Since 1998, AAR has done seven Top 100 Romances polls. (You can see the first six here and the last one, done in 2018, here.) It is, we would be the first to acknowledge, an impossible task. Over the years, the methodology has changed but, every time, the final list is decided by readers, not staff. It’s time to do this one last time!
This poll was created with all the books from the last top 100 poll, the top picks from reader generated entries (voted on by readers) and the staff’s top picks (voted on by readers). The books on this list have been published over decades, represent many different genres, and are by a diverse group of authors. You have 218 books to choose from, separated into two tranches and the chance to separately choose the Top Ten Romances as well.
It is our hope–and we’d really like your help with this–that this list is voted on by as many romance readers as possible. The poll will remain open until the 15th of March. Please share it with your friends, on your social media, and anywhere else you can think of!
We are excited, one last time, to let romance readers pick their all time favorite romances. May the best books win! (CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO BEGIN THE SURVEY.)
THE AAR TOP 100 ROMANCES POLL (2026)
People are beginning to take the poll! We’re up to a bit over 100 votes thus far. Please take it! We need ten times that many votes for it to have the heft I’d like!
Are you sure that all the books from 2018 poll are included? I don’t see ‘The iron duke’ by Meljean Brook and ‘The spymaster’s lady’ by Joanna Bourne. Or is it only the ones from last poll that were voted in previous polls?
No. They should have been in there. Let me check. I didn’t take them out on purpose.
I added them in. The poll is just starting so hopefully they won’t be disenfranchised.
I love your lists and I have read and reviewed all the books in the 2013 list and the vast majority of those from the 2018 one. That’s why I remember some names and was surprised to see them missing.
Those two are just the first that I saw that surprised me, as they are two of my favourites.
Excuse me if I’m a little OCD, is this lists obsession that I have, that’s all.
Now I have revised both lists in your own site, and not only in by data base, and I think these books could be also missing:
Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Lover Awakened by J. R. Ward
Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
The Rake by Mary Jo Putney
Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan
I will share the link to the poll. I’d love to see a huge number of people voting so it will be more statistically relevant.
Thank you, again, for an amazing job.
I don’t know what happened. All are in my database that I imported into Survey Monkey but ten books got kicked out. I had a health scare on Wednesday night and must have been distracted and didn’t notice. They are all in the last poll which is on our site. We could just start over or add them or just say this poll is offering new choices. If I add them, I could weight them in the final polling if they are up close to the top 100. Ugh.
Sorry to hear about the health scare. The most important thing now is that you take care of yourself and those around you. This are things that just happen – I spend at least half an hour each day at my job because of problems with the computer and the program we use at work. So anything can happen when computers are involved. Whatever you decide to do is going to be OK. Some of them are my favorites and that’s why I missed them. But The Rake or The hating game will still be great novels and enjoyed by millions even if they are not included in the list.
The Hating Game would be a top ten favorite for me. I didn’t realize it wasn’t there! It’s so hard to choose!
I see that The Hating Game is included, so in the end it’s just seven of the 2018 poll that are missing.
The other piece of it is that we are trying to get some new books on the list. But I feel sure The Hating Game would make it.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I still don’t see those 7 books that Bona identified. And I’m bummed because some of those would make my top 100 if not my top 10.
I hear you.
I didn’t see The Rake by Mary Jo Putney ( which is definitely a top 10 book for me) or Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn either.
What a crazy effort this must be!
I don’t recall seeing Laura Lee Gurhke (And then he kissed her) or Connie Brockaway (My Dearest Enemy). I thought they were on past lists.
Sadly I already voted so I can’t vote for Joanna Bourne who definitely is in my top 10.
None of them were on the last top 100 poll (2018), which is (if I understand correctly, as I have seen some titles missing) the one that they have included here. But you remember correctly, they were on past lists, at least five of their books.
Guhrke – And then he kissed her was in the 2010 and 2013 polls. Guilty pleasures just in one, in 2004.
Brockway — As you desire was in six polls (2000, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013, it only missed the last one); All Through the Night in three (2004, 2007 and 2010) and My Dearest Enemy appeared in six polls (2000, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013, again, it only missed the last one).
Tastes change and that’s why they are nor so popular anymore. I think they are quite charming novels to read and I would recommend them to anyone who likes historical romances. As you desire and All through the night are 5-stars readings for me. I really, really love As you desire…
In 02/17/2025, they published a post with the Consolidated AAR Top 100 Romances List (1998-2018) which I found very helpful to discover the best 100 considering all the lists. It was titled ’20 Years of AAR Top 100 Romances: A Guest Post’. As you desire was ranked the 37.
I love As You Desire and I was also looking for it. It’s always been in my top five favorites and I was surprised it wasn’t on the 2018 list.
This was harder than I expected. I tried to make it books I think are truly good or at least important in the genre rather than my own favorites, which are not always the authors’ best. “Good” and “I like it” are not always synonymous, and sometimes I like things for reasons I can’t even figure out myself. For example, my favorite Heyer is The Quiet Gentleman, which no one else even seems to mention.
But I gave it my best shot.
I haven’t read “The Quiet Gentleman” in a long time, but I have friends who love it so you’re not alone!
The poll is humming along and is clearly being filled out by historical romance lovers.
If you haven’t filled it out yet, please do!!!!!!!
I made a big effort to only vote for books I have (re-)read in the last 5 years (maximum up to 10 years).
So many old favorites (a lot of them historicals) have not held up for me, so it would not be fair to vote based on nostalgia without a re-read.
this means that my vote skewed very much into other genres than historical this time.
Great idea. Sometimes I re-read a book and the good bits are still good but there are often sections that have dropped out of my memory and they are *not* good.
Yes.
Sometimes it makes me sad, how I loved Judith McNaught!! But on reread, her heroines are eternally sacrificing themselves to awful family …. I cannot read Paradise anymore because the way she submits to her father is unbearable to me now.
Just one example.
Is anyone on the reddit sub RomanceBooks? I’d love to let people know about the poll there but I’m not sure they’ll let me post. I know you can’t link to a poll but is there anyway just to say it exists. It’s on the HistoricalRomance one and I’d like to let those who love other genres to know about it.
I go there, along with r/historicalromance. I think there’s also r/romancelandia and r/hrnoveldiscussions. I’ll poke around.
Thanks. Everytime I try and post there I am rejected because they say I inherently promote AAR. Sigh….
I’lll try asking the mods there, I’m a little uncertain because one of their rules is NO POLLS. I don’t know if that means just there on reddit.
But I did post on r/hrnoveldiscussions and I’m waiting for the mods to get back to me on r/historicalromance.
I have posted it on r/historicalromance. They were lovely.
Hi!
I haven’t read all the books on the list, so I can only choose from the ones I have read.
Here’s my list 😉
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale
Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas
Last week for our last poll!
If you haven’t taken it, please do. And please share it with other romance readers!
I’ve given it all the publicity I could. I hope you get votes from Spanish-speaking readers (from both sides of the Pond).
I checked in with Fated Mates and Romancing the Data, both were lovely!
Hi, I saw the banner on the homepage saying today is the last day to vote?? I thought the poll closed on 15 March, so two more days? Still doing last minute reading …
Yes. It closes tomorrow. Today is the last full day.
So then it closes on Saturday 14th, not Sunday 15th? OK
It closes at the end of the day tomorrow. So, technically, there are two more days, but not two more 24 hour periods.
The poll has closed. We will be publishing the results this week!
Here’s a teaser:
70% of the books are historical romances.
24% are contemporary romances.
4% are paranormal or urban fantasy.
2% are speculative or time-slip romances.