The 35 best romance novels from Canada

An important title in Muslim representation in romance. Bestseller in Canada with strong international reception.

Ranked by literary regard among eligible works in the current catalogue. This position reflects the available catalogue evidence.

Shane Hollander, the polished Canadian captain, and Ilya Rozanov, the brash Russian star, are the two best young players in professional hockey. On the ice they are bitter rivals who chase the same trophies for rival teams. Off it, they meet in hotel rooms after a first hookup that was meant to happen once. It keeps happening: across seasons, cities and All-Star weekends, they trade late-night texts and stolen days, all while both hide who they are from teammates, fans, sponsors and family. Reid writes the sex openly and the feelings slowly. Each man resists calling this love, and the book tracks how long they can pretend it is only a habit. Hockey's locker-room culture, the pressure to stay closeted and the loneliness of two famous men who can tell nobody anything shape every scene. The story moves across years in short, brisk sections, so you watch them age from cocky rivals into men who want a shared life. Expect a steamy, funny, tender contemporary romance with a guaranteed happy ending and plenty of hockey. Reid keeps the tone light but lets the fear of exposure hurt.

Gruen's novel moves between two timelines: ninety-three-year-old Jacob Jankowski in a nursing home and twenty-three-year-old Jacob during the Depression, when he jumps a train and lands in a traveling circus. Young Jacob, a Cornell veterinary student whose parents have just died and whose tuition money has evaporated, becomes the circus veterinarian and falls in love with Marlena, the star equestrian performer married to August, the charismatic and violently unstable animal trainer. The novel is meticulously researched: Gruen spent years studying Depression-era circuses, and her details about train logistics, animal care, sideshow performers, and the hierarchy of circus life are specific and convincing. The elephant Rosie becomes the novel's moral center, an animal whose apparent stubbornness conceals intelligence that none of the humans initially recognize. The framing story in the nursing home is equally sharp, capturing the indignities of aging with humor and fury.

A 2024 debut with no syllabi presence yet. It is a commercial comic novel, placing it with recent popular fiction such as Beach Read.

No syllabi or prize records exist for this 2018 commercial romance, and it is not taught as literature. Its profile is that of a genre favorite, and its sequel Heated Rivalry has since been adapted for television, which has raised its visibility.

A recent commercial genre romance, with no recorded syllabi presence. It belongs in the popular romance category, like Beach Read.

This 2025 commercial romance is too recent to have a presence in literary curricula. It belongs with Beach Read as a genre title.

A 2024 commercial romance with no syllabi presence recorded, it sits in the popular category alongside recent genre romance like Beach Read. Its audience is large, but it is not taught.

A 2026 commercial romance has no syllabi presence and sits with recent genre titles like Beach Read, though it belongs to a popular shared series universe.