Two emotional romances wholeheartedly embrace their protagonists’ complications and complexity. Classic romances often tell us that finding love will fix the parts of ourselves that aren’t as they should be. Love will turn the mousy girl next door into the prom queen, the shy wallflower into a confident seductress, the browbeaten stepchild into the princess. Love will save us from ourselves and make our problems melt away—but these contemporary romances know better. 

Charlie Matheson doesn’t initially come across as a mess in Roan Parrish’s wonderful Best Laid Plans. On the contrary, Charlie seems like someone who’s poised to sweep in and make someone else’s messes go away, which is what he tries to do for Rye Janssen, the Seattle transplant who comes to Charlie’s secluded Wyoming town with a tiny cat, a death-rattling car and a truly massive chip on his shoulder. 

Rye has inherited a house he doesn’t know to fix from a grandfather he never met, and the renovations are causing a whole host of problems that he doesn’t know how to solve. Charlie is very, very good at solving problems. He’s also very, very good at ignoring his own issues—like the anxiety he feels over how to handle his attraction to Rye because he’s never been in love before. 

Charlie and Rye are wonderfully endearing creations, as is their terrific, lovingly crafted community. Parrish’s Garnet Run is a small town where individuality and nonconformity are celebrated. If you need someone to hug you and tell you you’re appreciated exactly as you are, pick up this book—it’s just the embrace you need. 

Equally warm, satisfying and conformity-defying is Yes & I Love You. Set in a New Orleans coworkingspace, Roni Loren’s novel takes the classic idea of a workplace romance and rebuilds it into something entirely fresh and unexpected. 

Freelance writer Hollyn Tate might fit a casting call for the pretty-but-doesn’t-know-it heroine. She also has Tourette syndrome, which has left her with deep anxiety about interacting with a world she’s sure will judge her. Meanwhile, Jasper Deares, a struggling improv actor and the new barista in the office space’s coffee bar, is gorgeous and charming but wrestles with his own fear of failure in an entertainment industry that’s been quick to dismiss him. When he learns that Hollyn is the undercover entertainment critic known as Miz Poppy, he knows that her influence could turn his career around. At the same time, her own career is at risk due to her editor’s demand that she overcome her camera shyness and start vlogging. 

The story starts out with Hollyn and Jasper needing each other—she needs his training to become camera-ready, while he needs her status to back his act—but it quickly becomes so much more. Loren’s depiction of Hollyn and Jasper’s mutual attraction is lovely and natural, and she continually highlights how rare and special their connection feels to both of them. And they’re always honest with each other—which is near-revolutionary in a genre that’s always leaned hard on misunderstandings. Instead of zany hijinks, Yes & I Love You features real issues, honest struggles, inspiring growth, scorching love scenes, fantastic side characters and hilarious moments of improv gold. This isn’t the office romance that Hollywood has taught you to expect—it’s better. Instead of telling us that love can fix us, these romances embrace the liberating idea that we can be who we are and find happiness, success and love.

Complex and delightful friend groups ground two new romances in warts-and-all reality.

Trying to find love can mean putting your best foot forward: being the hottest, smartest, coolest version of yourself whenever the object of your affection is around. But as guarded as we are with romantic prospects, we open ourselves wholeheartedly to the friends who love us exactly as we are. By showcasing strong friend groups, two romances offer a glimpse into their characters’ truest, facade-down, flaws-exposed selves.

In Kris Ripper’s The Hate Project, Oscar Nelson and his friends have been fixtures in each other’s lives since college, providing encouragement, nagging, advice, excessive emojis and unconditional love. These are all things that Oscar needs badly, given the powerful and pervasive anxiety that threatens to crush him when he loses his miserable customer service job and must put himself out there to find another gig. 

A temporary reprieve comes when Jack hires Oscar to clean out his grandmother’s house. Jack’s late grandfather was a hoarder, so this is no easy task. It’s potentially awkward as well, as Jack and Oscar have never really gotten along. And since Jack and Oscar slept together that one time, well . . .

This story, if you’ll pardon the pun, has a lot of unpacking to do. Ripper digs deep into Oscar’s issues, depicting them with such uncompromising starkness that readers may have trouble envisioning how he will come out on the other side and step into healthy choices and happy endings. Ripper also devotes time to Jack’s issues, since he’s got his own burdens to carry. 

By the end, Ripper methodically reveals that nearly every character has had to work hard to get where they are—even the sunniest character, Jack’s hilariously irrepressible grandmother, Evelyn. While The Hate Project depicts a lot of struggle, including a fair and realistic amount of backsliding, it also showcases lovely moments of hope, steadfastly suggesting that troubles can be overcome with loyal friends.

The friendship group in Just Last Night faces a challenge that’s far more abrupt—painfully so. Three 30-somethings who’ve been tightly wound into each other’s lives since they were teenagers are forced to grapple with a shocking and sudden death among their ranks. 

Eve, Ed and Justin are wrecked at the loss of their fourth, Suzie. But their bond is further undermined when Eve discovers that, 10 years ago, Suzie had a one-night stand with Ed. Ed, who is now engaged. Ed, whom Eve has been hopelessly, silently in love with for years. This revelation shakes Eve down to her foundations, causing her to reevaluate the relationships that define her and those she'd written off, including her relationship with Suzie’s gorgeous, estranged brother, Finlay. He and Eve grow closer as she sorts through the impact of the past on her present and the ways the people around her have influenced the person she chose to become.

With complex subjects and complicated characters, Mhairi McFarlane's unflinchingly honest romances often go where other authors fear to tread. The turmoil and heartache in Just Last Night feel visceral and real, as do the scars from the past. A scene that describes a character's experience of childhood abuse carries a lot of weight and is particularly difficult to read. 

But McFarlane’s romances are always worth the journey. With incredible warmth, humor and humanity, they stir such deep empathy and engagement that you won’t just watch the characters’ cathartic experiences; you’ll feel them. Likewise, you won't just admire this group friendship; you'll feel like you're a part of it, and that you’re all the better for it.

People say that timing is everything in romantic relationships. It’s a well-worn aphorism, but one endorsed (at least partially) by psychologists, life coaches and parents alike. Romances that center unexpected babies therefore have massive conflict built in. Bringing new life into the world is always a monumental task, but doing so while you’re forging a new connection with another human being amps up the degree of difficulty to 10. While unplanned parenting would be a game changer for any couple, characters with already challenging lives in both Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez and Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl by Hettie Bell meet new partners at the most inopportune time, and fall inexorably in love nonetheless.

Soapy rather than frothy, Abby Jimenez’s first two novels, The Friend Zone and The Happy Ever After Playlist, seamlessly combined romance, comedy and drama. Life’s Too Short, in which a globe-trotting YouTube star with a deadly neurodegenerative disease becomes guardian of her sister’s baby and falls in love with her workaholic neighbor who’s afraid to fly, further showcases Jimenez’s masterful blend of genres and tone.

For Vanessa Price, “yolo” (you only live once) is more than a catchy slogan; it’s the philosophy she lives by. At 28 years old, with a family history of ALS, she’s seen what the disease can do firsthand—the survival time from onset of symptoms averages just three years—and she’s determined to make the most of the time she has. Vanessa roams the world as a travel YouTube star, broadcasting her latest adventures and donating the bulk of her hefty earnings to ALS research. Neither settling down in one place nor long-term romantic commitments are part of the plan. And parenting is out of the question. So when her younger sister drops her infant daughter, Grace, on Vanessa's doorstep, Vanessa is very believably not equipped to take on the parental role. 

One particularly challenging night, help arrives in an unexpected package. Grace won’t stop wailing and her meltdown brings Vanessa’s sexy next-door neighbor, Adrian, to her door. Their first meeting demonstrates Jimenez's flair for character and conflict. A thoroughly lovely hunk, Adrian is smart, supportive and just a little wounded, coming off a yearlong relationship with a woman he didn’t realize was married. He’s as buttoned up and controlled as Vanessa is spontaneous and risk-taking, but he’s a natural baby whisperer and they make a great team. Though her chaotic family sees Adrian as a “Fancy Hall Cop,” Vanessa gawks admiringly at his calming effect on Grace—a “sorcery” that makes her “clutch a hand over [her] heart.” Impulsive jetsetter meets attorney who’s afraid to fly works well as an effective and creative variation on the idea that opposites attract, but the angst could easily be overwhelming. Instead, Jimenez successfully plays up the contrasts for welcome comic relief, as seen here in Vanessa’s first thought about Adrian:

"This is the hottest guy in my building. Maybe the hottest guy on my block. He is so attractive that if he rolled up on me in an alley in a windowless white van, wearing rubber gloves and waving duct tape, claiming he had candy—I’d get in."

Adrian and Vanessa's vibrancy, paired with Jimenez’s funny and irreverent writing, carry the reader through. The banter, mutual adoration and chemistry between Adrian and Vanessa are more than enough to trigger a swoon. These are irresistible characters, and Life’s Too Short will win readers over with its charm.

In Knit, Purl, A Baby and a Girl, single mother-to-be Poppy Adams’ life is much less glamorous than Vanessa’s. But they have one essential thing in common: becoming a parent was not part of their plan. Poppy is not in a good place emotionally, even before she learns that she’s pregnant. The 22-year-old is insecure, isolated and struggles with negative self-talk and self-loathing. Finding out that she’s pregnant after a drunken round of sex with her ex is the last thing she needs. After drugstore tests come up positive, she goes to Planned Parenthood almost set on having an abortion (though she’s internally unsure as to why), but comes out encouraged and determined to have the baby. Impending motherhood also leads her to join a knitting group where she runs into the very cute and supportive Rhiannon, who also happens to have been her kindly clinic escort.

In her first contemporary romance, Canadian author Hettie Bell (who also writes as Heidi Belleau) creates a sensitive, information-rich portrait of the experience of visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic in the early stages of pregnancy and all the factors that affect what happens next. As Poppy arrives at Planned Parenthood, Bell describes the gauntlet of protest many clients have to face just to get to the front door, the clinic escorts who help them navigate it and the counselors inside who clearly outline the options. Though she is strongly pro-choice, the conclusion Poppy arrives at is this: It’s time to grow up, and she wants to be a parent.

This is a particularly big step since a lifetime of harsh parental criticism has left Poppy with a damaged sense of self, and she struggles with social comparisons and a kind of failure to launch syndrome as a result. You know someone's not in a good place with their family when an innocuous declaration that she’s taking up knitting triggers the response of “Yeah sure, good luck with that” from her sister. Bell paints a consistently convincing portrait of Poppy as someone whose biggest challenge is psychological well-being and maturity. But Poppy also recognizes that she has the fundamental stability needed to take care of a child. Though she beats herself up for being a college dropout, that’s largely due to her family’s expectations. Financially, she’s doing ok. She has a small but comfortable home and a reliable job with health insurance. Similarly to how director/writer Gillian Robespierre’s rom-com Obvious Child normalized abortion, Knit, Purl shows the experience of choosing to become a young, single mother in a complex, loving, but still pro-choice way.

Maturity and a combination of family and pregnancy-related complications end up being the biggest barriers to Poppy’s relationship with the wonderfully sweet and hot Rhiannon, who leads the knitting group. There’s no question that they’re drawn to each other, and Rhiannon likes and appreciates Poppy from the start. They enjoy undeniable sexual chemistry, which Bell brings to vivid life on the page, but Rhiannon is understandably cautious about jumping into a committed relationship with a pregnant woman she’s just met and committing to being part of a child’s life. They’re mulling over the potential for co-parenting before they’ve even begun to formally date. The primary push-pull centers on the complexities of forging a new relationship under those circumstances and Poppy’s instinctual desire to make Rhiannon an instant partner.

Poppy’s loneliness and insecurities are palpable and vividly rendered. But she’s given no support system outside of the new knitting group and her girlfriend Rhiannon. All the spotlight is on the emotional growth of this one character whose near total isolation and alienation are confusing given her personality. As a result, Bell’s romance is largely a coming-of-age story about a woman on the cusp of adulthood as much as it’s a love story between Poppy and Rhiannon.

Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl is an imperfect but original and emotionally engaging story that is worth reading for its messy but realistic portrayal of unplanned pregnancy and a young woman coming into her own.