A happy ritual persisted in my reading life in 2023: no matter how rotten the day, no matter how mulish the editors, no matter how preening the freelancers, no matter aching the knees, and especially no matter how barren or pompous or overrated or worm-eaten the book I just finished, I could always count on the next romance novel to make me smile, perk up my spirits, and restore my faith in the whole reading experience. This year was full of terrific romance novels – there were virtually no blatant disappointments, and there were plenty of delightful reads. These were the best of them:

10 The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe (Avon)

This fourth book in Shupe's “Fifth Avenue Rogues” series explores the same central romance-novel idea: the concept of respectability. Her heiress heroine this time around, for instance, has voluntarily sacrificed her social respectability in order to enjoy the freedom that comes from unconventionality – and the duke hero, teetering on the brink of scandal, needs to find a bride who's respectable in every way. As we'll see throughout this list, the fact that romance readers will be able to guess what happens when these two meet in no way detracts from Shupe's exuberance in telling her story.

9 The Counterfeit Scoundrel by Lorraine Heath (Avon)

The central gimmick in Heath's new “Chessmen: Masters of Seduction” series is a whole lot less sophisticated – the heroes are groan-inducingly named Knight, Bishop, and Rook – but the story she tells here makes up for it: here's a heroine intent on investigating an allegedly unfaithful wife, and here's a hero equally intent on helping abused wives escape their marriages. Heath fleshes all this out with her usual emotional texture once the book's explosive plot takes off and these two crusaders come to need each other.

8 Cowboy Wild by Maisey Yates (HQN Books)

The always-reliable Yates here crafts a story of multiple kinds of yearning: a tomboy young horse wrangler who was raised entirely in a male household has begun to yearn for the broader world of romance she knows she's been missing, and her brother's cowboy friend, a charismatic hell-raiser, has begun to realize that the low-key attraction he's felt for her is becoming irresistible. When she turns to him for instruction on romantic instruction, a touching and hilarious modern-day romance results.

7 Never Seduce a Duke by Vivienne Lorrett (Avon)

This wonderfully winning new book from Lorrett (one of the many always-dependable authors on our list this year) inverts the usual romance gimmick of the arrogant leading man (traceable all the way back to Fitzwilliam Darcy): the duke in her story is withdrawn and bookish – but nevertheless determined to track down the flirtatious mystery woman he first encountered in his family's ancestral home.

6 The Duke’s Secret Cinderella by Eva Devon (Entangled Amara)

This author is adept at creating just the kind of absurd comic premise from which a wonderful relationship-story can be teased, and this new one is a wonderful example: her hero, a headstrong Duke who cherishes his bachelor status, is being browbeaten by his domineering (and scene-stealing) mother to get married, but there's one problem with the spirited young titled Lady he chooses: unbeknownst to him, she was fibbing about her social status. A common enough romance starting-point, and Devon fills it out with enormous charm and energy.

5 Just One Tease by Carly Phillips (CP Publishing)

In another rare instance of a contemporary romance showing up on the list, this novel by Phillips is a raw and touching variation on the popular second-chance romance: her main character is trying to stay incognito and protect both herself and her sister in desperate circumstances, and she instinctively seeks the help of the handsome loner she spurned years ago. When he agrees to help her, every romance reader will know what to expect – and Phillips marvelously delivers.

4 A Wager Too Wicked by Alyssa Clarke (Darkan Press)

The comedy at the heart of Clarke's story is immediately likable: a woman seeking to save her cousin from an arranged marriage sets about investigating the earl who's made the offer; he realizes what she's doing and gamefully plays his own counter-game, and by steady measures the stakes keep escalating until the two have all but forgotten the poor cousin and are irresistibly drawn to each other.

3 Her Lessons in Persuasion by Megan Frampton (Avon)

In another first book in a series called “A School for Scoundrels,” Frampton presents a familiar romance-template: a world-weary woman in Regency society grudgingly agrees to a sham courtship with an attractive barrister as a way of forestalling any more talk of marrying, which predictably leads to the two of them feeling far more than a merely theatrical romance. But Frampton fills the story with sharp dialogue and enough genuine heart to make it all delightful.

2 Forgery, Love, and Other Lies by Charlie Lane (Regency)

In this charming indie-published Regency, an enterprising young lord who's been piecemeal selling off his family's valuable paintings and replacing them with forgeries and an equally-enterprising young forger find themselves as unlikely allies – and unlikely lovers – as they try to unravel the mystery of the missing art dealer at the heart of their shared world. Lane has done very well for herself in the indie world; this wonderful book should only further cement that.

1 Yours Truly, the Duke by Amelia Grey (St. Martin’s)

We end with another always-reliable author writing one of her most playfully involving romances, the first novel in a new series. It's the story of a woman whose custody of her adored orphaned nieces is being contested in court. The only thing she can imagine might increase her chances of keeping her beloved wards is to find a sham-husband. But the more she and her chosen man get to know each other, the more genuine emotion they began to feel. The whole thing is fast-paced and genuinely felt, the best romance of the year.