romance

Forbidden Love Books

External forces or rules stand between two people who love each other.

23 books
An Ember in the Ashes
YA Fantasy

An Ember in the Ashes

by Sabaa Tahir

In a Roman-inspired empire, a Scholar girl goes undercover in a brutal military academy while a young soldier questions the empire he serves — and their fates become impossibly entangled.

🔥 Adrenaline Meter🌑 Dark & Twisty🕯️ Slow Burn Alert
Conversations with Friends
Literary Fiction

Conversations with Friends

by Sally Rooney

Frances and Bobbi are best friends and former lovers — college students who perform spoken word poetry and meet a glamorous married couple who complicate everything they thought they knew about desire…

One Day in December
Contemporary Romance

One Day in December

by Josie Silver

Laurie spots a man through a bus window and instantly knows he's the one — but by the time she finds him again, he's dating her best friend. What follows is ten years of almost.

🦋 Butterflies Guaranteed🕯️ Slow Burn Alert😭 Tissue Warning
The Night Circus
Fantasy

The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

Two young magicians, raised as rivals, are bound to a contest with rules neither fully understands — staged inside a black-and-white circus that appears without warning and only opens at night.

🦋 Butterflies Guaranteed☕ Comfort Read🕯️ Slow Burn Alert
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Historical Fiction

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A reclusive Hollywood icon finally tells her full story to an unknown journalist — and the truth is bigger than anyone expected.

🌀 Plot Twist Incoming😭 Tissue Warning💔 Ugly Cry
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Fantasy Romance

A Court of Thorns and Roses

by Sarah J. Maas

A mortal girl is taken to a magical land and falls for the faerie who imprisoned her.

🦋 Butterflies Guaranteed💘 He Falls First🕯️ Slow Burn Alert
Daisy Jones and the Six
Historical Fiction

Daisy Jones and the Six

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The oral history of a legendary 1970s rock band — told by everyone who was there.

Pachinko
Historical Fiction

Pachinko

by Min Jin Lee

Four generations of a Korean family in Japan — from a pastor's daughter who becomes pregnant by a married man to her great-grandson navigating identity in 1980s Tokyo. An epic about survival, shame, a…

🕯️ Slow Burn Alert😭 Tissue Warning💔 Ugly Cry
Redeeming Love
Christian Romance

Redeeming Love

by Francine Rivers

Set during California's Gold Rush, Angel — sold into prostitution at age 8 — encounters a man whose unconditional love mirrors the divine, forcing her to confront everything she believes about herself…

🦋 Butterflies Guaranteed😭 Tissue Warning💔 Ugly Cry
Serpent & Dove
young-adult

Serpent & Dove

by Shelby Mahurin

A witch hunter who hides a forbidden power falls for the witch he's sent to destroy. Dark, steamy, and absolutely unputdownable — fae magic meets burning forbidden love in a world that wants them both…

🔥 Adrenaline Meter☕ Comfort Read😭 Tissue Warning
The Golem and the Jinni
Historical Fantasy

The Golem and the Jinni

by Helene Wecker

In 1899 New York, a golem created to be a wife and a jinni freed from a copper flask find themselves navigating immigrant communities — and each other — in a lyrical story about freedom and belonging.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Fantasy

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

by V.E. Schwab

Addie makes a deal with the devil to live forever — but no one will ever remember her. Until one does.

🕯️ Slow Burn Alert💔 Ugly Cry
The Notebook
Romance

The Notebook

by Nicholas Sparks

An elderly man reads a love story to a woman with dementia — the story of young Noah and Allie, kept apart by class, reunited by letters, and tested by time itself.

The Priory of the Orange Tree
Epic Fantasy

The Priory of the Orange Tree

by Samantha Shannon

A queen without an heir, a dragon-rider from the East, and a lady-in-waiting hiding a dangerous mission converge as an ancient evil stirs — in a standalone epic built on female power.

Cinder
YA Sci-Fi Romance

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

Cyborg mechanic Linh Cinder lives in a future where a plague is devastating Earth and the Moon has been colonized by a cruel Lunar queen who can control minds. When Prince Kai falls for her at a ball,…

🔥 Adrenaline Meter🦋 Butterflies Guaranteed💘 He Falls First🌀 Plot Twist Incoming
It Ends with Us
Contemporary Romance

It Ends with Us

by Colleen Hoover

Lily falls for a surgeon with a complicated past — and must make the hardest decision of her life.

🌑 Dark & Twisty😭 Tissue Warning💔 Ugly Cry
The Fault in Our Stars
YA Contemporary

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old cancer patient, falls in love with Gus Waters at a support group. Together they travel to Amsterdam to meet a reclusive author — and reckon with what it means…

🕯️ Slow Burn Alert😭 Tissue Warning💔 Ugly Cry
The Folk of the Air
young-adult

The Folk of the Air

by Leigh Bardugo

A mortal girl is pulled into the dangerous world of the fae courts and finds herself at the center of a deadly game between brothers who rule the kingdom. Dark, twisted, and dangerously romantic — ene…

🔥 Adrenaline Meter☕ Comfort Read😭 Tissue Warning
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Fantasy

The House in the Cerulean Sea

by TJ Klune

A case worker for magical children falls for the master of a peculiar orphanage and the children in his care.

The Hunger Games
YA Dystopian

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

In the ruins of North America, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to fight to the death in a televised spectacle — and becomes the spark of a rebellion.

🔥 Adrenaline Meter🌑 Dark & Twisty⏰ Sleep? What Sleep?
Internment
young-adult

Internment

by Samira Ahmed

In a near-future America, Muslim-Americans are forced into internment camps. A teenager fights back the only way she knows how — with protest, love, and refusing to disappear.

☕ Comfort Read🌀 Plot Twist Incoming
Normal People
Literary Fiction

Normal People

by Sally Rooney

Connell and Marianne move through school, university, and young adulthood — always circling each other.

🌑 Dark & Twisty🕯️ Slow Burn Alert😭 Tissue Warning
Pride and Prejudice
Classic Romance

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy clash, misunderstand, and ultimately fall in love in Regency England.

🦋 Butterflies Guaranteed💘 He Falls First🕯️ Slow Burn Alert