From dragon-rider fantasy to a 1925 American tragedy: the romance books Seekquel readers rate highest in 2026. Your next obsession is somewhere on this list.
Some books you finish and have to tell someone about immediately. You're texting your group chat at midnight. You're recommending it to a stranger on the train. You're looking up tattoo artists who specialize in book covers.
These are the romance books earning the highest marks from Seekquel readers in 2026. Fantasy, philosophy, Greek mythology, a 1925 American tragedy: romance covers more ground than people give it credit for.
Fourth Wing
This is the book that made fantasy romance impossible to ignore. Rebecca Yarros drops you into a war college where riders bond with dragons. The romance is slow-burn and enemies-to-lovers. Genuinely hard to put down.
Readers describe finishing it in two sittings. One more chapter kept winning. The sun came up. They kept reading. If you want to understand why this genre has had such a moment in recent years, start here. The sequel, Onyx Storm, is already pulling its own readers in.
The Forty Rules of Love
This one surprises people. You pick it up expecting a love story. You get philosophy, Sufi mysticism, two timelines, and the 13th-century friendship between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. A modern love story runs through all of it. A woman reads a manuscript. It changes her.
Readers come out of it with bookmarks on every other page and a list of things to look up. It's the book you recommend by saying "just trust me." People do. When they finish, they text you. The texts are long.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas has three books in this top 10. This is where it starts. A Court of Thorns and Roses is a Beauty and the Beast retelling. The fae world is beautiful and dangerous in equal measure. The heroine begins the book hunting to survive. She ends it somewhere far more complicated.
The first book in a Maas series carries a specific energy. You don't know yet what's coming. The world is new. The romance is just beginning to take shape. Enjoy that while it lasts. By book two, everything gets bigger and harder and you won't be able to stop.
A Court of Mist and Fury
Here is where the series becomes the series. ACOMAF is the book readers point to when they try to explain why they've reread this series twice. Rhysand stops being a side character and becomes something much more. Book one's romance gets reframed. That takes a minute to process. Some readers describe putting the book face-down mid-chapter to stare at the wall.
It earns the same top score as the first book. That almost never happens. Sequels build on setup; they rarely match it. This one does.
The Song of Achilles
This is the book that breaks people. Madeline Miller tells the story of Achilles through Patroclus's eyes. Two boys, a long war, and a love Greek poetry circles around without naming directly. The writing is slow and deliberate and beautiful. The ending is a particular kind of devastating. You see it coming from chapter one. It still wrecks you.
People describe reading the final pages on public transport and having to pretend they aren't crying. Emotional terrorism is one reader's description. Five stars.
The Great Gatsby
Yes, Gatsby. Here's the case: Gatsby doesn't throw parties because he enjoys parties. He throws them because she might come. The whole novel is one long, doomed romantic gesture. Gatsby invented himself entirely for someone who doesn't love him back the same way. The world he's in rewards the performance and punishes the feeling.
The novel builds around one quietly devastating observation. Gatsby's house fills with hundreds of people at his parties. His funeral is nearly empty. That gap is the entire story. Seekquel readers shelving this under romance know exactly what they're doing.
Queen of Shadows
Third Maas entry. Different series this time: Throne of Glass. Queen of Shadows is the fourth book in that series and the one fans point to as the turning point. Years of character work start paying off. The romance threads running through earlier books get serious. The stakes get real.
Readers who discover Maas through ACOTAR often end up here eventually, working backwards through a second series. Either starting point works. The destination is the same: recommending Sarah J. Maas books to everyone you know and being completely unashamed about it.
Twisted Games
Bodyguard. Billionaire. Forbidden. All three. Ana Huang writes books that readers describe as completely consuming and a little embarrassing, in the best possible way. Twisted Games shows up on "finished it in one sitting" lists constantly. The reason is simple: it delivers exactly what it promises. The tropes are there, executed well, with zero apologies.
Comfort food for readers who want romance without philosophy homework.
Just for the Summer
Abby Jimenez is reliable in the best sense of the word. Her books feel breezy going in and land harder than expected. Just for the Summer is contemporary, summer-set, and built on a romantic setup that sounds uncomplicated until it isn't. The emotional pull sneaks up on you.
This is the book you pack for a trip and finish before you land. Then you recommend it to the person sitting next to you. They look at you skeptically. They download it at the gate.
Malibu Renasce
Taylor Jenkins Reid writes about people whose lives feel large. Loss, ambition, family, and love that costs something, all of it in one book. Malibu Rising is technically about a single legendary party on the California coast in 1983. It's really about four siblings, the parents who shaped them, and what gets passed down whether you chose it or not.
Romance runs through the book. So does grief. So does everything else. It earns its place on this list even if it doesn't read like a romance at first. Reid books tend to work that way.
Sarah J. Maas. Three titles. Two different series. Both in the top 10. If you haven't started either one, this list has been trying to tell you something.