Have you ever read a romance so well-written that you got jealous? Is there a romance author whose stories seem to speak directly to your heart? Whether you’ve experienced an actual romance novel come to life or you’re still waiting for that special someone, you probably have a romance author in mind to set your love story to the page. So, we asked our Bookstr team exactly that! Read on to learn about the romance authors we could only dream about and hope to write our epic love stories.
Lucy Score or Meghan Quinn
You can see in this article here just how crazy my relationship with my husband has been. Almost 20 years (in November 2024), and we’re still just as goofy and, lord help me, in love. From the rib-cracking, hilarious moments to the sob-inducing tragedies that life has thrown us and everything in between, there is no one who could capture it better than Lucy Score or Meghan Quinn. I’d love to see one of them bring my true-life enemies-to-lovers story to life between the pages of a good book.
– Kristi Eskew, Editorial
Mizuho Kusanagi
As a manga fan and overall visual person, I’d want my hypothetical love story to be written and illustrated by Mizuho Kusanagi. I love her as a mangaka, but I especially enjoy her sense of humor. The hilarious, anecdotal side commentary she includes in her volumes makes me wish we were friends. I don’t know what kind of love story is in store for me, but I’m hoping for laughs. The beautiful artwork of Yona of the Dawn juxtaposed with Kusanagi-sensei’s fantastic depictions of physical comedy in NG Life is all I could want in any biography of mine. And all in all, I trust that she’d make my romance as charming and sincere as in her stories.
– Gabriela Collazo, Editorial
Casey McQuiston
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My real-life story would be, I think, fit for a YA McQuiston rom-com. Two girls meeting at a boarding school abroad — one the class clown, the other the quiet bookworm. We met through shared friends, and the love story grew from there, in cramped dorms and smelly gyms. Two months in, we became long-distance, which lasted for a year and a half. We reunited and moved in together and have been attached at the hip ever since. It was an unlikely romance, brought on by some weird twist of fate. I think McQuiston’s humor and star-crossed lovers à la Red, White, & Royal Blue and the high school sapphic opposites-attract romance of I Kissed Shara Wheeler would lend themselves perfectly to putting our love story to paper. Perhaps it would be called Opposites Attract.
– Fiona Hansen, Editorial and Outreach
Cassandra Clare
Not only does Cassandra Clare represent flawed characters in a way that’s relatable and yet still wholly unique, but she also crafts brilliant dialogue full of wit, charm, and a raw honesty that lends itself to any love story. To understand why people fall in love, you have to understand people in some way. I would love to be portrayed by an author so skilled at characterization while she tells my future love story. I would also love to see how she crafts the object of my affection and how our inevitable arguments will be turned into lessons for both readers and me.
– Orianna McDavid, Editorial
Emily Henry
Honestly, I find myself in a lot of Emily Henry books; the type A, work-focused, and emotionally high-maintenance FMC. I also think the chemistry between the love interests in her books are outstanding, mostly focusing on people who know they’re right for each other but know it’s not the right time. I met my fiancé a million years ago, but we didn’t start dating until four or five years after that, just friends the whole time. It’s a cute high-school-sweetheart friends-to-lovers story that I think would be written adorably by Emily Henry’s hand.
– Elizabeth Beaver, Editorial
Madeline Miller
What I have always loved about Madeline Miller’s works is the way she words beautiful phrases that stick with you throughout the story. For example, the way she describes how Patroclus recognized Achilles by smell and touch and that he would know him blind. Though some of her stories end in a sad fashion, I feel like how my partner and I came to be would be a wonderful, slightly twisted romance story right along the genre that Miller has worked in and would be suitable for a YA-structured novel. The way she builds the undeniable chemistry and is able to put into words, the same feelings I exhibit for my current partner, is exactly how I would describe the majority of my own relationship, and I feel Miller would be able to tell it like a true poet.
– Kelly Severson, Video/Graphics Intern
Heather Graham
This paranormal romance writer has crafted some of the most amazingly terrifying yet sensually delicious stories I have ever read. I’m not a huge romance lover, but I never mind the combo with another genre I like, and Graham truly knows how to blend these two together seamlessly. I would love for her to craft my love story between my beau and I because there is —strangely — a bit of paranormal component added in the mix. With Graham, I get the “meeting a stranger colliding with a paranormal mystery” for my love story and a nicely wrapped up HEA.
– Quiarah B/Vphan, Editorial
Talia Hibbert
Few romance authors write about Black FMCs and aren’t afraid to make them flawed, messy, and absolutely adored by their love interests, but Talia Hibbert is definitely one of them. I’ve read her YA and Adult romances, and in both genres the FMC and MMC are complex, ambitious, and just fun to read about. She deals with issues like OCD and chronic illness with grace, without dehumanizing or infantilizing them. I also love that she has love stories about and for plus-sized women, which is rare in the genre. I’m not in a relationship, but if I were, I would want it to be one with a caring, kind, and devoted partner like the ones in Talia Hibbert’s stories.
– Abby Caswell, Editorial
Are you a romance fan? Is there a specific romance author you want to immortalize your love story? Let us know on Facebook, Instagram, or X!
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