Lists

100 Must-Read Romantic Comedies

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While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Tuesday, January 3rd.

This post originally ran October 21, 2016.

Romantic comedy gets a bad rap.

And I get it. As someone who has watched, read, and (full disclosure) lived a fair number of cringe-worthy-but-not-in-a-funny-way romance moments, I understand peppering a moving love story with humor or infusing a comedy with enough heart to connect with readers or viewers isn’t as easy as Nora Ephron made it look.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t aren’t fantastic comedic romance books out there. In fact, there are A LOT of them. There are 100 great ones listed below, and we could double or triple the list with just these authors alone, let alone the authors that aren’t mentioned below. Speaking of which, quick reminder: This is NOT an all-inclusive list. Feel free to expand all of our horizons by adding your favorites in the comments.

With the 100 slots here, I tried to capture a variety of great books in different subgenres featuring different kinds of characters, stories, and types of humor so that there would be something for everyone. Sharp humor, silly humor, subtle humor, broad humor. There are jokes about wallflowers and werewolves, cake-makers and construction workers, dukes and (geo)ducks, the un-dead and the well-hung (a maybe a character or two who is both…).

That the books are comedic doesn’t mean that nothing bad happens in these stories, of course. Comedy isn’t the absence of seriousness or upsetting experiences and circumstances. It’s about finding the humor in the lives we live whether the circumstances are mundane or dramatic or – as is often the case – somewhere in between. The 100 authors below do just that.

So browse around and find something for your TBR and add a bunch of your personal favorites in the comments. Or on the off chance that you work in Hollywood, take a look and take note: you have so many options beyond My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

  1. A Little Bit Naughty by Farrah Rochon**
  2. About That Fling by Tawna Fenske
  3. Absolutely Positively Not by David Larochelle
  4. Act Like It by Lucy Parker
  5. All of Me by Jennifer Bernard*
  6. Almost Like Love by Abigail Strom*
  7. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins*
  8. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
  9. Beach Thing by DL White
  10. Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren*
  11. Becoming Latina in Ten Easy Steps by Lara Rios
  12. Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
  13. Between a Rock and a Hot Mess by Phyllis Bourne
  14. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
  15. Brash by Nicola Marsh*
  16. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding*
  17. Delicious Temptation by Sabrina Sol*
  18. Different Tastes by Tina Martin
  19. Driven to Temptation by Melia Alexander
  20. Duke of My Heart by Kelly Bowen*
  21. Elevate Me by AshleyNicole
  22. Enticed by Chanta Rand
  23. Everywhere and Every Way by Jennifer Probst*
  24. First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones*
  25. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
  26. Fool For You by Rina Gray
  27. Game, Set, Match by Nana Malone
  28. Geoducks Are For Lovers by Daisy Prescott
  29. Her Perfect Catch by K.L. Brady
  30. Hot in Hell Cat Canyon by Julie Anne Long
  31. How the Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell*
  32. I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
  33. It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips*
  34. Let’s Pretend by Raine Weaver
  35. Level Up by Cathy Yardley
  36. Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen*
  37. Love at First Spite by Alexandra Warren*
  38. Love Lessons by Heidi Cullinan*
  39. Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey
  40. More Than a Kiss by Layce Gardner & Saxon Bennett
  41. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
  42. Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid*
  43. Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs by Molly Harper*
  44. Noble Intentions by Katie MacAlister*
  45. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  46. One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva
  47. One Night in Santiago by Audra North**
  48. P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
  49. Pitifully Ugly by Robin Alexander
  50. Playing for Keeps by R.L. Mathewson*
  51. Playing It Close by Kat Latham**
  52. Playing With Fire by Kate Meader**
  53. Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James
  54. Ready to Fall by Olivia Dade**
  55. Rescued Heart by Georgia Beers*
  56. Rock Chick by Kristen Ashley*
  57. Roman Crazy by Nina Bocci & Alice Clayton
  58. Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare*
  59. Romancing the Fashionista by K.M. Jackson
  60. Seduction & Snacks by Tara Sivec*
  61. Self Preservation by Ethan Day
  62. Sleepless in Manhattan by Sarah Morgan**
  63. So Sweet by Rebekah Weatherspoon*
  64. Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
  65. Somebody Killed His Editor by Josh Lanyon*
  66. Soulless by Gail Carriger*
  67. Steam and Sorcery by Cindy Spencer Pape*
  68. Sustained by Emma Chase**
  69. Taking the Heat by Victoria Dahl**
  70. Tell Me Something Good by Jamie Wesley
  71. The Big Girl’s Guide to Buying Lingerie by Amie Stuart**
  72. The Billionaire Bachelor by Jessica Lemmon*
  73. The Duchess War by Courtney Milan*
  74. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn*
  75. The Duke’s Guide to Correct Behavior by Megan Frampton*
  76. The Guy Next Door by Meg Cabot*
  77. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
  78. The Hooker and the Hermit by L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid*
  79. The Mane Event by Shelly Laurenston*
  80. The Outlaw Viking by Sandra Hill**
  81. The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins**
  82. The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries*
  83. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
  84. The Rogue and I by Eva Devon*
  85. The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean*
  86. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion*
  87. The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
  88. The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody
  89. The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis**
  90. The Truth by Christina C. Jones
  91. The Wicked Wallflower by Maya Rodale**
  92. There’s Something About Werewolves by Thalia Eames*
  93. Totally, Sweetly, Irrevocably by Kira Archer**
  94. Touched By an Alien by Gini Koch*
  95. Try Me On for Size by Stephanie Haefner*
  96. Unbuttoning the CEO by Mia Sosa*
  97. Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson*
  98. Wallbanger by Alice Clayton*
  99. Well Hung by Lauren Blakely
  100. Wild Child by Molly O’Keefe*

* The first book in a series

** Part of a series but not the first book (You would do just as well to start with the first book in any of these series, but for one reason or another I have an affinity for the one listed here. Feel free to make the case for another in the comments.)