💘 5-Star Romance: My All Time Faves, Unconventional Picks & TBR
Hello, and welcome to Pleasure Reading. I'm your host, Amelia Ruby. And this is a podcast about the pleasure of reading, where I share curated reading lists, author rankings, chats with my bookish friends and more. If you too take pleasure in reading, I hope that you will subscribe and share the show with a friend. Cheers to your next best book.
Amelia Hruby:Hello, and welcome to Pleasure Reading, a podcast about the many pleasures of reading, where we talk about books of all genres. And in this episode, we're getting a little, you know, a little lovey dovey, a little into the sweet side of our bookshelves to explore some 5 star romances. And, of course, I'm your host, Amelia Hruby, and I am doing this right now in honor of Valentine's Day, which I know is a totally made up corporate holiday, but I still love it. Let me tell you, I live in the Midwest and February is gray, gray, gray. So I love how Valentine's Day just brings a pop of pink to my personal scenery.
Amelia Hruby:And hosting fun Valentine's, Galentine's brunches for my friends is always one of my favorite, favorite, favorite annual activities. So in this episode, we are celebrating the Valentine season by talking about those 5 star romances that I promised you. Everything in this episode is going to be a book that I have rated 5 stars or that I think has huge 5 star potential. And we're gonna do this in 3 sections. The first is my all time faves.
Amelia Hruby:These are romances that I love, that I read, and some of which I have reread, that I turn to time and time again, and just like hands down, I'm always recommending to other readers. After that, I'm gonna share some unconventional faves, some romances that I think are for a particular kind of reader, and ones that also kinda like snuck up and surprised me. I was a little bit shocked I gave these 5 stars. And then before I wrap up, I have a romance TBR, which are some romances that are on my list to read and that I think really might be 5 star picks. So all in all, we are gonna talk about 17 romances in this episode.
Amelia Hruby:So if you are building yourself a little Valentine's Day reading list, this episode is definitely for you. Pull up a comfy chair, a cozy blanket, your Libby or Kindle app, and let's dive in. We'll begin with my all time faves. The first book on this list is one that I read very, very recently at the recommendation of my BFF, Caro. Hi, Caro, if you're listening.
Amelia Hruby:Thank you for recommending this book. And that is Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle. So let me read you the synopsis to give you a little peek at what this book is about. Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it, the exact amount of time they will be together.
Amelia Hruby:The papers told her she'd spend 3 days with Martin in Paris, 5 weeks with Noah in San Francisco, and 3 months with Hugo, her ex boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the number of papers for over 20 years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there's only a name, Jake. But as Jake and Daphne's story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper's prediction and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things that Jake doesn't, information that, if he found out, would break his heart.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. So I wanted to read the synopsis for this one because I don't wanna give away something that this hints at, but that I was not expecting when I read the book. So when I first read the synopsis for this, I thought the, like, thing Daphne knows that would break his heart was the papers. I was like, yeah. We got a little magical twist.
Amelia Hruby:He doesn't know about the magic that would somehow break his heart. Cool. Cool. Cool. But there's actually something entirely else going on in this book that is what the end of that synopsis is pointing to.
Amelia Hruby:And when I got to that point of the book, it, like, totally flipped everything on its head for me. I loved the character development in this book. I thought that the, I guess, twist there's, like, never a twist in a romance, but there's kind of a twist in this book. I thought that the twist really made some of the things I didn't quite understand about our main character, Daphne, make so much sense. And what I loved about this romance specifically, what made it, like, 5 out of 5 stars for me, honestly, maybe even, like, 6 out of 5 stars for me, was both the, like, specificity of the characters.
Amelia Hruby:They felt so real. And then, also, the way that when we kind of changed the stakes halfway through, I felt like I got to experience the book twice because I was, like, looking back over everything that had happened up until that point, and then from that point, through a totally new lens. And that's something I love about reading thrillers or horror even, which I do a lot. But getting that in a romance just took this to the next level for me. So thank you, Caro, again, for the recommendation.
Amelia Hruby:And my first all time fave romance here is Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle. Now before I move on to our next all time fave, I do wanna give a little shout out to an honorable mention, which is another romance by Rebecca Serle called in 5 years. And in that book, we have another sort of magical plot line with our main character who's been transported 5 years into the future for an hour and sees, like, her what her life looks like and who she's in love with and all these things. And then at the end of that hour, is transported back to her life and has to kind of live the next 5 years to figure out how that came to be. And I remember reading this, I think, when it came out in 2021, and I really enjoyed it.
Amelia Hruby:I don't know that it was, like, an all time fave for me. I don't think I gave it 5 stars at the time, but I really liked it. So I also would say if you like expiration dates by Rebecca Serle, I'd recommend in 5 years. And then she has another book, One Italian Summer, that is on my 5 star TBR for this year. So I really look forward to reading that and seeing how it lands with me as well.
Amelia Hruby:Moving on to our next all time fave. This is another newer addition to my list. I read this at the end of last year, so you might have heard me mention it in my year end recap and that is Roleplaying by Kathy Yardley. This book is about a, as the synopsis puts it, unapologetically grumpy 48 year old hermit named Maggie, and she's been a single mom for quite a while, but her son goes off to college. And her son is also maybe not the most social person, so he makes her a deal that he will be more social if she will be more social.
Amelia Hruby:So she starts kind of meeting up with friends more, going out in the world a little bit, and she joins a new online gaming guild that is led by this very friendly healer named Otter. In the guild, she calls herself Bogwitch to make very clear that she is not fucking around. But her and Otter become fast friends, and Maggie thinks Otter is like a college student. If I remember correctly, this guild is sort of organized through the community college. So she's like, this is probably some 20 year old kid.
Amelia Hruby:And then through some hijinks, they end up meeting face to face and realize that they are, like, the same age, and they are, like, incredibly well matched, and, like, things unfold from there. So this is definitely a sort of, like, grumpy sunshine esque romance. It also has a sort of, like, it it also has representation around just, like, sexual diversity, which I really appreciated. It wasn't, like, in your face. It's not even in the synopsis, but it comes up through the story in a way that I thought was really, like, organic and how things like that happen in real life.
Amelia Hruby:And I just really loved how honest this felt, and I also loved reading a romance with protagonists that were in their late forties. I feel like most of the romance I read is centering people in their twenties thirties, and so to see something that's kinda like looking at a different era of life was really satisfying. And I gave this 5 stars, and it has become an all time fave. I think about it often. The next book on my all time faves, 5 star romance list, will surprise no one if you've listened to other episodes I've recorded to this podcast, and it is The Pairing by Casey McQuiston.
Amelia Hruby:When this book came out last year, let me tell you, I bought it the day it came out. I read the whole thing over the next 24 hours, and then I badgered all my friends to read it. I was like, you all need to read this book. It is so sexy. It is so satisfying.
Amelia Hruby:It is so summery. So just in case you have not heard me rave about this before, let me give you the cliff notes version. In the pairing, we have 2 bisexual exes, Theo and Kit, and they grew up together, they fell in love, they were dating, everything was beautiful, and they were set to go on this European food and wine tour and they had a brutal breakup on their way there. When that happens, they part ways and they don't speak for the next 4 years. But the tickets for this food and wine tour were non refundable and they had to use them within 5 years.
Amelia Hruby:So 4 years after their breakup, they both end up on the same food and wine tour because it's the last possible one they could take before their vouchers expire. When they encounter each other again, they have still not been speaking, it is not like an easy reentry into meeting each other, and they sort of become friendly And as they ease into a bit of banter, a bit of friendship, they make a bet to see who can sleep with the most people on the tour. And let me tell you, like, a sex bet is not the type of romance I typically like. I find that a little, I don't know, uncouth, a little, like, you know, woozy on the consent side of things maybe, for lack of a better way to put that. But this book, I loved so much, and it just really made me appreciate how well and authentically and genuinely Casey McQuiston writes queer relationships.
Amelia Hruby:I feel like the way that she develops her characters and she embeds them in communities of friendship and also conflict and honesty and accountability, like, it just feels so real and, like, the very best queer communities that I've been able to be a part of, pleased to be a part of, honored to be a part of even. And it doesn't feel like that sort of tokenism that can happen with some queer romance, nor does it feel like that sort of almost like fantasy of what queer romance could be. Like, it feels like what it really is in all of its messy, honest, challenging, beautiful glory. So I loved this book. I thought the characters were great.
Amelia Hruby:The queer community was great. And, honestly, just, like, the lushness of the European Food and Wine Tour really pulled me in. It could have been a big cliche, but it really wasn't for me. And so I highly, highly recommend The Pairing by Casey McQuiston. And, of course, if you are brand new to her work, I do wanna give you an honorable mention pick here, which is her book Red, White, and Royal Blue that came out back in 2019.
Amelia Hruby:It is another queer romance. It has been turned into a movie. It is amazing. Both are amazing. I highly recommend them.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. Three more on my all time faves list. The next one is The 7 Year Slip by Ashley Poston. So if you can't tell by now, I like when there's a little bit of magic sprinkled into a real world romance, and I feel like Ashley Poston or Poston does this so well. So in the 7 year slip, we have our main character, Clementine, and she is grieving the loss of her aunt.
Amelia Hruby:And as she does that, she has moved into and is living in her aunt's apartment. One day, she finds a strange man living there, and she is confused why he is there, but assumes that this is something that her aunt has set up and they seem to have very different schedules, so she's gonna make it work. It also helps that he's an amazing cook and makes her some amazing pies. Pie makes everything better, I believe. So the magic comes in because this man is living 7 years in the past, and she, Clementine, is living 7 years in the future.
Amelia Hruby:But this apartment just has this little bit of magic. It is what her aunt calls a pension time where those 7 years collapse. As you might expect, in this book, we get a love story between Clementine and this mystery man with this sort of time gap between them. Something I like about this book is it plays with the idea of an age gap by making it a literal time gap, not an age gap, which I think is kind of interesting. And I just remember it being such a lovely, fun, magical read, and one that I'm hoping to read again this year.
Amelia Hruby:So that is my 4th all time fave on this list, The 7 Year Slip by Ashley Poston. Up next, I have picked my favorite Emily Henry read, which was challenging because I think that I've given all of her books 5 stars, but I felt like I only wanted to put 1 on this list. So I am picking the one that I read the most recently, which is actually a reread, and that is Beach Read. In this book, we have January Andrews and Augustus Everett, and they are writer rivals. At least, January believes them to be rivals based on how Augustus treated her in their graduate program.
Amelia Hruby:She is now a romance writer, he is now a literary fiction writer, and their work is essentially like polar opposites. But they find themselves, one season, living next door to each other on the beach writing their next books. They are both super blocked. January is dealing with the loss of her father and a very unpleasant unexpected surprise that came out around his death, and Augustus is trying to figure out what his next move is. So they encounter each other, they have to get over their, sort of, perceived rivalry, and then they strike up a deal that they will write each other's type of book.
Amelia Hruby:So Augustus works on writing writing a romance, January works on writing literary fiction, and they each take each other on these fun, like, field trips designed to help them kind of get in the right mood for their writing. As is typical with any Emily Henry Reid, the characters are exquisitely drawn. The setting is lush and descriptive and, you know, Michigan, which, as a Midwest girl, I love. And this is just such a satisfying love story to watch fall into place. So Beach Read is my favorite Emily Henry book, and it makes my all time favorites list.
Amelia Hruby:If I had to pick a runner-up, it'd probably be book lovers. I don't know if you can sense a theme, but I like romances about books and writers and publishers and anything having to do with the bookish industry. So those are probably my 2 Emily Henry picks for this list. And finally, I have one more all time fave romance for you. And I just read this one this month.
Amelia Hruby:It had been recommended to me forever, by which I mean, like, 3 years. And I finally read it and I was not disappointed. It is so good. So 7 Days in June by Tia Williams. Did did you know I was gonna say that?
Amelia Hruby:Because I feel like some of you probably knew I was gonna say that. In this book, we meet Eva Mercy who is a single mom and best selling erotica writer living in Brooklyn. And we meet Shane Hall who is a reclusive, award winning literary author who is also putting his life back together after going through rehab. Shane and Eva met when they were 17, and they spent a week together and fell, like, deeply rapturously in love and then were ripped apart by some circumstances that you'll have to read the book to learn about, and they had not seen each other since. They have watched each other's star rise in the literary worlds, and they have, in fact, been writing to each other through their books.
Amelia Hruby:So they've had this, like, long distance entanglement where they never spoke for all of this time, but they have been reading each other's creative work and kind of speaking to each other through that. In 7 days in June, we follow the story on kind of 2 plot lines. We follow the week that Shane and Eva fell in love when they were teenagers, and we also follow the week that they meet again as adults decades later. And it is just such a beautiful story, I have to say. It's sort of set in the black literati scene in Manhattan, so it gives me that, like, bookishness that I love about a book.
Amelia Hruby:And, also, it travels to, like, the truth of these 2 characters' upbringings and how hard they had to work to change the trajectory of their lives. As a mom, we also get to see Eva's relationship with her daughter and how she is trying to provide a very, very different type of life for her daughter than she had growing up. And, again, it's just a romance where the characters are so real. Their lives are so rich and full of detail. The relationship between Shane and Eva is so sexy, so steamy, and also painted across time in a really beautiful way.
Amelia Hruby:So we experienced these 7 days in June on 2 different timelines, and let me tell you, it is so, so, so satisfying to see how everything ends up. So that is my last all time fave on this list. I gave 5 out of 5 or maybe, like, 10 out of 5 stars to 7 Days in June by Tia Williams, and I highly recommend that you read it if you haven't already. Okay. Up next, let me tell you just a tiny bit about a few of my unconventional faves in my 5 star romance list.
Amelia Hruby:The first is a book that I used to teach when I taught the philosophy of sex and gender in grad school. I would use this book in my classes and that is The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. This is a literary genre bending memoir where Maggie Nelson writes the story of her relationship with artist Harry Dodge. We see them fall in love. We see their journey through pregnancy.
Amelia Hruby:We see the complexity and joy of queer family making, and it happens through this blend of prose and poetic lines and different vignettes from their lives. The style of this book is just so different than anything else I've read. I think Maggie Nelson just does that in her work. If you've read Bluets by her, it also has a very different style. And I loved reading this book, like, as a reader and teaching this book, as someone kind of guiding students through different ways of thinking about gender and sex and desire in our relationships and in how we become family to one another.
Amelia Hruby:So that's my first unconventional fave. I guess it's unconventional because it's not, quote unquote, technically a romance, but it's about a romance, so I'm putting it on this list. Up next is another book that I read this year, and that is Even Though I Knew The End by CL Polk. This is another one that is not romance. In fact, I would call this like a urban fantasy novella, but let me read you the description and you'll pretty quickly see why I've put it on my romance list.
Amelia Hruby:And even though I knew the end, an exiled Auspex who sold her soul to save her brother's life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can't resist, the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. To succeed, she is given 3 days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak awake. I truly got this book from, like, the $5 cafe recommendation from Barnes and Noble at some time last year, which I always buy the $5 book, like, why not try it?
Amelia Hruby:And it's a novella. It's very short, I think, under a 150 pages, if you're reading the paperback, and I wasn't sure if I would like it. I mean, I was like, okay. We have a sapphic love story. We have a sort of noir detective vibe.
Amelia Hruby:It's set in Chicago, which, of course, I love. It has monsters. I love horror. So it had a lot of pieces of something that I would like, but I wasn't sure if it would all come together. And even as I was reading, I almost, like, put it down after the first 20 pages, because the world building was confusing to me.
Amelia Hruby:I didn't quite get what what was going on. But let me tell you, this plot propelled me forward. Once I really got into it, I was going. And it had at least 1, maybe 2 twists that I did not see coming. And even at the heart of all of the mystery detective monster story, the romance between our two main characters really rang true for me.
Amelia Hruby:Or if not rang true, because this is a romance between 2 people who are, like, living in a world that is not our world. I just really felt the force of their love, I suppose I could say. And I just was, like, so pleasantly and delightfully surprised by this book. And I think that's why I gave it 5 stars. That's why it's become a favorite because I went into it with kind of no expectations.
Amelia Hruby:I literally only bought it because it was $5, and then I was just so happy to read a story that was nothing like any other story I'd read before. So that is the second book on my unconventional faves list, even though I knew the end by CL Polk. 2 more books in this section. The first is one that I definitely talked about from last year, and that is bride by Ali Hazelwood. This is a book about a vampire and a werewolf falling in love even though their kinds do not get along.
Amelia Hruby:You know, age old story. And I have to say that I didn't know if Ali Hazelwood could pull it off. I didn't know if I could enjoy reading a story that has a bunch of omegaverse elements, but it really worked for me. And if you are out here for a monster magical romance, you're probably gonna like Bride by Ali Hazelwood. It's gotta go on the list.
Amelia Hruby:And finally, the last book on my unconventional faves list is one that my friend, Lillian, lent me and insisted I read. And let me tell you, it shocked me in a great way. So that book is You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. And I went into this book not knowing anything about it, which I kind of wish you would also do. So let me just say, I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about this book.
Amelia Hruby:But if you wanna go in blind, just know this is on my unconventional faves, all time faves list, and also maybe skip ahead 60 seconds if you want to go in as, like, unassuming as I did. Okay. For those of you who want to know the drama before you read it, let me read you a bit of the synopsis. Faye Atikola wants to learn how to be alive again. It's been 5 years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she's almost a new person now.
Amelia Hruby:An artist with her own studio and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride or die best friend, Joy, who insists it's time for her to ease back into the dating scene. Faye isn't ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could never have imagined. A luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career. She's even started dating the perfect guy, but their new relationship might be sabotaged before it has a chance by the overwhelming desire Feiyi feels every time she locks eyes with the one person in the house who is most definitely off limits, his father. I never thought I would enjoy reading a romance slash literary fiction about a woman who dates this guy and then ends up falling for his dad.
Amelia Hruby:But let me tell you, this book is messy. It is complicated, and it is heartfelt. It is all of those things at once. And I think about it often, Like, the audacity of this book and the romance in it really got to me. So that's why I ended up on this unconventional faves list.
Amelia Hruby:I don't actually know if I gave it 5 stars when I finished it, but just the longevity of how it has stuck with me is why I think that it is a 5 star read, and, also, the romance itself in it, I think, does make it a bit unconventional. We don't get the same degree of, like, purely happy ending. We get in the romances I put in my all time faves, I would say all of which are capital r romance books. These unconventional faves are just all a little bit different. They got a bit of a twist.
Amelia Hruby:So they're like a romance asterisk or a romance plus. They're bringing something extra to the table, and I am grateful for it. Okay. I've been through a lot of books already. So if you want to remember what they are or grab any of the links, please do head to the show notes where everything is linked.
Amelia Hruby:Those links send you to my bookshop where if you make a purchase through that page, I'll get a little bit of a kickback that I take as a thanks for the book recommendation. Before I wrap this up, I wanna tell you just a couple of books that are on my all time favorite romance TBR. These are all time favorite romances from friends of mine that have been recommended to me and that I've got to get to reading and that I'm hoping to read this month for my own Valentine's Day reading list. So I'm not gonna do synopsis on these. I'm just gonna tell you the titles, maybe a tiny bit about who recommended them to me and why, and then I'll let you get to reading.
Amelia Hruby:So my all time favorite romance TBR has the following books on it. Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. I have seen so much love for Kennedy Ryan all over the Internet. Everyone who recommended 7 days in June to me, then said, go read Kennedy Ryan. So I've got to read this book.
Amelia Hruby:I also wanna read the second book in this series, but I can't wait to get to it this month. After that, I wanna read Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake. The owner of my favorite local bookstore has signed copies of this series in like a special glass cabinet with all of her favorite books. So I know that she doors Delilah Green and this whole series, and I have got to get to reading it. I own the first two books in the series.
Amelia Hruby:I've had them for ages and I just need to read them. So that is on my TBR for this month. After that, I've got forget me not by Julie So to. I feel like this is another one that some friends who recommended books that ended up on my all time faves list loved, and I'm excited to dive in. I know literally nothing about it.
Amelia Hruby:I think maybe it's about a florist. Maybe I made that up. Not sure. And then the final book on my all time fave TBR is This Time It's Real by Anne Liang. This is a You romance, maybe the only one on this list, but it was recommended to me by a friend who works in publishing and was part of the team that brought this book together and said that she thought I would love it.
Amelia Hruby:So I'm excited to get to it and I will have it linked in the show notes if You romance is your kind of thing. Okay, my lovely readers, that is our 5 star romance episode. I hope you enjoyed hearing about my all time faves, my unconventional picks, and the romances that are currently on my TBR for this month that I will be reading as we celebrate Valentine's Day. If you have your own romance reading list, I would love to hear about it. If you love one of these books or another book, you can head to the show notes where you can reach out to me.
Amelia Hruby:You can follow me on StoryGraph. You can check out my little used bookshop that I just got up and going, and I hope that you will. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Pleasure Reading. If you have just a quick moment, I would really, really appreciate if you gave us a 5 star rating or review wherever you listen to the podcast. I could use a little social proof that people love this project because I'm hoping to start reaching out to some new folks, growing the listenership a little bit in 2025, and I could use and really appreciate your support in that process.
Amelia Hruby:So ratings and reviews are most helpful at this point in time. I appreciate them greatly. And until next time, here's to your next best book.