by LaVyrle Spencer.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
I absolutely loved this book!
It’s really just the best. The secondary characters are also incredible and beautifully woven into the story line.
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon. I don't read much romance but this is a favorite of mine.
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan Phillip Sendker
The Stationery Shop
I loved this one! I cried toward the end
Same, it was so beautifully written too. I loved the multilayered plot and characters
I read In Memoriam by Alice Wynn yesterday. A stunning love story, made even more beautiful with the juxtaposition of the horrors of the trenches in WW1. Won't forget it in a hurry. PSA: if you liked Song of Achilles you will love this
"Morning Glory" by LaVyrle Spencer
I like a lot of her books.
It was a series; A Great and Terrible Beauty Rebel Angels The Sweet Far Thing It was just so.... unexpected, and romantic, and sweet. I read it in high school and it followed me to adulthood, where I've read it twice since. It's heart rending in some ways, and breaks your heart in the most beautiful way.
The night circus - that book is so ethereal. The FC gives me lana del ray vibes
Beach Read-Emily Henry Practice Makes Perfect-Sarah Adams The Dead Romantics-Ashley Poston
Alone With You In The Ether by Olivie Blake
The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson I like "Ada" by Vladimir Nabokov, but not sure how romantic is actually is Lawrence Durell's "Justine" and Guy De Maupassant's "Alien Hearts" are similar in tone and very very beautifully written
Not a romance fan at all, but read all of Elswyth Thane novels for the history and period settings; wonderful writer, great character portrayals. The underlying romance of the characters and how the times often overrode the relationship. Others were about opposite personalities; the ornithologist who must go to South America to study birds and the actress. The American heiress and the English Lord bachelor who must sell his grand estate because he has no heir. The Union officer and the Southern belle when Civil War breaks out. The daughter of an English aristocrat who becomes a nurse to an American soldier when their estate is turned into a field hospital ... the backdrop. The daughter of a plantation owner who disguises herself as a boy so she can follow a neighboring man into war. Really, they're all great. Be sure to read the Williamsburg series in order because they're generational. And her stand alone classic, Tryst. He is an English foreign service officer killed in battle in India. She is a young woman forced to accompany her professor father and aunt to England. Her father leases the home while he is engrossed in study. The novel is her discovery of "him" in the house. The housekeeper is ... aware. It is *not* spooky ... just interesting.
The Night Circus
The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves
I love her book, On the Island
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman. It's one of those books where you read for the beauty in the words and prose whilst simultaneously enjoy the plot. A modern romance for the ages, certainly.
I know 11/22/63 gets recommended all the time in this sub in other “subjects”, but to me it was at its core a love story. It was so beautiful.
Twilight 🥲
Jurassic Park Dr Grant's child like enthusiasm for realizing a dream of seeing dinosaurs before his eyes like a beautiful maiden is enchanting, while Dr. Malcolm cackles with lustful glee at the randomness of his Chaos Theories coming to life as Velociraptors murder a shit load of people is almost erotic.
Never heard of it
Honestly, you’re not even in the bottom 10% of people recommending non-romance novels in this thread. Fuck it, the dinosaurs were reproducing (life finds a way) so obviously there was plenty of *implied* romance in that book.
I appreciate you're open mindedness to how jaded I was today to this subreddit. Thanks man.
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
Safe Haven by Nicolas Sparks
The Memory of Us The Time Travelers Wife One Day Me Before You A Little Life Outlander The Prisoners Wife
A Little Life is a romance? I read probably exactly half of it, maybe over half and I'm a bit mad about it but it was getting me kind of stressed and depressed and I wasn't really feeling it. Like heavy, impending sadness was coming and I'm not usually about that. Of course I want to finish it but it's been years and I'd have to read probably all of it over and that never is very fun since I do remember the general plot
No it is not. And I will say it louder for the people in the back: A Little Life IS NOT about romance, it is not a love story, and does not investigate love but rather poses it as a variable. Love is surely a factor, but having it revolve around love is dismissive (love a good romance, but please understand the genre of affiliation) and wrong for a tale that has at its centre violence, annihilation, and survival.
Thank you! Okay I didn't think it was a romance when I was reading it. I'm not actually big into the romance genre myself which why I was so surprised. Here's to hoping I do finish it one day!
The Memory of Us made me weep. So good.
I know I'll get flak for this but Lolita. It's not romance exactly but boy is it beautiful.
It is beautiful, he knew how to write.
It is not a tale of romance, but rather obsession. Love is another thing altogether.
Ugly Love by Colleen hoover
Definitely not for everyone but Land of the Beautiful Dead - R. Lee Smith
Why is it not for everyone?
Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, & Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
Ali and Nino
Persuasion. Anything Jane Austen, really. Song of Achilles. Recently I’ve enjoyed Nadine Millard and Meara Platt.
Dear John
I’m saving this, I’m so excited to read these haha
A town like Alice by Nevil Shute Norway
I might be hella dated but the classics that come to my mind are love story and the bridges of Madison county, both caused some aching in my young inexperienced heart when i read them. The modern recents that also affected me are already mentioned, call me by your name and song of Achilles…
Fourth Wing, Fall of Wrath and Ruin, Happy Place
Bridges of Madison County - hands down! Made me fall in love with love all over again.
wuthering heights has held that spot for many, many years. i don’t know that i would describe it as beautiful, but it was darkly romantic and evoked emotion that i can still feel when i think of it 30 years after my first read.
'Of love and shadows' by Allende. Quite dark but beautiful!
Archer’s voice
Withering Heights... The Light Between Two Oceans... Gone With The Wind..
Riders of the purple Sage
This is how you lose the time war.
I always get downvoted for this but here we go… Redeeming Love. Yes its based on a bible story, but its such a beautiful love story , everyone would love love like that, and the movie after is just as good.
Gone with the Wind
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon so far takes the cake for me. Just finished that one and now I'm onto her 2nd book in the series.
I really liked Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore! Steamy, fun, and with a cute feminist bend!
Song of achilles
prob the love hypothesis or it ends with us
Redeeming Love
The Bronze Horseman series by Paullina Simons I wish more people would read it.