Top Romance Novels That Will Make You Cry

so i want to be super honest with you right upfront i really do not like books that try to force you to be sad you probably know exactly what i mean the ones where a character gets sick early on and you can guess exactly what happens next it feels like someone built the story in a lab just to force a reaction out of me some people absolutely love those stories and that is completely fine but they are just not what my list is about today

i am looking for love stories that make me cry because they feel so unbelievably real they hit you because something in the story is so true to life that my body reacts before my brain even knows what is going on that is very rare and it is exactly what all twelve books on my list do so well in their own ways

you might actually know some of these books already i put them here anyway because knowing a book exists and sitting down to read it are two totally different things maybe my list is the push you finally need to read them others on my list you probably have never heard about and those are the ones i am super excited to share with you because finding a surprise book that totally wrecks me is my absolute favorite thing

💔 The Books

1

Me Before You

Jojo Moyes

Contemporary Romance Major Film Adaptation 2016 Devastating but warm

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

louisa clark gets a job helping will traynor he is in a wheelchair now but he used to live a huge life before he got hurt she is very happy and he is very grumpy the start of the book feels so warm and makes me like both of them a lot before things get tough i do not want to ruin the story for you so i will keep quiet on what happens next i will just say the author makes me really understand a choice i might normally disagree with i cried at the end of this because it felt real and not forced the movie is okay but you really should read the book first

if someone asks me for a romance that will make them cry and they have not read this yet this is always my first answer it works incredibly well

find on amazon

2

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

YA Romance Funny then absolutely not

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

i know some people think they are too old for young adult books but i honestly think they are wrong about this one hazel and augustus are teens who meet at a cancer support group and fall in love the story is very funny and smart it talks about dying without sounding like a boring lecture the characters are smart and think deeply about their lives instead of just crying all the time the sadness hits you eventually and it hits incredibly hard i have told people in their forties to read this and they cried just as much as any teenager

do not skip this one just because you think it is only for teens it is for anyone who has ever thought about losing someone they care about

find on amazon

3

It Ends with Us

Colleen Hoover

Contemporary Romance Brave and heartbreaking

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

lily meets ryle and he is charming and great and everything feels amazing for a while and then it suddenly does not the author based this on her own life and you can really feel that when you read it there is no simple bad guy here like you see in normal romance stories it is just a really messy and painful situation lily tells her story now and also through a diary from when she was younger the two stories build up and then hit you out of nowhere this is not a comfortable read and it is not supposed to be it treats you like an adult who can handle tough endings

this one made me cry in a way that felt less like sadness and more like i really understood her pain that is a very hard thing for an author to do

find on amazon

4

One Day

David Nicholls

Literary Romance Funny then it just takes your legs out

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

emma and dexter spend one night together in 1988 then the book shows you what they are doing on that exact same date every single year for twenty years sometimes they are together and sometimes they are far apart or barely talking the author writes them so well that by the middle of the book i felt like they were my actual friends the story is really funny for a long time and then something happens i will not tell you what it is but i had to put the book down and walk away to make some tea watch the show if you want but please read the book first

this is the one i actually had to walk away from for a bit i mean that as the highest compliment i can give a book

find on amazon

5

Love Story

Erich Segal

Classic Romance Simple and quietly devastating

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

oliver goes to a fancy college and jenny goes to a different one they come from totally different worlds but they fall in love anyway that is the whole story and it moves super fast the writing is super simple and easy to read then it goes somewhere you are not quite ready for this came out a long time ago and made so many people cry back then there is a good reason it still works today it is not trying to be super clever it just makes you love two people and then shows you what life can do to them

this is a quick read for sure it is pretty old now so a lot of people missed it but i think it deserves to be read today

find on amazon

6

The Notebook

Nicholas Sparks

Romance Quietly beautiful and sad

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

an old man reads a story to a woman in a care home she is very sick and cannot remember who she is at all the story he reads is about noah and allie who meet one summer and get separated but find their way back some people do not take this author very seriously but i think that is really unfair this book is really beautiful when it talks about loving someone who forgot you completely the end is quiet and felt so real to me i really did not expect it to make me cry as much as it did

if you have only seen the movie you really need to go read the book the book is much quieter and that quiet tone is exactly why it works so well

find on amazon

7

November 9

Colleen Hoover

Contemporary Romance Slow burn then it all hits at once

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

fallon and ben meet by pure chance they decide to meet on the same date every year for five years and never talk in between it sounds like a weird trick but the author makes it work perfectly the time apart is just as important as the time they spend together the relationship builds up enough that i really cared about both of them when things got hard there is a huge secret that i totally missed it changes everything you read before it i had to put the book down just to think about it for a minute

this is perfect for anyone who likes a love story where the passing of time is a huge part of the whole plot

find on amazon

8

All the Bright Places

Jennifer Niven

YA Romance Tender and really painful

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

violet and finch meet on a high ledge at school and you wonder who is actually saving who finch talks a lot and feels everything very deeply he makes everyone around him feel alive you understand exactly why violet falls for him so hard the story talks about mental struggles in a very honest way it does not hide the ugly parts at all i cried at the end and i was also super angry feeling both things at once is really hard for a writer to do

just a heads up that this book deals with mental health and heavy themes it is done very well but you should know before you start

find on amazon

9

The Time Travelers Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

Romance with Sci Fi Beautiful and completely gutting

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

henry has a weird condition that makes him travel through time without warning he just vanishes and lands in random parts of his own life his wife clare has to deal with a husband who is missing half the time when he is around he is not always the version she needs right then the author does this without making it confusing at all it is a love story about how hard it is to love someone when their body fights against you both it is a really big story but i never felt bored the ending pays off everything perfectly

i always tell people to read this if they want a huge story they can get lost in for days it is totally worth your time

find on amazon

10

A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks

Romance Gentle and then very not gentle

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

landon is the popular guy in a small town jamie is the quiet girl who is super nice to everyone even when they are mean to her the author wrote this about his own sister and you can tell because the details are so personal the love grows very slowly then something changes right in the middle and the book never lets you go after that i think the book is way better than the movie because it is much quieter the quiet parts are what make it hurt the most

if you want a very sweet and gentle love story before things get super emotional this is the one for you

find on amazon

11

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

Romance with Mystery Lonely and beautiful and then hard

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

kya lives all alone in a marsh because her family left her behind the author describes the wild marsh so well that it feels like a real person in the story kya loves the nature around her and that makes me love her before any romance even starts two different guys enter her life and there is a big mystery mixed in with the love story everything comes together at the end in a way that left me completely stunned so many people bought this book and now i completely understand why

this is for you if you love books where the location feels just as real as the characters you are reading about

find on amazon

12

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

Classic Romance Published 1813 still going strong Warm and satisfying with a lump in throat

Cry Level

😭😭😭😭😭

i saved this one for last because the tears here are totally different this book does not wreck you at all it slowly builds up something so warm over the whole story when darcy and elizabeth finally figure things out you feel it deep inside the story is about people who cannot say what they really mean because of their strict society all the drama comes from them hiding their true feelings the part where the letter arrives is the best thing i have ever read i cried a bit later on but i will not spoil it for you

the tears at the end of this book are the happy kind and after everything else on my list i think you deserve a good smile

find on amazon

💬 A Few Last Things

if you do not know where to begin i suggest starting with the first or fourth book on the list the first one is very warm and easy to read the fourth one is super funny before it breaks your heart either way you will feel something real and that is the best part

i noticed that the books that make me cry the most never advertise themselves as sad stories they just spend a lot of time making me love the people first you cannot cry over a loss if you do not care about the person all twelve books get this right

if you want more you can check out the booker prize winners those books often have love stories that are really deep and emotional some of the best love stories i know came from those lists instead of the romance section it is definitely worth looking if you want something a bit different