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Every Emily Henry romance novel, ranked

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Every Emily Henry romance novel, ranked

emily henry
Emily Henry has written six romances.

Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images

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  • Emily Henry is, without a doubt, the reigning queen of romance novels.
  • Since 2020, Henry has released six romances, all to great success.
  • "Beach Read," "Funny Story," and "Book Lovers" are among her best.

Any romance reader knows that not all romance novels are created equally: Some leave you swooning, others leave you shrugging, and the worst ones leave you shutting the book and never picking it back up.

Emily Henry, a fantasy-YA author turned romance queen, is easily one of the most beloved romance novelists of the last five years. All six of her romances caused quite a stir on BookTok, and all but one have been optioned for on-screen adaptations.

But are they all five-star classics? No.

We've ranked Henry's six adult romances from worst to best — though, if we're being honest, we'd read Henry's grocery list if we could.

6. 'Happy Place' (2023)
happy place cover
"Happy Place."

Berkley

Unfortunately, this is Henry's weakest offering — at least, in my opinion. The beauty of Henry's novels is that every permutation of a ranking exists out there. There are some readers whose very favorite is "Happy Place."

I'm just not one of them.

"Happy Place" marked a shift from her previous three books, focusing on a group of friends rather than a single main relationship. However, I don't think the friend group was given enough time or fleshed out fully for me to care.

Instead, I felt that too much time was taken away from our core couple, Harriet and Wyn, for me to get invested in them, yet somehow not enough time was given to Sabrina and Cleo, or their partners, Kim and Parth.

Also, I love a ridiculous romance premise as much as the next person — you'll be hearing about five more of them — but neglecting to tell your group of friends that you've gotten divorced and then pretending to still be together on a group trip stretches my credulity just a tad too far.

Perhaps I'll like it better when it's adapted as a Netflix series.

5. 'Great Big Beautiful Life' (2025)
great big beautiful life cover
"Great Big Beautiful Life."

Berkley

To speak in internet parlance, when I read "Great Big Beautiful Life," all I could think was that it was reheating "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo's" nachos, but with a dash of Henry flair.

The book is a dual narrative, split between would-be author Alice Scott and her dreams to write the biography of a reclusive heiress, Margaret Ives, and Margaret's own life story, told through flashbacks.

I greatly preferred the flashbacks of Margaret's life and her relationships with her sister and husband. The contemporary story of Alice competing with another journalist, Hayden, for the chance to write Margaret's story, was less compelling. I also thought that Alice and Hayden's chemistry was a bit forced and a bit "insta-lovey" for my taste.

The book also purports to have a twist ending, but I found it fairly easy to predict after a few chapters.

4. 'People We Meet on Vacation' (2021)
people we meet on vacation cover
"People We Meet on Vacation."

Berkley

"People We Meet on Vacation" is Henry's most popular book, the one that catapulted her to the top of BookTok, and is also the first to make the jump from page to screen; the movie adaptation hits Netflix in January, starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth.

Perhaps it's because this book was so hyped up to me before I read it, but I found it to be just fine. I liked the premise — two former best friends and travel buddies meeting up for the first time after a mysterious trip gone wrong — but I didn't really connect to either Poppy or Alex as characters.

I thought their banter was great, though, which is a throughline of all of Henry's books.

I would never call this book bad; it just wasn't one of my favorites.

3. 'Book Lovers' (2022)
book lovers cover
"Book Lovers."

Berkley

Here's where it gets hard for me to choose. I love the top three deeply, but, alas, something has to come in third.

"Book Lovers" is about Nora Stephens, a cutthroat literary agent who describes herself as the mean girlfriend in a Hallmark movie who gets left behind in the big city when her boyfriend returns to his small town and falls in love with the local [insert whimsical job title here]. Already, I was obsessed.

But when she's convinced by her sister, Libby, to visit a small town herself, she encounters one of her nemeses from NYC: Charlie Lastra, an editor she can't stand.

You can guess what happens then.

I adored Nora and Charlie's relationship, as well as Nora's relationship with Libby. I also found Henry's descriptions of Sunshine Falls to be evocative, funny, and full of love and care.

"Book Lovers" is set to be adapted into a film in the future, so I can't wait to see who will bring these characters to life.

2. 'Funny Story' (2024)
funny story cover
"Funny Story."

Berkley

If you thought I loved Nora and Charlie, just wait until you hear about Daphne and Miles.

Remember when I dinged "Happy Place" for having a ridiculous premise? "Funny Story" also uses a ridiculous trope, but a fun one that I enjoyed reading about, rather than questioning why our two main characters chose to lie to all their friends.

"Funny Story" is a classic romance story: Daphne and Miles have both been dumped by their respective significant others, best friends Peter and Petra, after, wouldn't you guess, Peter and Petra decided that they were in love with each other instead.

Homeless and heartbroken, Daphne and Miles decide to move in together — and in an act of desperation, decide to fake date in order to make their exes jealous.

As I wrote in my Goodreads review for this book, 'There's something about the way Emily Henry writes flirting that scratches my brain." Daphne and Miles' banter is (almost) unmatched.

I relate to Daphne, her insecurities, her interests, and her flaws, the most out of all of Henry's main characters. I also just love Miles. He's the sweetest.

"Funny Story" has also been optioned to become a movie, with Henry herself writing the screenplay, which makes me very excited.

But it's still not No. 1 …

1. 'Beach Read' (2020)
beach read cover
"Beach Read."

Berkley

"Beach Read," Henry's first foray into romance, is also my favorite.

As a book lover, no pun intended, the premise of two dueling authors challenging each other to swap genres, is a fun one. People may think romance is easy to write. But it's far too easy to give readers the ick, veer into melodrama territory, or make your romance just too unbelievable (in too-good-to-be-true or toxic ways).

That's why I think Henry's ode to the romance writer resonates with me. I've read plenty of bad ones, but I bet January Andrews (our depressed heroine), writes amazing ones, even if she's going through a crisis of confidence at the beginning of the book.

When she discovers that her neighbor, at her father's secret lake house (long story), is none other than Augustus "Gus" Everett, a literary wunderkind and her former college classmate, January is inspired to begin writing again, even if it's not the contractually obligated romance she's supposed to be working on.

January and Gus bring out the best in each other. Gus makes January take herself seriously, and January lightens Gus up. They have great chemistry, believable issues that they work through, and a hard-won happily ever after.

"Beach Read" is set to be adapted into a film directed by Yulin Kuang, a romance author in her own right — Kuang wrote "How to End a Love Story," another favorite of mine — so I know that Gus and January are in good hands.

I can't see anyone topping them, but who knows! As long as Henry's writing romances, I'm reading them.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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