Best of the Best Romance Books of 2025
I analyzed 32 'Best of 2025' romance book lists, so you don't have to! Here are the 33 books that appeared on the most lists, the best of the best.
The year-end lists are in and I’ve completed my meta-analysis to determine the Best of the Best Romance Books of 2025! This year the analysis included 32 lists, which translated to 527 rows of data and 271 books nominated (appeared on at least 1 list).
You’ll notice some significant differences between this list and the Top 100 Romance Best Sellers of 2025 I recently published:
This list is way more diverse, in terms of authors, representation and subgenre (there are some actual historical romances!)
This list only has traditionally-published books.
More on these differences in the analysis section below. On to the list!
Best of the Best Romance Books of 2025
Based on my analysis, 33 books rose to the top and appeared on 4 or more ‘Best of 2025’ romance book lists.
The top book, Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan, appeared on a whopping 15 of the 32 lists!
The second place book, One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune, appeared on 11 lists.
Given that there are numerous ties on the list, the books are ranked alphabetically by title within each tied group for the sake of simplicity.
Note: This list has been compiled based on research and should not be considered my own personal recommendations or endorsements.
Here is the full list!
You can also view the list in my online directory, which allows you to search, as well as filter by list, genre, spice level, representation, Kindle Unlimited eligibility and more.
Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan (15 lists)
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (11 lists)
August Lane by Regina Black (10 lists)
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood (10 lists)
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone (10 lists)
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison (9 lists)
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (9 lists)
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood (9 lists)
Fan Service by Rosie Danan (8 lists)
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (7 lists)
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez (7 lists)
Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola (7 lists)
Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver (7 lists)
Mate by Ali Hazelwood (6 lists)
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (6 lists)
All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles (5 lists)
It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram (5 lists)
It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan (5 lists)
Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti (5 lists)
Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews (5 lists)
Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi (5 lists)
A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell (4 lists)
Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams (4 lists)
Caught Up by Navessa Allen (4 lists)
Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia (4 lists)
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory (4 lists)
Good Spirits by B.K. Borison (4 lists)
I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming (4 lists)
I Think They Love You by Julian Winters (4 lists)
Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt (4 lists)
Silver Elite by Dani Francis (4 lists)
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston (4 lists)
There’s also a StoryGraph Reading Challenge for this list that you can join.
Analysis
Here are some breakdowns of the list along with comparisons to the Top 100 Romance Best Sellers of 2025: Amazon Kindle Store list I recently published.
Average Price: $12.15
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: $6.56)Kindle Unlimited: 12% available in KU
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 85% available in KU)Average Length: 401 pages
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 432 pages)Series: 48% part of a series
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 74% part of a series)Publisher Type:
Self Published - 0%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 59%)Other Traditional - 15%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 23%)Big Five - 85%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 18%)
Subgenre:
Contemporary - 64%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 69%)Fantasy - 9%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 22%)Paranormal - 6%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 6%)Historical - 15%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 3%)Science Fiction - 6%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 0%)
Authors:
91% unique (30 authors of 33 books)
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 64% unique, 64 authors of 100 books)Two authors had multiple books on the list—Ali Hazelwood has 3 and B.K. Borison has 2.
37% BIPOC (11 of 30 authors)
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 5% BIPOC, 3 of 64 authors)
Authors who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) in published interviews and articles.
Representation:
BIPOC - 30%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 5%)LGBTQ+ - 21%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 5%)Polyamory - 3%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 1%)
Book POV:
First - 64%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 87%)Third - 36%
(Amazon 2025 Best Sellers: 13%)
Data and Lists
To be included in the analysis, the lists had to be:
Focused on romance books at large and not a specific type or subgenre.
Focused on romance books published in 2025
Free from obvious bias or self-interest (for example, lists from specific publishers were not included).
To see the 32 lists included and access the detailed spreadsheet, go to the methodology overview.
Interestingly, I found fewer lists this year (last year I analyzed 38) and during my research I noticed a trend towards more:
Mid-year best-of lists (i.e., “Best Romance Books of 2025—so far”)
Forward-looking lists (i.e., “Most Anticipated Romance Releases”)
This aligns with the decline of traditional book reviews and literary criticism, and the shift towards more promotional content creation and marketing.
Keep in mind that best of lists are generally based on personal opinions and/or vague methodologies; however, I still think they are an interesting data source worthy of analysis.
Happy reading!