2024 is at a close, and Iowa City Public Library Staff reflected on some of the literary highlights of the year, voting for new favorites in a variety of genres. In this list, you'll find the staff picks for Romance Books released in 2024. "Funny Story" by Emily Henry was the standout title among staff, earning the greatest number of votes for this genre.
Funny story
Henry, Emily, author.
FICTION Henry Emily
Daphne always loved the way Peter told their story. How they met, fell in love, and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. Too bad it turned out to be more of a prequel, a complication to Peter's actual love story, the one that ends with him dumping Daphne before their wedding to begin a relationship with his lifelong best friend, Petra. And so that's how Daphne's story really begins: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children's librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only other non-Peter-related person she knows: Petra's heartbroken ex, Miles Nowak. Just until she can get a new dream job literally anywhere else. Scruffy and chaotic, Miles is entirely the opposite of buttoned-up Daphne, and they mainly avoid one another until one night, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship. Miles decides he will convince Daphne to give Waning Bay a real shot. He'll show her why he loves this idyllic town and its residents, and if they happen to post deliberately misleading photos of their adventures together-for a particular audience of two-who could blame them? Miles believes Daphne deserves the chance to build a life here, her own life. As she begins to fall for the town, Daphne wonders what this summer is supposed to mean. Is it just for fun? An interlude to her own love story? Or maybe it was never meant to be a love story? Maybe it was just an anecdote to share at future dinner parties: that time she fell in love with her ex-fiancé's new fiancée's ex-boyfriend. Who's to say?
Bride
Hazelwood, Ali, author.
FICTION Hazelwoo Ali
Misery Lark, daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest must leave her life of anonymity among the humans and uphold a historic alliance with the Weres by marrying their Alpha, Lowe Moreland.
Heavy hitter : a novel
Cotugno, Katie, author.
FICTION Cotugno Katie
The beloved New York Times bestselling author of Birds of California hits it out of the park with this smart, sexy, thrilling take on the celebrity-athlete story-a funny, sizzling, ripped-from-the-headlinses romance between an international pop star and a major league baseball player who thought his best days were behind him.
Not in love
Hazelwood, Ali, author.
FICTION Hazelwoo Ali
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down. Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through--and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him. Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business--one that plays for keeps.
Slow dance : a novel
Rowell, Rainbow, author.
FICTION Rowell Rainbow
They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh's porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha--Shiloh would go to go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change. Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed. Now Shiloh's thirty-three, and it's been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She's been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she's back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned. When she's invited to an old friend's wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there--and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything? The answer is yes. And yes. And yes. Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost. It's the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.
The pairing : a novel
McQuiston, Casey, author.
FICTION Mcquisto Casey
Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all. Time apart has done them good. All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately. It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy.
How to end a love story : a novel
Kuang, Yulin, author.
FICTION Kuang Yulin
Helen Zhang hasn't seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now she's in Los Angeles, where the two have to work together. The result is messy, and electrifying.
Birding with benefits
Dubb, Sarah T., author.
FICTION Dubb Sarah
Newly-divorced, almost-empty-nester Celeste is finally seeking adventure and putting herself first, cliches be damned. So when a friend asks Celeste to "partner" with his buddy John for an event, Celeste throws herself into the role of his temporary girlfriend. But quiet cinnamon roll John isn't looking for love, just birds-he needs a partner for Tucson's biggest bird-watching contest if he's ever going to launch his own guiding business. By the time they untangle their crossed signals, they've become teammates ... and thanks to his meddling friends, a fake couple. Celeste can't tell a sparrow from a swallow, but John is a great teacher, and the hours they spend hiking in the Arizona wilderness feed Celeste's hunger for new adventures while giving John a chance to practice his dream job. As the two spend more time together, they end up watching more than just the birds, and their chemistry becomes undeniable. Since they're both committed to the single life, Celeste suggests a status upgrade: birders with benefits, just until the contest is done. But as the bird count goes up and their time together ticks down, John and Celeste will have to decide if their benefits can last a lifetime, or if this love affair is for the birds.
"Funny Story" was ranked the Best of Romance by ICPL Staff for 2024.
- Becky