One of the great joys of romance is that it offers light when life feels dark. Right now, when stress seems to shadow much of life, laughter isn’t just a luxury–it’s a necessity. Romances that make us laugh remind us that joy belongs in the everyday, that wit and warmth can live right alongside longing. And let’s be honest–we need the laughs.

I’ve laughed out loud at Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game, where Lucy and Josh’s exchanges are sharp, silly, and utterly relentless. Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Natural Born Charmer has more hilarious scenes than I can recall although the Speed Racer scene cracks me up every time.  The bros in Julianna Keyes’s Bench Player are flat-out funny and give the book a lightness that adds to its sexy love story.

There are others where wit is woven into the fabric of the story. Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me builds to the chaos of Pall Mall with such precision that it still makes me grin. Early Tessa Bailey—such as Protecting What’s His—throws irreverence in with the fire. Serena Bell’s Walk on the Wilder Side captures the comedy of human awkwardness without apology. Loretta Chase’s Ten Things I Hate About the Duke is wildly amusing from its opening scene on.

Those are a few of my favorite funny reads. What about you? Which romances have made you laugh out loud—so much that you had to stop reading for a moment and revel in the sheer pleasure of the scene?