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Love At First Sight: The Sweetest Romance Books 💌🌷
23
items From the cutest friends-to-lovers stories to messy and complicated meetings, from swoon-worthy dates to deep and emotional letters, there's definitely something on this list that will make your heart beat faster!
Sections
8
fantasy romance / romantasy
fake dating
foodie romance
enemies / rivals to lovers
emotional & devastating
kdrama vibes
fantasy romance / romantasy
this sweet novel reads just like a fairytale, and it's inspired by chang'e, the chinese goddess of the moon. this magical story follows xingyin, who is forced to flee home when her magic is discovered. she arrives at the celestial kingdom with much t...
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
though romance isn't the only part of this wonderful novel, i thought it was really good and made me very happy. the story follows esther, whose family is cursed. every member of her family had a certain fear that ended up killing them, and as a resu...
A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares
a great choice if you enjoy cozy fantasy, since this is marketed as a cottagecore fantasy and that's exactly what it is, the atmosphere is super reminiscent of ghibli movies. the story follows clara, who has a certain wild type of magic that makes fl...
Flowerheart
an exciting contemporary fantasy romance focused on the relationship between a chinese immortal and a french elf who take on various challenges together. elle is a descendant of the chinese god of medicine, and therefore supposed to be a doctor, but ...
Bitter Medicine
not your stereotypical romance at all, but still so sweet! the main character, sophie, moves from shanghai to toronto, and her job is being a matchmaker - except it's revealed that she never actually got her degree, which now makes finding work reall...
Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club
fake dating
probably my favourite contemporary romance ever, this adorable fake dating story follows dylan and theo. dylan is about to take part in a mooncake-making competition for young chefs, when he starts fake dating his customer, theo, who needs a date at ...
Fake Dates and Mooncakes
this book was one of the reasons why i changed my mind about the fake dating trope, since i used to have such a dislike for it. this adorable opposites attract story follows hani, a super popular girl who comes out to her friends as bi. they question...
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating
read this because i followed the author's journey of promoting this book before it got released, i really hoped to love it and i'm so glad i did! this adorable slow burn story does the fake dating + opposites attract trope super well. we follow river...
Bingsu for Two
this entertaining contemporary romance follows eliza, whose essay on meeting the love of her life goes viral, except the contents of it are completely made up and eliza never actually experienced anything like that. she tells caz, an actor in her cla...
This Time It's Real
foodie romance
this incredibly adorable and heart-warming novel follows kimi, who goes to japan hoping to find herself and connect with her grandparents, where she ends up falling in love with akira, who works at a mochi shop. the romance that develops between them...
I Love You So Mochi
i'll give a chance to any book with a cute food-related title, and that paid off with this one. this sweet contemporary romance follows bao and linh, who stay away from each other because their parents own rival businesses. bao lives a pretty unevent...
A Pho Love Story
decided to give this a go for the absolutely adorable cover and title, and it was indeed such a cute story! vivi and lan meet in vietnam, except they're connected even before they meet in real life. lan used to run a food blog called a banh mi for tw...
A Banh Mi for Two
enemies / rivals to lovers
an adorable story of rivalry and romance that follows theo and gabi, whose parents own rival businesses. theo and gabi are opposites in many ways, theo is openly out and the only openly gay guy at their school, while gabi is still hiding his identity...
Café Con Lychee
a fun slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between conrad and alden, two enemies who are stuck together on their way to a huge convention, where they connect with each other, but also compete in a gaming tournament they both want to win. this was a re...
Conventionally Yours
a fun romantic comedy following two korean americans, valerie and wes, and both of them have certain business ambitions. valerie runs v&c k-beauty with her cousin charlie, and wes is starting his own business to fund his dream to pursue music, wh...
Made in Korea
emotional & devastating
a super emotional chinese classic and not a typical romance novel, this story explores so many important themes. the story is set in 1930s shanghai, and it follows four characters: shijun, manzhen, shuhui and tsuizhi, and the romantic focus is mainly...
Half a Lifelong Romance
very different from the other books on this list but i could never exclude this from a romance-oriented list. just as the title implies, this book consists of kafka's deeply emotional love letters to milena. this is undoubtedly the most beautiful boo...
Letters to Milena
a lovely queer romance and historical fiction novel set at the university of north carolina, where we watch ronny and ben's relationship develop. they're opposites in many ways, and ben enjoys playfully teasing ronny, who has a lot of personal issues...
The Dove in the Belly
kdrama vibes
i decided to read this because i really enjoyed axie oh's the girl who fell beneath the sea, and i thought it was adorable! this story follows jenny, a cellist who's trying to get into a prestigious music school. one night, she goes out of her comfor... until they meet again in korea. they go to the same school there, and jenny finds out that he's an idol. the ‘regular girl falls in love with a celebrity’ trope was done so well here, i genuinely thought the two were so precious, and their love story...
XOXO
if an adorable kdrama turned into a book, this would be it. this swoon-worthy story follows hana, an actress falling in love with her co-star, which she really shouldn't be doing, especially since she's already fake dating someone to improve the rati...
Flip the Script
contemporary romance
an atypical contemporary romance that follows penny and sam, who start off with an awkward relationship that mostly consists of texting, but end up inseparable. penny lives a pretty uneventful life, and is about to go to college to become a writer. s...
Emergency Contact
if you like emergency contact you'll probably like this too! we follow pablo and leanna, who meet randomly at 4am while knowing they can't be together - but of course, that's not how their story ends. pablo is a korean-pakistani deli employee who wan...
Permanent Record
historical romance
one of my personal favs and a story i will love forever, i love when a gorgeous romance is combined with historical fiction. this story is set in 1950s san francisco chinatown, and it follows lily and kath, who meet at a lesbian bar called the telegr...
Last Night at the Telegraph Club