Most Read Paranormal Romance Books

When seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan leaves sunny Phoenix to live with her father in the perpetually rain-soaked town of Forks, Washington, she expects little more than a dull, gray exile. Instead she becomes fascinated by Edward Cullen, a strikingly beautiful and aloof classmate who seems to alternate between saving her life and warning her away from him. As Bella pieces together the truth about Edward and his family, she realizes he is a vampire — one who has chosen to resist human blood, but whose very nature makes loving her dangerous. Their bond deepens into an intense, all-consuming romance, even as Bella learns that not every vampire shares the Cullens' restraint, and that being close to Edward may cost her everything. The first book in Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster Twilight Saga, this is a moody, atmospheric teen romance about desire, danger, and the pull between what we want and what is safe. Told in Bella's earnest first-person voice, it launched a global phenomenon and defined a generation of paranormal romance.

• forbidden love

Misery Lark has spent her life as a bargaining chip. The daughter of a powerful Vampyre councilman, she is handed over to the Weres — her people's ancient enemies — in a political marriage meant to hold a fragile peace together. Her new husband is Lowe Moreland, the Alpha of the Pacific pack: guarded, lethal, and unreadable. But Misery did not walk into enemy territory to play the obedient bride. She has her own reason for being there — a missing friend, a debt she means to repay — and she is prepared to lie to everyone, including the wolf now watching her every move. The trouble is that Lowe sees more than she expects, and the longer she stays inside his territory, the harder it becomes to tell strategy from feeling. The first book in Ali Hazelwood's paranormal Bride series, this is a fated-mates romance wrapped around vampire-and-werewolf politics: sharp banter, slow-building heat, and a heroine who trusts no one. It trades Hazelwood's usual STEM settings for a supernatural world without losing her signature voice.

• marriage of convenience
• enemies to lovers

When Clary Fray discovers a hidden world of demon hunters, her ordinary life is turned upside down. She's drawn into a dangerous conflict in New York City, where vampires and werewolves are real, and forbidden love might be the least of her worries. This is the start of an epic urban fantasy adventure.

• chosen one
• found family
• secret identity
• forbidden love

Bella Swan is left devastated when the Cullens leave Forks, and slowly finds comfort in a deepening friendship with Jacob Black — who carries supernatural secrets of his own. As she's drawn back into a dangerous hidden world, Bella faces an ancient vampire authority. The second book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.

• love triangle
• forbidden love

Chosen from birth, Penellaphe — known to the kingdom of Solis only as the Maiden — has spent her life in isolation, forbidden to be touched, to speak unless spoken to, or to look anyone in the eye. She waits, veiled and guarded, for the day of her Ascension, a sacred rite that will supposedly lift her people closer to the gods. But Poppy is restless, curious, and desperate for a taste of the life she has been denied. When Hawke, a charming and lethal guard, is assigned to protect her, the careful walls around Poppy's world begin to crack. Their forbidden attraction pulls her toward everything she is supposed to resist — and as the bloodthirsty Craven threaten Solis and the truth behind the Ascension begins to surface, Poppy must decide how much of what she has been taught is a lie, and how much she is willing to risk to be free. The opening book of Jennifer L. Armentrout's runaway-bestselling Blood and Ash series, this is fast-paced, high-heat fantasy romance built on a forbidden guard-and-charge romance, a richly drawn kingdom, and secrets that reshape everything Poppy thought she knew.

• forbidden love

Reunited with Edward, Bella is torn between him and her bond with Jacob as a wave of mysterious killings in Seattle signals a growing danger aimed at her. Old enemies must form an uneasy alliance to protect her. The third book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.

• love triangle
• forbidden love
• rivals

Leeds and Layla fall in love over one perfect weekend, but a violent attack leaves Layla changed. Returning to the bed-and-breakfast where they met, Leeds begins to sense a second presence inhabiting her — a woman named Willow who knows things she shouldn't. Hoover's only paranormal romance is a strange, unsettling love story about grief and second chances.

Serena Paris is the first known Human-Were hybrid — and simply existing makes her a target for Vampyres, Weres, and Humans alike. Her one reluctant ally is Koen Alexander, the formidable Alpha of the Pacific Northwest pack, who is convinced she is his mate and determined to keep her alive. A companion to Bride, Ali Hazelwood's paranormal romance leans into fated-mates tropes, banter, and heat.

• forced proximity

Oraya is the only human in a world ruled by vampires — and she has survived this long only because the fearsome vampire king Vincent adopted her as his daughter and taught her to fight. But being the king's ward makes her a target as much as it protects her, and Oraya is tired of being prey. When the goddess of death announces the Kejari, a legendary and lethal tournament held once a century, Oraya sees her chance: win, and she can beg a single wish from a god. To have any hope of surviving a contest designed to kill, Oraya reluctantly allies with Raihn, a rival competitor whose easy charm hides his own dangerous agenda. As the trials grow bloodier and the politics between the vampire houses turn to open treachery, the line between ally and enemy blurs — and so does the one between hatred and desire. The first book in Carissa Broadbent's Crowns of Nyaxia series and its opening Nightborn Duet, The Serpent and the Wings of Night is a dark, romantic fantasy of gods, monsters, and forbidden attraction. Blending a deadly competition, court intrigue, and a slow-burning enemies-to-lovers romance, it's blood-soaked romantasy for readers who like their fairy tales fanged.

• enemies to lovers
• slow burn
• forced proximity
• morally grey

The fourth and final book of Stephenie Meyer's original Twilight Saga brings Bella and Edward's story to its climax. Long-awaited choices arrive with unexpected consequences that test the Cullen family, the Quileute wolves, and the fragile peace between them — until the ancient Volturi threaten everyone Bella loves.

• forbidden love
• sacrifice

Reeling from betrayal and the truth about the man she trusted, Poppy is taken deep into the kingdom of Atlantia — captive, bargaining chip, and something harder to name. As she navigates a court that may want her dead and a bond she can't deny, she clings to one goal: finding her brother and learning what of her old life was ever true. The second Blood and Ash book widens the world and raises the stakes.

• enemies to lovers
• forbidden love

After her parents die, Grace Foster moves to Katmere Academy, a boarding school in Alaska that turns out to be home to vampires, witches, shifters, and other supernaturals. As the only human on campus, she becomes an object of suspicion for every faction — except Jaxon Vega, a vampire guarding secrets of his own.

• academy
• forbidden love

On her eighteenth birthday, Winnie Darling is dragged to Neverland by Pan, the merciless Never King, and his Lost Boys, who need her bloodline to sustain their magic. Refusing to be a pawn, Winnie finds the line between captor and desire dangerously thin. Book one of the Vicious Lost Boys, a dark adult Peter Pan retelling.

• enemies to lovers
• morally grey

Clary Fray's life is anything but normal as she navigates the dangerous world of Shadowhunters, where demons are real and magic is a daily reality. Torn between her growing feelings for her best friend Simon and the complicated, intense connection with Jace, her newfound brother, Clary must confront a terrifying truth: her father, Valentine, is a dangerous rogue Shadowhunter. As a series of murders rocks the Downworlder community, Clary races against time to find the Soul-Sword and stop Valentine's sinister plans, all while Jace faces accusations that could shatter his world.

• love triangle
• forbidden love
• betrayal
• found family

To save her younger sister, Ophelia Grimm must survive Phantasma — a deadly, ever-shifting haunted mansion that appears for one week each year and challenges the desperate to clear nine terrifying trials. Clear all nine and any wish is granted; fail, and the house keeps you. A necromancer who has spent her life hiding her powers, Ophelia isn't sure she can survive the game alone. Then she meets Blackwell, a maddening, seductive stranger who offers to help her through the trials — in exchange for ten years of her life. As the challenges grow bloodier and the line between ally and enemy blurs, Ophelia realizes the greatest danger in Phantasma may be losing her heart. Kaylie Smith's dark fantasy romance is a gothic, competition-driven romantasy full of ghosts, bargains, and slow-burning temptation.

Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic waitress in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, where vampires have recently come out of hiding after the invention of synthetic blood. When Bill Compton, a vampire, walks into the bar where she works, Sookie is drawn to him partly because his mind is silent to her telepathy — a rare relief. Their romance develops against a backdrop of small-town suspicion and a string of murders targeting women who have been intimate with vampires, pulling Sookie into a mystery that puts her own life at risk.

Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a half-human tasked with protecting Moroi vampires. Her best friend Lissa is a princess, and they've been hiding from dangerous vampires. Now, they're forced back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a place of magic and training, but also where their greatest threats lurk. Between forbidden romance and deadly rituals, Rose must keep Lissa safe from those who would turn her into an immortal monster.

• forbidden love
• academy
• mentor figure
• coming of age

Florence Day ghostwrites bestselling romances but no longer believes in love. When her father dies, she returns to the small Southern town she fled, where her family runs a funeral parlour — and where she has always been able to see ghosts. Then her own handsome editor turns up dead, and she helps him find his unfinished business before he moves on. A warm, funny, grief-soaked paranormal romance.

The sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea. Arthur Parnassus and Linus Baker are raising six magical children on Marsyas Island when Arthur is summoned to answer publicly for his past, thrusting him into a fight for the future of all magical people, just as a new child who calls himself "monster" arrives seeking a home.

• found family

To save her mother, Clary must venture into the forbidden City of Glass, the Shadowhunters' hidden home. But entering without permission means death, and Jace doesn't want her there. As secrets of her family's past surface and Valentine gathers his forces, Clary must find a way to unite Downworlders and Shadowhunters against a common enemy, even if it means confronting deadly truths and making impossible choices.

• quest
• betrayal
• found family

Sophie-Anne Leclerq, Queen of Louisiana, has been left politically and financially exposed by the hurricane that wrecked her state — and she is about to stand trial, accused of murdering her husband, the King of Arkansas. She summons Sookie Stackhouse to a vampire summit in the northern city of Rhodes, where undead power players from across the central United States are gathering, and puts the telepathic waitress to work reading the minds of the humans who travel in their entourages. Sookie arrives with her weretiger boyfriend, Quinn, and finds a hotel full of rival delegations, old debts, and vampires who would rather she did not hear what she can hear. Outside, the anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun is picketing the summit. Inside, Sookie and Barry the Bellboy — the only other telepath she has ever met — begin to sense that someone means to do far worse than protest. The seventh Sookie Stackhouse novel turns the series' small-town Louisiana intrigue into a locked-hotel political thriller, and closes with the most destructive night the Southern Vampire Mysteries have yet staged.

Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is used to dealing with the unusual, but this time it's personal. Her brother Jason is about to undergo his first were-panther change, and a mysterious sniper is targeting the local shapeshifter community. When Jason becomes a suspect, Sookie must race against the full moon to find the real killer before she becomes the next target.

Sookie Stackhouse heads to Mississippi to track down her missing vampire boyfriend, Bill, who has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Her search leads her to Club Dead, an exclusive hangout for the supernatural elite where secrets are the local currency. When she finally finds him, she faces a brutal choice between loyalty and self-preservation, while her working relationship with Eric Northman deepens.

Sookie Stackhouse finds a naked, amnesiac Eric Northman on the side of the road, the powerful vampire reduced to a shadow of his usual arrogant self. As she hides him from the witches who stole his memories, Sookie is drawn into a supernatural turf war that threatens her life and complicates her feelings. Protecting this gentler version of Eric proves dangerous once she realizes someone is still hunting him.

The supernatural community of Bon Temps is stepping out of the shadows as weres and shifters publicly reveal themselves, but the announcement brings immediate bloodshed. When a mutilated body is discovered outside Merlotte's, Sookie Stackhouse must investigate a crime that threatens the fragile peace between humans and the supernatural. As an ancient and deadly race prepares for war, Sookie realizes she is a central piece in a game far more dangerous than she imagined.

Sookie Stackhouse is still recovering from a brutal fae conflict when new threats emerge in Bon Temps. While her bond with vampire Eric Northman draws unwanted attention from a dangerous new vampire king, a vengeful fae remains on the loose. Sookie must navigate shifting supernatural politics and family secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Felix and his fiancée Faye are stranded at her family's remote cabin on Pale Peak, where the woods erupt with mimicked voices and a dark figure watches from the dark. When Faye begins whispering to something outside, Felix must uncover the ancient entity hunting her. A tense supernatural horror novel born on Reddit's NoSleep.

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse heads to Dallas to help the local vampire nest find a missing member of their community. While she navigates the dangerous politics of the undead, she must also contend with a fanatical anti-vampire cult determined to strike a blow against them. It is a deadly assignment, and Sookie's survival depends on managing both her mind-reading gift and the demands of the powerful vampires who now consider her indebted to them.

Sookie Stackhouse travels to New Orleans to settle the estate of her cousin Hadley, only to find herself entangled in the dangerous politics of the vampire queen of Louisiana. As she digs into Hadley's secret life, Sookie becomes the target of unknown enemies who will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. With her ex-boyfriend Bill caught in the middle, she must navigate a web of supernatural threats to survive the inheritance.

What do a heartless Dragon Shifter, a cold-blooded Basilisk, an arrogant Lion Shifter and a brooding, tattooed Harpy have in common…? Me. Elise Callisto. Vampire. Angel of vengeance. And a girl on a mission to destroy one of them for murdering my brother. I just don’t know which one did it yet. When I interrogated/accidentally killed a Werewolf who was high on a new and dangerous drug called Killblaze, his final words painted a dark reality for me. The King of Aurora Academy killed my brother. The trouble is, there’s four kings at the academy and each of them have motive and bloodthirsty natures. Aurora Academy isn’t a place for the faint of heart. To put it lightly, my town is the cesspit of Solaria where the most cutthroat Fae in the kingdom reside. The school itself is divided by the two gangs who run this city. The Lunar Brotherhood and the Oscura Clan. And guess what? Two of the kings run the gangs at the academy, their hatred for each other so fierce I hear a day doesn’t go by without blood being spilled in the halls. I might be a petite, lilac-haired girl who looks like I couldn’t hurt a fly, but they haven’t been introduced to my fangs yet. And they don’t know why I’m really here. Or that I’ll do whatever it takes to bring down the Fae who took my flesh and blood from me. I don’t believe in fate, but I do know this… the King who killed my brother is a dead man walking. And I’m prepared to sacrifice my heart, body and soul to ensure I get my revenge.

• revenge
• morally grey
• forbidden love
• academy