The death of Zac Brettler: London Falling
Ten Great Love Stories set in New York City
17th May 2024
Ten great love stories set in New York. In New York, love stories bloom in concrete jungles. Serendipitous meetings over steaming coffees, whispered secrets beneath towering skyscrapers, proposals on bustling bridges – the city’s energy pulsates with possibility.
From first glances on crowded subways to jazz club encounters bathed in warm light, New York’s frenetic pace becomes the backdrop for countless romances, each as unique and unforgettable as the city itself.
Many authors have written love stories set in the city. Here are ten of our favourites.
A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams
New York in the Roaring Twenties – a time for love, secrets and scandal…
As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New York City, the iridescent Mrs Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue – a beautiful socialite of a certain age – has done the unthinkable: she’s fallen in love with her young lover, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. But though times are changing, divorce for a woman of Theresa’s wealth and social standing is out of the question.
When Theresa’s bachelor brother, Ox, decides to tie the knot with the youngest daughter of a newly wealthy inventor, Theresa enlists her lover to present the family’s diamond rose ring to pretty ingénue, Miss Sophie Fortescue – and to check into the background of this little-known family. Yet even as he uncovers a shocking secret, Octavian falls under Sophie’s spell…
Divided loyalties and dangerous revelations lead to a shocking transgression and eventually Theresa must make a choice that will change them all forever.
Carol by Patricia Highsmith
Therese is just an ordinary sales assistant working in a New York department store when a beautiful, alluring woman in her thirties walks up to her counter. Standing there, Therese is wholly unprepared for the first shock of love. Therese is an awkward nineteen-year-old with a job she hates and a boyfriend she doesn’t love; Carol is a sophisticated, bored suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce and a custody battle for her only daughter. As Therese becomes irresistibly drawn into Carol’s world, she soon realizes how much they both stand to lose…First published pseudonymously in 1952 as The Price of Salt, Carol is a hauntingly atmospheric love story set against the backdrop of fifties’ New York.
I’ll Take New York by Miranda Dickinson
The author of the Sunday Times bestselling Take a Look at Me Now, returns to New York with her most heart-warming, romantic story yet.
Have you ever given up on love?
When her boyfriend lets her down for the last time, Brooklyn bookshop owner Bea James makes a decision – no more. No more men, no more heartbreak, and no more pain.
Psychiatrist Jake Steinmann is making a new start too, leaving his broken marriage behind in San Francisco. From now on there’ll just be one love in his life: New York.
At a party where they seem to be the only two singletons, Bea and Jake meet, and decide there’s just one thing for it. They will make a pact: no more relationships.
But the city has other plans . . .
New York Valentine by Carmen Reid
Love is in the air!
Personal shopper Annie Valentine has a dream job in the heart of fabulous Manhattan.
Daughter Lana is lost in the heat of first love, but has she fallen for a heart-breaker?
In London husband Ed faces a scandal at work and knows, in his heart, he needs Annie back.
What’s a girl to do when her true love is in London but her new love is New York?
Does it have to be fashion or family, or can Annie Valentine have it all?
One Wish in Manhattan by Mandy Baggot
Christmas: it’s the most wonderful time of the year…to fall in love
The temperature is dropping, snow is on its way and Hayley Walker is heading for New York with one wish… to start over.
With her daughter Angel, Hayley is ready for adventure. But there’s more to New York than twinkly lights and breathtaking skyscrapers. Angel has her own Christmas wish – to find her real dad.
While Hayley tries to fulfil her daughter’s wish, she crosses paths with billionaire Oliver Drummond. Restless and bored with fast living, there’s something intriguing about him that has Hayley hooked.
Can Hayley dare to think her own dreams might come true – could A New York Christmas turn into a New York Forever?
Travel to the Big Apple and join Hayley and Oliver as they realise life isn’t just about filling the minutes… it’s about making every moment count.
Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham
From Lauren Graham, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, comes a witty, charming, and hilariously relatable debut novel about a struggling young actress trying to get ahead?and keep it together?in New York City.
It’s January 1995, and Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing “important” work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club. Her roommates?her best friend Jane, and Dan, an aspiring sci-fi writer?are supportive, yet Franny knows a two-person fan club doesn’t exactly count as success. Everyone tells her she needs a backup plan, and though she can almost picture moving back home and settling down with her perfectly nice ex-boyfriend, she’s not ready to give up on her goal of having a career like her idols Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. Not just yet. But while she dreams of filling their shoes, in the meantime, she’d happily settle for a speaking part in almost anything-and finding a hair product combination that works.
Everything is riding on the upcoming showcase for her acting class, where she’ll finally have a chance to perform for people who could actually hire her. And she can’t let herself be distracted by James Franklin, a notorious flirt and the most successful actor in her class, even though he’s suddenly started paying attention. Meanwhile, her bank account is rapidly dwindling, her father wants her to come home, and her agent doesn’t return her calls. But for some reason, she keeps believing that she just might get what she came for.
Sunset in Central Park by Sarah Morgan
After witnessing the fallout of her parent’s divorce, love has never been a priority for garden designer Frankie Cole. The only man in her life is her friend Matt–but that’s strictly platonic. If only she found it easier to ignore the way he makes her heart race…
Matt Walker has loved Frankie for years but, has always played it cool. Until he uncovers new depths to the girl he’s known forever, and doesn’t want to wait a moment longer.
Matt knows Frankie has secrets and has buried them deep, but can he persuade her to kiss him under the Manhattan sunset.
The Charm Bracelet by Melissa Hill
Holly O’Neill knows that every charm bracelet tells a story.
Many years ago she was sent one with just a single charm attached. The charms have been appearing ever since, often at challenging times, as if her mysterious benefactor knows exactly when she needs a little magic in her life.
As a result, Holly’s bracelet is her most prized possession. So when she finds someone else’s charm bracelet, she feels she has to try to reunite it with its owner. Even if the only clues she has to follow are the charms themselves.
On a search that will take her all over New York City at Christmas, Holly becomes ever more determined to piece together the details of this other charmed life. But what she doesn’t know is that her quest may also lead her somewhere she never, ever expected . . .
Three Nights in New York by Michelle Walsh Jackson
3 girls, 3 guys, and 3 unforgettable nights in trendy downtown New York! Eve doesn’t believe in knights in shining armour. As director of Just for Coffee dating agency she reckons you need the correct profile and bank balance to find love. Fate, however, does not agree! This is single mum Nicky’s first time in New York and she has come to shop! But she gets more than she bargains for! For Rachel it’s time out from her stressful marriage and a chance to visit her hunky brother Conor. A holiday fling is the last thing she needs. Until she meets sexy Alex who uncovers the dark secret she lives with in her cosy secure life back in Dublin. From the High Line to SoHo and the Boathouse to Chelsea the magic of New York transforms their lives forever!
From Notting Hill to New York…Actually by Ali McNamara
Scarlett O’Brien, utterly addicted to romantic films, has found her leading man. She’s convinced Sean is Mr Right, but the day-to-day reality of a relationship isn’t quite like the movies. With Sean constantly away on business, Scarlett and her new best friend Oscar decide to head to New York for the holiday of a lifetime.
From one famous landmark to the next, Scarlett and Oscar make many new friends during their adventure – including sailors in town for Fleet Week, a famous film star, and Jamie & Max, a TV reporter and cameraman. Scarlett finds herself strangely drawn to Jamie, they appear to have much in common: a love of films and Jamie’s search for a parent he never knew. But Scarlett has to ask herself why she is reacting like this to another man when she’s so in love with Sean . . .
Enjoy your New York Love Stories!
Tony for the TripFiction team
Join team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)
Please wait...
