literary romance reading guide
18 recommendations from my new favorite made-up subgenre
My life is a conundrum.
I love to read about love, but I’m truly picky about romance. My favorite genre is literary fiction, but even I sometimes get tired of jaded cynical unlikable protagonists. (Although…me as hell.)
Many of my favorite books share the same criteria: cheerful, optimistic books with beautiful writing and strong, layered themes. I am not alone — when I asked for niche book recommendation requests for my post earlier this week, more than 10% of the asks fit this category.
I’ve been seeing the term “literary romance” used more and more, and it’s one I’d like to take to describe this corner of my reading.
This post is inspired by Leah, whose excellent post on this topic spurred me to recommend my own! Hers is likely my favorite reading Substack — our tastes are very similar — and a must-subscribe imo.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King
My increased love for the works of Lily King is a big part of what inspired this post. Writers & Lovers, Heart the Lover, and The English Teacher have excellent writing and universal themes, and also incredible emotion and love stories that pack a punch. Each of them broke my heart a little bit just to finish.
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Heaven is probably a long, character-driven book. This is a slow-moving family saga that traces stories over decades, and includes an almost slow-burn love story that takes ages to reveal itself. A truly satisfying read.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Any of the Jane Austen books can be here. She wrote perfect romances that manage to be classics, so of course they fit the bill. They’re so funny and also send-ups of society and literature and also just…swoony. I finished a reread of Northanger Abbey a few days ago and I’m still catching myself gazing into space with hearts for eyes.
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly
One of the many, many, many reasons I’m picky about Genre romance is that it claims the title of rom-com and then neglects to give me com. No laughs. No silliness. No banter.
One of the many, many, many reasons why I love this new slapped-together genre is that the love story can be barely any of the book, just a pleasant and lovely undertone. Like this book, for example. Finding-yourself stuff and family stuff and so much actual funniness.
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
A lot of Colwin’s books fit this bill, but this is my favorite of them all. It’s a bit Nancy Meyers-esque, a lightish romance plagued by adult problems that takes place in beautiful kitchens over delicious homemade meals after long walks in the city.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
This is my kind of first-love book: just a lot of moping and overthinking and mixed messages and studying. Relatable to my lived experience. I would read Selin doing anything, and learning Russian and lusting after a completely mediocre guy tops that list.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
This was the dark-horse favorite of all the books I’ve ever forced my non-reader fiancé to read. His favorite thing about it, and what makes it work, is the realness of the relationships and the characters, the way all of them hold darkness and positivity and hate and love next to each other. That combination is what makes the ultimate outcomes feel true and earned.
Also he liked the writing but I couldn’t figure out how to fit that nicely in my paragraph.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
This is a really short read, but not a fast one. It’s too pretty in content and in writing to want to speed through it. In 164 pages it comes up with a more sweeping and convincing romance than most 400 page chunkers in the genre.
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
All Sally Rooney books are love stories in a sense, but I could not put Conversations with Friends or Normal People here because I am busy promoting the These Are Not Romances Nor Glorifications Of These Relationships agenda. This, while complicated still, is closer to a flat-out…I can’t think of another synonym. “Romance” and “love story” are all I’ve got.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Maybe the reason I hate every Vuong release and love this one is because the others are terrible, or because this is really good, or it could just be this is the only love story (straight up) that he’s written. Either way, the beautiful overwrought style and the wrenching suffering work for me here, and absolutely do not otherwise.
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibin
Never did I ever expect this to be as quiet and subtle and heart-wrenchingly beautiful as the movie, to have a great love story and also this inherent homesickness and the question of if we can ever go again…but it did and it does! Now both are dear to me.
Loved One by Aisha Muharrar
This is about a dark topic — the loss of a best friend who may have been more — but everything else about it is so bright. It’s such a fun and unique plotline and a hilarious and readable style and I cannot wait to read more from this author.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
This is an unconventional romance, in a way: it has a love story, and it has a happily ever after, but they don’t meet up in exactly the way you’d expect. It’s all the better, a love letter to nostalgia and everything happening for a reason. Two of my favorite things.
Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang
This is such a unique book and made up of so many things I love: unique formatting, interesting protagonists with information-filled internal monologues, a stunningly lovely ending, an acknowledgment of the strangeness and loneliness of modern life but also the beauty of it.
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
Claire Lombardo’s books are not romanticized at all. They’re full of toddler tantrums and post-partum depression and distant children and marriage issues and family feuds…and you still come away like, wow. I hope I have a life and love like this someday.
Luster by Raven Leilani
Kind of crazy to call this stressful, satirical, secondhand-embarrassment-cringe comedy of errors a romance…and yet, there is a growing love through the whole narrative. So how would you refer to that!
Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas
Like The Idiot, this is an introspective and romantic and nostalgic and bittersweet story of first love. I continued feeling traces of the melancholy mood of it for days after I finished it.
Little Rabbit by Alyssa Sonsiridej
Slipping this one here at the end because it’s a bit of an unhinged choice. Ling Ma called it “a darkly sensuous tale of awakening that will quietly engulf you in flames.” That’s what it is. You’ll need a children’s movie or a comic book as a palate cleanser after completing it.
I love that you included three of my favorite books of all time in this list: Writers & Lovers, Persuasion (yes, every Austen book, though my personal fave is Sense & Sensibility) and Tom Lake! Ann Patchett and Lily King are two of my favorite authors, too. Along with Barbara Kingsolver's early books, like Animal Dreams, a literary love story for sure. Another fave is older, too, Hank & Chloe (1993) by Jo-Ann Mapson, another great writer. I'll be adding some of your list to my TBR--thanks!
Open Water is a modern classic. Everyone should read Caleb Azumah Nelson