We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is a: Love/Valentine’s Freebie
Maybe it’s uninspired but for today’s freebie, I’m keeping it real simple and sharing 10 contemporary romances that I’m hoping to (finally) read this year. To make it a bit more fun, half are going to be backlist romances and the other half will be 2025/2026 releases that I’m keen to get to. Let’s do it!
If Only You by Chloe Liese
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck
Good Spirits by B.K. Borison
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Unromance by Erin Connor
The Re-Do List by Denise Williams
Have you read any of these romances or are they also on your TBR?
dinipandareads 
Keeping it simple is good, Dini. I’ve read 4 of these, Borison, Hoang, Jackson and Hazelwood and enjoyed them all. I really like the sound of the Re-do List, and my library has a copy, so I will be adding that one. Happy reading.
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I hope you enjoy the Re-do List when you get your library copy, Carla! It does look like fun 🙂 Happy reading!
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The Heart Principle is on my list as well this week. If Only You is one I have to look up, because I can’t for the life of me remember what book in the Bergman Brothers series this is. I’ve read the first 3 though.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2026/02/10/top-ten-tuesday-love-is-on-the-tbr/
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It’s book 6
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Okay, so Real Men Knit is an immediate TBR add just from the title!
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Ooh, I’m so glad I checked back on this list as I’m responding to comments and I already completely forgot that title is on my TBR. This is a great time to give it a go and see if it fits my current mood, lol. I hope you love it if/when you check it out 😍
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The Re-Do List is on my TBR too. It sounds so good!
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It does! And I’ve enjoyed this author’s work previously so I’m excited to give it a go 🙂
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I hope you love them all. This has been a popular pick for a theme this week.
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It’s definitely an easy option for this week 🤭 Thanks, Lydia!
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Hope you enjoy!
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Thank you! 🙂
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I generally struggle to find contemporary romances that I enjoy, even though I often enjoy them a lot more as TV shows… maybe I just haven’t found the right ones!
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I’ve sadly found this to be an issue for me lately as well. Since 2025 I haven’t really been intrigued by contemporary romances and neither have the ones I picked up really worked for me. Maybe it was just the overall mood of last year, but I hope that changes in 2026! It’s tough to find the right one (and at the right time too, lol).
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Fingers crossed!
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I’ve only read Love on the Brain. It was a typical Hazelwood. Entertaining of course ;D
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Yeah, Ali Hazelwood has a formula that seems to be working for many readers! I’ve still only read one of her books (which I loved) so I’m curious to check out more of them, lol.
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I love the color’s of Erin’s cover! May be one I should take another look at (I think I did read about it back when it released) because it did catch my eye. 🙂
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It is a great cover and I love the illustration too 🙂
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Love on the Brain is one of my favorite books. I hope you love it!
Here’s my take: https://readintowonderland.blogspot.com/2026/02/t10t-red-and-pink-covers.html
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Yay, that’s exciting to hear! I’ve heard some mixed things about it but I’m generally easy going with my contemporary romances as long as nothing irritates me too much, lol. I hope I love it too 🙂
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I’ve read and loved Love on the Brain and am currently reading and enjoying Good Spirits 🙂 Hope you’ll love all of these!
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I’ve heard good things about Good Spirits! So glad to hear you’re enjoying it Lindsey 🙂
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I’ve been curious about Good Spirits and I liked Love on the Brain.
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I’ve heard great things about Good Spirits! I hope I like Love on the Brain too 🙂
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The only one on your list that I’ve read is The Wedding Date. I enjoyed it enough to continue with the series, I only have the 6th book left to read.
Here’s my TTT: https://readbakecreate.com/favorite-romances-read-in-2025/
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6! Are there 6 books in that series!? Goodness… I didn’t realise it was that long 😂 Now I’m wondering if I want to commit haha
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The best part is that you don’t have to read all 6, nor do you really have to read them in order. That said, they are interconnected and may have spoilers if you read them out of order.
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The Re-Do List looks so cute. I loved Denise William’s The Fastest Way to Fall. Hope you get a chance to pick these up!
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I still haven’t read any of William’s full-length romances but I have loved her novellas! I’m excited to give her full-length a go 🙂
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I haven’t read any of these, but I’m a knitter so Real Men Knit sounds interesting for sure!
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I’m not a knitter (though I’d like to be) but I think it does sound interesting too, haha 🤭
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😀
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I’m not much for romance novels, so I haven’t read any of these. I hope you love them all when you get to them!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Thank you 🙂
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I loved Good Spirits. There was this moment when certain things click into place and I just melted inside. Two of the others are on my romance specific TBR (which is bigger than I realised having worked on a post linked to it yesterday 😂) but a lot of the others are new to me. I hope you love them all 🥰 also the cover for The Wedding Date is gorgeous 😍
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Aah, that sounds lovely. I love the feeling when things click and you just GET IT and it just feels so good 😍 I’m excited to check it out! Being part of the book community, your TBR tends to grow without you even realising it half the time (at least, that’s what it was like for me). I always think “oh, I’m just adding one or two books no big deal” and then hundreds of books later… 👀 Oops! Haha
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Can’t wait to hear what you think of it and I really hope you love it. Thats very true, TTTs can be especially dangerous when it comes to growing TBRs 😂😂 at least well never run out of books 😅
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Looking forward to seeing what you think of these books! I feel like I never really read contemporary romance and they all look the same these days in terms of cover, so I don’t really know where to start.
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I hope you love them!
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Thank you! I hope so too 🙂
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Fun list! I read Real Men Knit a few years ago and really liked it. I’ve read Love on the Brain too, but honestly, all of her books just kind of blur together for me. Hope you enjoy all of these!
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I know it’s an older title but I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about it or even bring it up on lists. I’m excited to check it out and glad to hear you enjoyed it! I have heard that Ali Hazelwood’s books are very similar in their formula but it seems to work for a lot of people. I’m keen to see if it’ll keep working for me too 🤭
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As a crafter, I must say that I wholly approve of any book with the title Real Men Knit! Hazehttps://thebookhaze.com/
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Haha YES! It sounds really good 🙂 I can’t believe I’ve had it on my TBR for so long. Need to bump it up!
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Love on the Brain is one I have been meaning to get to for so long! I got it in a BoTM club and never got to it. I really need to read A Love Song for Ricki Wilde too! BR?! haha.
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I feel like I’ve been saying this for all of Hazelwood’s books! They’ve been sat on my TBR for ages and I keep saying “maybe this year” and it never happens 😂 I’d totally be down for a BR! Haha
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haha, there are so many of them!! Okay, sounds good!
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I’ve read a few of these and really enjoyed them! I love B.K. Borison, she can do no wrong so far and most of Ali Hazelwood’s work. I started the Chloe Liese books but have only read a couple.
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I’m a big Chloe Liese fan and I’ve got the last two in her Bergman Brothers series to finish. I’m not sure why I keep putting it off, lol. I’ve got a ton of Hazelwood AND Borison books to read though so that’s very exciting for me 🙂 Haha
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I loved love on the brain, too 👏🏼 hopefully you enjoy these xx
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Thank you! I’m excited to explore more of Hazelwood’s books 🙂
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Romance for the win, and I have read several of these. Unromance was SOOO good!
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I haven’t seen many people talk about Unromance but I do love this cover and the sound of this premise! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! 😍
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Great picks, Dini! Love on the Brain is probably my least favourite of Hazelwoods Steminist romances, I still loved it, just not as much as The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theoretically, but I hope you end up enjoying it 🙂
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I’ve heard some mixed things about it but I’m curious about Hazelwood’s books because so far I’ve only read one (Love Hypothesis) and loved it! I hope that I do enjoy it but at least I know there are many more Hazelwood books to read if I don’t 😂
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Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad by any means, just not my favourite of the lot. Fingers crossed you enjoy it though 🙂
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