Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
This week, the topic is Books for Armchair Travelers, but I decided to go rogue and do Books With Characters Who Love Books. So fun! Let’s check some out!
1. Female Fantasy
Author: Iman Hariri-Kia
Page Length: 416
Pub. Date: Oct. 14, 2025
Publisher: Cosmo Reads
Synopsis: All’s fair in love and lore.
Joonie is living in a fantasy—at least that’s what people tell her. Men in the real world have done nothing but disappoint her time and time again, so she keeps her heart reserved for Ryke, the fictional male lead of her favorite romance series, who just happens to be a merman. And so far, her book boyfriend is meeting her needs more than any other “real” man ever has.
But when she learns that Ryke’s character is based on a friend of the author, Joonie is determined to track him down and take her shot at a happily ever after.
She’ll need to borrow her brother’s car for the road trip, with the one condition that his annoying (but also hot) best friend can catch a ride to New York with her. But as she makes her way to her male lead, she’ll learn that once you wish fantasy into reality, you have to take all the tropes that come with it—not just the fun ones.
As unhinged as it is brilliant, Female Fantasy is both a self-aware dive into the concept of genre and a wild, steamy romp. Most of all, though, it’s a heartfelt love letter to romance readers everywhere.
2. Since the Marquess Demands
Author: Darcy Burke
Series: Rogue Rules #6
Pages: 326
Publication Date: Jan. 29, 2026
Publisher:Zealous Quill Press
Genres:Fiction / Romance / Historical
Synopsis: Ellis Dangerfield has recently learned her life is a lie. Desperate to start afresh, she applies for a position as secretary to a demanding, widowed marquess. Never mind that she must pose as a man to get the job—Ellis is hiding far worse secrets.
After losing his wife—and, perhaps more gutting, learning of her unfaithfulness—Roman Garrick has sworn off human connection. To avoid his pain, he buries himself in rebuilding his family’s ruined fortunes. When he discovers his brilliant new secretary is actually a woman, he should dismiss her immediately. Instead, he’s captivated.
Faced with an unwanted and dangerous attraction, Roman and Ellis struggle to maintain their professional relationship while also trying to resist their desires. Neither is willing to compromise the vows they’ve made to remain emotionally aloof. But when Ellis reveals the truth of her scandalous parentage and a shocking secret from the past surfaces, their chance at happiness hangs in the balance.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
3. The Last Vampire
Author: Romina Garber
Pages: 400
Publication Date: Dec. 2, 2025
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Fantasy / Romantasy
Synopsis: When a boarding school opens in a once-condemned Victorian manor buried in the woods of New Hampshire, Austen-loving Lorena Navarro enrolls in hopes of finding her own Mr. Darcy. Instead, she stumbles across a coffin and accidentally awakens the world’s last vampire.
After hibernating for nearly three centuries, William Pride is desperate to find his family—and clueless about the modern world. Relying on Lorena for more than just blood, he enrolls at the school to catch up on all he’s missed.
Soon, William uncovers a chilling truth: He is the last hope for his kind’s return to power. Torn between protecting the humans around him and fulfilling his fate, William must make a choice that could change everything. Will he sacrifice his species for love . . . or will he embrace his dark destiny at last?
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
4. A Court of Silver Flames
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Page Length: 757
Publication Date: Feb. 16, 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Synopsis: Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.
Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other’s arms.
5. Books & Bewitchment
Author: Isla Jewell
Series: Arcadia Falls #1
Page Length: 368
Publisher: Del Rey
Synopsis: In this cozy, witchy romcom, a young woman works to turn a run-down small-town video store into the bookshop of her dreams, only to discover a powerful magic that’s been lying dormant—and a forbidden love she can’t resist.
Dutiful and hard-working, Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, mundane life with her pet parrot in small-town Alabama. Sure, she may not love her desk job working for an insurance agency. And her on-again-off-again relationship with the local mechanic may not have the fiery passion she’s read about in her favorite books. Still, things are stable, which is more than she can say about the two hopelessly immature younger sisters who rely on her.
But when Rhea’s estranged grandmother dies, leaving her everything—including a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carried—she finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear to avoid at all costs. While the defunct business she’s also inherited needs a serious upgrade, Rhea’s lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to help—and more than easy on the eyes. If only he wasn’t the grandson of her grandmother’s sworn enemy in witchcraft.
As Rhea works to build a future, strange occurrences begin to make her think someone—or something—is trying to drive her out. As she gets closer to solving the mystery, each clue she uncovers points to Arcadia Falls’s magic hanging in the balance. To keep her new home safe, Rhea must step into her enchanted birthright . . . before it’s too late.
6. An Academic Affair
Author: Jodi McAlister
Pages: 384
Publication Date: Nov. 11, 2025
Publisher: Atria Books
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Synopsis: From the “masterly” (The New York Times) Jodi McAlister, a charming new romance about two English professors who embark on a fake relationship…only to discover that it may be harder to pretend than they realized.
Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have been academic rivals since they first crossed paths as undergraduates in the literature department thirteen years ago. Now that a highly coveted teaching opportunity has come up, their rivalry hits epic proportions. Jonah needs the job to move closer to his recently divorced sister and her children, while Sadie needs the financial security and freedom of a full-time teaching position.
When Sadie notices that the job offers partner hire, however, she hatches a plot to get them both the job. All they must do is get legally married. It’s a simple win-win solution but when sparks begin to fly, it becomes clear that despite their education, these two may not have thought this whole thing through.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
7. Love Walked In
Author: Sarah Chamberlain
Pages: 352
Publication Date: Sept. 2, 2025
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Synopsis: He has a struggling bookshop. She has a knack for bringing bookstores back to life. As soon as she walks into his store, all bets are off…
Mari Cole’s whole life is her dream rescuing and revitalizing indie bookstores. Friendship? Love? No thanks. After a hard childhood, she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone. Besides, books have never let Mari down the way people have.Then she gets the offer of a rescuing Ross & Co. Once the most prestigious independent booksellers in London, the store is a shadow of its former self and needs an expert outsider to turn things around. But the offer turns out to be a double-edged Leo Ross, the store’s new owner, is as cold and hostile as the British winter.
For as long as he can remember, Leo Ross has known his future is becoming the next generation to run Ross and Co. He’s sacrificed almost everything he cares about, but the bookshop is still failing on his watch, and now there’s an obnoxiously cheerful American woman convinced that she’s going to magically make everything better. Leo’s life is difficult and messy enough as it is, and he doesn’t want her help.
When Mari and Leo are forced to work closely together to bring the store back to life, Leo’s icy surface thaws to reveal the passionate man underneath. As the cold winter gives way to the possibility of new beginnings, Mari begins to see that true love could be even better in real life than in the pages of a book. Can they put their pasts aside and learn to let love in?
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
8. A Wallflower’s Guide to Viscounts and Vice
Author: Manda Collins
Series: A Wallflower’s Guide #1
Pages: 320
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
Publisher: Forever
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical
Synopsis: A sunshine spinster and a grumpy viscount use their fake engagement to solve a murder mystery in the first book of a new series from Manda Collins.
A wallflower by choice, wealthy Lucy Penhallow would rather sit out the dancing all season than listen to false flattery from the fortune hunters who pursue her. But when she and her best friend’s brother witness a crime in progress, they’ll need to put every skill Lucy’s learned from reading detective stories to the test in their hunt for a missing woman. And if Viscount Gilford happens to be handsome as sin and clever to boot? Well, that’s no hardship for her.
Viscount Gilford needs a wife to save him from financial ruin, and there’s only one heiress who’s off limits. So when he and Lucy find themselves inextricably linked in the tabloids, it’s a disaster. As their investigation progresses, their once unwelcome alliance becomes something more—a love match neither will give up. But there’s a killer watching their romance from the wings who’s only too happy to keep these meddlesome sleuths together . . . in the afterlife.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
9. By Any Other Name
Author: Lauren Kate
Page Length: 288
Publication Date: March 1, 2022
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Synopsis: What she doesn’t know about love could fill a book.
With a successful career as a romance editor, and an engagement to a man who checks off all ninety-nine boxes on her carefully curated list, Lanie’s more than good. She’s killing it. Then she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with world-renowned author and her biggest inspiration in love and life—the Noa Callaway. All Lanie has to do is cure Noa’s writer’s block and she’ll get the promotion she’s always dreamed of. Simple, right?
But there’s a reason no one has ever seen or spoken to the mysterious Noa Calloway. And that reason will rock Lanie’s world. It will call into question everything she thought she knew. When she finally tosses her ninety-nine expectations to the wind, Lanie may just discover that love By Any Other Name can still be as sweet.
10. Battle of the Bookstores
Author: Ali Brady
Pages: 432
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Synopsis: Despite managing bookstores on the same Boston street, Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson have never interacted much—Josie’s store focuses on serious literature, and Ryan’s sells romance only. But when the new owner of both stores decides to combine them, the two are thrust into direct competition. Only one manager will be left standing, decided by who turns the most profit over the summer.
Efficient and detail-oriented Josie instantly clashes with easygoing and disorganized Ryan. Their competing events and contrasting styles lead to more than just frustration—the sparks between them might just set the whole store on fire. Their only solace during this chaos is the friendship they’ve each struck up with an anonymous friend in an online book forum. Little do they know they’re actually chatting with each other.
As their rivalry heats up in real life, their online relationship grows, and when the walls between their stores come tumbling down, Josie and Ryan realize not all’s fair in love and war. And maybe, if they’re lucky, happily ever afters aren’t just for the books.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
Can you think of any other books with characters who love books? Comment below!
Omg, that cover for Love Walked In? It makes me want to pick it up immediately! I hadn’t even heard of it before 😱 Characters who love books are the best—they’re so relatable!
Isn’t it gorgeous? They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but I do it ALL THE TIME! lol Yes, it’s like you have an instant connection with them. Love it!
What a fabulous prompt! I actually have one or two of these on my TBR already. I absolutely love finding characters who are fellow bookworms—it makes the story so much more fun!
Thank you! I do too. It’s always a fun surprise!
This is a fun topic! Nice Picks!
Thank you!