Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Love/Valentine’s Freebie Â
I decided to feature some of my favorite authors for romance for this week’s topic. These are authors with more than a few books I’ve read and loved, and who I’m still interested in reading. I love some more than others, and they all have different writing styles, but I get a lot of joy out of reading them! Do you have any go-to romance authors? Please share your recommendations, I’m always looking for more!
Ten Of My Go-To Romance Authors
- Taylor Jenkins Reid – She doesn’t write the typical Happy Ever After romances, but her books do often revolve around BIG LOVE and always give me a ton of feels. Her stories live rent free in my heart!
- Mhairi McFarlane – Also not your typical romance writer, but her books are so valuable to me and give so much insight into the topic of love and human nature.
- Beth O’Leary – I loved some of her books more than others, but even the not-so-good ones are good for light entertainment and for that reason I continue to read them.
- Jennifer E. Smith – She writes young adult romance, but I started reading them years ago so her books are kind of “grandfathered” into my reading lists whenever I need a nostalgic pick-me-up.
- Ashley Poston – She’s a new favorite! I’ve read two books and loved them, and I’ve already borrowed more from the library! I especially love the magical realism element to her stories, and the vibes!
- Emily Henry – I also love some of her books more than others, but all of them always feel like safe go-tos for comfort reads, and so I keep going back to them.
- Kasie West – Another author “grandfathered” in from my younger days. I still love her books and I think they’re relevant and lovely regardless of audience age.
- Katherine Center – She might be one of the most consistently good romance writers with consistently good stories. Her books have such a wonderful balance of light-heartedness and profundity that I think is not appreciated nearly enough.
- Christina Lauren – Their books are delightful snacks for me. They don’t keep me full for long, but sometimes all you want is a snack to satisfy a craving, and their books fill that role for me.
- Tessa Dare – I love historical romance but haven’t read many recently because I don’t like some of the outdated ideas that come with them. I get it, it’s true to the time, but still. Tessa Dare manages to write wonderful historical romance that feature feminist ideas and I love them!
Have you read any of these authors? What did you think of them? Would you read any of their books?
I do love books by Katherine and Kasie in this genre. I also liked the one I read by Taylor, but have this feeling her other titles may be a bit too bittersweet for me. Happiest reading! 🙂
Yeah, TJR writes a lot of great books but not necessarily with HEAs and you never know if you’re going to be destroyed at the end of it!
Mhairi McFarlane would be at the top of my list with Ali Hazelwood, plus Emily Henry and Paige Toon.
Thanks for sharing your #TTT
Ohh, I forgot about Paige Toon! I haven’t read her books but one of my friends highly recommends her and I’d been meaning to read her eventually.
Ashley Poston is always fun and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I love them both in such different ways, but a good book is a good book!
I’ve enjoyed most of Beth O’Leary’s books, and can’t wait to read her newest one coming later this year.
Here’s my TTT post: https://readbakecreate.com/favorite-romances-read-in-2025/
I didn’t like the latest one as much as her others, but hopefully the new one this year will be better!
I’ve only read The Bodyguard. I want to read more from Katherine Centre. I also want to read some Christina Lauren and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/10/top-ten-tuesday-love-valentines-freebie/
I’ve loved all of Katherine Center’s newer books but haven’t tried many of her earlier ones. I have so many backlist books to get to!
I don’t know much about her to be honest.
I read my first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid recently – Atmosphere – and really enjoyed it.
Atmosphere was so good! I ugly cried so much at the end of it, my husband was so curious and asked me about the book the next day!
These all look like very romantic reads. 🙂
They were pretty great!
Yaas, Ashley Poston and CLo! I’m always in for a good time with both authors 🙂 Some of my favourite go-to romance authors are Beverly Jenkins, Chloe Liese, and Talia Hibbert. I always know I’m in for a great time with these authors!
Yayyy, thank you for these recommendations! I’m definitely going to check out these new authors! More romance!!
I have a lot of go-to romance authors: Emma St. Clair, Pepper Basham, Marth Keyes, Cindy Steel, Denise Hunter, Kate Watson and so many more! Have a great week!
Thank you!! I’m going to check them out and hope I find a couple of new romance authors I end up loving!
I’ve been meaning to try Tessa Dare’s books for ages! I even have a couple on my TBR (The Duchess Deal and Romancing the Duke), but they’ve been there for… uh. A while. Have you read either of those? Do you have a favourite of her work in general?
I haven’t read all her books, tbh, but I loved all the ones I’ve read. I’ve read both the ones you mentioned and enjoyed them both, I don’t think you could go wrong with either!
I rarely read romance, but I did enjoy the one Christina Lauren book I read. Katherine Center is an author whose books I do really like and, I agree, they’re just consistently good. She’s definitely my go-to author for romance (the only one, ha ha).
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Oh I get it, Susan! There are so many popular romance authors out there but I don’t connect with very many, so I tend to stick to the tried-and-true ones that I’ve loved. I hope you find more that you love.
When I read open door books, Tessa Dare was at the top of my list. She’s an excellent author.
She really is, I fully agree!
Taylor Jenkins Reid is the only one I’ve read multiple books by so I can actually form an opinion on. Oh and Emily Henry, but her books aren’t really for me, unlike TJR’s.
Jennifer E. Smith actually wrote two contemporary novels for adults too, Fun for the Whole Family and The Unsinkable Greta James.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2026/02/10/top-ten-tuesday-love-is-on-the-tbr/
Oh, I didn’t realize about Jennifer E. Smith! I have The Unsinkable Greta James on my tbr though, so I’m looking forward to that!
Oooh, great list! I haven’t read any of her adult works yet, but I love Ashley Poston’s YA “Once Upon a Con” romance trilogy.
I haven’t tried that one but I’ll look into it!
Tessa Dare’s books are always good.
I’ve loved all the ones I’ve read so far!
I need more Taylor Jenkins Reid in my life. I loved Evelyn Hugo.
I’ve loved so many of TJR’s books! My favorites are Malibu Rising and Carrie Soto Is Back!