Emily Henry, then the author of solidly successful but quietly received YA fiction, had run out of things to say about teenagers when she started her first book for adults: “Beach Read,” a romance novel that doubled as a poptimist manifesto. This defense of feel-good commercial fiction landed right when audiences were craving some lightness, in the spring of 2020. It – and every Henry book since then – was a hit.
Even as the pandemic and the rise of BookTok have supercharged the romance genre, Henry stands out for her mainstream, even upmarket, appeal. (A sure sign of this: Since “Happy Place” in 2023, her publisher has been releasing her work in hardcover, a pricier format.) Her books have become the go-to rec for your friend who’s looking for something fun but not dumb – picture a Nora Ephron of middle America.
The female protagonist is sharp and likable and working in her dream job; so is her love interest, who is steady and kind and probably regularly goes to therapy; the setting is usually a quaint, semi-remote locale that forces them out of their old lifestyles; the plot features a knowing, but not overly disruptive, twist on some classic romance setup. Each of Henry’s novels has shot straight to the top of the bestseller list. But even as her work is extremely likable, readers fiercely disagree about which book is best.
After much internal debate, here is the overall ranking from the staff of Book World (with some of our individual takes on the novels.