BEST ROMANCE BOOKS OF 2020

[Music] hey guys welcome back to my channel we are here the long-awaited video my favorite romances of 2020. i have been putting off making this video because i literally had no idea what my favorite romances of 2020 were i read so many amazing ones that just the idea of making this list stressed me out but we're here it is time now everyone can stop asking me on every single video that i upload where's your favorite romances where's your romance video what were your favorite romances of 2020 here we go i'm gonna tell you i don't know how many books are on this list i just went through all my romances and i wrote down all the ones that i loved a lot and they're in no particular order i don't really know if i have like a single favorite maybe i'll figure it out while i'm talking about them so i guess i will kind of break them up into categories so the first two are going to be my favorite historical romances in a shocking turn of events there is no tessa dare on this list because she did not publish a book last year which is so tragic so i have two historical romances from authors who aren't tessader the first historical romance that i have is the rogue of fifth avenue by joanna schupp this is the first book in this uptown girls series i believe that this is one of the first historical romances that i've read that takes place in america it takes place in new york i think that all the other ones i've read take place in europe mostly england but i've also read some that takes place in scotland this was the first american one and i loved this so basically our main character is kind of a robin hood type of person she steals from the wealthy people in the like upper new york society and she gives money to poor needy people and the guy is her father's lawyer and her i'm a little bit foggy on the details but i believe that her father like tasks him with keeping an eye on his daughter because she's like always getting into trouble i just really loved this it was my first joanna shoot book and the chemistry and the romance was so good the banter was amazing there's specific things i always look for in historical romances and banter is one of them like if they don't have good banter i don't want it and these characters definitely had amazing banter the other historical romance that i have is the highwayman by kerrigan byrne so this actually felt so different to all the other historical romances that i read i feel like the ones i typically pick up are lighter kind of rom-com historical romances they always lean more like funny whereas this i would classify as a dark romance i don't know if anyone else would agree with that but this felt very dark so basically this is about two kids who lived in an orphanage together and they were best friends and they fell in love they like got married you know like they had like a little child wedding ceremony and then the girl is assaulted by one of the adults there and in order to protect her the boy kills him and he ends up going to prison for it and so they're separated for a very long time for like 10 years and then she finds out that he died in prison and so she vowed to like never love again she considers herself a widow and in mourning and she now kind of works for scotland yard i can't remember exactly what she does for them i don't know she works with like the detectives and one day there is this like notorious highwayman that is brought in for questioning and after seeing her after this like criminal sees her he decides to kidnap her and he tells her that he knows her dead husband that they were in prison together and that he saved his life and he wants her help and getting revenge on the person who caused his death in prison oh my god this book is like one of the angstiest romances i have ever read like if you want to be tortured from angst this is it this is the one the chemistry and the tension was just amazing my favorite romances are always ones where the couple have some sort of history and they had a lot of history so yeah definitely recommend this if you are looking for a historical romance that is more on the darker side so the next little section is going to be katie robert if you're new to my channel or this is the first time you're watching one of my romance videos katie robert is my all-time favorite romance author and i think i read like five of her romances in 2020 but i'm just going to talk about my two favorites of those five otherwise this entire video will just be katie robert so the first one i think that this was the first romance i read in 2020 i could be wrong and that is learn my lesson this is the second book in her wicked villains series so this series are disney retellings where the princesses have romances with the villains and they take place in modern world all surrounding this like underground sex club that is run by hades who is the love interest in this book so this one follows hades and meg they are an established couple already they're together it's following them they've kind of hit a rough patch in their relationship one day hercules walks in to their club and hades wants to mess with hercules to get revenge on zeus so he sends meg to seduce hercules and sort of trick him into selling himself to hades thinking that he's saving meg when really like he's just been bamboozled the book is a polyamorous relationship between the three of them and it's so good katie robert i think does polyamorous romances really well especially when it comes to these sex scenes i've read some like threesome sex scenes where it's just like so awkward and i think that from this series meg is one of my favorite characters i just love her so much i feel like she really embodies a lot of how she was in the movie hercules and she's one of my favorite like disney princesses i know she's not really considered a princess but like she's one of my favorite disney women and i just love her in this book and i also just love the devotion that both hercules and hades have for her so if you have not already picked up the series i highly recommend it and then the other katie robert book that made this list is your dad will do this is the first book in her taboo romance series these are all just like very steamy taboo novellas and this one follows a girl who catches her fiance cheating on her so in order to get revenge she seduces his father and that's what this book is if you have read birthday girl by penelope douglas this is basically birthday girl but more sex less plot birthday girl really had like the slow burn element but this was like they get to it from page three the book was just steamy steamy steamy and it was great i loved this the next author i have two books from and that is rebecca weatherspoon another one of my top favorite authors so the first book i have by her is harbor this is the third book in her beards and bondage series i've only read the first one and it was okay it's not one of my favorites but this book oh my god amazing so this is a polyamorous romance and it basically follows these three people who find out that their partners were cheating on them because they were murdered so their partners were having an affair in a motel and while they were there somebody shot and killed them and so not only do they find out that their partners died but they find out that their partners were also cheating on them and so they're dealing with like a lot of conflicting emotions grief and anger and betrayal and it brings them together so one of them is a girl and then the other two are two guys who are a couple through this grief it brings them together but they're not ready for anything like more serious and so they take like i think it's like nine nine or ten months or maybe even a year there's like a long period of time after they first like meet that they don't have any communication they're really dealing with their grief and then they finally when they're ready seek each other out and have this whole like experience together and i just loved this so much i say this every time i talk about rebecca weatherspoon but she handles emotional topics so well and i just really loved the relationships between these three characters specifically the two guys the relationship that they had with each other because they're already like an established couple and so it's really interesting to see like how they're dealing with this whole situation as a couple who finds out that the third in their relationship was cheating on them so then the other book i have by rebecca weatherspoon is zenny so this is a marriage of convenience romance the main character zeni her aunt passes away and they were really really close and so in her aunt's will she leaves like everything to zenny like tons of money but there is one catch and that is that she has to marry some guy named mason who is this like really giant scottish man who was friends with her aunt and so if they get married and stay married for a certain amount of time then they're gonna get this like huge payout they decide to do it they both really need the money and they end up falling in love in the process and it's so good i don't know that i've read a lot of like marriage of convenience contemporary romances normally the ones that i've read are historical romances but i loved how it was done in here i also really liked how both zeni and mason are bi like i can't really think of many other romances i've read where both people in the relationship were bi so i really enjoyed that aspect of it this book also has pegging enough said the next book i think is the only fantasy romance on this list and that is radiance by grace draven so grace raven is an author that i discovered in 2020 and i've now read i think three of her books and this was definitely my favorite so this is another marriage of convenience we're following um these two royals from different species and they're kind of like despair royalty they're not important enough where their marriage like really matters but they're also not insignificant enough that they can just marry anybody these two like warring kingdoms or opposing kingdoms decide to marry them off to each other to create like a political alliance so i think that he is like the second son of the king and she is the niece of a king what i loved about this romance so much is that they think each other is ugly she's a human he is a kai and so he's basically like this giant gray monster type of creature and both species think that the other one is super unattractive and like disgusting and so once they get married they go to live in his kingdom and so a lot of the book is really about her learning how to live the life of the kai because they're very sensitive to sunlight so they basically sleep during the day and are awake at night so she has to adjust to always being in the dark the food that they eat she thinks is super disgusting and they even though they're like super unattracted to each other they form like a really great friendship they become like best friends and then through that through becoming friends and learning more about each other they slowly start to be more attracted to each other and it's so amazing this is definitely one of my favorite friends to lovers romances i think this is the book that made me like friends to lovers and if you like fantasy romances i just highly highly recommend this i definitely think that they are one of my favorite couples in romance they're just topped here and i think it's because their love for each other isn't based off of just like an instant attraction where i feel like a lot of romances they're just attracted to each other and that's it but they actually love each other for what's on the inside and then grow to love what's on the outside and it's just so cute the next two books are both by one of my favorite romance authors miss talia hibbert so the first one from her is take a hint danny brown this is the sequel to get a life chloe brown which i wasn't the biggest fan of despite her being one of my favorite romance authors i didn't love chloe brown so i was a little bit skeptical going into this book but oh my god it blew me away i think if i really did have to pick like a top favorite romance of 2020 it would be this one so this one follows danny brown who is chloe's sister and she does not want love she just wants a physical relationship she just wants to have sex she's not interested in love she has this friend at work i think that he's like the security guard one day there's a fire in the building and he like saves her and carries her out of the building and because of that someone took a video of it and posted it on social media and it went viral and they were getting a lot of attention and so they decided to kind of play up this romance for the internet and pretend to date but the guy zaff is like secretly in love with her he's had a crush on her for a really long time and has been really trying to make a move and so he kind of sees this fake dating as a way to try to actually date her whereas danny sees the fake dating situation as a way to have like a friends with benefits type of relationship with him and i just loved this so much i feel like danny and zaff are two characters that i related to so much on completely different levels i'm not even remotely a romantic person and so i really related to danny being like you know what romance is not for me and then with zaf he has social anxiety and that was something that i also really really related to and i think i just really loved that like the conflict in this book was more internal stuff that each of the characters was going through zaf was really trying to work through his anxiety issues and danny was really trying to work on her relationship with romance and sex i just loved the chemistry between the two of them and their relationship and zaff is probably one of the best romantic heroes ever i feel like i say this in every single one of talia hibbert's books but she just writes male characters way better than they deserve like i'm sorry to all the men out there y'all never ever ever gonna be a talia hibbert man i'm sorry she set the bar too high so then the other talia hibbert book is guarding temptation this one is a novella that follows a girl who is a political blogger and she writes this post i think about brexit and a lot of people start trolling her and harassing her and someone posts her address and so she's really worried that like she's no longer safe and she can't stay at her apartment so she turns to her old friend and asks if she can stay with him which she really does not want to do because a couple months prior they hooked up and then immediately after hooking up he acted like he regretted it so much and it really hurt her feelings and so they haven't spoken since then but now she needs to stay with him because she's no longer safe and his book was so so good like the way that talia hibbert was able to build like such intense chemistry between two characters in such a short amount of pages was immaculate the guy in this book i forget his name but he was amazing like the way that he was so protective over the main character but he also knew that like she's a strong woman and can take care of herself and he didn't try to like impose himself on her in a protective way but he was there to help her if she needed or asked for help and i really loved that and i definitely recommend this one the brown sisters series gets so much love and attention and i feel like talia hibbert's other books don't get that same level of attention but they are just as good if not better so if you liked the brown sister series and you haven't read gardening temptation yet you definitely need to do that or to honestly just read any other talia favorite books the next one is go deep by realzy adams which is another novella and this follows a woman who is a romance writer but she has been in a rut recently her fans aren't really liking her recent books they think that the the sex scenes are really dry and stale and it's because her own sex life isn't the best right now and so she decides to ask her best friend if they can have sex to like get her mojo back and so she can get inspiration for writing this book is another one that made me love friends to lovers romances and i think that what i really loved about this one is that i i felt like it was different from a lot of other friends to lovers romances that i've read where usually i feel like with friends to lovers one of them has like always had some sort of feelings for the other one but they were like unrequited but in this one they did like they didn't have feelings for each other prior to this like arrangement they weren't even really attracted to each other but then through this friends with benefits situation they ended up falling for each other and i just really liked that because i felt like it was different from a lot of the other ones that i've read also the sex scenes in this were amazing like there's one particular scene that definitely is up there in like top tier romance scene status it takes place in a restaurant and that's all i'm gonna say but it was amazing so then the last book i believe is the most recent one that i read i read this for smartathon and that is the initiation by nikki sloan so this book is kind of hard to explain because for the first half of the book it's one thing and then the second half of the book takes a total left turn and it's something else entirely so i guess the way that i would pitch this book it kind of has like a gossip girl like elite rich people vibe it's basically about this i think this like finance company i don't know what kind of company it is but it's like a company and there's this really secretive initiation ceremony to get on the board so anyone who becomes a board member has to go through this initiation ceremony and it involves their wife the ceo's son is next in line to join the board and so he needs to get married so him and his wife can be a part of this initiation ceremony so he has been like betrothed to the main character's sister so her sister is going to marry him but she ends up getting pregnant with somebody else so she can no longer fulfill this arrangement so instead the main character is the one to step in and marry him and take part in this initiation and so her and the guy have a very rivals type of relationship because he kind of made her life in their socials very difficult he's a very powerful person and he claimed that she is nobody so because of that no one really treated her well or included her in things and she was kind of an outcast and so she really doesn't like him but now she has to marry him to save her family because they are in financial ruin and she's gonna get a lot of money if she does this and so the whole first part of the book is like her getting ready for this initiation ceremony that we don't know what the it is and then it happens and i'm not gonna say at all what it is because you just have to read this book it is so freaking wild the first half of the book reads like a normal romance and then it takes a turn and it's a little bit darker but i could not put it down like there was a section of it where maybe for like 30 pages i did not breathe like if i had pearls i would have clutched my pearls yeah i highly recommend this book i ended up binging the whole series and i really liked the series overall but i think that the first book was by far the best so those were my favorite romances of 2020 but definitely let me know in the comments what your favorite romance was that you read last year thank you guys for watching and i will see you in my next video bye you

Channel: Riley Marie

Views: 18,106

Rating: 4.9675384 out of 5

Keywords: booktube, riley marie, reading, books, book recommendations, read, romance books, favorite books of 2020, favorite romance books, best romance, best romance books 2020, romance, talia hibbert, katee robert, steamy romance, spicy romance, top romance books, romance book recommendations

Id: Djv0AKU5CPE

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 25 2021