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Contemporary romance books (tag)

Love stories in the world as it is now: friends who finally say it, rivals stuck on the same project, small towns with one good cafe, and adults making a mess of a very good thing. 155 books carry this tag, across 22 series, plus 131 titles with no series listed.

Tag, not a genre155 booksOn Romance and Sci-Fi and Mystery & Thriller
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Cover of Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

The contemporary romance tag list

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Showing 48 of 155 books

Cover of You Had Me at Hola by Alexis DariaRating coming soon

You Had Me at Hola

Alexis Daria · 2020

Jasmine Lin Rodriguez returns to New York after a messy public breakup to star in a bilingual romantic comedy for a streaming service, with a plan for keeping her private life out of the press. The plan gets harder when a casting change pairs her with Ashton Suarez, a telenovela actor who needs the role to prove himself to American audiences. The two of them have chemistry they can use on camera and a professional reason to stay away from each other off it, and the show's love scenes are not helping.

Contemporary romanceWorkplace romance
Cover of Yours Truly by Abby JimenezRating coming soon

Yours Truly

Abby Jimenez · 2023

Briana Ortiz's divorce is nearly final, her brother is waiting for a kidney donor, and the promotion she has been working towards looks set to go to the new doctor at the practice. Jacob Maddox does not make a good first impression on her, which is what makes the letter he sends afterwards surprising: it is thoughtful, funny and nothing like the man she met. The two of them start writing to each other instead of talking, and the correspondence becomes the most honest part of both of their weeks.

Contemporary romanceWorkplace romanceFriends to lovers
Cover of It Starts with Us by Colleen HooverRating coming soon

It Starts with Us

Colleen Hoover · 2022

Sixteen months after the ending of It Ends with Us, Lily is running her flower shop in Boston and co-parenting her young daughter with her ex-husband, Ryle, on terms the two of them have worked out slowly and with difficulty. When she runs into Atlas Corrigan, the first love she lost in her teens, the two of them have to work out whether the timing is finally on their side. Atlas is building a life of his own in the city while carrying a complicated family history, and he knows exactly how much Ryle will resent his return. The novel alternates between Lily's and Atlas's viewpoints.

Contemporary romanceSecond chance romance
Cover of Twisted Games by Ana HuangRating coming soon

Twisted Games

Ana Huang · 2021

Bridget von Ascheberg is the spare heir of a European kingdom, raised to behave and to be useful at ribbon-cuttings, until her older brother gives up the throne and the crown arrives on her head along with a security detail she did not ask for. That detail is led by Rhys Larsen, a bodyguard with two rules he has never broken: protect the client, and stay out of her life. Bridget has no intention of being managed, and Rhys has no intention of liking her. The novel follows a princess who wants a life of her own and the man paid to stand between her and the world.

Contemporary romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of Twisted Lies by Ana HuangRating coming soon

Twisted Lies

Ana Huang · 2022

Christian Harper is the friend in the group who arranges other people's disasters and never explains his own, and the woman who has just moved into the apartment below his is the only puzzle he has not solved. Stella Alonso models for a living, writes quietly for herself and has a past following her across the city. When a threat she cannot handle alone forces her to accept help, Christian offers a deal with rules he has no intention of keeping. The fourth Twisted novel is the one about the patient, dangerous man and the woman who learns what he has been doing behind the scenes.

Contemporary romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of Punk 57 by Penelope DouglasRating coming soon

Punk 57

Penelope Douglas · 2016

Misha and Ryen were paired as pen pals in the fifth grade, and they have written to each other ever since, on paper, with three rules that kept the letters honest: no social media, no phone numbers, no photographs. Seven years on, they are the closest thing each of them has to a person who knows the truth, and neither knows the other's face. Then Misha transfers to Ryen's high school and decides not to say who he is, because the girl who writes to him is nothing like the girl who runs the corridors with the popular crowd. Keeping that secret becomes the whole plot.

Contemporary romanceNew adult romance
Cover of A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie ColeRating coming soon

A Thousand Boy Kisses

Tillie Cole · 2016

Rune Kristiansen and Poppy Litchfield met as small children in Blossom Grove, Georgia, and spent the next decade as each other's whole life, counting kisses the way other families count birthdays. When Rune was fifteen his family moved back to Norway; he kept writing, and then Poppy stopped answering. Two years later Rune comes back to Georgia, angry and determined to find out what changed. What he learns is a reason, not an answer he can argue with, and the rest of the novel is about the two of them deciding how to spend whatever time they have.

New adult romanceFriends to lovers
Cover of Corrupt by Penelope DouglasRating coming soon

Corrupt

Penelope Douglas · 2015

Erika Fane, known to everyone as Rika, grew up in the orbit of the Crist family as the girlfriend of the younger son, while the older brother, Michael, was the person in that house she could never stop watching. Years later she arrives at the same university as Michael and his three closest friends, a group who hold parties nobody forgets. Michael has decided that Rika owes them something for a night years ago, and he is patient about collecting.

New adult romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of The Wrong Bride by Catharina MauraRating coming soon

The Wrong Bride

Catharina Maura · 2022

Raven has spent years being useful to a family that never quite made room for her, and the man she has loved since childhood is engaged to her older sister. When the bride does not appear on the wedding day, the contract the two families signed years earlier still has to be honoured, and Raven is the one who can honour it. So she marries Ares Windsor, a media executive who keeps his face out of the press and has never once looked at her the way she wanted.

Contemporary romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of Million Kisses in Your Lifetime by Monica MurphyRating coming soon

Million Kisses in Your Lifetime

Monica Murphy · 2022

Lancaster Prep is a school where money decides the seating plan, and Wren Beaumont sits at the top of it without seeming to try. She is pleasant to everyone, close to nobody, and as hard to get near as a person can be in a building with shared classes. Crew Lancaster has watched her long enough to decide that the version of Wren everyone else sees is not the whole story, and a class project gives him an excuse to find out.

New adult romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of A Man Possessed by Penny JordanRating coming soon

A Man Possessed

Penny Jordan · 1986

Dominic Harland once rejected Kate Hammond in the middle of a bleak marriage, and the humiliation stayed with her. After her husband's death she promised herself there would be no men in her life, and she was keeping that promise while she sold her house and started a business. Then Dominic comes back, still able to hurt her and still wanting her. As Kate begins to understand the man behind the rejection, her anger turns into something more frightening.

Contemporary romanceSecond chance romance
Cover of Kingfisher Morning by Charlotte LambRating coming soon

Kingfisher Morning

Charlotte Lamb · 1977

Emma went to Dorset to research Thomas Hardy and ended up looking after three young children while their mother was in hospital. She finds the work far more enjoyable than she expected, apart from the disapproving presence of the children's uncle Ross, who has been described to her as a male chauvinist of the worst sort. The description, she decides, is fair. Then there is the mystery of what is really going on in this apparently happy family, and its connection to a shadowy figure called Leon Daumaury.

Contemporary romance
Cover of Sarah's Child by Linda HowardRating coming soon

Sarah's Child

Linda Howard · 1985

A road accident took Rome Matthews's wife and their two sons, and it took Sarah Harper's best friend as well. For two years Sarah has stayed away from Rome, guarding a secret she kept from both of them: she was in love with her best friend's husband. Now Rome needs her, and Sarah agrees to marry him knowing that another woman will always hold his heart. Then something unexpected reopens the hope she had buried, that a marriage of convenience might become a marriage of love.

Contemporary romanceFriends to lovers
Cover of The Wade Dynasty by Carole MortimerRating coming soon

The Wade Dynasty

Carole Mortimer · 1986

Ten years ago Brenna's mother married Nathan Wade's father, which forced Brenna to accept her own parents' divorce as final. In time she made a home at the Wade ranch in Alberta and fell in love with Nathan, and she would have accepted his proposal if she had not learned that what he really wanted was control of the ranch. Now a family crisis pulls her back, and the desire she has tried to despise is still there, in both of them, waiting.

Contemporary romanceSecond chance romance
Cover of Late Harvest by Yvonne WhittalRating coming soon

Late Harvest

Yvonne Whittal · 1982

Kate's father has left a will she cannot believe: she and Rhyno van der Bijl will jointly inherit the whole estate only if they marry within thirty days of his death. She detests Rhyno, but refusing the condition means losing the home she loves, and he stands to lose his inheritance on the same terms. He suggests they treat it as a business arrangement, just for a year. Kate never expects to wish it were forever, but then he begins to talk about plans that do not include her.

Contemporary romance
Cover of An Elusive Mistress by Lindsay ArmstrongRating coming soon

An Elusive Mistress

Lindsay Armstrong · 1986

At nineteen Hillary was a girl trying to keep pace with a husband who was years ahead of her, and when the marriage ended she built a wall around the memory of Clive Eastman. Six years later she has grown up, made a name as Brisbane's foremost interior designer and found a man she thinks she could share her life with. Then Clive comes back, and a single chance meeting is enough to revive feelings she believed she had successfully hidden.

Contemporary romanceSecond chance romance
Cover of Memories of the Past by Carole MortimerRating coming soon

Memories of the Past

Carole Mortimer · 1991

Helen will not be taken in by Caleb Jones's charm, however much of it he has. Her father thinks the sun rises and sets on him; Helen finds him obnoxious. But Caleb does not behave like the tough, cynical businessman she had imagined, and she has to give him credit for raising his young nephew on his own. Despite the evidence accumulating in his favour, she is determined not to revise her opinion of him. Then she realises she is falling in love with the man.

Contemporary romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of Dark Enchantment by Helen BianchinRating coming soon

Dark Enchantment

Helen Bianchin · 1986

Kris Laurensen has spent her life inside the silken prison of her family's enormous wealth, with decisions made for her by her stepmother and by Jared Chayse, the guardian who manages the family's interests. Now they have decided that she should marry Jared. The match would cement a financial empire, but Kris has feelings of her own that swing between attraction and resentment, and she wants freedom rather than a marriage to a man who might never love her.

Contemporary romance
Cover of Master of Moonrock by Anne HampsonRating coming soon

Master of Moonrock

Anne Hampson · 1972

Thane Benedict is the last person Loren Knight would have chosen as her guardian, but he is to have charge of her until she turns twenty, which means two years at Moonrock, his enormous station in the middle of the Australian outback. Loren expects a solitary life far from anywhere. Then her cousin Janet arrives to stay and falls in love with Thane, and something about their relationship does not add up. There is also the other girl, Felicity Bradon.

Contemporary romance
Cover of Hooked by Emily McIntireRating coming soon

Hooked

Emily McIntire · 2021

James has one agenda: to destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter's twenty-year-old daughter Wendy walks into James's bar, he sees his way in. The plan is to seduce her and use her for his revenge, and it works until his own organisation begins to come apart and he has to find a traitor in his own ranks. Meanwhile Wendy, kept cloistered by a wealthy and cold father, finds a night out turning into an affair she cannot shake.

Contemporary romanceEnemies to lovers
Cover of Relative Strangers by Jessica SteeleRating coming soon

Relative Strangers

Jessica Steele · 1987

Zarah's reason for travelling to the little Norwegian village of Dalvik is entirely innocent: she wants to find out who her parents were. What she gets is an icy reception. Stein, the stepson of her late aunt, is convinced that only the scent of money has brought her to his door, and the inheritance he refers to is one Zarah had not even known about before she arrived. She tells herself that one man's opinion should not matter, and finds that it does.

Contemporary romanceSmall town romance
Cover of The Marriage War by Charlotte LambRating coming soon

The Marriage War

Charlotte Lamb · 1997

An anonymous letter arrives asking Sancha whether she knows who her husband will be with tonight. She has adored Mark since the day they married and never imagined that her tough, handsome husband might turn to another woman, but the letter leaves her with no choice except to confront him. His response is not the one she expected, and the fight that follows becomes a campaign rather than a conversation.

Contemporary romanceSecond chance romance
Cover of Mackenzie's Mountain by Linda HowardRating coming soon

Mackenzie's Mountain

Linda Howard · 1989

Mary Elizabeth Potter, a schoolteacher who has settled into the idea of being a spinster, arrives in a small Wyoming town with a straightforward request: she wants a boy who has dropped out to come back to school. The boy's father, Wolf Mackenzie, has no patience for the town or for her, and the confrontation between them changes her life. She sees a decent and honest man where the town has decided he is dangerous.

Contemporary romanceSmall town romance
Cover of The Waiting Man by Jeneth MurreyRating coming soon

The Waiting Man

Jeneth Murrey · 1986

Eden Nairn has been hiding from her tyrannical grandfather since the birth of her son, the only male heir to an estate in the Northumbrian hills. When his henchman Brett Allard tracks her down, she assumes he has orders to take the child back. Instead Brett offers a solution: marry him, and he will make sure the old man cannot ride roughshod over her. Eden needs protection, but she cannot risk marrying the kind of man she could love.

Contemporary romance
Cover of Carnal Innocence by Nora RobertsRating coming soon

Carnal Innocence

Nora Roberts · 1991

In the small Mississippi town of Innocence, days are long, nights are fragrant and secrets do not stay kept. When a killer begins taking the lives of the town's most attractive women, neighbours have to ask whether the culprit is a stranger hiding in the bayou or someone living next door. Into that summer comes Caroline Waverly, a concert violinist who wants only a quiet stay in her late grandmother's house.

Contemporary romanceSmall town romancePsychological thriller
Cover of Game Changer by Rachel ReidRating coming soon

Game Changer

Rachel Reid · 2018

Professional hockey player Scott Hunter is in a slump until a smoothie made by juice bar barista Kip Grady precedes a good game, and then he keeps coming back for the drink and for the man who makes it. What starts as a flirtation becomes something intense and frequent, but always on Scott's terms and always behind his closed apartment doors. With the playoffs approaching, Scott cannot afford anything that might derail his career, including telling the world who he is seeing.

Contemporary romanceSports romanceQueer romance
Cover of The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie GilmoreRating coming soon

The Pumpkin Spice Café

Laurie Gilmore · 2023

When Jeanie's aunt gives her the Pumpkin Spice Cafe in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie takes the chance to leave a dull desk job behind. Logan is a local farmer who avoids the town's gossip wherever possible, and the arrival of the relentlessly cheerful new owner disrupts everything about his routine. He wants nothing to do with her, except that he finds himself drawn to her anyway, lattes and all.

Contemporary romanceSmall town romanceRomantic comedy
Cover of Marriage In Mind by Jessica SteeleRating coming soon

Marriage In Mind

Jessica Steele · 2000

When Sayre Baxendale summons Astra to his executive office, she knows before a word is spoken that her only option is to resign. He seems pleased to receive the resignation. What he has no intention of allowing is her disappearance from his life, and instead of accepting her departure he insists that she spend a weekend with him at his country house. Astra cannot tell whether the invitation is a business proposition or something more personal.

Contemporary romanceWorkplace romance

What this tag means

Contemporary romance is a tag, not a genre. It marks the romance novels where the world around the relationship is the modern real one: no magic, no invented kingdoms and no court politics, but phones, jobs, rent, families and commutes doing their part as the obstacle course. Every book with this tag sits on the romance shelf.

Historical romance and romantasy do not fall under this tag, because their settings carry as much weight as the relationship does, and a book can be a romance here without the tag when it is set in the past or in a world that does not exist.

The tag covers romantic comedy, small town, sports, workplace, second chance and queer romance, from the established names to books published this decade.

The other tag and the shelves

Tag

Romantasy

Romance at the centre of the story, with a fantasy world carrying it.

70 booksPrimary genre

Romance

The love story is the plot: fantasy courts, dragon academies and modern cities all count.

155 of this tagPrimary genre

Sci-Fi

Generation ships, dying empires, robots with opinions and one very unlucky astronaut.

1 of this tagPrimary genre

Mystery & Thriller

Detectives, spies, locked rooms and the people who lie to the police.

5 of this tag

Who writes about these books

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Baby Bat

Reviews for these books are signed by Baby Bat, one book at a time. Until a review is written the book page says so rather than guessing at an opinion.

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