When it comes to romance novels, Emily Henry, or “EmHen” as the book community likes to call her, has the Midas touch. It’s been nothing but No. 1 bestsellers for the author since she cracked the genre wide open with 2020’s Beach Read.
Having switched her focus from the young adult novels she was previously penning, Henry has sold over 10 million books worldwide, with five of her titles getting the book-to-movie adaptation treatment. But where on Earth does one go to start reading?
That all depends on how you’re looking to approach Henry's collection. Much like Taylor Swift, the millennial author has an affinity for planting Easter eggs in her prose. For that reason, you may choose to read her romance novels in order, starting with Beach Read (2020) and People We Meet on Vacation (2021), and continuing with Book Lovers (2022), Happy Place (2023), and Funny Story (2024). In April 2025, she released Great Big Beautiful Life, arguably her most highly anticipated book thus far, so that should come last if you're concerned with reading the books as they were published.
If you want to go for the deep cuts, you could start with her young adult series, beginning with Henry’s first-ever book, The Love That Split the World. (There’s also A Million Junes, When the Sky Fell on Splendor, and Hello Girls.)
However, we suggest you tackle her library by skipping straight to the hits, or Emily Henry's very best books thus far. But don't worry: We've done the legwork to find out exactly how Henry's books rank, from her early works to her first star-crossed romance to her latest labor of love. Below, find the best Emily Henry books, ranked.
One of Henry’s lesser-known works, this young adult science fiction novel is also unlike anything most EmHen fans are likely to have read from the author. Exploring the fallout of a steel mill explosion in a small Ohio town through the eyes of the teens who live there, the book touches on the supernatural, with fans noting similarities to Netflix’s Stranger Things. Many found this one fell short, however, noting that the characters—and the plot, for that matter—seemed a bit disjointed and overly ambitious.
For her fourth young adult novel, Hello Girls, Henry teamed with author Brittany Cavallaro, a.k.a. the best-selling brain behind the Charlotte Holmes mystery series. (Think: lady Sherlock Homes.) The result? A wild ride of a read described as a teenage remake of Thelma and Louise. (It also showcases our favorite cover art of the bunch, but that’s neither here nor there.) Centered on two young women, Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, who decide to rage against the patriarchy (and their humdrum lives) by hitting the open road in a stolen convertible, this one’s got a slower start, but once it gets moving, boy, does it ever.
A modern-day Romeo and Juliet, A Million Junes unpacks years of generational drama between two households, the O’Donnells and the Angerts. For Jack “June” O’Donnell, who has been spared the finer (or actually, any) details about her family's rift, it’s getting harder and harder to keep her distance from the enemy—particularly when he's so dang witty. Henry also throws in some ghosts, magic, and a bit of existential crisis.
Love it or hate it, there’s something to be said for an author’s first book. For Henry, that was The Love That Split the World. A young adult story involving time travel, ghosts, folklore, and, of course, young love, Henry’s debut is hard to pigeonhole. It follows a young woman named Natalie who’s dealing with everything from strange visions and unaccounted-for chunks of time to normal teenage jitters that only a crush can induce. It’s the perfect introduction to the author, who appears to have hooked readers immediately with her “beautiful,” “wonderfully written” and diverse prose.
Of Henry’s romance novels, Happy Place is among her most polarizing. One person who’s riding hard for it, though? Jennifer Lopez. The rom-com queen’s production company, Nuyorican, has announced that it will tackle the on-screen version of this tale about two exes who agree to keep their broken-up relationship status under wraps from their dearest friends. (And spoiler alert? There’s some unfinished business between them.)
Great Big Beautiful Life, Henry’s sixth and most recent release, might be her most highly anticipated yet. “This book poured out of me[...]after the longest writing break I’d taken in a full decade,” she told her newsletter subscribers last spring. “This book is different than anything I’ve written before but also feels like a really natural extension of what I’ve been doing the last few years.” Translation: There’s an opposites-attract romance and a cast of quirky side-characters, but the stakes are a bit higher than previous Henry joints.
This time around, rival journalists—Alice, a staff writer at a fictional equivalent to Slate or The Cut, and Hayden, a Pulitzer Prize-winner—are competing to write the biography of Margaret Ives, a reclusive heiress who ruled the tabloids during her Old Hollywood heyday before she disappeared to an island off Georgia’s southeastern coast. Now, Ives is ready to explain why she vanished to the writer with the best book pitch—but she’s keeping more secrets than either Alice or Hayden can uncover by interviewing her alone. Naturally, these two can’t help but get closer as their research intersects and deadlines approach. Margaret’s memories weave in and out of Alice’s narration as she researches her dream book, in Henry’s first attempt at a dual-timeline story.
However, Great Big Beautiful Life really shines when the focus turns away from Margaret’s larger-than-life personal history. (Warring generations, big-money media, and a deadly cult are all involved, to varying success.) Alice’s assignment isn’t that relatable, but the questions it raises for her about ambition, love, and where they intersect are universal. Seeing Alice find those answers for herself ultimately makes this novel worth the wait. –Halie LeSavage
The premise of this one may sound a little out there at first: Daphne, whose boyfriend just left her for a woman named Petra, seeks solace in the arms of the man who used to date Petra. (Is your head spinning?) But stranger things have happened! (Just ask Shania Twain, who wound up marrying the ex of her own ex-husband’s mistress.) With a film in the works, this one's also getting the Hollywood adaptation, but there's one key distinction from all the rest here: Henry herself has signed on to deliver its script.
People We Meet on Vacation falls right smack dab in the middle of the EmHen pack. Drawing upon Henry’s familiar themes of polar opposites who shouldn’t work on paper, but somehow do in real life, it follows two besties, Poppy and Alex, whose extraverted and introverted worlds collide each year on their annual shared holiday. Naturally, their platonic love evolves into something more over time, making things a bit messy, and now, they’ve got to figure out just what they mean to each other. Essentially, it’s When Harry Met Sally... with little plastic drink umbrellas—a parallel Henry has all but made herself. Like the classic Nora Ephron film, this one’s also headed to the big screen, with Emily Bader and Tom Blyth set to star.
At some point, you’ve gotta learn to become the main character of your own life—this is the lesson of Book Lovers, which sees a book-loving literary agent named Nora looking to shake up her routine with a sisters’ trip to North Carolina. Nora and her sister's vision for a charming, small-town meet-cut for her is thwarted by several less-than-pleasant run-ins with Charlie Lastra, an editor from Nora's old life back home. She and Charlie don’t seem to gel, yet fate keeps placing him in Nora’s path, making for a novel gushing. It should be noted that while many readers tend to be satisfied with the protagonists’ chemistry and banter, they find themselves even more enchanted by yet another relationship in the book: the one between Nora and her little sister.
The adult romance novel that first put Henry on the map is also her most beloved. Four years after it was released, fans still cite this tale of blooming love between two neighboring authors as an all-time fave. Recognizing how they approach their craft completely differently, January Andrews and Augustus “Gus” Everett decide to take a crack at writing with the others’ proverbial pen. Their resulting antics had author Colleen Hoover reading this book “backwards and then…bottom to top and then…all the even words and then…all the odd words and then… underwater,” as she wrote on Goodreads. Added Hoover: “Five stars! Emily Henry wrote this good.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios is all over this one, and signs point to Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal as possible stars. (Yulin Kuang, who has signed on to write and direct the flick, shared a photo Edebiri posted of herself with the Irish actor, as did Henry).
As we wait to hear if the rumors are true, we highly recommend checking out The Layover, Beach Read’s extended epilogue, which has an even higher Goodreads rating than the novel itself.
