Thinking about picking up your first romance novel? Author Freya Marske shares why you really should . . .

This was my first Austen, read somewhere around age ten, and remains an enduring favourite. It delivers the classic trope of second-chance romance by balancing acidic wit, the weight of history and regret, and pure aching emotion – whom amongst us hasn't swooned a time or two at that letter scene? I am half agony, half hope. Like all good romances, it puts the characters into situations where they can see one another's qualities and come to truly understand and value one another. It also gives us the viscerally satisfying arc of the unappreciated Anne finally blossoming into the life, recognition and love she deserves.

Thanks to both Austen and Georgette Heyer, Regency romances are one of the most enduringly popular subgenres of historical romance. Traditionally they've been overwhelmingly white and heterosexual, but there are plenty of authors out there changing the game. Courtney Milan is popular for a reason, and this is my favourite of hers, with leads who are both of Chinese descent. It's a vastly entertaining friends-to-lovers romance between a reluctant duke and a woman on a mission to grow her father's sauce business, with a lot to say about integrity and family and how we're shaped by where we grow. And food. So much food. You'll be starving by the end.

Another one injecting some diversity into the Regency romance sphere! This time, it's a romance between two women: one a pianist and piano tuner trying to recover her confidence, and one a silk-weaver plotting revenge on a terrible, entitled man abusing the rights of working women. This is a warm romance with impeccably researched period detail and a highly satisfying heist/con plot at its heart. Revenge On Terrible Entitled Men might as well be its own genre and, in this day and age, it's one we need. If you enjoy the TV show Leverage, you'll have a ball with this one.

I love Talia Hibbert's ability to give her characters family and friendship networks that enrich the story and feel very true-to-life. She's best known for her contemporary romances, but I have an enormous soft spot for this paranormal novella about a werewolf becoming smitten with a girl in a coffee shop… who unfortunately happens to come from a monster-hunting family, and who is determined to use his crush on her to entrap and kill him. Despite – because of? – that premise, this is one of the funniest romances I've ever read. Short, sweet, steamy, and hilarious.

KJ Charles is my favourite romance author, so picking just one of her works for this list was agony. She's an absolute genius at creating flawed, complicated people whose journeys to trust and love and happiness are difficult, and whose happy endings therefore feel absolutely earned. Slippery Creatures is part of a three-book series, The Will Darling Adventures, about an angry bookseller with a large knife, and the flippant aristocratic spy who slithers into his life, combining the best parts of classic 1920s pulp adventures with a superb, sharp-edged love story.

For fans of Bridgerton who'd like to welcome magic into their lives. Set in an alternative Edwardian England, this is a comedy of manners, manor houses, and hedge mazes: including a magic-infused murder mystery and a delightful queer romance. Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he's actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society, and he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his adversarial magical-society counterpart, as together they discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.

In the eagerly awaited follow-up to A Marvellous Light, Maud Blyth – longing for adventure – agrees to serve as an old lady's companion on an ocean liner, but on the very first day of the voyage her companion is found dead. Then, Maud meets Violet: a magician, an actress and a magnet for scandal. Surrounded by open sea and a ship full of suspects, Maud and Violet must work together to locate a magical object worth killing for – and unmask a murderer. All without becoming dead in the water themselves.