Romance tropes tend to spark debate. Does “enemies to lovers” normalize bullying? Is “fake dating” overused? What’s hotter, “brother’s best friend” or “oops, there’s only one bed”? As a romance author, I try not to pick favorites. But as a reader, I will boldly claim “second-chance romance” as the elite trope.
There’s just something so evolved about giving a lost love another shot. It’s adult! It suggests you’re open to growth, redemption and forgiveness. One must have an elevated faith in humanity to confidently return to the well of exes.
And then there’s the yearning. I love the idea of an old flame that never flickers out but burns in your soul for months, years, even decades, just aching to be reignited. Imagine The One Who Got Away murmuring in your ear: “It’s you. It’s always been you.” Delicious! (Especially since this rarely goes well in real life: After all, if you run into the same tree in the forest twice, you’re probably lost.) Here are some of my favorite second-chance romances.
By Casey McQuiston
When two bisexual exes — Theo, an aspiring sommelier, and Kit, a hotshot baker — find themselves booked on the same European food-and-wine tour, they are forced to gallivant together across France, Italy and Spain while still smarting from their brutal breakup four years earlier. To take the pressure off, they decide on a friendly wager to see who can hook up with more gorgeous tour guides and enchanting locals along the way. What could go wrong? This transporting, lusty book is a vacation essential.
“The Pairing” is one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2024.
By Alexis Daria
Meet Gabriel and Michelle, former teen besties from the Bronx, who were so close that they wrote fan fiction together — but who fell out after a fateful hookup. Fast-forward 13 years, and a professional collaboration forces them to reconcile. “A Lot Like Adiós” has it all: workplace drama (Mich spearheads the marketing campaign for Gabe’s celebrity gym), fake dating (their families think they’re lovers) and will-they-won’t-they chemistry (scorching).
By Julie Soto
Wedding planning in real life? Stressful. But in fiction? Bring me all the Big Day shenanigans. In Julie Soto’s delightful debut, an ambitious wedding planner, Ama, and a curmudgeonly florist, Elliot, are hired to work the same high-profile wedding and must figure out how to juggle celebrity brides, a reality TV crew and their own angst-ridden romantic past. There’s sparky banter, nuanced flashbacks and sexy forearm tattoos. I tore through this book in one weekend.
By Carley Fortune
This book is breathtakingly romantic. Steeped in warm, beach town dreaminess, the story follows Percy, a Toronto magazine editor, who returns to her family’s lakeside cottage for a funeral and encounters her teenage love, Sam. They haven’t spoken in 12 years, after a traumatic split. But the nostalgic pull of their six glorious summers together is almost too strong to bear. If sweeping, emotional reads do it for you, this is it.
By Alexa Martin
This one is a classic among sports romance fans. Poppy, a feisty nightclub waitress, has carved out a lovely life for herself and her son in the years since her parents kicked her out as a pregnant teen. But that life is upended after a chance meeting with T.K., a professional football superstar who also happens to be her high school sweetheart. This feel-good read has sparkling side characters, gritty family dynamics and truly sizzling romance (none of which require you to have any familiarity with the N.F.L.).
By Kennedy Ryan
I am a sucker for high-stakes, soul-mate love, and “Before I Let Go” hits the spot. Yasmen and Josiah’s story is emotional and raw, perfectly illustrating that real, lasting love isn’t (just) about picnics and rainbows. Theirs is an imperfect journey of patience, forgiveness, healing — not to mention jaw-droppingly steamy sex — as they rediscover their connection after divorce.
By J.J. McAvoy
My mom’s historical romances introduced me to the genre, back in the 1980s (shout out to Judith McNaught). Since they always starred white people, I’d recast the characters as Black in my tween mind. Thank heaven today’s regency fans have a plethora of multiethnic stories to choose from. This one stars Aphrodite, a well-born beauty who fled London after her intended husband, Duke Evander, inexplicably married someone else. Now widowed, he’s desperate to lure her back. Nothing’s hotter than a lovesick duke.
By Elissa Sussman
Deliciously dishy, this celeb romance could have been ripped from the pages of a 2006 tabloid (in a good way). It follows a former teen pop star, Katee Rose, who finds herself back in the spotlight when a former boy-bander (and her one-time flame) Cal offers her a starring role in a Broadway musical he’s directing. Can she move past the scandal that blew up her career? Does she still melt at Cal’s smoldering gaze? Yes and yes! Millennials will love deciphering which real-life stars inspired the plot.