Top 14 Best Friend Romance Books Updated 04 /2024

For us, the friends-to-lovers story is a major cliche in romance writing that we can't help but love. Isn't it wonderful to see two longtime friends who know each other so well yet can't see how they were meant to be together?

When it comes to movies about best friends falling in love, we have a few suggestions, including a few beloved classics.

Annie's Recipe

By Lisa Jones Baker

I recommend this book to anyone who has never read an Amish romance novel before. Annie Mast, a member of the Amish community, enjoys a calm existence. When Levi Miller, her childhood best friend, returns to town, that peace is shattered. They were once inseparable, but Levi's father's excommunication from the church tore them apart.

In light of their continued closeness, Annie and Levi begin to ponder the possibility that their connection may be hiding something deeper. The fact that Levi is now an Englishman and Annie is an Amish girl at heart may mean that their contrasts matter more than their commonalities.

Bad Boy

By Olivia Goldsmith

Tracie is a straightforward woman who has a type: she adores a bad dude above all else. She'll become weak in the knees if you put a rebel in a leather jacket on top of a motorcycle. Her best friend Jon, on the other hand, is not the kind. Jeans in general, computers, and being kind to his mother were all things he enjoyed. Tracie, on the other hand, seems uninterested in him as anything more than a friend.

Tracie agrees to teach him the ropes of being a bad boy because he's a smitten nerd like any other When Jon becomes the most eligible bachelor in Seattle, it pays off, but what does she stand to lose as a result?

When He Was Wicked

By Julia Quinn

The Netflix series Bridgerton has spread Bridgerton fever throughout the world. Francesca Bridgerton, a character who appears only in flashbacks on the program, makes her first appearance in Julia Quinn's sixth book in the series. Francesca is one of the most mysterious members of her vast family, spending most of her time in Scotland. Michael Stirling is charmed the moment he sets eyes on her, but she's already engaged to his cousin. Francesca is now a young widow who is struggling to deal with her grief, and the idea of developing affections for Michael, a close friend, terrifies her.

Francesca, unlike her siblings, is unable to shed the memories of her past and the sorrow she has been unable to overcome. While the classic "friends-to-lovers" plot device isn't reinvented here, widowed heroines finding new love is always uplifting.

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating

By Christina Lauren

In the past few years, the Christina Lauren writing pair has been a beloved contemporary romance duo, and this spitfire rom-com from 2018 shows why.

Josh Im and Hazel Bradford are complete opposites. When she speaks, she does it without any sort of buffer between her thoughts and her actions. His demeanor is calm, but he's also sarcastic and critical at the same time. Though Camille vomited on his shoes the first time they met, they've remained friends for many years.

To help Josh and Hazel find love again when his girlfriend betrays him, Hazel devises a "wonderful" plan: she would arrange a series of blind double dates. Surely not amongst themselves, then?

Marriage on Madison Avenue

By Lauren Layne

A trio of pals in New York City's Upper East Side are the focus of Lauren Layne's Central Park Pact series. Audrey Tate and Clarke West, the protagonists of the trilogy's last book, had been closest friends since they were children. They don't believe that men and women can't just be friends without love or sex confusing their etiquette, as some people believe.

When Clarke announces that he and Audrey are engaged, things take a turn for the better. In order to keep his matchmaking mother out of the picture, he's fooling Audrey into letting him slip up. Things begin to grow more problematic as the date for their purportedly phony wedding approaches. In that case, what if they decide to stay where they are?

A Rogue by Any Other Name

By Sarah MacLean

'Rules of Scoundrel' follows the exploits of a group of disgraced nobles. When society exiled them, they used their resources and abilities in the London underworld as a group.

The Marquess of Bourne, a reputedly unrepentant hellion, is not a candidate for love. To him, nothing is more important than reclaiming the inheritance he was wrongfully denied. And he will stop at nothing to do it. Lady Penelope Marbury, a lady of impeccable manners, was an old childhood friend to whom he had long wished to propose. However, he hopes to help her discover her own desires by shielding her from the gloom of his own existence.

Last Night's Scandal

By Loretta Chase

Loretta Chase is a legend, and you can't go wrong. Miss Olivia Wingate-Carsington, a descendant of notorious aristocratic scammers, makes her debut in the fifth and final novel in the Carsington Brothers series. Peregrine Dalmay, Earl of Lisle, is one of Olivia's favorite companions, and she enjoys taking him along on her sleazy adventures.

There will only be one more adventure with her best buddy before she returns to a life of domesticity and respectability after his return from Egypt. Renovating his family's haunting castle has compelled Lisle to relocate to the remote Scottish wilderness. He doesn't want Olivia to be a distraction. But in a haunted castle in the Scottish Highlands, who could resist the allure of passion?

A Duke in Disguise

By Cat Sebastian

Her father bequeathed a publishing company to Verity and her brother Nate, which they now share in equal ownership. Every day, Nate publishes increasingly extreme polemics that they fear may land him in prison. She is in charge of running the business. Despite the fact that Verity and her friend John Ashby have had a long-standing attraction to one another, the two have maintained a strictly platonic relationship during their time together.

In addition to Nate's relocation to the United States, Ash learns he is the rightful inheritor of a dukedom, and Verity is forced to deal with her conflicting emotions while simultaneously publishing a very scandalous novel in the hopes of saving her business. There's also a lesbian heroine, a virgin hero, and flirting with hairpins in A Duke in Disguise!

Emma

By Jane Austen

Where would we be if Jane Austen hadn't written her novels? Our vote goes to Emma, not P&P, as Austen's best novel. Even if you've watched at least a dozen film versions of the novel, nothing compares to the original.

"Emma Woodhouse" is all of these things and more. She's also one of history's greatest meddlers. She sees herself as a matchmaker and takes it upon herself to match up her friends and the residents of her peaceful hometown. At least her buddy Mr. Knightley is there to soothe her and provide sound advise, even if she isn't inclined to accept it. Of course, this doesn't always work out!

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