Hot Stuff: The 8 best romance novels of Winter 2024

EW rounds up 8 of our favorite romance reads from January and February.

Temperatures are finally beginning to rise, but if you've been staying cozy this winter, chances are you could also use a book to keep you warm.

EW has eight new romance titles that have metaphorically kept our fires burning through January and February. Read more below.

Never Blow a Kiss by Lindsay Lovise

If you’re looking to kickstart your romance year with a little bit of intrigue and adventure, look no further than Never Blow a Kiss by Lindsay Lovise. Lovise crafts a yarn that is equal parts historical mystery and scintillating romance. Emily Leverton is determined to leave her dark past in the shadows when she embarks on a new life as a governess in the employ of a mysterious woman who pays her to spy on the ton. When Emily’s job puts her in the path of railroad magnate and police detective Zach Denholm, sparks fly. But she can’t risk exposing him to ruin if her past is ever discovered, making it difficult to navigate her mounting attraction. The two race against the clock to stop a Jack the Ripper-esque killer all the while circling their love for each other. Lovise writes with a spritely pen, her story bursting with cheek and humor while also remaining unrelenting in its twists and turns. It’s an extremely promising debut, one that blends the best hallmarks of each of its genres. If simply blowing a kiss stirs up this much excitement, we can’t wait to see what’s next.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Grade: A

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban

My bookshelf and the work of Emma R. Alban will be an everlasting love. Alban debuts with this swoony sapphic romance about two young Victorian women who decide to Parent Trap their widowed parents instead of seeking matches for themselves (and end up falling in love along the way). Beth Demeroven has one season to land an eligible bachelor and avoid the certain destitution that threatens her and her mother. But when she meets Gwen Havenfort, the daughter of a rakish earl who enjoys carousing and causing trouble as much as her father, it turns her plans (and her world) upside down. Alban writes with a energetic voice, impish and playful in tone, capturing the youthful exuberance of her heroines. But she also understands the sublime heartbreak of romantic angst, which appears in equal measure here. While Gwen is brash and impulsive, Beth is more reserved and thoughtful, and Alban captures each of their voices with twinkling, distinctive cadences. Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend is as divinely fun and romantic as a Nancy Meyers film trussed up with plenty of petticoats, hoop skirts, and lace.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Grade: A+

Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar

Naina Kumar turns the arranged marriage plot on its head with her debut novel. When Meghna Raman agrees to meet a potential marriage suitor selected by her parents, she doesn’t expect to find an answer to her problems. But Karthik Murphy is no more interested in getting married than she is, and that’s how the two agree to pretend to be engaged to assuage their parents and ensure Meghna has a date to her best friend’s wedding (a guy she still carries a torch for, naturally). But as the two spend time together, they become increasingly protective of each other’s hopes and dreams, falling for the other’s quirks and unable to deny their chemistry. Until their own insecurities threaten to ruin the one thing they never planned on being real. Kumar writes with equal amounts of heart and humor, capturing the keen pain of Karthik’s home life and Meghna’s yearning for love and approval from everyone in her life. From Karthik’s backstage visit to watch Meghna’s school play to an unexpectedly sexy bachelor party outing, the book bursts with swoony set-ups that are classic rom-com catnip. Kumar is a sparkling new voice in the romance stratosphere, blending the cultural specificity of her own lived experience with her own unique spin on beloved romance tropes. Say You’ll Be Mine is a heartfelt examination of  Karthik and Meghna’s complicated relationship with their cultural identity and their parents. With poignancy, humor and heart, it unpacks the ways in which personal and external expectations can derail our best intentions and champions the courage and growth true love really requires.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥

Grade: A-

Girl Abroad by Elle Kennedy

If you’re looking for an author who captures the frothy chick lit vibes of the aughts, then look no further than Elle Kennedy. Her new adult novel, Girl Abroad, follows Abbey Bly, the daughter of a rock star, as she embarks on a year abroad in London. When Abbey arrives, she’s startled to discover that the three roommates — Lee, Jamie, and Jackie — she assumed were women are actually men. But Abbey can’t give up her chance to escape her father’s overprotectiveness, so she decides to stay. Things quickly go haywire when she finds herself in a love triangle between her beefy rugby player roommate, Jack, and broody musician, Nate. Both men are exceedingly different — while Nate makes her feel adventurous and carefree, Jack is solid and comforting. As Abbey waffles between the two guys, she also dives into a research project about a love triangle between a maid and two aristocratic brothers in post-war England. Her search for answers leads her to question the vagaries of her own heart, as she tries to understand whether wild spontaneity or a more domestic life is what she craves. Kennedy’s prose sparkles, making it challenging to put the book down. She perfectly balances the gripping historical mystery with the romantic intrigue. Abbey’s confusion as she attempts to navigate her first adult romances rings true. It’s all trussed up in the delectable package of Anglophilia, with its odes to shadowy libraries, pub trips, endless cups of tea, and the pedestrian ease of navigating London. For any girl (like me) who dreamed of studying abroad and falling headlong into a romance with a hunky Brit (or Commonwealth citizen), Girl Abroad will make you swoon. It’s impossible to keep calm and carry on while falling head over heels for this book.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Grade: A

Girls With Bad Reputation by Xio Axelrod

Xio Axelrod returns to the world of all-female rock band The Lillys, this time turning her attention to drummer Kayla Whitman. Following the death of her brother as a teenager, Kayla has looked for a way out from under the suffocating expectations of her mother. Drumming with The Lillys has proved a godsend, but she’s determined to keep her life as an up-and-coming rock star a secret from her parents. But as their fame rises, that’s becoming increasingly difficult. She finds peace with quiet, reflective tour bus driver, Ty Baldwin, who is also nursing a secret from his past — the impact of a false accusation that destroyed his dreams of pursuing a college degree. The two form a steady bond, taking comfort in their mutual love of literature, their complicated histories, and the easy trust that springs up between them. Axelrod writes compellingly of the touring musicians’ lifestyle, from the challenges of hooking up on a tour bus to the grueling schedule and the absurd queries at press junkets. Girls With Bad Reputations is a tale of how to reinvent yourself while still honoring your past, speaking to the ways in which our histories can inform us without defining us. Ty and Kayla’s bond is steady but solid, and it’s a slow burn that feels refreshingly cast against the world of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. Kayla must also wrestle with toxic parental patterns and the ways that she can free herself from the weight of her mother’s expectations while still maintaining a relationship with her family. Axelrod expertly threads that needle, crafting a scene of reconciliation without letting anyone off the hook. Girls With Bad Reputations is a quiet little song of a book.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥

Grade: B+

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is more a piece of women’s fiction with a love story at its center than it is a romance novel, but it’s so lushly romantic with a capital “R” that it’s earned its spot in this column. Ricki Wilde has never fit in with her work-obsessed Atlanta family, so she jumps at the opportunity to pursue her dream of opening up a flower shop in the bottom floor of a Harlem brownstone. But when Ricki meets a handsome stranger one night, it throws her world wildly off-kilter. Because the stranger, Ezra Walker, is a Perennial, a man who has remained 28-years-old since the night he was cursed in the 1920s. His curse brings potentially horrific consequences for Ricki but the two can’t help but fall for each other. Williams paints the story of Ezra’s life, from his days as a jazz pianist during the Harlem Renaissance to his decades of loneliness to the life-renewing pull of Ricki. Ricki’s story is a familiar one, a family black sheep who has let her family chip at her confidence for far too long. Williams’ writing style, particularly in Ricki’s inner monologue, can veer to the simplistic — for a woman obsessed with poetry and history, Ricki’s thoughts don’t carry the poignancy or lyricism one might expect. Williams writing is glib where it should be expressive, plain where it should be flowery (or at least have a few flourishes). Passages that should be romantic are composed to be matter-of-fact, and on the whole, Ricki’s voice feels underdeveloped. Thankfully, Ezra’s story and voice is a vividly painted counter to that. As is the tale of Ms. Della, Ricki’s elderly upstairs neighbor whose cheek and vibrancy make her a standout character. These strengths make Ezra and Ricki’s love story a swoon-worthy tale that transcends time and space, one that captures the vicissitudes of fate, the power of love, and the promise of finding one’s destiny.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Grade: B+

To Woo and To Wed by Martha Waters

Martha Waters concludes her Regency Vows series with the long-awaited second chance romance of Sophie and West, To Woo and To Wed. Seven years prior, Sophie and West were all-but-betrothed when threats from his father and a horrible curricle accident split them apart. But now, the widowed Sophie needs West to feign an engagement with her in order to push her younger (also widowed) sister Alexandra into her own connubial bliss. But what starts as a charade quickly becomes all too real as the two cannot deny how much the old chemistry and feelings are still there right below the surface. Sophie and West have circled each other for four novels, but their love story is well worth the wait. Waters’ magically whimsical pen dots their romance with just the right amount of sentiment, the yearning oozing off the page. Whether readers have spent the last few years rooting for these characters or are new to Waters’ world, it’s impossible to read To Woo and To Wed with anything but an enormous grin on one’s face. The novel is a heartfelt testament to family, loyal friendships, and the hijinks of courtship. In some ways, this is Waters’ most emotional story because she’s been building to it for so long. The weight of the loss of the intervening years is potent, but it only makes the love story that much more enchanting. We wish this series didn’t have to end, but since it does, we couldn’t imagine a better happily-ever-after for Waters’ first series.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Grade: A

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday

Jenny Holiday has long been a go-to for funny, feel-good romance and her latest has plenty of the hallmarks of her rom-coms, even if it can’t quite get the puck in the net. Aurora “Rory” Evans invented the titular fake boyfriend as a teenager after a run-in with a hunky hockey player at the mall. Over the years, he was an excuse and a lifeline. But things get messy when Mike Martin, the inspiration for her fake paramour, comes back into her life. Rory and Mike get close quickly, bonding over their love for his daughter, Olivia ,and finding connection as Mike recovers from the loss of his wife. Much of the novel is awash in trauma — Mike and Olivia’s grief and Aurora’s eating disorder and complicated relationship with her mother. Often that overshadows the sillier, more whimsical elements of Holiday’s plotting. It particularly makes it hard to buy into the central conflict — the fact that Aurora withholds the truth about her fictional Canadian boyfriend from Mike for so long. It feels trivial in light of the bigger issues the characters are facing, a rom-com conflict wedged in between monumental issues of real-life loss. As such, Canadian Boyfriend has a bit more emotional whiplash than Holiday’s tales usually do (not to mention some complicated power dynamics involving employment and monetary remuneration). But Holiday still remains a gifted spinner of yarns, and it’s impossible not to fall for Mike’s Canadian humility and unabashed love for his adopted daughter.

Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Grade: B-

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.