22 romance books to read while you wait for Emily Henry's next novel

In Henry's 2020 novel "Beach Read," which is being adapted into a film, author January Andrews is in a writing rut. She can't seem to think of her next big idea for a romance novel, so she decides to retreat to the beach house she inherited from her father, hoping inspiration will strike.

To her dismay, January discovers Augustus Everett, an acclaimed literary author who happens to be her college archnemesis, is living next door. 

January plans to steer clear of Augustus for the duration of summer — until she finds out he's having writer's block, too. They decide the solution to their problem is for each of them to try their hand at each other's writing style. Augustus will have to show January the ropes of capital-L literature, and she'll have to make him fall in love with writing about love. 

However, falling for Augustus was never part of the plan. As you dive into "Beach Read," it's easy to see how it turned Emily Henry into a household name.

No one expected Alex and Poppy to become best friends less than Alex and Poppy. After a fateful road trip in college, free-spirited Poppy and buttoned-up Alex become inseparable.

To keep their friendship alive after graduation, the pair agreed to take a trip together every summer, exploring a new place side by side. The trip is Poppy's favorite week of the year, but when "People We Meet on Vacation" begins, they haven't been on a trip — or spoken — in two years, distance growing between them after one night changes everything.

As Poppy feels more bogged down than ever by her life in New York, she knows reuniting with Alex would make everything better. So Poppy proposes one more trip, hoping a week together can get their friendship — and her life — back on track.

Will Poppy or Alex be willing to face the feelings that sent them running from each other in the first place?

"Book Lovers" is Henry's third summer romance book, and it's both an epic love story and an ode to books themselves. 

Nora Stephens doesn't think anything is missing in her life. She loves her job as a literary agent, her apartment in New York, and living near her sister, Libby, and her nieces.

When Libby asks Nora to escape to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, for a month, Nora can't say no, especially since Libby is several months pregnant at the time. Libby has big dreams of small-town romance for Nora during their getaway, but instead of finding a local man to have a fling with, Nora keeps running into Charlie Lastra, a grumpy New York editor she's never gotten along with. 

Despite their less-than-romantic history, Charlie and Nora keep crossing paths in Sunshine Falls, making the ever-growing list of things they have in common harder to ignore. And when Nora discovers her life as she knows it is about to change, Charlie might be the exact thing she needs.

Henry is at her best in "Happy Place," a novel that ruminates on what it means to fight for love.

Harriet has spent her entire adult life loving Wyn. Their relationship consumes her, and the fact that she met him through her best friends, Sabrina and Cleo, only makes her love him more. Between Wyn and her friends, Harriet found the family she had always wanted in college, and she plans to spend her entire life with them.

When Wyn abruptly breaks up with her after she starts her medical school residency, Harriet is heartbroken and terrified she's going to lose everyone she loves. She manages to avoid telling Sabrina and Cleo what happened for five months, planning to burst their bubble on their annual group trip to Maine.

Then Wyn shows up, telling her they'll have to pretend to be a couple for the duration of the trip, since it's the last vacation the group will ever spend in the house they've loved for years. Harriet doesn't want to cause her friends pain, so she's willing to torture herself for a week.

All she has to do is stop herself from asking Wyn what went wrong for seven days, but as his displays of fake affection start to feel more and more real, Harriet might have to face her fear of rocking the boat if she wants a true chance at happiness.

In "Funny Story," Daphne Vincent thought she had everything figured out. She was going to marry her doting fiancé, Peter, quietly thrive at her dream children's librarian job, and settle down in his hometown of Waning Bay, Michigan.

Then, Peter leaves her for his childhood best friend, Petra, leaving Daphne at a crossroads. As she tries to recalibrate her entire future, Daphne moves in with Petra's ex, Miles Nowak, a wild spirit with whom she doesn't think she has much in common.

She plans to avoid Miles as much as she can in their tiny apartment. Then, a night of drinking leads the pair to realize they may be able to help each other get over their breakup embarrassment if they let their exes think there's more between them than just a shared living space.

Daphne knows their plan is temporary, but when she starts to develop real feelings for Miles, she may have to rethink everything she knows about what it means to be in love.

Henry's latest book, "Great Big Beautiful Life," takes place in the summer and features a love story, but it marks a departure from her typical romances.

Journalist Alice Scott is ready for the biggest challenge of her career to date: convincing the elusive heiress Margaret Ives to let her write her biography.

Sunny-dispositioned and thoughtful Alice is sure she can make Margaret comfortable enough to share the story of why she disappeared from public life years ago. However, when she arrives in Little Crescent Island, Georgia, to meet Margaret, she finds she'll be competing against Hayden Anderson, a grumpy and inconveniently handsome writer who happened to win a Pulitzer Prize for his last biography, to tell Margaret's story.

Beating out Hayden for the role might be an uphill battle, but Alice isn't going down without a fight, even after she realizes Margaret is picking and choosing what she tells each of them after getting them to sign strict NDAs. And as they try to unweave Margaret's history, it will become more and more difficult for Alice and Hayden to ignore the heat between them.

Bolu Babalola's "Honey & Spice" doesn't feel like a debut novel, as she writes romantic chemistry with a deftness Henry herself may envy.

Kiki Banjo has made a name for herself at Whitewell University with her radio show "Brown Sugar." She's staked her reputation on her ability to suss out players, warning her peers in the African-Caribbean Society against dating men who aren't worth their time.

Then she risks it all by kissing Malakai Korede in front of everyone after writing him off as "The Wastemen of Whitewell" on her show. Kiki is terrified her show is going to slip through her grasp, so she makes a deal with Malakai to pretend to be a couple in the hopes that Kiki can save her show and Malakai can change his reputation on campus.

Kiki expects the duration of their fake romance to be torture, but as she and Malakai eat, study, and spend time together, she's unsettled to discover there seems to be more to him than meets the eye. Will Kiki be willing to let go of her preconceived notions for a chance at something real?

Like Henry, Taylor Jenkins Reid is a master at writing about yearning and epic love, as is obvious in "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo."

Monique Grant's career as a magazine writer is at a standstill when famous — and famously private — film star Evelyn Hugo says she wants to do a tell-all interview with Monique, and only Monique. 

Monique doesn't understand why Evelyn would want to work with her of all people, but she can't say no, especially when Evelyn starts opening up to her about her path to fame and the forbidden love that changed the course of her life. Monique feels like Evelyn has handed her the opportunity of a lifetime.

When she finds out why Evelyn chose her for the tell-all, Monique will have to face truths about their shared history she never expected.

If you've already read Henry's "Great Big Beautiful Life," you'll swoon for "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo."

Lydia Bird's life is turned upside down when the love of her life, Freddie, dies in a car accident. After months of mourning and wanting to go back in time, Lydia begins to move on with the help of her sister and Freddie's best friend.

Then she's given a way to return to her old life with Freddie, a life where the tragedy never occurred. Her heart is pulled in two directions as she struggles to choose between going back to the familiar and embracing the unknown, where someone new wants to love her. 

Poignant and fresh, Josie Silver's "The Two Lives of Lydia Bird" is a story of love and hope that strikes a similar tone to Henry's works.

On the night before Drew Nichols is set to be a groomsman in his ex-girlfriend's wedding, he gets stuck in an elevator with the pretty and funny Alexa Monroe, the first bright spot in what he believes will be an unbearable weekend.

Impulse leads him to ask her to be his date to the wedding, and the duo surprises themselves by having more fun together than they bargained for. They plan to part ways after the wedding, neither interested in a long-distance relationship, but fate might have other plans for them. 

Jasmine Guillory writes about romance with reverence and joy, making "The Wedding Date" an ideal read for Henry lovers.

Dannie Kohan's plan is on track. In one day, she performs well at the job interview of a lifetime and agrees to marry her long-term boyfriend. Then, when she goes to sleep that night, she wakes up five years in the future, with a different man beside her and his ring on her finger.

Dannie has only one hour in the future before she's yanked back to the present, and she tries to push the experience aside as a vivid dream. Then, she meets the man from her dream four and a half years later and discovers he's dating her best friend. Dannie will have to confront what she really wants and decide whether she's willing to change her plans to find true happiness. 

Rebecca Serle's "In Five Years" explores time, grief, and all-consuming love, both romantic and platonic, in the same way Henry's books do, challenging readers to ask how far they would go for true happiness.

Although Sally Rooney's beloved "Normal People" has a darker tone than Henry's books, the protagonists, Connell and Marianne, have a chemistry and a yearslong history that Henry fans will love.

Connell and Marianne meet in high school, when Connell is a popular jock, and Marianne is, well, the opposite. The two bond despite their differences, setting them on a course that will shape their lives, drawing them back to one another over and over again.

Rooney's novel shows the inevitability of love, finding words for the often inexplicable reasons people need each other. You can also stream the Hulu series once you finish the book.

Like Henry, Carley Fortune captures the angst and ecstasy of summer love in "One Golden Summer."

Alice can trace back her successful photography career to one photo: a candid shot of three teenagers on a bright yellow speedboat. She captured the shot during the one summer she spent at Barry's Bay with her Nan when she was 17, and it shifted the trajectory of her life.

Fifteen years later, Alice should be living her dream as a professional photographer, but six months after a breakup, she feels stuck and uninspired. When Nan breaks her hip, Alice thinks spending another summer at Barry's Bay might be good for them both.

Her vision of a tranquil summer with her grandmother gets upended by Charlie Florek, one of the teens from Alice's famous photo. The glimpse of Charlie that she got across the lake all those years ago was intriguing, but adult Charlie is so devastatingly handsome and thoughtful that he almost scares Alice.

As they spend the summer together, Charlie heals wounds in Alice that she didn't know were there. If he lets her in, Alice might just do the same for Charlie.

Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are supposed to hate each other. Not only have they been competing against each other in hockey since they were 18, but they're also total opposites. Canadian Shane is cautious and focused, while Russian wild card Ilya isn't afraid to embrace his bad boy reputation on the ice.

They have one big thing in common, though: the secret hookups they can't seem to resist every time they see each other. If the world found out about their relationship, both Ilya and Shane's careers could be in jeopardy, but they may decide it's worth the risk for a chance at something real with each other.

Rachel Reid's "Heated Rivalry" was adapted into a hit TV show, so you can stream the series if you want more from the characters when you finish the book.

Christina Lauren has written dozens of books, and their 2018 novel "Love & Other Words" is perfect for Henry fans who love friends-to-lovers plots.

Macy Sorensen has been white-knuckling her way through life for nearly a decade, but she's content with the safe world she's constructed for herself. A pediatric resident and newly engaged to a kind man who makes her feel mostly nothing, Macy thinks her heart is safe from the turmoil she experienced in her adolescence — until Elliot Petropoulos literally walks back into her life.

Macy met Elliot as a teen shortly after her mother died, and he quickly became her center of gravity as she visited the small town he called home on weekends. Christina Lauren tells their story from the past and present, showing readers how they became fast friends over books and adolescent secrets, how they fell into life-changing love, and the wreckage they were both left with when it all fell apart.

After 10 years of no contact, Macy may finally be ready to tell Elliot why she went radio silent on him after one fateful night. They'll both have to decide if they can move on from the pain of the past for a chance at a joy-filled future, together.

Achingly romantic and surprisingly funny, "The Seven Year Slip" by Ashley Poston is about meeting the right person at the wrong time, literally.

Clementine West has been adrift since her beloved aunt died. She thought living in the Upper East Side apartment she inherited from her would make her feel closer to her, as the apartment's magic had always drawn her in. Instead, she feels like she's just waiting for her aunt to walk through the door.

Then, one day, Clementine comes home to find a man she doesn't know standing in her kitchen. Except, he thinks the apartment is his, for the summer anyway. He exists seven years in the past, staying in the apartment over the summer while Clementine and her aunt were in Europe.

Clementine isn't ready to be hurt by love again, but she might not be able to keep up her defenses against the sweet chef staying the summer. And if she does let herself fall, will they work together if she finds him again in the now?

Justin and Emma are having the same dating problem. Everyone they date meets their soulmate immediately after they break up with them.

When Emma sees Justin's viral Reddit post about his problem, she reaches out, and they decide to go on a date in hopes of breaking their curse.

Emma, a traveling nurse, plans to stay in Minnesota for the summer and enjoy a fling with Justin during her short stay. The last thing either expects is to get immediately attached, especially when they both have family members counting on them come fall.

Despite their best-laid plans, Emma and Justin's curse might have been leading them to each other all along in "Just for the Summer" by Abby Jimenez.

To the world, romance novelist Eva Mercy and acclaimed literary author Shane Hall have nothing to do with each other. That's because the only two people who know their books are inspired by each other are Eva and Shane.

For their entire careers, Shane and Eva have been writing secret love letters to each other, as the week they spent as teens glued to each other's sides in a rush of love still haunts them both years later.

They finally come face-to-face again when they both speak on a Brooklyn literary panel, and despite the years since they've seen each other, their chemistry is undeniable. Eva doesn't trust Shane after the way things went down between them, though, and as a single mom, she can't risk getting hurt again.

Still, Eva has always been curious to know why Shane disappeared, and reuniting with him might be the key to breaking her writer's block.

The second-chance romance in Tia Williams' "Seven Days in June" will hit the spot for Henry's fans.

Ali Hazelwood is a prolific romance author, and the coming-of-age story and yearning in "Deep End" will scratch the itch for lovers of Henry's books.

Nearly every moment of Scarlett Vandermeer's life at Stanford is accounted for. She spends her days in the pool as a member of the diving team or studying, laser-focused on achieving her goal of getting into medical school.

A relationship or even a fling is the last thing on Scarlett's mind. Then, she finds out Lukas Blomqvist, Stanford's world champion swim captain who thrives on control, has similar interests to her when it comes to intimacy, and she thinks she might be able to make time in her busy schedule for something casual.

Lukas and Scarlett agree to explore their attraction together, deciding not to tell almost anyone about their arrangement. Scarlett doesn't think keeping her relationship with Lukas to herself will be a problem until she realizes the last thing she feels about him is casual.

"Same Time Next Summer" by Annabel Monaghan offers another take on second-chance romance.

Sam's family's beach house on Long Island was her happy place in her childhood. She spent every summer there, and she was never happier than she was with her toes in the sand. Then, at 17, Wyatt broke her heart, and Sam couldn't face a summer there without him. She hasn't been back for more than a long weekend since.

At 30, Sam is making the trek from the city back to the beach, and she isn't the girl she was at 17. She's determined to succeed at her high-powered job and plan the perfect wedding with her fiancé, Jack, whose tendency to over-schedule their lives has become a comfort.

Only when she arrives, Sam discovers that Wyatt has returned to the house next door, and the entire adult life she created for herself begins to crumble. As old feelings come rushing back, Sam will have to take stock of who she is, who she wants to be, and who she really wants to live her life with.

When Phoebe Stone arrives at the Cornwall Inn in Rhode Island, she's dressed to the nines and doesn't intend to ever check out. Her plans immediately go awry, though, when she discovers the entire hotel has been rented out for a wedding, and the attendees immediately assume she's one of the wedding people.

Soon, Phoebe has no choice but to participate in the wedding festivities, especially because she and the bride keep telling each other their darkest secrets.

After months of depression, the fanfare and plot twist of a stranger's wedding might show Phoebe her own path forward.

Slightly more melancholy in tone than Henry's works but still beautifully romantic, "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach is about the surprises life can bring when you least expect it.

If you're looking for another romance work that has been adapted for the screen, you can check out "The Deal" by Elle Kennedy, known as "Off Campus" on Amazon Prime.

Hannah Wells is thriving at Briar University. She's killing it in her music classes, and she has the best friend a girl could ask for. Her crush, Justin, has no idea she's into him, though, and Hannah doesn't know where to start on figuring out how to flirt or date.

Enter Garrett Graham, a hockey captain bound for the NHL. His GPA is in trouble, though, and Hannah is the only one who can help. The duo strikes a deal, with Hannah agreeing to tutor Garrett in school if he helps her make Justin jealous with a fake relationship.

Garrett expects that pretending to date Hannah will be a breeze, but when he develops real feelings for her, he'll have to come up with a new plan to get the girl.