Books I do not want suggested: anything by Emily Henry,
anything published before the 21st century.
Books I would like to have suggested: books that read like literary fiction, where the characters have more going on than just the romance, where the setting feels rich and the characters feel deep and real. The ending does not have to be happy and the climax does not have to be them having sex for the first time.
Books I did not like:
The Hating Game
The Love Hypothesis
ACOTAR
Books I did like:
Call me by Your Name
The Paper Palace
If Beale Street Could Talk
Cleopatra & Frankenstein
Fates & Furies
by shayzus
7 Comments
*Conversations With Friends* by Sally Rooney ticks all your boxes. Just weird and messed up people and the romance is only an expression of that. Super good characters and some of the best prose in recent mainstream fiction imo.
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
“Normal People” by Sally Rooney – literary fiction novel, follows the complex relationship between Connell and Marianne from high school through college; explores themes of class, power dynamics, and personal growth
“The Great Believers” by Rebecca Makkai – interweaves two storylines: one set in 1980s Chicago during the AIDS crisis and another in contemporary Paris; features romantic relationships but focuses more on friendship, loss, and the impact of the AIDS epidemic
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong – poetic, autobiographical novel written as a letter from a Vietnamese-American son to his illiterate mother; touches on themes of family, identity, and first love
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid – features romantic relationships prominently, it’s more about the life story of a fictional Hollywood star and the complexities of love, fame, and identity
“Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng- not primarily focused on romance, features several complex relationships, explores themes of motherhood, identity, and the weight of secrets in a suburban community
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I would try any of Guy Gabriel Kay’s books. They all have romance, but so much more in terms of characters and world building.
Swimming in the Dark – Tomasz Jedrowski
The Man Who Saw Everything – Deborah Levy
Go – Kazuki Kaneshiro
Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban. I guess the romance is the main event but the style is literary.