Slow burn romances are my favorite romance trope. I love the gradual build of feelings over the course of the novel. This helps the love feel genuine and earned between the characters. If a character falls for another character too quickly, it makes me wonder why they fell in love with them in the first place. Do they actually love them, or just the idea of them? Do they even know each other well enough to fall in love? I feel more fully in the heads of the protagonists when I’m immersed in their complicated and deliberating feelings over someone. That slow growth of feelings over the course of the novel is what makes me fall in love with fictional characters too.
Slow burn romances feel more true to real life. Love takes time to build. As you get to know someone, you learn their endearing qualities, but you also come to know their quirks, their passions, their annoying habits. You see them for who they truly are, and you decide to love them because of how all of these factors collide into the essence of that person.
Another Book Riot writer, Julia Rittenberg, wrote a handy guide highlighting the elements of slow burn romances, including deep characterization, complicated relationships, unresolved tension, and the moment. These nuances of slow burn romances are what give the love story depth and make it feel more meaningful.
For those, like me, who yearn for the slow burn, I’ve got a selection of agonizingly slow burn romances below. Each one offers well-developed characters, plenty of pining, simmering sexual tension, and well-earned happily-ever-afters in the end. Who’s your favorite slow burn fictional couple of all time?
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5 Agonizingly Slow Burn RomancesBad Words by Rioghnach Robinson
This debut by Rioghnach Robinson, published this month, follows the delightful slow burn dynamics between an author and his biggest critic. While Parker Navarro had high hopes for his debut novel, Selina Chan’s scathing review dashes these hopes quite soundly. Flash forward four years, and Parker’s publishing his next book. Of course, Selina has to review it again, and their public scorn of each other will make them both famous. The private dialogue they begin to have with one another though, may take them both by surprise.
Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Friends-to-lovers offers the perfect platform for a slow burn romance to develop, and you’ll find the sweetest friends-to-lovers romance and queer awakening in this novel by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Small town bartender Cash Delgado loves bartending for her favorite regulars at Joyce’s Bar, hosting Karaoke Thursdays, raising her spirited six-year-old, and spending time with her bestie Inez. Things take a turn when the former manager of Joyce’s Bar and Cash’s last hookup, Chase Stanton, returns to town with plans that jeopardize Cash’s beloved bar. On top of that, Cash starts having some spicy dreams of Inez, and these may help her follow the path she’s truly pining for in life.
The God and the Gwinsin by Sophie Kim
This romantasy is the second book in Sophie Kim’s Fate’s Thread duology, the sequel to The God and the Gumiho. While both offer sweet slow burn romances, I especially think that’s the case in this sequel, so I recommend reading both! While the trickster god Seokga lost his true love Hani, he’s finally found her again, reincarnated in the form of Yoo Kisa, a gwisin working on a cruise ship along the river of the dead. When a god gets murdered on the ship, prickly Seokga will team up with tenderhearted Kisa to get to the bottom of things, and they may rediscover their love for each other along the way. The reincarnation plot of this book really added to the slow burn romance as Seokga has to start from scratch trying to earn Hani’s love in her new life.
His Perfect Partner by Priscilla Oliveras
Fans of slow burn romances will fall in love with Priscilla Oliveras’s style. This book follows a pair whose relationship gradually shifts from professional to friends to the idea of something more. While single dad Tomas Garcia juggles his busy career as an ad executive with taking care of his daughter Maria, he can’t help but feel the sparks towards his daughter’s dance teacher, Yazmine Fernandez. Yaz, on the other hand, wants to focus on healing from a bad breakup, taking care of her father, and planning for when she’ll move back to New York City and return to Broadway. The timing just doesn’t align for Tomas and Yaz, or does it?
Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae
Jae writes a number of sweet slow burn romances as well, and this one promises lots of texting tension. While Denny may feel too shy to flirt, she’s found contentment in Portland as a cashier and helping her sister raise her niece. Everything changes when Denny receives a text from an outgoing woman named Eliza looking for dating advice. As the texting banter grows between the two, Eliza may find chatting with Denny gives her a whole lot more feels than the terrible dates she’s had with men lately.
Before You Slow Burn Through Your Next Read…I hope these agonizingly slow burn romances provide you with my favorite aspect of romance reading. I hope they immerse you in what it really feels like to take your time and fall in love with someone, warts and all.
Looking for more romance tropes like the slow burn? Take a look at this updated guide to romance tropes and sub-tropes that have grown popular over the past couple of years!