Ah, the age gap. It’s one of the most hotly debated topics in modern romance, both in fiction and real life. What’s an appropriate age gap? Your age divided by two, plus seven? Do different rules come in after you and a partner hit 30? While your friends and family might judge you for dating a silver fox in real life, they can’t do it if you’re dating them in your mind. That’s where these 10 best age gap romance books come into play!
All Grown Up by Vi Keeland is a mature woman’s dilemma. On the one hand, the FMC thinks, dating the young, handsome, and successful Fordham Young couldn’t be all that bad. After all, he makes her laugh. He’s devilishly charming. She hasn’t fallen this hard for someone since her high school sweetheart 20 years before. On the other hand … he looks familiar. What a minute. Oh God. He’s the son of the neighbor at her family’s summer home. She barely recognized him. This isn’t going to work, she thinks, and leaves the date. Then she goes on vacation to her summer home … and guess who decided to stay next door this year?
Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas is about a girl who has the hots for her boyfriend’s dad. I mean, fair. Her boyfriend, who she’s also attracted to, shares half his DNA. But the pull goes beyond the physical. Pike is protective and caring about Jordan in a way that her boyfriend isn’t. She can’t stop thinking about him. He can’t stop thinking about her. They both know it’s so, so wrong. How could this possibly get any worse? Oh no. Jordan’s had to leave her living sitch. She can’t make rent at her dead-end job. Her boyfriend offers for her to move in, and she does. Things get really, really complicated. But in a hot way.
Unsticky by Sarra Manning, despite what the title suggests, gets sticky indeed. Twenty-something Grace Reeves is stuck in the rat race at her cutthroat fashion job. As if life couldn’t get harder, she keeps getting burned by men her age. She needs someone with their life together. Someone mature. Someone like sexy rich art dealer Vaughn. He’s in the market for a sugar baby, and she’s happy to apply for the job. Unsticky is about the complicated relationship between affection and transaction. Does she really like Vaughn? Does she just like the lifestyle? Maybe it’s a little of both. Is that so bad?
When August Ends by Penelope Ward is about Noah Cavallari, the silver fox who just moved into the family summer home of the young protagonist … who’s working the place as a maid. Now that she’s on the job, she definitely can’t be trying to hook up with the clientele. Noah is off-limits. Hard pass. At least until he began inviting her to the lake under the moonlight to talk. They’re just friends. Totally just friends. Even if every bone in her body is screaming for her to jump his. He’s leaving at the end of the summer. They may as well make the most of it.
What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long is a Regency romance about Alexander Moncrieffe, Duke of Falconbridge. He’s a powerful, dangerous man. As wealthy as he is mysterious, he’s the subject of fear and fascination throughout the land. If there’s one thing people know about him, it’s this: don’t cross him. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the noble Ian Eversea does. To get revenge on the Eversea scion, Alexander decides to seduce and break the heart of Ian’s younger sister Genevieve, but he soon finds out that the young woman isn’t easily broken.
Kulti by Mariana Zapata is a book about a young woman who makes the mistake of meeting her idol. Star soccer player Sal Casillas made the unfortunate decision to date Reiner Kulti, the international soccer superstar she idolized as a child. A week into their relationship, she dumped him. He was emotional. Explosive. Not the kind of person you want to date. Thinking she left the past far behind her, imagine her surprise when she sees Kulti show up to one of her games … a shell of the man he was. Old Kulti was a nightmare. Maybe New Kulti isn’t so bad, after all.
Last Light by Claire Kent is the post-apocalyptic age-gap romance you had no idea you needed. Civilization has fallen, and our young heroine has to travel the ruined remains of the United States seeking shelter and safety. In her travels, she meets the gruff Travis. She doesn’t particularly like the old guy, but he fixes her car and keeps her safe. That has to be good for something, right? And who knows, maybe there’s a soft, nougat center to his hard candy-textured heart. For anyone who ever had the hots for Joel from The Last of Us (which is everyone), this one is for you.
Fair warning, The Only Story by Julian Barnes isn’t going to pull punches when it comes to your heart. This beautiful, gut-wrenching tale centers around 19-year-old Paul, who strikes up an unexpected relationship with Susan, a 48-year-old mother of two. To call Paul and Susan’s relationship “whirlwind” would be an understatement. It’s a typhoon that blows Susan out of her family’s life and into Paul’s arms in an apartment they share in London. The Only Story then gets into the harsh reality of dating someone older, i.e. when they get old, old and their body begins to fail. Death Cab For Cutie said it right in their song “What Sarah Said”: “Love is watching is watching someone die / so who’s gonna watch you die?” I’m not crying, we both are.
Before it was adapted into a blockbusting, peach-f*cking Hollywood movie, Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman was a hallmark of queer literature. It’s the story of the teenage Elio Perlman and the mid-twenty-something grad student Oliver, who strike up a summer romance at the Pelman family’s villa in Northern Italy. While the age gap here is only 7 years, that’s A LOT for anyone under 30. The novel is part romance, part queer coming of age, and, of course, a total heartbreaker. The ending, like the peach after Elio is done with it, is bittersweet.
Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule is a profound novel and one of the best pieces of sapphic literature ever penned. It’s the story of emotionally repressed and recently divorced English professor Evelyn Hall, who falls in love with young artist and casino worker Ann after moving to Reno, Nevada. The story serves as a coming of age for the already mature Evelyn, who discovers her queerness through her relationship with the sexually secure Ann. It’s perhaps one of the best age gap dynamics ever put to page, going beyond the purely sexual to show how two people can truly provide value to each other at vastly different points in their lives.
