Every year in February, I read romance books and make Booktube videos about them. Be they reading vlogs or recommendation videos, I take the opportunity at Valentine’s Day and share my romance reads with my subscribers. But this year, my physical and mental health weren’t conducive to video-making, leave alone reading 14 books in 14 days. I was already on my last leg, so it wasn’t long into February that I decided I would take a break from making longform videos on YouTube. And that meant no romance books vlog was coming, even though I had read 5 of them by then.
So even though I haven’t been able to talk about them on YouTube, I knew I wanted to yell about some of them somewhere on the Internet, because that’s what I do. And since I knew I wanted to start posting here again…you know where I’m going with this.
So here are the 5 romance books I’ve read so far in 2026 and what I thought about them. Let me know if we have anything in common or if you’re taking any recs from these.
[These are lined up in order of best to worst, as in the first book is one that I loved and the last is one that I didn’t like at all. Although I must say, the last ‘romance’ book here is the only one that I actively dislike even now, a couple of months after finishing it.]
1. King of Wrath (Kings of Sin #1) by Ana Huang
I read and disliked Ana Huang’s Twisted series a couple of years ago because of all the toxic MMCs. So imagine my surprise when I read this one and absolutely loved it! I even think this is one of the best romance books I’ve ever read. And that’s saying something, going by my previous experience with Ana Huang! King of Wrath is a billionaire, marriage-of-convenience, kinda enemies-to-lovers story that gave me hordes and hordes of butterflies. It is well-written, spicy, makes you think about the morality of billionaires while making you root for one (I KNOW), and is easily one of the best love stories I’ve read in a long time. And any time I see Dante Russo or Vivian Lau mentioned anywhere, I blush. Yes, it’s that good!
I live-threaded my reactions to the book as I read it and there were a LOT of GIFs depicting my absolute exasperation sometimes. Here’s where you can read it: King of Wrath Live Reactions.
2. King of Pride (Kings of Sin #1) by Ana Huang
Sequel to King of Wrath and the story of Kai Young and Isabella Valencia, King of Pride started off a bit meh and draggy before it picked up in the second half. This is a story of two people with different views of success, who are inexplicably attracted to each other. While Kai needs to win his inheritance of sorts, Isabella wants the opposite—she wants to become successful on her own. To see their back and forth, their obvious attraction, their gradual falling, their hurtful yet necessary decisions—it was intense yet fun. I enjoyed reading Isabella’s character, mostly because I’m nothing like her, but also because I relate to her inner monologues and thoughts in a way that I didn’t think I would. Would recommend this one too!
3. The Wedding Setup by Sonali Dev
The Wedding Setup is the story of a woman who, after losing her brother, loses the love of her life and herself. Her best friend’s wedding gives her the chance to find all of them again, bar the brother because he is no more. Sonali Dev is amazing at writing parent-child conflicts AND love stories, and this one is no different. The depiction of Amma and Ayesha’s relationship with each other is a perfect reflection of Indian mother-daughter relationships. It made the book that much crisper and made me like it that much more, even if I wanted to yell at Amma for a bit. I haven’t read all of Sonali Dev’s bibliography yet but rest assured, I’ll be reading up all of her romance books in the next couple of years.
4. Fake It ‘Til You Make It by Laura Carter
This was a real surprise, I’m not going to lie. I found it on Kindle Unlimited (they have an interesting collection of romance books, I’ll tell you that) and decided to give it a try because of the fake dating trope. And it all worked out! It was fun, the plot was well-constructed, and the payoff was great. And even though I wish that final confrontation had been more detailed, it was still satisfying and had me grinning through it all. I just wish the author didn’t use ‘whilst’ so much. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things but using ‘whilst’ instead of ‘while’ every single time (and there’s a lot of times) just felt contrarian to me. But it turned out better than I expected and I’m so happy to have found this book despite the minor irritation that it caused.
5. Stars Will Guide You Home by Stuti Changle
This book was a review copy and unfortunately is one of the most irritating books I’ve read in a while. Stars Will Guide You Home has way too many problems:
- It feels like an orientation session at a corporate job packaged as a romance book.
- It is preachy, self-help-y, and tries to be motivational while coming off as holier-than-thou.
- The flow is broken from time to time with corporate speak that the author makes too obvious.
- The resolution to the story is too fast and rushed and the main characters talk like robots.
- Kiranjeet’s childhood trauma and the reason she cut off her family aren’t even addressed in the end!
I was so excited to read this book but now I have… My head aches every time I think of it.
So those were the 5 romance books I’ve read so far this year. Do we have anything in common? Are you taking any recommendations from this post? What’s been your favorite book or romance book so far this year? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
I’ll see you in the next blog post.
Until next time, keep reading, and add melodrama to your life! 😊
The Melodramatic Bookworm 