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Want to Get into Reading? My Top Three + Other Recs!

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Scranton chapter.

Want to get into romance books but don’t know what books to read or where to start? Here are my top three recommendations, plus some others depending on what trope you’re interested in! College can be tough, but you must make sure to set some time for yourself, and reading is a great option. You’re away from screens and get to enjoy a good story! Here are some different tropes plus book recommendations for that trope:

Friends to Lovers: Love and Other Words, Every Summer After, People We Meet on Vacation, If He Had Been with Me, The Score

Enemies to Lovers: Unfortunately, Yours, Love Theoretically, Book Lovers, Love on the Brain, The Graham Effect, Things We Never Got Over


Second Chance: Meant to be, The Two of Us, Where the Stars Rise, The Enforcer

Slow Burn: Binding 13, Love Unwritten, from Lukov with Love, A Long Time Coming, Wild Love

Fake Dating: Bridgerton (Book 1), The Love Hypothesis, to all the boys I’ve loved before, Written in the Stars, Boyfriend Material, Yours Truly, Funny Story, The Dixon Rule

Grumpy X Sunshine: Twisted Love, The Chase, Heartless, it happened one summer, Under the Stars

A few other books I recommend include Daisy Jones and The Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Normal People, and The Summer I Turned Pretty!

Now here are my top 3 recommendations, the trope they are, and why!

Coming in at number 3 is The Fine Print by Lauren Asher; if you like the “grumpy x sunshine” trope, this is the book for you! It will have you hooked until the very end. Once I picked up this book, I could not put it down!

Number 2 is Happy Place by Emily Henry! This book has the “friends to lovers,” “fake dating,” and “slow burn” tropes in it. I will say that the first time I tried to read this book, it did not catch my eye. However, when I decided to restart it and read it in 3-5 days, it became one of my favorites.


Coming in at number 1 is The Deal by Elle Kennedy! This book has the “sports romance” and “friends to lovers” tropes in it! I read this during the summer of 2023 and have reread it several times since. It is one of my favorite books and I will always recommend it. If you want a good hockey romance, this is the book!

Bianca Gracia

Scranton '27

My name is Bianca Gracia and I am currently a sophomore at the University of Scranton and I'm currently majoring in Bio on the Pre-Med Track. In my free time I like to hang out with my friends, listen to music/go to concerts, read, and so much more!