RA for All: September 2026 Issue of Booklist is the Annual Spotlight on Romance

Monday, September 28, 2026

September 2026 Issue of Booklist is the Annual Spotlight on Romance

On the Cover From Behind Five Willows, by June Hur, with cover illustration by Shotze, and published by Macmillan. Behind Five Willows appears in this issue’s Top 10 Romance for Youth. Illustration © 2026 by Shotze. Used by permission of the publisher. Click to enter the table of contents for this issue

This month's Booklist magazine is chock full of Romance which is great because our readers cannot get enough of it right now and quite frankly, always.

Taken together, these spotlight lists are a great overview of the best Romance for library patrons released in the last year. And when you look at the past 5 years of lists alongside the current ones, together they also proved a snapshot of the genre's trends. You can watch authors, tropes, and trends as they emerge into the mainstream. You can see how readers' tastes and preferences morph. And you can also observe how the more things change, often, the more they stay the same.

Use these lists for suggestions, displays, and especially as conversations starters. For more by me on how to ask patrons (in person, from the holds shelf, and online) what their favorite Romance books are and then turn the answers into a display, click here.

Even if you are not a romance reader, this post has EVERYTHING you need to help any reader interested in romance. From the hard core fans to those interested in giving the popular genre a try, you have all the resources you need to help them right here in this post.

And now, on to these amazing and useful lists courtesy of Booklist with my added backlist links going back to 2021.