Book Universe

Exclusive: Book Recs from Anna Todd

[Note from Frolic: We are so excited and honored to welcome author Anna Todd to the site today. She’s sharing some of her favorite book recs with you. Take it away, Anna!]

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to share my favorite slow-burn romances with you. There’s just something so addicting about this trope and nearly every favorite book of mine falls into it, haha. I love that feeling as a reader when you know the characters are falling in love before they do, and the stress and head shaking it causes as they struggle to see and accept it. I chose to write my own slow-burn series because of how much I love to read them. I do love me an instalove, but slow burn has always had my heart.

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

This book is my favorite read of 2023. It absolutely lives up to the hype. The setting is so unique, taking place at a war college where the main character, Violet Sorrengail, becomes a dragon rider when she has spent her whole life planning for a different path. It’s so hard not to spoil the many twists and turns this book has, but I can say that there is always something happening, always someone scheming against our brave heroine, and nothing is what it seems. Along with being a slow burn, it’s also full of my other favorite tropes: enemies to lovers and forced proximity. It’s spicy and such a page turner. It left me on the edge of my seat.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

This is an older book, but it’s the first in my all-time favorite series. This book changed the way I read romance and has had an everlasting effect on my brain chemistry, even thirteen years later. In a world of humans, Shadowhunters, Warlocks, Vampires, Werewolves, Fae, and everything in between, Tessa Gray finds herself traveling to England to find her brother who’s gone missing. Her journey turns into something else entirely and she learns of a world she never knew existed. She meets Will Herondale (my ultimate book boyfriend) and Jem Carstairs (the biggest green flag book boyfriend ever) and chaos ensues. Even if you hate love triangles, their story will have you hooked. The world building and character development is brilliant. This novel is where I got the inspiration for the name Tessa in my After series. 😉

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

This book had me swooning. It has all the tropes we love and was a slow burn with the perfect pay off. I got so attached to Naomi and Knox and their fiery banter. I loved their chemistry and the way they handle one another. The small town in the story also had me hooked. It became its own character, and the side characters are so well developed. You’ll laugh, cry, and laugh until you cry.

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

Of course, everyone loves a Colleen Hoover book, but this one has my heart. Even though there is a slow-burn romance (no spoilers :P) there’s also the story of a family, particularly a mother and daughter, Morgan and Clara, that have their lives turned upside down in the wake of a tragedy that uncovers a web of secrets and lies. Morgan, who is a young mother, tries to bond with her daughter after her father and her aunt, Morgan’s sister, both die suddenly. It’s full of twists and really showcases the concept of a true family, both romantically and between a mother and daughter.

The Burning by Anna Todd

I’m the worst at talking about my own work, so here we go! 😛 The Burning follows Karina and Kael, who we met in The Falling (the first book in the series), as they try to find their way back to one another after something unforgivable tears them apart. These two are the definition of slow burn and they try to fight their feelings for one another every step of the way, but they can’t seem to stay away from each other. Things get even more complicated as Karina finds herself seamlessly falling into Kael’s friend group and finding a sense of family for the first time in her life. She’s falling for Kael more and more each day as he gets closer to getting discharged from the Army. It’s slow burn, forced proximity, and the reality of mental health in the military wrapped into a messy and hopefully addicting novel.

About the Author:

Anna Todd (writer/producer/influencer) is the New York Times best-selling author of the After series, which has been released in 35 languages and has sold more than twelve million copies worldwide—becoming a #1 best-seller in several countries. Always an avid reader, Todd began writing stories on her phone through Wattpad, with After becoming the platform’s most-read series with over two billion reads. She has served as a producer and screenwriter on the film adaptations of After and After We Collided, and in 2017, she founded the entertainment company Frayed Pages Media to produce innovative and creative work across film, television, and publishing. A native of Ohio, she lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Find her at AnnaTodd.com, on Twitter at @AnnaTodd, on Instagram at @AnnaTodd, and on Wattpad as Imaginator1D.