Free subscribers get access to the Top 20 Ranking, while paid subscribers get access to the full analysis, as well as the Top 100 list data I’ve compiled in Airtable—perfect for fellow data nerds who like to get into the details! Here’s a peak at what the spreadsheet/table looks like on desktop:

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Upgrade to paid

Data Source

List: Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid), US Kindle Store. Data accessed from Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter.1

Sales Period: May 2026

Methodology: This is an exclusive monthly ranking I’ve created in consultation with Kindletrends. It’s based on five Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) lists pulled throughout the month (accessed from the Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter: May 3, 10, 16, 25 and 31, 2026), which I’ve then compiled and ranked using a sum of ranks calculation. The Monthly Top 100 list generated is the basis for the analysis that follows.

Table of Contents

1. Top 20 Ranking (Free, all other sections Paid)

2. Overview

3. Publisher

4. Price

5. Publication Age

6. Point of View (POV)

7. Subgenre

8. Authors

9. Representation

10. Covers

11. Length

12. Series

13. Reviews

14. Ratings

1. Top 20 Ranking

Top 20 of Kindle Store Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) list this month.

🆕 = New on Top 100 list this month compared to last month

1. The Deal by Elle Kennedy

2. 🆕 Rules for the Summer by Meghan Quinn

3. 🆕 King of Gluttony by Ana Huang

4. The Score by Elle Kennedy

5. The Mistake by Elle Kennedy

6. 🆕 Fever Dream by Elsie Silver

7. Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry

8. Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen

9. Crown Me Dead by Liv Zander

10. 🆕 Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen

11. 🆕 Kirill by Lilian Harris

12. Love Song by Elle Kennedy

13. Verity by Colleen Hoover

14. Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

15. 🆕 The Heart You Kept by T L Swan

16. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

17. 🆕 The Better Brother by Kai Lesy

18. 🆕 The Goal by Elle Kennedy

19. 🆕 Crown Me Yours by Liv Zander

20. 🆕 Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune

Read more

This month, 69% (9 of 13) of the NYT romance best sellers appeared on the Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (as marked below), a big increase from 39% last month.

Data Source

List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers

Sales Period:
May 2026 (4 weeks: May 3 to 30, 2026)1

Methodology: The romance and romantasy book on the list are ranked by:

• number of weeks on the list this month

• then average rank this month

• then number of weeks on the list all time.

May 2026

🅰️ = Also appeared on Amazon Kindle Store Romance Best Sellers: May 2026 (full list and analysis coming soon)

1. The Deal by Elle Kennedy 🅰️
   This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 5)
   All Time: 3 weeks

2. Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune 🅰️
   This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 12)
   All Time: 3 weeks

3. The Mistake by Elle Kennedy 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
   All Time: 3 weeks

4. The Score by Elle Kennedy 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 8)
   All Time: 3 weeks

5. The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 8)
   All Time: 2 weeks

6. Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 9)
   All Time: 2 weeks

7. The Final Target by Nora Roberts
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 3)
   All Time: 1 week

8. Broken Dove by Dani Francis
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 7)
   All Time: 1 week

9. The Daisy Chain Flower Shop by Laurie Gilmore
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 8)
   All Time: 1 week

10. Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It by Brooke Averick
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 9)
    All Time: 1 week

11. (tied for #10) Fever Dream by Elsie Silver 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 9)
    All Time: 1 week

12. Rules for the Summer by Meghan Quinn 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 13)
    All Time: 1 week

13. Starside by Alex Aster 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
    All Time: 1 week

Happy reading! Let me know if you have any questions.

Leave a comment

In other news, I’ve added a listing of physical romance bookstores that have closed in 2025 and 2026 to my subscriber-only calendar (you can find the link below).

I’d also like to welcome two new Supporters of the directory:

• X&O Books, coming soon to Cypress, Texas

• XO Book Co., coming soon to Wellington, New Zealand.

Overview

According to my research, there are now 276 physical romance bookstores in 12 countries around the world, 193 (or 70%) of which are in the United States.

If we also include online and pop-up romance bookstores, the total number of stores grows to 452 (324 or 72% of which are in the United States).

Romance Bookstore Directory

Growth of Physical Stores

So far in 2026, there has been a net increase of 49 physical romance bookstores worldwide (53 have opened, 4 have closed). In the United States specifically, there’s been a net increase of 39 physical romance bookstores.

Growth Rates (as of May 31, 2026)

Worldwide

• 2022: 10 stores

• 2023: 33 stores, 230% increase (3.3x)

• 2024: 94 stores, 185% increase (2.8x)

• 2025: 227 stores, 141% increase (2.4x)

3-Year Growth Rate from 2023 to 2025: 588%

United States

• 2022: 5 stores

• 2023: 18 stores, 260% increase (3.6x)

• 2024: 67 stores, 272% increase (3.7x)

• 2025: 154 stores, 130% increase (2.3x)

3-Year Growth Rate from 2023 to 2025: 756%

These detailed updates are a benefit for paid subscribers (only US$5/month or US$50/year). Everyone can see the high-level numbers before the paywall, but you’ll need to subscribe for all the juicy details…including a list of all the romance bookstore openings and closings! 🗓️

Upgrade to paid

There are now 475 bookstores in the directory (including Coming Soon)—there was a net increase of 11 stores this month.

The following is a breakdown of bookstores by type: Physical, Online, Pop-up, and Coming Soon along with a list of ALL the recently opened and added stores in each category!

📌 Please note that these categories overlap—a store can categorized as multiple types. For example, a bookstore can be online and have pop-ups, with a physical location coming soon.

Read more

I’m answering these questions and more in this next installment of my NYT 15-Year Analysis series, which highlights findings from my research on the 15 years of data available since the The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers launched in 2011.

Some posts in the series will be free, but you’ll need to become a paid subscriber to access all the findings (only US$5/month or US$50/year).

Data Source

List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers1

Sales Period: 2011 to 2025

Methodology: I compiled and analyzed the data to determine the number of unique books and authors that appeared on the list each year during this 15-year time period.

Number of Unique Books

An average of 242 unique books appear on the list each year.

As you can see in the graph below, the annual number hit a high of 303 books in 2014 and a low of 175 books in 2023—a 42% decrease over 9 years (128 fewer books).

It seems very likely that the pandemic (which started in early 2020) had an impact on this number; however, a decrease had already started in 2017.

The number of books per year was the lowest from 2022 to 2024, but has made a substantial jump in 2025, increasing 28% in just one year (from 190 to 243 books).

Number of Unique Books on the List

• 2011*: 221 books

• 2012: 233 books

• 2013: 291 books

• 2014: 303 books

• 2015: 275 books

• 2016: 297 books

• 2017: 261 books

• 2018: 261 books

• 2019: 262 books

• 2020: 218 books

• 2021: 215 books

• 2022: 183 books

• 2023: 175 books

• 2024: 190 books

• 2025: 243 books

*Pro-rated as list started in February 2011

Number of Unique Authors

An average of 179 unique authors appear on the list each year.

Similar to the unique number of books, the number of unique authors hit a high of 209 authors in 2014 and a low of 135 authors in 2023—a 35% decrease over 9 years (74 fewer authors).

The number of authors was the lowest from 2022 to 2024, but has made a substantial jump in 2025, increasing 25% in just one year (from 147 to 184 authors).

Number of Unique Authors on the List

• 2011*: 167 authors

• 2012: 172 authors

• 2013: 202 authors

• 2014: 209 authors

• 2015: 202 authors

• 2016: 206 authors

• 2017: 191 authors

• 2018: 192 authors

• 2019: 197 authors

• 2020: 179 authors

• 2021: 172 authors

• 2022: 137 authors

• 2023: 135 authors

• 2024: 147 authors

• 2025: 184 authors

Note: I counted various writing duos and groups as unique authors. For example, James Patterson has published books with several different co-authors, so books by each unique pairing were counted separately as a unique author.

*Pro-rated as list started in February 2011

Percentage of Unique Authors

The percentage of unique authors represents the level of author variation on the list—the lower the number means less variation, i.e., a smaller number of authors overall, meaning more authors with multiple books on the list.

Interestingly, the highest level of author variation was in the early pandemic years, 82% and 80% in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The lowest level was 69% in 2013, 2014, and 2016.

Percentage of Unique Authors on the List

• 2011*: 76% (167 authors of 221 books)

• 2012: 74% (172 authors of 233 books)

• 2013: 69% (202 authors of 291 books)

• 2014: 69% (209 authors of 303 books)

• 2015: 73% (202 authors of 275 books)

• 2016: 69% (206 authors of 297 books)

• 2017: 73% (191 authors of 261 books)

• 2018: 74% (192 authors of 261 books)

• 2019: 75% (197 authors of 262 books)

• 2020: 82% (179 authors of 218 books)

• 2021: 80% (172 authors of 215 books)

• 2022: 75% (137 authors of 183 books)

• 2023: 77% (135 authors of 175 books)

• 2024: 77% (147 authors of 190 books)

• 2025: 76% (184 authors of 243 books)

*Pro-rated as list started in February 2011

2013 vs 2020

Check out this comparison:

• In 2013, 25 authors had 3 or more unique books on the list

• In 2020, only 6 authors had 3 or more unique books on the list.

In 2013, a number of romance authors started appearing on the list for the first time with multiples titles, often from the same series. A few of these authors/books were also self-published.

For example:

• Abbi Glines: 5 books from the Too Far and Perfection series (primarily self-published)

• Christina Lauren: 5 books from the Beautiful series

• H. M. Ward: 5 books, including installments from the Damaged and The Arrangement series (self-published)

• J. Kenner: 3 books from the Stark series

• J. C. Reed: 3 books from the Surrender Your Love series (self-published)

• Katy Evans: 3 books from the Real series

• Kyra Davis: 3 books from the Just One Night series

This increase in authors with multiples titles on the list helps explain the lower level of author variation in 2013.

In 2020, the pandemic started and it appears that a lot of authors who regularly had multiples titles on the list in a year were not able to achieve the same.

The 6 authors who managed to have 3 or more unique books on the list in 2020 are:

• Christine Feehan: 6 books

• Danielle Steel: 6 books

• Stuart Woods: 5 books

• Julia Quinn: 4 books (mostly backlist, thanks to Bridgerton!)

• David Baldacci: 3 books

• John Grisham: 3 books

This dramatic decrease in the number of authors with multiples titles on the list helps explain the higher level of author variation in 2020.

Most Books in One Year

Which authors have had the most books on the list in one year?

It’s a three-way tie between:

• Nora Roberts: 9 books in 2016

• Colleen Hover: 9 books in 2022

• Freida McFadden: 9 books in 2025

Stay tuned for more from the NYT15 series! Next I’ll be looking at trends in the average number of weeks on the list over the years.

I’m always fascinated by the differences between The New York Times and Amazon Kindle Store best sellers. This month, only 43% (6 of 14) of the NYT romance best sellers appeared on the Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (as marked below).

Data Source

List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers

Sales Periods:
April 2026 (5 weeks: March 29 to May 2, 2026)1

Methodology: The romance and romantasy book on the list are ranked by:

• number of weeks on the list this month

• then average rank this month

• then number of weeks on the list all time.

April 2026

🅰️ = Also appeared on Amazon Kindle Store Romance Best Sellers: April 2026

1. Game On by Navessa Allen 🅰️
   This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
   All Time: 5 weeks

2. The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez 🅰️
   This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 5 weeks

3. Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 5)
   All Time: 2 weeks

4. Purple State by Dana Perino 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
   All Time: 2 weeks

5. (tied for #4) Starside by Alex Aster
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
   All Time: 2 weeks

6. King of Gluttony by Ana Huang
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 3)
   All Time: 1 week

7. Twisted Pawn by L.J. Shen 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 8)
   All Time: 1 week

8. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 17 weeks

9. Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 1 week

10. Bulletproof by K.M. Moronova
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 12)
    All Time: 1 week

11. Lights Out by Navessa Allen 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 31 weeks

12. Bloodsinger by Juliette Cross
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 1 weeks

13. (tied for #12) The Throne of Broken Gods by Amber V. Nicole
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 1 weeks

14. The Auction by Sadie Kincaid
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
    All Time: 1 weeks

Happy reading! Let me know if you have any questions.

Leave a comment

Paid subscribers get access to the full analysis, as well as the Top 100 list data I’ve compiled in Airtable—perfect for fellow data nerds who like to get into the details! Here’s a peak at what the spreadsheet/table looks like on desktop:

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Upgrade to paid

Data Source

List: Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid), US Kindle Store. Data accessed from Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter.1

Sales Period: April 2026

Methodology: This is an exclusive monthly ranking I’ve created in consultation with Kindletrends. It’s based on four Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) lists pulled throughout the month (accessed from the Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter: April 4, 12, 19 and 26, 2026), which I’ve then compiled and ranked using a sum of ranks calculation. The Monthly Top 100 list generated is the basis for the analysis that follows.

Table of Contents

1. Top 20 Book Ranking (Free, all other sections Paid)

2. Overview

3. Publisher

4. Price

5. Publication Age

6. Point of View (POV)

7. Subgenre

8. Authors

9. Representation

10. Covers

11. Length

12. Series

13. Reviews

14. Ratings

1. Top 20 Book Ranking

Top 20 of Kindle Store Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) list this month.

🆕 = New on Top 100 list this month compared to last month

1. 🆕 Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry

2. The Deal by Elle Kennedy

3. 🆕 Twisted Pawn by L.J. Shen

4. A Court of Thorns and Roses 6 by Sarah J. Maas (Pre-order)

5. A Court of Thorns and Roses 7 by Sarah J. Maas (Pre-order)

6. 🆕 Lift Me Up by Milly Johnson (First Reads)

7. Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

8. In Her Own League by Liz Tomforde

9. 🆕 Wake-Up Calls by Mariah Stewart (First Reads)

10. 🆕 The Wrong Catch by C.R. Jane

11. 🆕 Game On by Navessa Allen

12. 🆕 The Ruler by Penelope Sky

13. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

14. 🆕 Sweet Oblivion by Bella Matthews

15. Mistakes Were Made by Lucy Score

16. 🆕 The Wild Card by Piper Rayne

17. The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

18. The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson

19. 🆕 My Dreadful Darling by H. D. Carlton

20. 🆕 Captivation Creek by Claire Kingsley

⬇️ Paid subscribers can see the full list below

Read more

Leading up to Independent Bookstore Day, I also asked my Instagram followers: which 10 U.S. states don’t currently have a physical romance bookstore?

The answer is:

1. Alabama (however, Blushing Books is opening in May in Huntsville!)

2. Delaware

3. Hawaii

4. Mississippi

5. Nebraska

6. New Hampshire

7. New Mexico

8. North Dakota (I’ve since discovered Larkspur Daisy Books & Babies in Mandan, previously a baby store that has now shifted gears to focus on romance books as well)

9. South Dakota

10. Vermont

In the same post, I also shared the U.S. states with the most physical romance bookstores:

• Texas - 17

• California - 14

• Florida - 14

• Michigan - 8

• New York - 8

• North Carolina - 8

• Pennsylvania - 8

• Washington - 8

• Georgia - 6

I’d also like to welcome a few new Supporters to the directory:

• La Petite Mort Books in Cockeysville, Maryland, U.S.

• Lantern & Lace in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia.

• Sugar and Spice Book Co in Nashville, Tennessee.

Overview

According to my research, there are now 272 physical romance bookstores in 12 countries around the world, 189 (or 69%) of which are in the United States. A new country was added to this list this month, with the opening of The Dark Rose Emporium in Sweden!

If we also include online and pop-up romance bookstores, the total number of stores grows to 444 (317 or 71% of which are in the United States).

Romance Bookstore Directory

Growth of Physical Stores

So far in 2026, there has been a net increase of 46 physical romance bookstores worldwide (47 have opened, 1 has closed). In the United States specifically, there’s been a net increase of 36 physical romance bookstores.

Growth Rates

Worldwide

• 2022: 10 stores

• 2023: 33 stores, 230% increase (3.3x)

• 2024: 93 stores, 182% increase (2.8x)

• 2025: 226 stores, 143% increase (2.4x)

3-Year Growth Rate from 2023 to 2025: 585%

United States

• 2022: 5 stores

• 2023: 18 stores, 260% increase (3.6x)

• 2024: 66 stores, 267% increase (3.7x)

• 2025: 153 stores, 132% increase (2.3x)

3-Year Growth Rate from 2023 to 2025: 750%

These detailed updates are a benefit for paid subscribers (only US$5/month or US$50/year). Everyone can see the high-level numbers before the paywall, but you’ll need to subscribe for all the juicy details…including a list of all the upcoming romance bookstore openings! 🗓️

Upgrade to paid

There are now 464 bookstores in the directory (including Coming Soon)—there was a net increase of 21 stores this month.

The following is a breakdown of bookstores by type: Physical, Online, Pop-up, and Coming Soon along with a list of ALL the recently opened and added stores in each category!

📌 Please note that these categories overlap—a store can categorized as multiple types. For example, a bookstore can be online and have pop-ups, with a physical location coming soon.

Read more

Read more

Today I’m sharing the 10 authors with the:

1. Most books on the list

2. Most weeks on the list

I’ve also included some fun “race” chart videos that show how the data stacked up over 15 years.

Some posts in the series will be free, but you’ll need to become a paid subscriber to access all the findings (only US$5/month or US$50/year).

Data Source

List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers1

Sales Period: 2011 to 2025

Methodology: I analyzed the data to determine which authors have had the most books and spent the most weeks (across multiple books, if applicable) on the list during the 15-year time period.

Authors: Most Books on the List

The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers, 2011 to 2025

1. Danielle Steel - 83 books

2. Christine Feehan - 59 books

3. Stuart Woods - 44 books

4. Nora Roberts - 39 books

5. David Baldacci - 37 books

6. Debbie Macomber - 33 books

7. (Tied for 6th) Susan Mallery - 33 books

8. Robyn Carr - 26 books

9. John Sandford - 25 books

10. (Tied for 9th) James Patterson - 25 books

Danielle Steele tops this ranking with 83 books on the list over 15 years, which is an average of 5.5 books a year. She had a whopping 8 books on the list in both 2017 and 2019!

Author Stuart Woods passed away in 2022, so that was the last year he had books on the list.

I would categorize half of this list (5 of 10) as romance authors: Christine Freehan, Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber, Susan Mallery, and Robyn Carr.

▶️ Check out the video below to see how the books stacked up over time.

Note: I counted writing duos as unique authors. For example, James Patterson has published books with several different co-authors, so books by each unique pairing were counted separately.

Authors: Most Weeks on the List

The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers, 2011 to 2025

1. Colleen Hoover - 463 weeks (16 books)

2. John Grisham - 365 weeks (22 books)

3. David Baldacci - 262 weeks (37 books)

4. E. L. James - 253 weeks (8 books)

5. Freida McFadden - 208 weeks (14 books)

6. Stephen King - 207 weeks (23 books)

7. Rebecca Yarros - 206 weeks (4 books)

8. Kristin Hannah - 201 weeks (13 books)

9. Delia Owens - 193 weeks (1 book)

10. Nicholas Sparks - 181 weeks (14 books)

Colleen Hoover tops this ranking with 463 weeks on the list over 15 years, which is an average of 31 weeks per year. In 2022, she had 9 books on the list for a cumulative total of 216 weeks.

It’s interesting to see the variation in the number of books that contributed to each author’s total number of weeks—from Delia Owens with 1 book to David Baldacci with 37 books. David Baldacci is the only author that appears on both lists (Most Books AND Most Weeks).

▶️ Check out the video below to see how the weeks stacked up over time. It really shows how fast Colleen Hoover’s popularity grew starting in 2021!

Stay tuned for more from the NYT15 series!

In my December 2025 analysis of The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list, I announced that I would be shifting to a quarterly analysis since my monthly Amazon Kindle Store analysis provides a much larger and richer data set.

However, as I started working on the 2026 Q1 analysis, I still found that this small dataset wasn’t providing any new insights—particularly given the amount of labour involved (NYT only provides publisher name, everything else I have to manually research/code).

Based on that, I’ve decided to go back to doing a NYT monthly ranking, but without additional analysis.

I’m not giving up on NYT Best Sellers analysis though! Instead, I’m going to focus on the new series I introduced last November that highlights findings from the 15-year dataset (2011-2025) I’ve slowly been building. These findings will likely be a mix of free and paid posts.

Okay, with that mind, let me catch you up on the Q1 monthly rankings for January, February, and March 2026!

Data Source

List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers

Sales Periods:
January 2026 (5 weeks: December 28, 2025 to January 31, 2026)1
February 2026 (4 weeks: February 1 to 28, 2026)2
March 2026 (4 weeks: March 1 to 28, 2026)3

Methodology: Part way through 2025 I switched to a sum of ranks calculation for this ranking. However, after using it for several months, I feel that it favours rank over number of weeks on the list too much—since arguably it’s more difficult to stay on the list for multiple weeks than rank highly on the list for one week. So I’ve decided to switch back to a simpler ranking methodology, ranking by:

• number of weeks on the list this month

• then average rank this month

• then number of weeks on the list all time.

January 2026

🅰️ = Also appeared on Amazon Kindle Store Romance Best Sellers: January 2026

1. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 3)
   All Time: 8 weeks

2. The Long Game by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 8)
   All Time: 5 weeks

3. Game Changer by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 12)
   All Time: 4 weeks

4. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 🅰️
   This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)

   All Time: 41 weeks

5. In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 7)

   All Time: 1 week

6. Alchemised by SenLinYu 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 15 weeks

7. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 12)
   All Time: 2 weeks

8. The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 12)
   All Time: 1 week

9. Brimstone by Callie Heart 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 13)
   All Time: 7 weeks

10. Dark Joy by Christine Feehan
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 13)
    All Time: 1 week

11. We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 1 week

February 2026

🅰️ = Also appeared on Amazon Kindle Store Romance Best Sellers: February 2026

1. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 6)
   All Time: 12 weeks

2. The Long Game by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 12)
   All Time: 9 weeks

3. Lights Out by Navessa Allen 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 15)
   All Time: 29 weeks

4. Game Changer by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 15)
   All Time: 6 weeks

5. And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 4)

   All Time: 1 week

6. Alchemised by SenLinYu 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 7)
   All Time: 16 weeks

7. Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 1 week

8. (TIED FOR 7) Just for the Cameras by Meghan Quinn 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 1 week

9. An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
   All Time: 6 weeks

10. The Night Prince by Lauren Palphreyman 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 1 week

11. Throne of Nightmares by Kerri Maniscalco
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
    All Time: 1 week

March 2026

🅰️ = Also appeared on Amazon Kindle Store Romance Best Sellers: March 2026

1. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid 🅰️
   This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 8)
   All Time: 16 weeks

2. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover 🅰️
   This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 11)
   All Time: 3 weeks

3. Just Friends by Haley Pham
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 9)
   All Time: 2 weeks

4. Mistakes Were Made by Lucy Score 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 10)
   All Time: 2 weeks

5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 🅰️
   This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 13)

   All Time: 52 weeks

6. The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 2)
   All Time: 1 week

7. The Wings That Bind by Briar Boleyn
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 4)
   All Time: 1 week

8. Love Song by Elle Kennedy 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 5)
   All Time: 1 week

9. Hunt the Villain by Rina Kent 🅰️
   This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 6)
   All Time: 1 week

10. In Her Own League by Liz Tomforde 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 7)
    All Time: 1 week

11. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 12)
    All Time: 3 weeks

12. Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 13)
    All Time: 1 week

13. Lights Out by Navessa Allen 🅰️
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 30 weeks

14. Blood & Roses, Vol. 1 by Callie Hart
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 14)
    All Time: 1 week

15. Beneath by Ariel Sullivan
    This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
    All Time: 1 week

Happy reading! Let me know if you have any questions.

Leave a comment

Paid subscribers get access to the full analysis, as well as the Top 100 list data I’ve compiled in Airtable—perfect for fellow data nerds who like to get into the details! Here’s a peak at what the spreadsheet/table looks like on desktop:

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Upgrade to paid

Data Source

List: Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid), US Kindle Store. Data accessed from Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter.1

Sales Period: March 2026

Methodology: This is an exclusive monthly ranking I’ve created in consultation with Kindletrends. It’s based on five Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) lists pulled throughout the month (accessed from the Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter: March 3, 8, 15, 21 and 29, 2026), which I’ve then compiled and ranked using a sum of ranks calculation. The Monthly Top 100 list generated is the basis for the analysis that follows.

Table of Contents

1. Top 20 Book Ranking (Free, all other sections Paid)

2. Overview

3. Publisher

4. Price

5. Publication Age

6. Point of View (POV)

7. Subgenre

8. Authors

9. Representation

10. Covers

11. Length

12. Series

13. Reviews

14. Ratings

1. Top 20 Book Ranking

Top 20 of Kindle Store Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) list this month.

🆕 = New on Top 100 list this month compared to last month

1. 🆕 In Her Own League by Liz Tomforde

2. 🆕 Mistakes Were Made by Lucy Score

3. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

4. 🆕 A Court of Thorns and Roses 6 by Sarah J. Maas

5. 🆕 Hunt The Villain by Rina Kent

6. 🆕 A Court of Thorns and Roses 7 by Sarah J. Maas

7. 🆕 Law Maker by Susie Tate

8. 🆕 Love Song by Elle Kennedy

9. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

10. 🆕 Across the Vanishing Sky by Catherine Cowles

11. Woman Down by Colleen Hoover

12. The Deal by Elle Kennedy

13. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

14. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

15. Just For the Cameras by Meghan Quinn

16. The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson

17. 🆕 The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

18. 🆕 What Happened Next by Edwin Hill

19. 🆕 Tempting Boss by Lilian Monroe

20. First Witches Club by Maisey Yates

⬇️ Paid subscribers can see the full list below

Read more

In other news, Pittsburgh will soon have two romance bookstores when The Shelf Love Society opens in April, joining Passionate Pages which opened at the end of January. While there are several other examples of two romance bookstores cities, this is the first time the stores will be located on the same street! (Butler Street in Lawrenceville, for those familiar with Pittsburgh.) You can read more in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story (linking to it on PressReader to avoid the paywall).

Okay, on to the numbers.

Overview

According to my research, there are now 259 physical romance bookstores in 11 countries around the world, 179 (or 69%) of which are in the United States.

If we also include online and pop-up romance bookstores, the total number of stores grows to 428 (303 or 71% of which are in the United States).

Romance Bookstore Directory

Growth of Physical Stores

So far in 2026, there has been a net increase of 32 physical romance bookstores worldwide (33 have opened, 1 has closed). In the United States specifically, there’s been a net increase of 24 physical romance bookstores.

Growth Rates

I’ve discovered more physical romance bookstores that opened in 2025, so I’ve updated the growth rates as follows:

Worldwide

• 2022: 10 stores

• 2023: 32 stores, 230% increase

• 2024: 92 stores, 179% increase

• 2025: 227 stores, 147% increase

3-Year Growth Rate from 2023 to 2025: 588%

United States

• 2022: 5 stores

• 2023: 18 stores, 260% increase

• 2024: 65 stores, 261% increase

• 2025: 155 stores, 138% increase

3-Year Growth Rate from 2023 to 2025: 761%

These detailed updates are a benefit for paid subscribers (only US$5/month or US$50/year). Everyone can see the high-level numbers before the paywall, but you’ll need to subscribe for all the juicy details…including a list of all the upcoming romance bookstore openings! 🗓️

Upgrade to paid

There are now 445 bookstores in the directory (including Coming Soon)—16 were added in March.

The following is a breakdown of bookstores by type: Physical, Online, Pop-up, and Coming Soon along with a list of ALL the recently opened and added stores in each category!

📌 Please note that these categories overlap—a store can categorized as multiple types. For example, a bookstore can be online and have pop-ups, with a physical location coming soon.

Read more

The goal of the directory has always been to provide a free and useful resource to romance readers.

The directory is also an excellent research and marketing tool for romance bookstores. I regularly hear anecdotes from bookstore owners about customers finding them through the directory. I know many bookstores have also used my directory and other data as part of the business planning process for their stores (for example, using my Best Romance Book lists to plan which titles to stock).

I provide this service to bookstores for free, but there are costs (like web hosting) and a lot of labour (research, data collection, web updates, etc.) involved in proactively maintaining the directory.

I’m hoping that more bookstores will see the value of the Romance Bookstore Directory and choose to support it financially by becoming a paid subscriber of Romancing the Data.

Ways to Support the Directory

• Tell your customers about the Romance Bookstore Directory.

• If media approach you about a romance bookstore story, refer them to the Romance Bookstore Directory for the latest data.

• If you’re able to support the directory financially, become a paid subscriber (US$5/month or US$50/year).

Upgrade to paid

New Supporter Designation

To recognize my romance bookstore supporters, I’m introducing a new Supporter designation to indicate which bookstores are financially supporting the directory, either through an active paid subscription to Romancing the Data or other contributions.

I will also be featuring the Supporter bookstores in the top spot of the directory on a rotating basis, as well as occasionally featuring them in blog and social media posts.

My goal is to give these bookstores a bit of extra love because they are helping keep the directory running!

Here’s an example of what the Supporter badge and the feature spot looks like:

Current Romance Bookstore Supporters

There are currently 18 romance bookstore supporters (21 individual stores):

1. A Love Affair Book Boutique

2. Beguiled Books

3. Bookish Boutique

4. Books Ever After

5. Exes&Ohs Books

6. Fiction & Friction

7. Flame & Fable

8. Friends to Lovers Bookstore

9. In Bloom Bookery

10. Pages & Grapes

11. Perfect Match Bookshop

12. Steamy Lit

13. Sweet TBR Bookstore

14. Swoon City

15. The Blush and Binding

16. Thirst Books

17. Under the Cover Romance Bookshop (Missouri)

18. Why Choose Bookstore

Thank you so much to my current romance bookstore supporters! I look forward to giving you a bit of extra love in the coming months.

If you’re a paid subscriber whose bookstore is missing from the list above, please comment below or email me.

Happy reading!

Which platform was the most popular? Who had the largest following? Did any of the authors have small followings? Read on to learn what I discovered.

Methodology

I recently published two Top 100 Romance Best Sellers of 2025 lists—one based on the Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance, the other based on The New York Times Combined Fiction list.

To identify the bestselling romance authors of 2025, I consolidated the two lists (removing all duplicates) and found there were 102 unique authors who had at least one book on at least one of the lists.

Next, I looked up the number of followers each of these authors has on the following platforms (data collected on March 18, 2026):

• Facebook

• Facebook Groups

• Instagram

• Threads

• TikTok

Note: I didn’t include X/Twitter as few authors listed it as one of their social media platforms.

Caveats

Before I get to the good stuff, a few caveats:

• Some of the authors on the list are not usually categorized as romance authors, but they appear on the list because their book was assigned at least one Romance subcategory in the US Kindle Store.

• I did my best to search all the platforms and identify genuine author accounts (often using author websites as a reference); however, I cannot guarantee that the data is 100% accurate. For example, I could easily miss reader Facebook Groups if they are private and hidden from search results.

• I included all accounts I found, whether they are being actively used or not.

• This data does not indicate causation, i.e., that their social media following resulted in their bestseller status (or vice versa).

Overall Followers

All platforms combined

Followers

• Median # of Followers: 184,050

• Average # of Followers: 467,107

Following Size Breakdown

• +1M followers: 10%

• 500K-1M followers: 15%

• 100-500K followers: 45%

• <100K followers: 30%

Most Popular Platforms

Among these bestselling romance authors, the most popular social media platforms—based on how many authors have accounts on them—along with their median and average follower counts are listed below:

1. Instagram - 98%

• Median # of Followers: 104,500

• Average # of Followers: 222,301

2. Facebook - 86%

• Median # of Followers: 18,000

• Average # of Followers: 97,115

3. TikTok - 77%

• Median # of Followers: 42,100

• Average # of Followers: 166,868

4. Threads - 53%

• Median # of Followers: 19,200

• Average # of Followers: 40,192

5. Facebook Groups - 47%

• Median # of Members: 14,000

• Average # of Members: 31,579

Paid subscribers can read on for a breakdown of the 10 largest and smallest combined social media followings, as well as the top 10 authors on each platform. They can also access the data for all 102 bestselling authors on Airtable.

Upgrade to paid

Read more

Without further ado, here is the February 2026 Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) analysis, in partnership with market research newsletter Kindletrends.

Paid subscribers get access to the full analysis, as well as the Top 100 list data I’ve compiled in Airtable—perfect for fellow data nerds who like to get into the details! Here’s a peak at what the spreadsheet/table looks like on desktop:

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Upgrade to paid

Data Source

List: Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid), US Kindle Store. Data accessed from Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter.1

Sales Period: February 2026

Methodology: This is an exclusive monthly ranking I’ve created in consultation with Kindletrends. It’s based on four Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) lists pulled throughout the month (accessed from the Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter: February 3, 8, 15 and 22, 2026), which I’ve then compiled and ranked using a sum of ranks calculation. The Monthly Top 100 list generated is the basis for the analysis that follows.

Table of Contents

1. Top 20 Book Ranking (Free, all other sections Paid)

2. Overview

3. Publisher

4. Price

5. Publication Age

6. Point of View (POV)

7. Subgenre

8. Authors

9. Representation

10. Covers

11. Length

12. Series

13. Reviews

14. Ratings

1. Top 20 Book Ranking

Top 20 of Kindle Store Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) list for February.

🆕 = New on Top 100 list this month compared to last month

1. Woman Down by Colleen Hoover

2. 🆕 Just For the Cameras by Meghan Quinn

3. Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren

4. 🆕 The Wild Card by Stephanie Archer

5. Alchemised by SenLinYu

6. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

7. Daggermouth by H. M. Wolfe

8. 🆕 Leave It Up To Love by Kristy Woodson Harvey

9. 🆕 Sweet Surrender by Bella Matthews

10. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

11. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

12. Valentine’s Slay by Navessa Allen

13. 🆕 First Witches Club by Maisey Yates

14. 🆕 An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

15. Death to Valentine’s Day by Catherine Cowles

16. The Long Game by Rachel Reid

17. 🆕 Beast Business by Ilona Andrews

18. Time Will Tell by Hannah Bonam-Young

19. Land of Dreams by Gian Sardar

20. Brimstone by Callie Hart

⬇️ Paid subscribers can see the full list below

Read more

If we also include online and pop-up romance bookstores, the total number of stores grows to 410 (290 or 71% of which are in the United States).

Romance Bookstore Directory

These detailed updates are a benefit for paid subscribers (only US$5/month or US$50/year). Everyone can see the high-level numbers before the paywall, but you’ll need to subscribe for all the juicy details…including a list of all the upcoming romance bookstore openings! 🗓️

Upgrade to paid

There are now 429 bookstores in the directory (including Coming Soon)—14 were added in February.

The following is a breakdown of bookstores by type: Physical, Online, Pop-up, and Coming Soon along with a list of ALL the recently added and updated stores in each category! This includes some new charts as well. 📊

📌 Please note that these categories overlap—a store can categorized as multiple types. For example, a bookstore can be online and have pop-ups, with a physical location coming soon.

Read more

Each day of Round 1, 4 popular lines will face off against each other, with the winner moving on to the next round. The final head-to-head battle for the cup will take place on Wednesday, March 4.

32 lines will compete, but only one can win the cup!

WHEN
Daily polls from February 18-March 4, 2026
Voting ends each day at 11 pm PT

WHERE
@romancingthedata on Instagram

Follow on Instagram

RESULTS

Round 1: Group Stage

Group 1: Ilya, Episode 1 (February 18 - 1,599 votes)

1. “OK.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 12%

2. “Is lie, liar told you that.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 62%

3. “What colour? Is big?” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 13%

4. “Hollander, you are having panic attack.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 13%

🏆 WINNER: “Is lie, liar told you that.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 62%

Group 2: Ilya, Episode 2 (February 19 - 1,674 votes)

1. “Never in life have I blushed. Russians do not do this.” (Ilya, Episode 2) - 55%

2. “You will murder me.” (Ilya, Episode 2) - 20%

3. “Mr. Businessman. Mr. Landlord.” (Ilya, Episode 2) - 10%

4. “Such a good trick.” (Ilya, Episode 2) - 16%

🏆 WINNER: “Never in life have I blushed. Russians do not do this.” (Ilya, Episode 2) - 55%

Group 3: Ilya, Episodes 4-6 (February 20 - 1,736 votes)

1. “You like tuna melt?” (Ilya, Episode 4) - 2%

2. “I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it.” [in Russian] (Ilya, Episode 5) - 54%

3. “Stupid Canadian wolf bird.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 32%

4. “I’m on the cover of the f*cking game.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 12%

🏆 WINNER: “I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it.” [in Russian] (Ilya, Episode 5) - 54%

Group 4: Ilya, Episode 6 (February 21 - 1,816 votes)

1. “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 48%

2. “She would have loved you. Like I love you.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 27%

3. “Gimme kiss.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 11%

4. “Oh, they don’t know I play for Boston?” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 13%

🏆 WINNER: “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 48%

Group 5: Shane (February 22 - 1,808 votes)

1. “Wow. Genetic.” (Shane, Episode 2) - 23%

2. “We didn’t even kiss.” [Deleted text] (Shane, Episode 2) - 24%

3. “I kind of prefer being the hole rather than the peg.” (Shane, Episode 5) - 18%

4. “Yes! Bet-ter.” (Shane, Episode 5) - 35%

🏆 WINNER: “Yes! Bet-ter.” (Shane, Episode 5) - 35%

Group 6: Shane/The Cottage (February 23 - 1,875 votes)

1. “Will-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-summer?” (Shane, Episode 5) - 43%

2. “I’m coming to the cottage.” (Ilya, Episode 5) - 40%

3. “Sir, I’m just a bellboy! You can’t treat the staff like this.” (Shane, Episode 6) - 10%

4. “Don’t marry Svetlana. Just don’t.” (Shane, Episode 6) - 7%

🏆 WINNER: “Will-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-summer?” (Shane, Episode 5) - 43%

Group 7: Shane & Ilya (February 24 - 1,854 votes)

1. “I might open.” “I might knock.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 1) - 14%

2. “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 39%

3. “He’s visiting, and we’re, uh...” “Lovers.” “No, Ilya, that’s gross.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 21%

4. “My boyfriend?” “I mean, yes. I think so, probably.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 26%

🏆 WINNER: “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 39%

Group 8: Supporting Characters (February 25 - 1,808 votes)

1. “Girl...” (Maria, Episode 3) - 17%

2. “Or. I pick or.” (Kip, Episode 3) - 20%

3. “He deserves sunshine. And so do you.” (Elena, Episode 3) - 27%

4. “I just hope Jane knows how lucky he is.” [in Russian] (Svetlana, Episode 5) - 35%

🏆 WINNER: “I just hope Jane knows how lucky he is.” [in Russian] (Svetlana, Episode 5) - 35%

Round 2: Final 8

Group 1 vs Group 2 (February 26 - 1,879 votes)

1. “Is lie, liar told you that.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 55%

2. “Never in life have I blushed. Russians do not do this.” (Ilya, Episode 2) - 45%

🏆 WINNER: “Is lie, liar told you that.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 55%

Group 3 vs Group 4 (February 27 - 1,883 votes)

1. “I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it.” [in Russian] (Ilya, Episode 5) - 49%

2. “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 51%

🏆 WINNER: “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 51%

Group 5 vs Group 6 (February 28 - 1,812 votes)

1. “Yes! Bet-ter.” (Shane, Episode 5) - 20%

2. “Will-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-summer?” (Shane, Episode 5) - 80%

🏆 WINNER: “Will-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-summer?” (Shane, Episode 5) - 80%

Group 7 vs Group 8 (March 1 - 1,794 votes)

1. “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 88%

2. “I just hope Jane knows how lucky he is.” [in Russian] (Svetlana, Episode 5) - 12%

🏆 WINNER: “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 88%

Round 3: Final 4

Group 1/2 vs Group 3/4 (March 2, 1,794 votes)

1. “Is lie, liar told you that.” (Ilya, Episode 1) - 20%

2. “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 80%

🏆 WINNER: “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 80%

Group 5/6 vs Group 7/8 (March 3)

1. “Will-you-come-to-my-cottage-this-summer?” (Shane, Episode 5) - 45%

2. “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 55%

🏆 WINNER: “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 55%

Round 4: Final 2

Final Vote (March 4)

1. “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 53%

2. “I love you.” “Holy sh*t.” “I mean...” “I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6) - 47%

🏆 FINAL WINNER: “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6) - 53%

Round 1: Group Stage

32 lines | Voting between 4 lines, winning line moves to next round

• Wednesday, February 18 : Group 1

• Thursday, February 19: Group 2

• Friday, February 20: Group 3

• Saturday, February 21: Group 4

• Sunday, February 22: Group 5

• Monday, February 23: Group 6

• Tuesday, February 24: Group 7

• Wednesday, February 25: Group 8

Round 2: Final 8

8 lines | Voting between 2 lines, winning line moves to next round

• Thursday, February 26: Group 1 vs Group 2

• Friday, February 27: Group 3 vs Group 4

• Saturday, February 28: Group 5 vs Group 6

• Sunday, March 1: Group 7 vs Group 8

Round 3: Final 4

4 lines | Voting between 2 lines, winning line moves to next round

• Monday, March 2: Group 1/2 vs Group 3/4

• Tuesday, March 3: Group 5/6 vs Group 7/8

Round 4: Final 2

2 lines | Winning line wins the cup!

• Wednesday, March 4: THE FINAL VOTE!

Voting Bracket Breakdown

Note: I chose the first 20 lines to be included based on what I observed to be the most popular among the fandom. The remaining 12 lines were voted by fans on my Instagram page (1,600+ people voted!).

Since so many of the lines are from Ilya, I decided to organize the bracket groups by character—that way Ilya is mostly competing against himself in the first round (Groups 1-4)! Shane has two groups mostly to himself (Groups 5 & 6), although Group 6 also has Ilya’s cottage line. Group 7 is lines from both Shane & Ilya and Group 8 is lines from supporting characters. There is no perfect way to organize the groups…these are going to be tough votes no matter how they are grouped!!

Group 1: Ilya (Episode 1)

1. “OK.” (Ilya, Episode 1)

2. “Is lie, liar told you that.” (Ilya, Episode 1)

3. “What colour? Is big?” (Ilya, Episode 1)

4. “Hollander, you are having panic attack.” (Ilya, Episode 1)

Group 2: Ilya (Episode 2)

1. “Never in life have I blushed. Russians do not do this.” (Ilya, Episode 2)

2. “You will murder me.” (Ilya, Episode 2)

3. “Mr. Businessman. Mr. Landlord.” (Ilya, Episode 2)

4. “Such a good trick.” (Ilya, Episode 2)

Group 3: Ilya (Episodes 4-6)

1. “You like tuna melt?” (Ilya, Episode 4)

2. “I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it.” [in Russian] (Ilya, Episode 5)

3. “Stupid Canadian wolf bird.” (Ilya, Episode 6)

4. “I’m on the cover of the f*cking game.” (Ilya, Episode 6)

Group 4: Ilya (Episode 6)

1. “I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away.” (Ilya, Episode 6)

2. “She would have loved you. Like I love you.” (Ilya, Episode 6)

3. “Gimme kiss.” (Ilya, Episode 6)

4. “Oh, they don’t know I play for Boston?” (Ilya, Episode 6)

Group 5: Shane

1. “Wow. Genetic.” (Shane, Episode 2)

2. “We didn't even kiss.” [Deleted text] (Shane, Episode 2)

3. “I kind of prefer being the hole rather than the peg.” (Shane, Episode 5)

4. “Yes! Bet-ter.” (Shane, Episode 5)

Group 6: Shane/The Cottage

1. “Willyoucometomycottagethissummer?” (Shane, Episode 5)

2. “I'm coming to the cottage.” (Ilya, Episode 5)

3. “Sir, I'm just a bellboy! You can't treat the staff like this.” (Shane, Episode 6)

4. “Don't marry Svetlana. Just don't.” (Shane, Episode 6)

Group 7: Shane & Ilya

1. “I might open.” “I might knock.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 1)

2. “I love you.” “Holy sh*t. I mean...I love you too.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6)

3. “He's visiting, and we're, uh...” “Lovers.” “No, Ilya, that's gross.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6)

4. “My boyfriend?” “I mean, yes. I think so, probably.” (Shane & Ilya, Episode 6)

Group 8: Supporting Characters

1. “Girl...” (Maria, Episode 3)

2. “Or. I pick or.” (Kip, Episode 3)

3. “He deserves sunshine. And so do you.” (Elena, Episode 3)

4. “I just hope Jane knows how lucky he is.” [in Russian] (Svetlana, Episode 5)

Happy voting! 💜

Welcome to my January 2026 Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) analysis, in partnership with market research newsletter Kindletrends.

Paid subscribers get access to the full analysis, as well as the Top 100 list data I’ve compiled in Airtable—perfect for fellow data nerds who like to get into the details! Here’s a peak at what the spreadsheet/table looks like on desktop:

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Upgrade to paid

Data Source

List: Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid), US Kindle Store. Data accessed from Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter.1

Sales Period: January 2026

Methodology: This is an exclusive monthly ranking I’ve created in consultation with Kindletrends. It’s based on four Kindle Store Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) lists pulled throughout the month (accessed from the Kindletrends Romance Weekly Newsletter: January 3, 11, 17 and 25, 2026), which I’ve then compiled and ranked using a sum of ranks calculation. The Monthly Top 100 list generated is the basis for the analysis that follows.

Table of Contents

1. Top 20 Book Ranking (Free, all other sections Paid)

2. Overview

3. Publisher

4. Price

5. Publication Age

6. Point of View (POV)

7. Subgenre

8. Authors

9. Representation

10. Covers

11. Length

12. Steam/Spice

13. Series

14. Reviews

15. Ratings

1. Top 20 Book Ranking

Top 20 of Kindle Store Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance (Paid) list for January.

🆕 = New on Top 100 list this month compared to last month

1. 🆕 Woman Down by Colleen Hoover

2. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

3. 🆕 Chaotic by Shantel Tessier

4. The Long Game by Rachel Reid

5. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

6. Game Changer by Rachel Reid

7. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

8. 🆕 We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark

9. 🆕 Bluebird Gold by Devney Perry

10. Brimstone by Callie Hart

11. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

12. Quicksilver by Callie Hart

13. 🆕 Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren

14. Tough Guy by Rachel Reid

15. 🆕 Land of Dreams by Gian Sardar

16. Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

17. Role Model by Rachel Reid

18. 🆕 The Exception by Vi Keeland

19. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

20. 🆕 Not Mine to Love by Rosa Lucas

⬇️ Paid subscribers can see the full list below

Read more

I also went back and compiled data from January to June 2025 for some easy measures (i.e., ones that require little manual data collection!), so I could have a full year view.

Here is my analysis of:

1. Publishers

2. Price

3. Point of View (POV)

4. Publication Age

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Upgrade to paid

1. Publishers

If no recognizable publisher or imprint is listed, books are assumed to be self-published.

Publisher Type

As you can see in the graph below, the percentage of Big Five published books among the Top 100 Best Sellers slowly began to increase over the year, with a dip in August/September, ending on a high of 31% in December—more than 3 times the 9% it started at in January.

As such, there was a drop in Self Published books on the list, down 38% from January to December this year (from 71% to 44%).

It’s possible this year-end increase in Big Five published books is seasonal—reflecting a slower period in traditional publishing for new releases in November and December, as well as the popularity of traditional best sellers during the holiday gift season.

The trend for Other Traditional published books was a bit less consistent throughout the year, but did increase 25% from January to December 2025 (from 20% to 25%). This category tends to be driven by a smaller number of tentpole authors like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros. For example, the lows in April and May (10% and 13%, respectively) reflect when no Sarah J. Maas books appeared on the Top 100 (gasp!).

Traditional Publishers

Unique Books

In total, there were 207 unique traditionally-published books on the 12 Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance lists in 2025. HarperCollins got a boost at the end of the year thanks to the success of the Heated Rivalry adaptation—I’m curious to see how long that continues into 2026. With the continued popularity of the show and announcement of Unrivaled, I think the series will have significant staying power.

Here is how those 207 unique books break down by publishing house:

1. Amazon - 34% (70 books)

2. Penguin Random House - 19% (39 books)

3. HarperCollins - 16% (32 books)

4. Hachette - 9% (19 books)

5. Macmillan - 4% (9 books)

6. Simon & Schuster - 4% (9 books)

7. Bloomsbury - 4% (8 books)

8. Other - 10% (21 books)

   1. Entangled - 2% (5 books)

   2. Kensington - 2% (5 books)

   3. Zando - 2% (5 books)

   4. Sourcebooks - 2% (4 books)

   5. Evil Eye Concepts - 1% (1 book)

   6. Tule - 1% (1 book)

Non-Unique Books

I also did a breakdown of the non-unique number of books (i.e., included duplicate titles that appeared in multiple months) by publishing house to account for books that had more staying power on the Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance list in 2025.

In total, there were 453 non-unique traditionally-published books on the 12 Monthly Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance lists in 2025

As you can see in the pie chart below, Amazon stays in the top spot, but the rest of the list changes a fair bit, with Hachette moving to second position and Bloomsbury and Entangled moving up the list as well:

1. Amazon - 32% (144 books)

2. Hachette - 14% (65 books)

3. Penguin Random House - 12% (55 books)

4. HarperCollins - 12% (54 books)

5. Bloomsbury - 10% (46 books)

6. Entangled - 8% (38 books)

7. Other - 12% (51 books)

Based on these unique vs. non-unique breakdowns, we can conclude that Penguin Random House had more individual books on the Top 100 list, but Hachette’s books appeared on the list more times. For example:

• Penguin Random House’s top ranking romance was Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, which appeared on the list for 5 months throughout the year.

• Hachette’s top ranking romance was Quicksilver by Callie Hart, which appeared on the list for all 12 months of the year. Hachette also had 3 additional titles that appeared on the list for more than 5 months in the year (i.e., more than PRH’s top book).

Bloomsbury and Entangled are two “other traditional” publishers that have fewer books, but those books tend to appear on the Top 100 lists often so they also ranked higher in the non-unique book breakdown.

Amazon Growth

During 2025, Amazon steadily increasing its share of the Romance Top 100 list, going from a low of 6% in July up to 20% in October and November. It’s not too surprising that the publisher who owns the retail platform is doing well! It begs the question: how much of an advantage do books under Amazon’s imprints have on the platform?

However, Amazon-published books also appear to be locked out of The New York Times Best Sellers lists—none appeared on the The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list in 2025.

Will this growth continue in 2026?

2. Price

Average Price

Over the year, the average price fluctuated between a low of $5.51 in September and high of $6.85 in July. The average of these 12 monthly averages is $6.11.

I don’t see an obvious pattern here, aside from a slight rise and fall that seems to happen every 3-4 months.

Kindle Unlimited

Looking at books available as part of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription service (KU), we see a general trends downward over the year, ending with a low of 74% in December—a 19% decrease from the high of 91% in April.

This downward trends aligns with the upward trend in Big Five-published books among romance best sellers (as seen in the very first graph in this post), which are less likely to be in KU.

I only have data for the last six months of the year in terms of how many best sellers were on sale, but based on the graph below we see more of the romance best sellers were on sale in Q4 of 2025. Not surprising, as this aligns with retail sales period of Black Friday and holiday shopping.

3. Point of View (POV)

Book POV determined manually.

As you can see in the graph below, there has been a fairly steady increase in the number of third person POV books among the Top 100 Best Sellers in Romance throughout 2025—increasing from a low of 6% in March to a high of 27% in December (a 350% increase).

Some of this increase can be attributed to the popularity of Heated Rivalry, based on Rachel’s Reid’s Game Changers series, which is written in third person—especially in December when all six books appeared in the Top 100.

However, there are a number of other romance and romantasy authors that consistently appear in the Top 100 and write in third person. For example:

• Romance: Nora Roberts, Laurie Gilmore, Catherine Coulter, Uzma Jalaluddin (and sometimes Christina Lauren)

• Romantasy: Kaylie Smith, Lindsay Straube, SenLinYu (and sometimes Sarah J. Maas)

Reminder: we can’t say the books in the Top 100 are best sellers BECAUSE they are written in first person (there are too many factors to determine causation).

4. Publication Age

Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago

Based on Amazon publication date, which doesn’t always align with the original publication date.

In the bar graph below, you can see that backlist books were more prominent in Q1 and the summer months (July and August) of 2025. This is likely a seasonal trend driven by traditional publishing schedules.

With a full year of data, there does appear to be a regular fluctuation pattern for the publication age of romance best sellers with a peak and valley roughly every 5 months; however, it is more muted in Q1. You can see the peaks for frontlist titles in April/May and October/November, along with the valleys in February/March and July.

Happy reading! If there’s anything else you’d like to see in this analysis, let me know in the comments!

Leave a comment

According to my research, there are now 227 physical romance bookstores in 11 countries around the world, 158 (or 70%) of which are in the United States.

If we also include online and pop-up romance bookstores, the total number of stores grows to 380 (270 or 71% of which are in the United States).

Romance Bookstore Directory

These detailed updates are a benefit for paid subscribers (only US$5/month or US$50/year). Everyone can see the high-level numbers before the paywall, but you’ll need to subscribe for all the juicy details…including a list of all the upcoming romance bookstore openings! 🗓️

Upgrade to paid

There are now 415 bookstores in the directory (including Coming Soon)—14 were added in January.

The following is a breakdown of bookstores by type: Physical, Online, Pop-up, and Coming Soon along with a list of ALL the recently added and updated stores in each category! This includes some new charts as well. 📊

📌 Please note that these categories overlap—a store can categorized as multiple types. For example, a bookstore can be online and have pop-ups, with a physical location coming soon.

Read more