Books Like Bridgerton: 15 Historical and Contemporary Romances to Read Next

Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series — eight novels published between 2000 and 2006 — was a beloved corner of the romance world long before Netflix turned it into a global phenomenon. Then Shonda Rhimes adapted it, and suddenly everyone had opinions about corsets, calling cards, and the identity of Lady Whistledown. The show’s success comes down to the same things the books do so well: a lush Regency setting that is gorgeous without being stuffy, dialogue that crackles with wit and unspoken feeling, slow-burn romantic tension that is almost physically painful, and an ensemble Bridgerton family warm enough that you’d genuinely want to sit down at their dinner table.

If you’ve binge-watched the series on Netflix and want to know where to go next — whether that’s deeper into the Regency world or into contemporary romances with the same energy — this list is for you.

The Complete Bridgerton Series

If you’ve watched the show but haven’t read the books, that is where to start. Quinn’s prose is warmer, funnier, and more interior than the adaptation, and there are eight novels covering eight Bridgerton siblings — far more story than four seasons of television can hold.

Book 1 — The Duke and I — Daphne and Simon

Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, enter into a fake courtship that neither of them intend to become real. The enemies-to-lovers tension here is the engine that powered the entire show’s first season, and Quinn handles it with her characteristic lightness of touch. The dynamic between Simon’s determination never to marry and Daphne’s longing for a family of her own gives the book genuine emotional stakes beneath the banter.

Book 2 — The Viscount Who Loved Me — Anthony and Kate

Fan favourite, Season 2. Anthony Bridgerton has decided it is time to marry — sensibly, practically, without love. Kate Sharma has decided to make absolutely certain he doesn’t marry her sister. What follows is perhaps the best novel in the series: the enemies-to-lovers dynamic is more developed than in Book 1, the bee subplot is endearingly strange, and Anthony’s arc from charming emotional avoidance to genuine vulnerability is one of Quinn’s finest. The connection between Kate and Anthony crackles on every page.

Book 3 — An Offer from a Gentleman — Benedict and Sophie

A Cinderella retelling set at a masquerade ball, in which Benedict Bridgerton dances with a mysterious woman in silver and cannot forget her. Sophie Beckett is the illegitimate daughter of an earl, living as a servant — and when Benedict meets her again years later, he cannot understand why she seems so familiar. Quinn handles the class dynamics with more grace than most retellings manage, and Sophie is one of the most sympathetic heroines in the series.

Book 4 — Romancing Mister Bridgerton — Colin and Penelope

Fan favourite, Season 3. Colin Bridgerton returns from his travels to find that his childhood friend Penelope Featherington has become a woman he has never quite seen clearly. The revelation of Penelope’s secret — and Colin’s response to it — is handled with more emotional complexity than anything else in the series. This is the novel where Quinn’s comedy deepens into something genuinely moving. Penelope is beloved by readers, and her arc toward self-confidence and recognition is deeply satisfying.

Book 5 — To Sir Phillip, with Love — Eloise and Phillip

The most unusual entry in the series: Eloise Bridgerton has been conducting a correspondence with the widower of her late pen pal and decides, impulsively, to visit him. Sir Phillip Crane is not the romantic hero either of them imagined, and the result is Quinn’s most realistic and quietly moving novel. If you find some of the earlier books a little too frothy, this is the one to try.

Book 6 — When He Was Wicked — Francesca and Michael

The darkest book in the series, and Quinn’s most structurally ambitious. Michael Stirling has been in love with his cousin’s wife for years — which means he has been in love with Francesca Bridgerton, and cannot say so. When circumstances force the issue, Quinn writes about grief, guilt, and love with a directness that surprises readers expecting the series’ usual lightness. Essential reading if you want to understand the full range of what Quinn can do.

Book 7 — It’s in His Kiss — Hyacinth and Gareth

Gareth St. Clair needs help translating his late grandmother’s diary. Hyacinth Bridgerton, who speaks Italian, is delighted to help — partly because she has always found Gareth irritating in a way that she is beginning to suspect is not entirely unpleasant. The banter in this novel is at its sharpest and funniest, and the buried-family-secret subplot gives it genuine intrigue.

Book 8 — On the Way to the Wedding — Gregory and Lucy

The series finale follows the youngest Bridgerton brother, Gregory, and his conviction that he has found the woman he is meant to love — who, unfortunately, is engaged to someone else and in love with his friend. Quinn wraps the series with characteristic warmth and ties up the threads of all eight stories in the closing pages. A deeply satisfying conclusion to one of romance’s best ensemble families.

Historical Romance for Readers Who Love the Regency Setting

#9 — Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The one that started everything. Austen’s second published novel is the source code for every enemies-to-lovers romance written since: Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are the archetypal pairing of a sharp-tongued, independent-minded heroine and a proud, emotionally guarded hero whose first proposal is one of literature’s great disasters and whose second is one of its great recoveries. Where Bridgerton gives you the fantasy of the Regency — the balls, the gowns, the calling cards — Austen gives you the reality: the economic anxiety, the social constraint, and the genuine wit of a woman who saw her world clearly. Austen is funnier than she is given credit for, and Darcy and Elizabeth remain the gold standard.

Contemporary Romance with Bridgerton Energy

#10 — The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

If the appeal of Bridgerton is enemies-to-lovers done with maximum wit and tension, The Hating Game is the contemporary novel that has come closest to replicating that specific pleasure. Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman share a desk at a publishing company and have waged a cold war of competitive irritation for months. Thorne’s novel is almost entirely set in a confined space — an office, an elevator, a car — and the romantic tension is conducted almost entirely through banter. The slow reveal of why they are the way they are is as satisfying as any Quinn slow burn. Funny, sharp, and warm.

#11 — The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Stella Lane is an econometrician who is exceptional at numbers and genuinely uncertain about people. Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, she decides that relationships are a skill she can learn — and hires a professional escort named Michael Phan to teach her. Hoang’s novel is a romance that takes its heroine’s neurodivergence seriously and explores what intimacy actually means rather than assuming it follows a standard script. The result is one of the most emotionally honest romances of the last decade — warm, funny, and quietly radical. The chemistry between Stella and Michael is remarkable.

#12 — The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Olive Smith is a third-year PhD student who needs to convince her best friend that she’s moved on from a crush. She kisses the first man she sees — who turns out to be Adam Carlsen, the most intimidating professor in the biology department. What begins as a fake relationship for mutually convenient reasons follows the Bridgerton template almost exactly: forced proximity, fake courtship that becomes real, a grumpy-but-secretly-warm hero, and a heroine who refuses to believe she deserves what she’s being offered. Hazelwood’s academic setting is richly specific and genuinely funny.

#13 — Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Emily Henry is the dominant voice in contemporary romance for the same reason Quinn dominates historical: she writes heroines who feel like specific human beings, heroes who are genuinely worth the wait, and banter that sounds like it was spoken aloud and transcribed rather than composed. Beach Read pairs a romance novelist who has lost faith in love stories with a literary fiction writer who has never believed in them — forced into proximity in adjacent beach houses, daring each other to write in the other’s genre. People We Meet on Vacation tells the slow-building love story of two best friends across eight summers in alternating timelines. Both have the same warm, witty energy as the best Bridgerton novels.

#14 — The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Catalina Martín needs a date for her sister’s wedding in Spain. Her insufferable coworker Aaron Blackford — tall, handsome, and professionally annoying — volunteers. What follows is a slow-burn road trip romance with Bridgerton-level banter and a grumpy hero whose apparent irritability turns out to have entirely different origins than expected. Armas writes the enemies-to-lovers dynamic with real commitment to the enemies portion, which makes the lovers portion land considerably harder. This is the book to recommend to any Bridgerton reader who has particularly strong feelings about Anthony and Kate.

#15 — Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

The son of the first female US President and the Prince of England are supposed to be allies and are actually each other’s least favourite person. When a diplomatic incident forces a fake friendship for the cameras, neither Alex Claremont-Diaz nor Prince Henry expects what actually happens. McQuiston’s novel shares with Bridgerton the aristocratic setting, the political intrigue, the fake-relationship premise, and the specific pleasure of watching two people try very hard not to fall in love and fail completely. The M/M romance is handled with warmth and explicitness in equal measure, and the ending is the most joyful on this list.

Honourable Mentions: Twisted Love by Ana Huang and Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

For readers who want their slow burn with a darker edge, Ana Huang’s Twisted Love delivers the brooding, intensely protective hero and forbidden romance dynamics that make the Bridgerton series’ darker entries (When He Was Wicked, To Sir Phillip, with Love) compelling. Colleen Hoover’s Ugly Love explores what happens when two people try to have a relationship without feelings — and fail — with an emotional rawness that is very different from Quinn’s lightness but no less satisfying.

Which Bridgerton Book to Start With If You’ve Only Watched the Show

If you’ve watched Season 1, start with The Duke and I — but read The Viscount Who Loved Me immediately after, because most readers consider it the stronger novel.

If you’ve watched Season 2, start with The Viscount Who Loved Me to get the fuller version of Anthony and Kate’s story, then go back to Book 1 before continuing.

If you’ve watched Season 3, start with Romancing Mister Bridgerton — the Colin and Penelope dynamic is even richer on the page than on screen, and Penelope’s secret is handled with considerably more nuance.

For any newcomer who simply wants the best single-volume introduction to what Julia Quinn does: The Viscount Who Loved Me is the answer. It is funny, warm, deeply felt, and the best possible argument for why this series has endured for more than two decades.

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