Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Love/Valentine’s Freebie, which means we all put our own spin on the topic of LOVE.
Focusing on my favorite love stories from the books I’ve read recently has become my go-to topic for the “love freebie” TTT topic — I’ve been keeping it going since 2020! Here are my ten thirteen favorite love stories that I read in the past year:
- Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jesse Q. Sutanto (review)
- Anne of Avenue A by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding (review)
- Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (review)
- The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell (review)
- Pugs & Kisses by Farrah Rochon (review)
- Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong (review)
- A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (review)
- Ready or Not by Cara Bastone (review)
- Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman (review)
- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (review)
- It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan (review)
- One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (review)
- The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood (review)
I am clearly incapable of stopping at ten! Last year, I ended up with twelve, and this year, it’s thirteen! There are just so many to choose from — I probably could have included a few more.
What were the best love stories you read during the past year?
If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link and let me know your topic!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Reid’s work has been mentioned on a few different blogs this week!
I’ve loved all of her books!
I haven’t read any here, but great choice of theme!
I went with red covers: https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/02/10/top-ten-red-covers-for-valentine/
Thank you!
One Golden Summer was one of my top romance reads too! I also enjoyed Writing Mr. Wrong as well. Great picks!
Here’s my take on the freebie: https://readintowonderland.blogspot.com/2026/02/t10t-red-and-pink-covers.html
Can’t go wrong with a Carley Fortune book! Thanks!
Great choice of topic! There are quite a few titles on here I hope to read soon… First up being A Witch’s Guide To Magical Innkeeping and Atmosphere.
Two very different books 🙂 and I loved them both!
Great Big Beautiful Life was such a good read!
I agree! It just might be my favorite of Emily Henry’s books so far!
Making a yearly list is a great way of remembering which love stories you enjoyed. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thank you! It’s definitely fun to look at back and compare from year to year!
I did the same thing this week, but I think I stuck to ten books. LOL!
Here’s my TTT: https://readbakecreate.com/favorite-romances-read-in-2025/
Ha, I was having too hard a time deciding which books to leave out!
Great list. I haven’t read any of these but it’s great seeing them all together. And well done going over 10! I also could have gone over this week which was a surprise becuase I don’t feel like I read a lot of romance. One that stands out that wasn’t on my list was Everlasting by Alix E Harrow. Perhaps not in the same style as most cosy romantasy but a really good love story.
Lynn 😀
I loved The Everlasting too — and I agree, it’s an amazing love story! I can’t believe I didn’t think to include it!
Such a great list! I loved The Austen Affair and One Golden Summer. And I just checked out The Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping which I’m very excited to read. 😀
I hope you end up loving it! I thought it was terrific.
What a fun list! I remember your reviews for many of these, and seeing Writing Mr. Wrong reminds me I’d love to read it😁
It’s so enjoyable — and so different from her other books!
Atmosphere is my favorite of the 3 I’ve read as well 🙂
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2026/02/10/top-ten-tuesday-love-is-on-the-tbr/
It was such a powerful, memorable book!
I rarely read romance, so I haven’t read any of these. I’m glad you found so many good ones to love, though!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Thank you! I always enjoy looking back at great love stories!
That Cara Bastone cover is so pretty!
I think I might need to keep in mind an approach like this for next year’s freebie!
I’m a creature of habit 🙂 and I always struggle to come up with freebie topics, so having an annual February TTT theme really helps!
It’ll be interesting to see if you end up with a top fourteen next year 😂 I havent read any of these but there are a few authors mentioned that I really want to try, like Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid, plus I majorly want to pick up the Magical Innkeeping title. Romance is a genre I’m hoping to get into so hopefully next year I’ll have a bit more familiarity with the titles you pick 🤞
You really can’t go wrong with anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid! I especially loved Atmosphere because I’ve always been fascinated by reading about the space program, and the characters are just so well written. Magical Innkeeping is sweet and has a great plot. Hope you enjoy!
I’m planning to start with Evelyn Hugo given the major hype surrounding it but I have a lot of her books on my TBR to get to, including Atmosphere. Thank you 🥰
Next Time Will Be Our Turn came onto my radar when I was researching new releases for 2025 Q4 but I haven’t heard anything about it since – off to take a look at your review now!
It feels like it’s a very hidden gem — I just haven’t seen that many people talking about it, and it’s a beautiful book! It definitely deserves a lot more attention.
Yes, I’ve not seen it anywhere else so far!
I really need to read that Taylor Jenkins Reid book. It sounds awesome.
It was wonderful! I love reading about astronauts and the space program, and beyond that, the characters and the love story were just so well done.
One Golden Summer and Atmosphere were two of my top books! I can’t wait to read the next Fortune book this year. I have several of your others on my TBR. I’m really excited to read Next Time Will Be Our Turn!
I can’t wait for the new Carley Fortune book! I hope you enjoy Next Time Will Be Our Turn!
Loved Atmosphere too!
It was wonderful!