Top 1,000 Best Romance Novels

After more than four years of work, our team has finally put together our list of the Top 1,000 Romance Novels of All Time. We’d love your feedback! Use the comment section below to tell us about any books we may have missed.

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Here are numbers 1-99:

NUMBER 1: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813
Among literature’s first romantic comedies, Pride and Prejudice is set in 18th Century England — when social class was real, and men were still mysterious. More than two centuries old, the book is a testament to…
NUMBER 2: Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen, 1811
In Austen’s first published novel, we meet Elinor and Marianne, two sisters with opposite temperaments — one with “sense” the other full of “sensibility” (or “emotionality”). After losing their father, they’re penniless, saved only by…
NUMBER 3: Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, 1848
When Jane Eyre was published in 1848 under the pseudonym Currer Bell, it became an instant bestseller. Rife with sexual references, a fascinated public speculated over the author. When they learned it was a woman, reviews turned sour…
NUMBER 4: Emma, by Jane Austen, 1816
Austin’s fourth novel stars Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy, naive, dilletant. The young woman spends her days with her worrisome father, where she’s content avoiding marriage. And yet how she adores playing Cupid for…
NUMBER 5: Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, 1936
A heartbreaking anti-war novel set in American South during the Civil War. The herione is one of the most famous in all literature: the white-shouldered Scarlett O’Hara, a strong-willed, Southern belle who knows how to get what she wants. Her third husband, Rhett Butler, is the consummate…
NUMBER 6: Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, 1847
A rain-beaten, soul-devouring novel set among the foggy moors of a Yorkshire manor, this is Emily Bronte’s only novel. It tells of the passionate, all-consuming love between the orphan Heathcliff and his wealthy childhood friend, Catherine Earnshaw. Housed under the same roof, they…
NUMBER 7: A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster, 1908
Lucy Honeychurch is upset after being promised (and later denied) a “room with a view” in a Florentine hotel. The Emersons, and their son George, offer to give up their room, which overlooks the Arno. This small act is one in a number of coincidental meetings between Lucy and George — a man who happens to be…
NUMBER 8: Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1866
Raised by an aunt in a tranquil British town, Elizabeth Gaskells brings to life a similar setting in her last novel. First published as a serial, we meet Molly, left to be raised by her father and servants after her mother’s death. Her dad is the town doctor, and she has a stormy relationship with…
NUMBER 9: Persuasion, by Jane Austen, 1818
Eight years ago, Anne Elliot fell in love with an ambitious naval officer. Concerned that the man was below her stature, her family convinced her to break off the relationship. Now, a 27-year-old spinster, Anne encounters her naval officer once again. These days…
NUMBER 10: North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1854
This novel of rebellion, sweeps from industrials riots in the north to the repressed passions of a woman planted firmly in the middle class. Margaret Hale is the daughter of a nonconformist minister who moves north after leaving the Church of England. There, she falls for a mill owner while…
NUMBER 11: Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, 1908
One hundred years old in 2008, Anne of Green Gables takes place on quaint Prince Edward Island in Canada. At the start, an aging brother and sister anxiously await the arrivial of their adoptive son. Instead, they get a girl — the boundless and untameable Anne who suffers…
NUMBER 12: The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery, 1929
Teetering on the verge of 30, Valancy Stirling has never fallen in love. She retreats from the loveless world to the enchanted world of her imagination. There she lands in the Blue Castle of Spain. There she has everything she lacks…
NUMBER 13: The Windflower, by Tom and Sharon Curtis, 1984
After stumbling upon an 18th Century document that listed pirates who were executed by hanging, this husband-and-wife duo were struck by the tragedy of the pirates’ lives; particularly the young ones, 15- and 16-year-olds who, often, didn’t have …
NUMBER 14: Angelique: Marquise of the Angels, by Sergeanne Golon, 1957
The first in a 15-book series of French adventure novels is set in a divided France in 1648. Angélique de Sance de Monteloup, a 12-year-old tom boy is off cavorting with her friends in ancient forests and swamps when the village where her father lives is ravished. The small troop of children is left orphaned…
NUMBER 15: The Wolf and the Dove, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 1974
It is Saxon England, 1066. William the Conquerer roams the lands. Castles are the preferred domiciles, and Aislinn of Darkenwald has witnessed the slaying of her father. The Iron Wolf of Normandy — a man named Wulfgar and one of a tide of Norman invaders — has taken control…
NUMBER 16: Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase, 1995
After losing his family to typhus, a disease transmitted by body lice, the “hulking gorilla” Sebastian Ballister is known for sinning. He likes, in fact, to “sin and sin again.” Better known as the Marquess of Dain and the “Bane and the Blight of the Ballisters,” he’s a terribly…
NUMBER 17: The Flame and the Flower, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 1972
Meet Heather Simmons, doomed to a life of unending toil. Danger forces her to commit a shocking, desperate act. She must flee, and takes up refuge in the cabin of a ship. Captain Brandon Birmingham, a rough and hardened sea captain, mistakes her for a prostitute…
NUMBER 18: Flowers from the Storm, Laura Kinsale, 1992
The cover screams: “One of the World’s Most Cherished Love Stories!” So much to live up to. And yet, somehow, Kinsale manages to do it with this strange tale of the once rakish Christian Langland, Duke of Jerveaux, turned stroke victim. He’s left unable to talk…
NUMBER 19: The Conquerer, Georgette Heyer, 1966
Incredibly ambitious, Georgette Heyer reminds us of how they used to write romance novels: big, bold, and historically sweeping. She’s also the inspiration for countless world-famous, Regency authors on our list. In her novel, The Conquerer, we meet…
NUMBER 20: Rebecca, Daphne Du Marier, 1938
In the grand halls of this English estate clinging to the Cornish coast, a brand new wife has come to replace the one who died. We do not know this new wife’s name, but we certainly know that Rebecca, who died in a boating accident last year, is the one…
NUMBER 21: Shanna, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 1984
In 1749, amidst the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Shanna is pressured to marry by her father, a well-respected, landowning oligarch. Only someone respectable will do. No daughter of her class will be allowed to do something like marry a man of her choosing. On a trip to London…
NUMBER 22: Ashes in the Wind, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 2007
“Intrepid young Alaina already knows the handsome Yankee captain, but in her disquise as a boy, she cannot allow her womanly reaction to the virile army surgeon to betray her,” the novel begins. Forced to flee her ravished…
NUMBER 23: Frederica, Georgette Heyer, 1965
The Marquis of Alverstoke does not deign to bother with most of the requests that come to him. Too many women want too much of his time. And when the young Frederica Merrivale, asks him to sponsor her sister’s “coming out,” he’s annoyed. Only Frederica’s…
NUMBER 24: Mrs. Mike: The Story of Katherine Mary Flannigan, Nancy and Benedict Freedman, 1947
Kind Canadian Mountie, Sergeant Mike, meets young Irish lass from Boston, Katherine Mary. Katherine comes from good stock, so the couple’s subsequent move to the fierce North Woods of Canada, nearly overtakes the young lady’s…
NUMBER 25: These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer, 1926
These Old Shades established Georgette Heyer’s reputation upon its publication in 1926, and it would go on to inspire legions of romance writers to pick up the pen (as it continues to do today). Declared students of her work include such heavyweights as Judith McNaught…
NUMBER 26: A Knight in Shining Armor, Jude Deveraux, 1989
Jude’s first novel is her finest. A quarrel with her lover leaves Dougless Montgomery abandoned in a rural English graveyard. Crying over the tomb of Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, the errant knight appears before her: “Well witch. You have conjured…
NUMBER 27: Nobody’s Baby But Mine, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, 1997
Jane Darlington can hear her biological clock. She’s been hitting snooze on it for too long. So she goes after a child cooly and calculatingly — just as she would a physics problem. World-renowned as a physicist, she’s still trying to get…
NUMBER 28: The Secret, Julie Garwood, 1992
A four year old English girl named Catherine meets and befriends a four year old Scottish girl named Frances at a medieval festival on the borders of their countries. How strange their friendship is, so strong, for two girls from two countries pitted…
NUMBER 29: Thunder and Roses, Mary Jo Putney, 1993
Book 1 of the Fallen Angels, Thunder and Roses offers pure, unbridled romance. A Methodist schoolteacher in a small Welsh village in 1814 England is driven by desperation when she asks the infamous “Demon Earl” to help her save her village from…
NUMBER 30: Sea Swept, Nora Roberts, 1998
Three different boys, equally troubled, get adopted by an extraordinary couple in Chesapeake Bay. Raised as brothers, they’re full grown now, and they’ve become different men. Cameron, a world class boat racer, has spent his time chasing titles, uncorking champagne, and finding women…
NUMBER 31: Tatiana and Alexander: The Bridge to Holy Cross, Paullina Simons, 2003
A hard-to-find and increasingly popular book published first in England, it comes to us from the Russian writer Paullina Simons. Simons, who left Leningrad for the United States as a child, pens the tale of Tatiana, a woman forced to leave the same city…
NUMBER 32: Magic Flutes, Eva Ibbotson, 1982
A gorgeous tale of privilege set in the Austrian Hapsburg Court, Magic Flutes evokes the sumptuous world of princes, princesses and kings. In the Vienna of 1922, Tessa works as a wardrobe mistress for the International Opera Company. For her, there is no…
NUMBER 33: Again the Magic, Lisa Kleypas, 2004
“A stable boy wasn’t supposed to speak to an earl’s daughter, much less climb up to her bedroom window,” the novel starts. It’s a prophetic act, for one day the stable boy, John McKenna, would have an affair with Lady Aline Marsden. This wasn’t supposed…
NUMBER 34: A Rose in Winter, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 1950
Beset on all sides by suitors, Erienne Fleming, is the raven-haired daughter of the village mayor. The setting: northern England. The time: 1792. The “respectable” town mayor has a bit of a gambling problem, and to save himself he intends to auction off his greatest asset — that lovely daughter…
NUMBER 35: Vows, LaVryle Spencer, 1988
Tomboy Emily Walcott prefers the stables over the kitchen. A blue-eyed dreamer, you won’t see an apron on her. She’s engaged to her childhood friend, Charles Bliss, but his touch leaves her longing for something bigger, something greater. Into this small…
NUMBER 36: Mr. Impossible, Loretta Chase, 2005
Daphne Pembroke’s late husband told her “intellectual endeavors put too great a strain on the inferior female brain,” so she hides the fact that she’s gone to Egypt to solve the country’s long-forgotten hieroglyphics. It’s 1821, and thieves steal a papyrus from her Cairo home that could lead to a pharaoh’s long-lost…
NUMBER 37: Garters, Pamela Morsi, 1992
“I’ve read all of her books and loved every word,” so said Jude Deveraux of Pamela Morsi, the Oklahoma-born librarian who didn’t become a full-time writer until she was in her 40s. Morsi was crying in bed on her birthday in 1988. “I could have been a writer,” she told her…
NUMBER 38: Reforming Lord Ragsdale, Carla Sue Kelly, 1995
The gambling, womanizing rake Lord Ragsdale despises the Irish. Too bad his cousin keeps an attractive Irish servant named Emma Costello. He doesn’t trust her. He doesn’t like her, and yet, he saves her from being gambled away in a card game. He lays down…
NUMBER 39: Devil’s Bride, Stephanie Laurens, 1998
In the early 1800′s, the scandalous rouge Devil Cynster, the Duke of St. Ives, spends the night in a room with a corpse. Governess Honoria Wetherby happens to be in the room as well, and Devil Cynster decides he’s compromised her…
NUMBER 40: The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons, 2000
Seventeen-year-old Tatiana still shares a bed with her older sister. This is St. Petersberg, Russia, in 1941. Hitler is about to invade the country. And Tatiana falls in love with the same solider her sister is raving about. His name is Alexander, and he’s…
NUMBER 41: Sweet Savage Love, Rosemary Rogers, 1974
A tale of desperados, lust, forced sex and seduction; this isn’t a book for the timid. It’s lurid content and it to the top of the bestseller lists in 1974. And yet, it still doesn’t feel dated. And that’s not because it’s historical fiction either. Rosemary paints a love you can feel just as deeply…
NUMBER 42: My Lady Notorious, Jo Beverly, 1993
A fast-paced Georgian gender bender, full of cross-dressing, posturing, prancing and the lust for adventure. The novel starts off strange and keeps getting stranger. First, we meet the “lazy-eyed young gentleman” named Captain Lord Cynric Malloren. He’s bumping…
NUMBER 43: Sweet Fury, Catherine Hart, 1990
This Ohio author continually fans her imagination west of the Mississipi, where marshalls keep the law and outlaws break it. “Sweet Fury” introduces us to Sam Downing, a hellcat with “barnyard manners” and an occasional penchant for dressing like a man — at least when she robs banks. Too bad, then, that a horse tosses…
NUMBER 44: A Rose for Maggie, Kathleen Korbel (or Eileen Dreyer), 1991
A heart-hurting, tear-jerker, “A Rose for Maggie” refuses to shy away from life’s gritty reality. Editor Allison Henley no longer believes in love. That changes when she’s asked to track down the elusive author of children’s books, L. Wood Dowd…
NUMBER 45: Tell Me No Lies, Elizabeth Lowell, 1986
A meticulously-researched romantic suspense novel, Elizabeth Lowell, brings love to life in China and America. Lindsay Danner is an expert in ancient bronzes, and when the American government learns of an art smuggling ring out of China, Danner’s name surfaces…
NUMBER 46: Warprize, Elizabeth Vaughn, 2005
Elizabeth Vaughn bills herself as an “author, barrister and mistress of the worlds,” and her novels are grand in scope, fantastic in nature. Warprize is the hard-to-pin-down tale of Xylara, the healer in the Kingdom of Xy. Strained relations with her brother…
NUMBER 47: Paradise, Judith McNaught, 1991
The book’s jacket is emphatic when it describes Matthew Farrell as “the outsider who dared to rock her country club world.” The “her” is Meredith Bancroft, an 18-year-old virgin when she meets young Matthew. Meredith’s father despises the cocksure…
NUMBER 48: The Devil in Winter, Lisa Kleypas, 2006
Kleypas, a former Miss Massachusetts who competed in the Miss America pageant, gives us her best book in the Wallflowers Series with Book 3, The Devil in Winter. Evangeline Jenner is the shyest of the Wallflowers, but she stands to become the wealthiest…
NUMBER 49: Rebellion, Nora Roberts, 1988
Rebellion is a Scottish love story set against the bloody background of a doomed Jacobite rebellion. Serena MacGregor hates all Brits — ever since she saw a band of them attack and rape her mother. She makes…
NUMBER 50: Treasured Vows, Cathy Maxwell, 1996
“It was the beginning of the Modern Age,” says Cathy Maxwell of Victorian England. And it’s in that setting that she thrusts the reckless, impoverished, toe ring-wearing Phadra Abbot who lives as a ward of the Bank of England. Phadra spends…
NUMBER 51: The Lily Brand, By Sandra Schwab, 2005
Three bruised souls in war-torn France are linked by cruelty. Troy Sacheverell, fifth Earl of Ravenhurst, is purchased as a war prisoner by the twisted spinster, Camille, and he finds himself being molded into a sex slave for the woman’s stepdaughter, Lillian. When Lillian is forced to brand him with the mark of a lily, their lives are…
NUMBER 52: The Rake, Mary Jo Putney, 1998
Mary Jo Putney decided to revisit her classic, The Rake and the Reformer (No. 138 on our list), 10 years after it was written. Her sharpened pen takes the tale deeper and more meaningfully into the lives of Reggie and Alys. Reggie is the gambler, the fighter, the man whose…
NUMBER 53: Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery, 1909
L.M. Montgomery’s famed series is well-liked for a reason: it evocatively conjures up a simpler, sweeter life; the sort that we fanaticize about when our day planners are too full. Published a year after the instantly successful Anne of Green Gables, we watch the red-headed Anne grow up…
NUMBER 54: Noble Intentions, MacAlister, Katie, 2009
In Noble Intentions, our heroine, Miss Gillian Leigh, has a propensity for faux pauxs (like setting the curtains on fire at balls; or saying out loud the things she really meant to keep to herself). Her feistiness (along with her green eyes and long legs) make her stand out at one ball in particular…
NUMBER 55: Once Tempted, Elizabeth Boyle, 2001
In Once Tempted we meet young Olivia Sutton, the naive daughter of a disgraced knight. She gives her 17-year-old heart to the callous Marquis of Bradstone in London, 1805. Turns out Lord Bradstone is using her for her codebreaking skills, and he plans to…
NUMBER 56: The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks, 1996
Written in six months, The Notebook was Sparks’ first published novel, and its enormous success established him as an A-List romance writer. Time Warner Book Group had enough faith in the book to front Sparks $1 million for the publishing rights (and that was in 1995). The story opens with an old man reading to an old woman in a nursing home…
NUMBER 57: Kiss an Angel, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, 1996
Kiss an Angel starts out with Daisy Deveaux in her wedding gown, standing before the congregation, biting her lip because she’s forgotten her bridegroom’s name. Not a good sign. And it’s not a good marriage. The whole thing was arranged by her father after Claire made some bad financial decisions in the wake of her mother’s death…
NUMBER 58: Mirror Image, Sandra Brown, 1990
A plane crash changes everything for Avery Daniels when she wakes up wrapped in hospital gauze. The people around her bed are convinced she’s Carole Rutledge, the wife of a popular politician, and she can’t speak to tell them anything different. After plastic surgeons reconstruct her face, she decides it might not be bad to adopt this new…
NUMBER 59: Morning Glory, LaVyrle Spencer, 1989
She spent her childhood in a boarded-up home with her grandparents. As an adult, she’s known as the town’s “Crazy Widow.” She has two small boys and another child on the way. Good men are off dying in World War II, and even the bad one’s don’t want anything to do with the local eccentric. She needs help on her farm, but Elly Dinsmore’s been ostracized…
NUMBER 60: Knight of a Trillion Stars, Dara Joy, 1997
Quite possibly the funniest romance novel on paper, Knight of a Trillion Stars thrusts a very ordinary girl into a very extraordinary dimension. Deana Jones (a riff on “Indiana Jones”) got fired at work, got gridlocked, wandered into a junk shop, bought a necklace without really planning to buy a necklace, got drenched in a rainstorm, drove home, then discovered an alien warrior…
NUMBER 61: Outlander, Diana Gabaldon, 1991
A Big Mac of a book that weighs in at 900 pages, Outlander goes down like McDonald’s food, too: very fast. The steadfast and practical nurse, Claire Randall, is alive and well in 1940s Scotland. She’s on a second honeymoon with hubby, Frank, when she sneaks back onto the ritualistic standing stones of Craigh na Dun…
NUMBER 62: Dreaming of You, Lisa Kleypas, 1994
Gutter-loving Derek Craven was born in a drain pipe to a prostitute mother. He rose from hellish poverty to become underworld lord of London’s most exclusive gambling house. Sara Fielding, a prim and well-bred novelist, shouldn’t mingle with men like Derek, but it’s all in the name of research. Sara’s writing about gambling, and who better to teach her…
NUMBER 63: The Long Road Home, Danielle Steel, 1998
Mansion living on the island of Manhattan isn’t all enchantment for young Gabriella Harrison in The Long Road Home. Her mother’s a torturous socialite who despises children — particularly her own, and her father’s a drunken lecher with a penchant for high-end Italian prostitutes. When her parents’ marriage goes sour, they dump Gabbie…
NUMBER 64: Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, Julia Quinn, 2002
Book four in the Bridgerton series, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, is the must read. The story follows Miss Penelope Featherington, just a teenager when she falls in love with her best friend’s brother. Unfortunately, Colin Bridgerton isn’t really into the pleasantly plump…
NUMBER 65: A Woman of Substance, Barbara Taylor Bradford, 1979
Straight out of Yorkshire, Barbara Taylor Bradford has first-hand experience in Regency Land. She even attended the (now defunct) Northcote Private School for Girls. Presently a New Yorker, Mrs. Bradford’s books occasionally revisit rural Yorkshire — as does our favorite Bradford novel, A Woman of Substance. The rags-to-mogul tale centers around…
NUMBER 66: Tender Triumph, Judith McNaught, 1983
Despite the tragedy surrounding the publication, Tender Triumph would vault McNaught into a full-time literary career. And the book offers glimpses of the brilliance that would mark McNaught’s later work. The rougher qualities of the book (like flat secondary characters and a somewhat tidy ending) are tempered by McNaught’s ability to create suspense. In it, we meet Miss Katie Connelly…
NUMBER 67: Gallant Waif, Anne Gracie, 1999
At a run-down manor in Leicestershire, Major Jack Carstairs has cloistered himself away from society — with reason, too. Back from the Pennisular war with a scarred face and a bum leg, he finds his father has disinherited him and his betrothed has decided they’re just not right for each other. All of this is quite troublesome to…
NUMBER 68: Whitney, My Love, Judith McNaught, 1985
At the start of Whitney, My Love, a father describes his daughter in a letter: “Whitney’s manners are an outrage, her conduct is reprehensible. She is a willful hoyden who is the despair of everyone she knows and an embarrassment to me.” Not much of an introduction. But then again…
NUMBER 69: The Lady’s Tutor, Robin Schone, 2002
In The Lady’s Tutor, we meet Elizabeth Petre, a woman at the apogee of Victorian power. The daughter of the Prime Minister, she’s married to Chancellor of the Exchequer. When she hears rumors that her husband’s sought out a mistress, she doesn’t reproach him, but instead seeks out the aid…
NUMBER 70: The Raven Prince, Elizabeth Hoyt, 2006
Edward de Raaf, the Earl of Swartingham, has already burnt through two secretaries because of his temper … but Anna Wren really needs a job. Her little cottage is crumbling, and her pocketbook’s empty, so, she signs on to assist the hawk-nosed, thin-lipped earl. Edward’s anger, she learns, stems in part from …
NUMBER 71: The Sherbrooke Bride, Catherine Coulter, 1992
Alexandra Chambers has had a crush on the Earl of Northcliffe since she was 15. Unfortunately, the earl, Douglas Sherbrooke, has set his sights on Alexandra’s older sister — a Helen of Troy-like beauty named Melissande. The wedding date is set, and Douglas looks forward to claiming his bounty, but the British government steps in demanding that Douglas travel to France on a very secret mission…
NUMBER 72: Scandal, Amanda Quick, 1991
Take a darker look at Regency England in a tale wrapped around Emily Faringdon — an “elfin beauty” from Hampshire. Her failed elopement has tarnished her reputation, and she’s now a damsel resigned to spinsterhood. That is until she discovers an enchanting pen pal who happens to be Simon Traherne, the Earl of Blade — a man who rules over London’s elite by sheer force…
NUMBER 73: Candle in the Window, Christina Dodd, 1991
Candle in the Window is a haunting reflection on the darker side of family and physical disability. The lead, Lady Saura of Roget, is beautiful, intelligent and wealthy. There are only two things that keep her from being happy: a controlling, unscrupulous stepfather and her own congenital blindness…
NUMBER 74: Pleasure for Pleasure, Eloisa James, 2006
The last of the Essex sisters, Josie, has been burdened with an unappealing sobriquet: The Scottish Sausage. It’s enough to turn away any man from her plumpish, overly-curved figure, but insulting her at a party is too much for certain men to tolerate. Garret, the earl of Mayne, stands up for her…
NUMBER 75: A Promise of Spring, Mary Balogh, 1990
In A Promise of Spring, Balogh shows us the full meaning of duty, secrecy and sacrifice. When Paul Howard, a vicar in the village of Abbotsford, gives his life to saving a young girl, Grace is left alone and penniless at age 35. One of Paul’s parishioners steps forward…
NUMBER 76: Honest Illusions, Nora Roberts, 1992
Roberts’ 86th book, Honest Illusions, is among her most fantastic, spanning three decades with its surreal characters and magical settings. Roberts brings to life Roxy Nouvelle, a punky, headstrong carny, who’s also the daughter of a world-famous magician and moonlighting jewel thief…
NUMBER 77: The Ugly Duckling, Iris Johansen, 1996
The Ugly Duckling couches deep philosophical questions in a suspense-filled narrative centered around murder and revenge. If fate made you more beautiful, would your life be better or worse? Should you be given the right to kill the man who killed your daughter?…
NUMBER 78: Yours Until Dawn, Teresa Medeiros, 2004
A young nubile nurse gets hired to care for a battle-wounded earl who lost his sight, and now lives miserably secluded in his ivy-walled manor. But Medeiros’ hand gives us sharp new twists on a predictable plot. There’s something harder, something tougher about Samantha Wickersham…
NUMBER 79: The Marriage Contract, Cathy Maxwell, 2001
It’s 1815, London, and the orphaned Anne Burnett is struggling to find a hubbie, despite two seasons of trying. So when her aunt and uncle arrange for her a marriage with Aidan Black, Earl of Tiebauld, in Scotland, she agrees — despite the rumors that he’s insane…
NUMBER 80: Charming the Prince, Teresa Medeiros, 1999
The indomitable warrior, Sir Bannor the Bold is seeking a “maternal, bovine creature” to be his wife. He wants a comely woman, one who won’t spark his desire to mate, as he’s terrified of the 12 motherless children he already has. His minions nominate Lady Willow Mallory, who’s spent most of her adult life playing nursemaid to countless step- and half-siblings…
NUMBER 81: Much Ado About You, Eloisa James, 2005
Book 1 in Essex Sisters saga, is a Jane Austenesque battle of financial prudence and love. Which should come first in the choice of a husband? Tess Essex hems and haws over the question after the death of her penniless father — a man who loved betting on his race horses more than caring for his four daughters…
NUMBER 82: Slightly Dangerous, Mary Balogh, 2004
The highly-anticipated conclusion to the “Slightly” series outdoes all of predecessors as it finally gives us Wulfric Bedwyn’s story. The Duke of Bewcastle is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in England — a true blueblood of the sort to be counted on when the going gets rough. He’s 36, though, and while he’s never given much thought to marriage…
NUMBER 83: Three Fates, Nora Roberts, 2002
According to Greek Mythology, the Three Fates were goddesses who controlled the destinies of humans and gods from the time of their births until the time of their deaths. One spun the thread of a person’s life (Clotho); the next decided how much time or thread was allotted to that person (Lachesis); and the last cut the thread at the moment of death (Atropus)…
NUMBER 84: The Viscount Who Loved Me, Julia Quinn, 2000
In this second installment in the Bridgerton series, the sassy Sheffield sisters, Kate and Edwina, are coming out this season, and London bachelors are circling. They’re mostly circling about Edwina, though, and Kate fully expected that to happen. She realizes she’s not as attractive as Edwina, so she’s made it her priority to help Edwina pick a respectable suitor…
NUMBER 85: London’s Perfect Scoundrel, Suzanne Enoch, 2003
Suzanne Enoch’s sequel to The Rake , pits a virginal do-gooder against the vulgar, and generally disreputable “Saint.” Her name is Evelyn Ruddick, and she’s decided that there’s little else she wants to do than help the vulnerable at the Heart of Hope Orphanage. Unfortunately, the board of trustees is headed by Michael Halboro, Marquis of St. Aubyn — known to the ton simply as Saint…
NUMBER 86: Dream a Little Dream, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, 1998
Rachel Stone rumbles back into her old hometown, Salvation, N.C., in her smoking heap of a car, hungry, homeless and jobless with a two-year-old son in tow. The townsfolk hate her here after her televangelist husband flew the coop three years ago, one step ahead of the IRS…
NUMBER 87: Through the Storm, Beverly Jenkins, 1998
Finally, we get the story of Raimond LeVeq, war major and camp commander for a small outpost of escaped slaves in Georgia. Raimond’s story takes place six years after his appearance in Beverly Jenkins’ well-received book, Indigo. Through the Storm takes place in the heart of the Civil War, and Raimond meets Ms. Sable Fontaine on the road, shortly after she’s escaped her sale to brutal master…
NUMBER 88: The Shadow and the Star, Laura Kinsale, 1991
Laura Kinsale freely admits that The Shadow and the Star is her favorite of the books she’s written. And, although we ranked Flowers from the Storm a little higher, this book is an incredibly close second. In it, we meet Samuel Gerard, an incredibly attractive bachelor, whose dark childhood of sexual abuse torments his relationships with women…
NUMBER 89: It Takes a Hero, Elizabeth Boyle, 2004
Young debutantes all across London have donned black arm bands and vowed never to marry. It’s 1816, and they’re showing their support for the heroine in a fictional book series titled Miss Darby. Incredibly popular among the younger of the elite, the book’s real-world implications are too much for the ton…
NUMBER 90: Three Wishes, Barbara Delinsky, 1997
The famous writer, Tom Gates, moves to small-town Panama, Vir., to escape his past mistakes. He’s existing comfortably in anonymity, until his truck loses control in the snow. It slams into a car that careens into Bree Miller. When Bree comes to in the hospital, she’s told she nearly died…
NUMBER 91: Until You, Judith McNaught, 1994
Judith McNaught traipses back into the lives of the Westmoreland’s with her third book in the family’s series (after A Kingdom of Dream and Whitney, My Love). Here, we get the story of Clayton’s brother, Stephen Westmoreland, Earl of Langsford. He’s got bad news for Charise Lancaster. It’s his responsibility to tell her that her fiancee has died…
NUMBER 92: Ransom, Julie Garwood, 1999
Lady Gillian plays pawn to the cruel Baron Alford — a man who slaughtered her father and separated her from her sister Christen. The Baron sends her on a quest to the Highlands to recover the family’s bejeweled golden box, one that may contain secrets to the death of King John’s love. Should Lady Gillian fail in her quest, her Uncle Morgan will be tortured to death…
NUMBER 93: Montana Sky, Nora Roberts, 1996
After the death of their father, the manipulative Jack Mercy, three very-much-unalike sisters sit in on the reading of their father’s will. His stipulation? All three must live together on the $20 million Mercy Ranch for a year, else none of them get a chunk of the inheritance…
NUMBER 94: Kiss Me Annabel, Eloisa James, 2005
Another installment in the brilliant Essex Saga, Kiss Me Annabel lays down a list of qualifications that the young eligible, Annabel, must have in a husband. Wealth (“She’s had enough of leaky roofs”); British blood (“London is the center of the civilized world”); and a certain amount of charm (“Good looking would be nice”)…
NUMBER 95: An Affair to Remember, Karen Hawkins, 2002
Anthony Elliot, the Earl of Greyley, is the only member of his family with a hint of responsibility. So when his cousin’s last will names Anthony the charge of five children, he immediately moves them into his sprawling estate, only to find them revolt in the form of mean-spirited tricks. He needs a governess with thick skin, and there’s just one name that keeps surfacing in town…
NUMBER 96: To Love and to Cherish, Patricia Gaffney, 1995
When Christian Morrell’s father dies, Christian’s the logical choice to become vicar of the Catholic church at Wyckerley. A kind-hearted man who isn’t too proud to admit his occasional doubts, Christian’s troubles start when his childhood friend, Geoffrey, returns to town to inherit a title (and a beautiful manor)…
NUMBER 97: MacKenzie’s Mountain, Linda Howard, 1989
When Wolf MacKenzie is shunned for a series of rapes he didn’t commit, he retreats to a mountain with his son, Joe. The hardened and flawed Vietnam veteran lives a reclusive life surrounded by horses, stars, and the clear air outside of Ruth, Wyoming. Things change when 29-year-old Mary Elizabeth Potter — a “self-appointed spinster” — takes a job at the local high school…
NUMBER 98: Summer Campaign, Carla Kelly, 1989
Exhausted, fatigued, and on his long-overdue journey home from the Napoleonic Wars, Major Jack Beresford — an esteemed soldier for His Majesty’s 45 Foot — encounters a highway robbery. While he struggles to protect the virtue of the women inside the carriage, he’s shot, wounded, and left for dead…
NUMBER 99: The Eight, Katherine Neville, 1988
Katherine Neville’s genre-bending novel, The Eight, revolves around a mystical chess set allegedly gifted to King Charlemagne in the 900s AD. The king was enamored with the set and rumored to have almost played himself to death on it. In modern times, the set is known as the Montglane Service, and the board and pieces (made of bejeweled gold) always provoke a…
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6 thoughts on “Top 1,000 Best Romance Novels”

  1. This is a most interesting list! It would be even greater if you offered a list of titles in a downloadable format. Then we could keep track of our “scores.”

  2. Pingback: Weekly Roundup April 11th-17th | Five Billion Sold

  3. Pingback: Is Your Favorite Book on the Top 1000 Best Romance Books of All Time? | Best Romance Stories

  4. Just did the 1st 99 so far. My all time favorite Paradise by Judith McNaught. The Secret and Ransom by Julie Garwood.

  5. Pingback: Writing Tweets – w/e 4/28/12 » Joanna Shupe

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