NYT Best Seller Analysis: July 2025
Monthly breakdown of the NYT Combined Fiction Best Sellers list with a focus on romance and romantasy books.
Hello friends! Here is the July analysis of The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list focused on romance and romantasy books.
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You can see the romance and romantasy book ranking for free before the paywall, as well as the new section I’ve added on book covers. But you’ll need to subscribe for all the details!
Data Source
List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers
Sales Period: July 2025 (5 weeks: June 29 to August 2, 2025)1
Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago
Romance & Romantasy Book Ranking
All romance and romantasy books on the list in the July 2025 sales period, ranked using a sum of ranks calculation. This is a new ranking method that helps balance the weight given to how many weeks a book appears on the list with how high the book ranks on the list.2
FRONTLIST (10 books)
Published in the last year
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 4)
All Time: 13 weeksRose in Chains by Julie Soto
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 1)
All Time: 1 weekOnyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 10)
All Time: 26 weeksTIE: The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 2)
All Time: 1 weekTIE: The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 2)
All Time: 1 weekCaught Up by Navessa Allen
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 9)
All Time: 7 weeks
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 13)
All Time: 8 weeksGreat Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 12 weeksA Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 7)
All Time: 1 weekThree Shattered Souls by Mai Corland
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 9)
All Time: 1 week
You may already be aware of some controversy surrounding two of the books on this month’s list. Both Rose in Chains by Julie Soto and The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley started out as Harry Potter fanfictions and, understandably, many readers don’t want to support anything related to J.K. Rowling’s work.
The books also played a role in the significant pushback that recently occurred with Romance Con, leading to a large number of authors pulling out of the event (read more: “At Romance Con, the Shadow of J.K. Rowling and Questions of Fan Culpability Loom Overhead”, Pajiba, July 17, 2025).
These two books were #1 and #2 on the NYT Combined Fiction Best Sellers list the week they released, but neither appeared on the list again. Did the outcry about supporting J.K. Rowling’s work impact sales in subsequent weeks? Or was their preorder game just really on point? What do you think?
BACKLIST (4 books)
Published more than a year ago
Lights Out by Navessa Allen (2024)
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 22 weeksA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015)
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 49 weeksEvery Summer After by Carley Fortune (2022)
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 10 weeksIron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (2023)
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
All Time: 69 weeks
NEW: Book Covers
This month I’ve started evaluating the Romance & Romantasy book covers using measures similar to Alice Liang in her visual essay, “What does a happily ever after look like?” (The Pudding, October 2023):
Art Style: “Photorealistic” if the majority of the cover is a photo or painted to plausibly look like a photo; “Illustrated” if otherwise.
Level of Undress: “Man partially unclothed” if at least one figure perceived to be a man had at least part of his upper body exposed; “Woman partially unclothed” if at least one figure perceived to be a woman was not wearing a top and/or bottoms, or had partially removed their top and/or bottoms (but could be wearing undergarments).
People Featured (new measure!): “No people” if no people are on the cover; “Solo woman” is one woman is on the cover; “Solo man” if one man is on the cover; “Couple” if two people are on the cover; “Clinched couple” if two people are on the cover and are touching (or very close to touching); and “Group” if there are more than two people or two people who don’t appear to be romantically connected.
Diversity: “BIPOC” if at least one character on the cover is perceived to not be white passing, which can be signified by skin color, hair style, cultural attire, or other characteristics. I’ve added two additional categories: “LGBTQ+” if at least one character on the cover is perceived to be part of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or with other diverse sexual orientations and gender identities) community, and “Disability” if at least one character on the cover is perceived to be a person with a disability.
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS (14)
Art Style
Photorealistic: 0%
Illustrated: 100% (14)
Level of Undress
No Undress: 86% (12)
Some Level of Undress: 14% (2)
Man partially unclothed: 14%
Woman partially unclothed: 14%
People Featured
No People: 50% (7)
Couple: 50% (7)
Diversity
BIPOC: 14% (2)
LGBTQ+: 0%
Disability: 0%
All 14 of the Romance & Romantasy book covers are illustrated. There were 2 books with some level of undress (couples in swimsuits); however, since they are illustrated they don’t hit quite the same as photorealistic undress (plus the illustrated figures are quite small and not very detailed).
The other significant trend is having no people on the book cover—this was the case for 50% (7) of the Romance & Romantasy books. The other half featured couples, none of which were touching or embracing.
Two (14%) of the book covers can be classified as BIPOC, featuring a character that is perceived to not be white passing.