How to Build Your Romance Reading List: Our System
TL;DR: we use a three-tier system (Goodreads shelves + a color-coded spreadsheet + the Dreame app library) to organize our TBR, discover new books through BookTok and Reddit, filter by tropes and ratings, plan monthly reading goals, and ruthlessly DNF anything that doesn’t grab us by chapter three. Here’s exactly how we do it — and what’s sitting on our TBR right now.
1. Our Reading List Setup
Okay, confession time: we used to be a chaotic reader. You know the type — twelve browser tabs open with book recommendations, a Notes app full of random titles we’d never find again, and a Kindle library so cluttered we couldn’t tell what we’d read from what we hadn’t. It was a mess.
Then we built a system, and it changed everything. Here’s what it looks like now:
Goodreads Shelves
Goodreads is our backbone. We have the standard shelves — Read, Currently Reading, To Read — but the real magic is in the custom shelves. Mine include:
- romance-tbr — the master list, everything we want to read eventually
- dreame-wishlist — books we want to read on Dreame specifically
- kindle-unlimited — KU titles on our radar
- binge-worthy — series we want to marathon
- mood-reader — for when we need a guaranteed comfort read
When someone recommends a book, it goes straight to romance-tbr. No exceptions. If we don’t capture it in that moment, it’s gone forever — our brain is a sieve when it comes to titles.
The Spreadsheet
Yes, we have a spreadsheet. Judge us all you want — it’s beautiful and we love it. We use Google Sheets with columns for: Title, Author, Tropes, Heat Level (1-5 🔥), Source (where we heard about it), Priority (high/medium/low), and Notes. The rows are color-coded: pink for high priority, yellow for medium, and gray for low. When we’re planning our month, we just look at the pink rows first.
Is it extra? Absolutely. Does it save us from decision paralysis every single month? Also absolutely.
The Dreame App Library
Since we read a ton on Dreame, we keep their built-in library organized too. We use the “Bookshelf” feature for books we’re actively reading and the “Wishlist” for everything else. The app’s recommendation engine is actually pretty good at surfacing books we’ll like, so we check the “For You” tab weekly — more on that in the next section.
2. How we Discover New Books
Our TBR grows faster than we can read. That’s not a complaint — it means we’re never without something to pick up next. Here’s where we find new-to-us romance books:
Dreame Recommendations
The Dreame algorithm and we have an understanding now. After years of reading on the platform, its “For You” section genuinely nails our taste about 70% of the time. We check it every Sunday with our coffee. When we see a cover that catches our eye, we read the first chapter right there — if it hooks us, it goes on the wishlist. We’ve found some of our absolute favorites this way, especially in the werewolf and mafia subgenres. (If you’re into werewolf romance too, check out our best werewolf romance on Dreame list.)
BookTok
We know, we know — BookTok can be a mixed bag. But here’s the thing: when the right creators recommend books, it’s gold. We follow about fifteen romance-specific BookTokers whose taste aligns with ours. Our trick? We ignore the mega-viral recommendations (they’re often overhyped) and pay attention to the mid-size creators who actually review books thoughtfully. That’s where we found Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood — a BookToker with 3K followers, not 300K.
Reddit: r/RomanceBooks
If you’re not on r/RomanceBooks, you’re missing out. It’s the most thoughtful, well-organized romance community we’ve found. The weekly “What are you reading?” threads are our go-to for honest opinions. People there actually explain WHY they liked or didn’t like a book, not just “omg read this.” we’ve discovered entire subgenres we never would have tried otherwise — dark academia romance, anyone?
Goodreads Lists
We know Goodreads lists can be popularity contests, but we’ve learned to read between the lines. We skip the “Best Romance Ever” mega-lists and search for niche ones: “Best Werewolf Romance with Strong Heroines,” “Slow Burn Enemies to Lovers,” “Romance Books That Don’t Suck.” The more specific the list, the better the recs.
3. Our Filtering System
Not every book on our TBR actually gets read. Here’s how we decide what makes the cut:
Tropes we Love vs. Avoid
We’re a simple woman: give us fated mates, enemies-to-lovers, and alphahole redemption arcs and we’re happy. We’ll try almost any book with these. On the flip side, we avoid love triangles (they give us anxiety), cheating (hard pass), and insta-love (boring — where’s the tension?). Our spreadsheet has a “Tropes” column for exactly this reason — we can filter by trope when we’re in a specific mood.
If you want a full breakdown of what makes each trope work, check out our romance tropes guide.
Rating Thresholds
We don’t trust ratings below 3.5 stars on Goodreads — too many 1-star reviews from people who clearly didn’t read the blurb. And we’re suspicious of anything above 4.5 with fewer than 500 ratings — that’s usually author friends bumping up the score. Our sweet spot: 3.8-4.3 stars with 1,000+ ratings. That’s where the genuinely good books live.
Completion Status
On Dreame especially, we always check if a book is completed before we start. We got burned by an amazing werewolf serial that went on hiatus for eighteen months. Eighteen. Months. We’d forgotten the plot by the time it came back. Never again.
4. Monthly TBR Planning
We aim for 8-10 books per month, which sounds like a lot until you realize half of them are on Dreame and we read those during commute time and before bed.
Here’s how we balance:
- 2-3 Dreame books — Usually ongoing series or new releases
- 2-3 Kindle Unlimited — Completed series we can binge
- 1-2 purchased ebooks — Must-reads not on any subscription
- 1 audiobook — For walks and chores
We also try to mix genres. If we read three werewolf romances in a row, we’ll switch to a contemporary or a fantasy for variety. Keeps the reading muscle from getting bored.
Monthly Budget
Total: about $15-20/month. KU subscription ($11.99) + occasional Dreame coin purchase ($3-5) + one ebook purchase ($2-4). Sometimes we go over if there’s a new release we can’t wait for, but we try to stay disciplined.
5. Tracking What we’ve Read
After we finish a book, we log it immediately. Not “later” — immediately, while our feelings are fresh. Here’s what we note:
- Rating: Our personal 1-5 scale. 5 = “will reread annually,” 4 = “great, will recommend,” 3 = “decent but forgettable,” 2 = “finished but annoyed,” 1 = “why did we do this to ourselves”
- Top tropes present: For future filtering
- Steam level: 1-5 flames. Important for recommendations — some people want closed door, some want open, and there’s no shame either way
- One-sentence review: “Werewolf Romeo and Juliet but they actually communicate” — something that’ll jog our memory six months later
- Would we recommend? Yes/no/with caveats
We do this in both Goodreads (public) and our spreadsheet (private, more honest). The spreadsheet gets the real tea.
6. When to DNF (Did Not Finish)
Life is too short for bad books. Here are our DNF rules:
- Chapter 3 rule: If a book hasn’t grabbed us by chapter three, we’re out. Three chapters is enough time to establish characters, setting, and stakes. If none of that has happened, it’s not us, it’s the book.
- Creep rule: If a love interest does something that makes our skin crawl and the narrative treats it as romantic, we’re done. Possessive is fine; controlling and creepy is not.
- Pacing rule: If we’ve been reading for an hour and nothing has happened, DNF. We don’t care how beautiful the prose is — we’re here for story.
- Series fatigue rule: If we loved book 1 but book 2 is dragging, we’ll give it 50 pages. If it’s still dragging, we drop the series. No guilt.
Our DNF rate is about 15%. That’s not a badge of honor — it just means we’ve learned to quit books that aren’t working instead of suffering through them.
7. Our Current Top 5 TBR Picks
As of right now, these are the books sitting at the top of our list:
- Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton — Everyone’s been talking about this dark romance and we finally caved. The reviews are either 5 stars or 1 star with nothing in between, which means it’s either brilliant or terrible. We need to know which.
- Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon — we know, we’re late to the party. But we keep seeing it recommended in every “alien romance” thread and our curiosity has officially won. Blue aliens, here we come.
- The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas — Fake dating, pining, a Spanish setting. This has “you will devour it in one sitting” written all over it.
- Alpha’s Obsession by Lacey Carter Andersen — A new Dreame release that’s been sitting in our wishlist for two weeks. The blurb promises a fated mates + enemies-to-lovers combo and we are weak for that.
- The Switch by Beth O’Leary — A palate cleanser. After too many dark romances, we need something warm and funny. O’Leary’s The Flatshare was a 5-star read for us, so we trust her completely.
8. Tools & Apps we Use
Quick rundown of our reading tech stack:
- Goodreads — Master database, reading challenge tracker, community reviews
- Dreame — Primary reading app for werewolf and bad boy romance, built-in wishlist
- Kindle app — For KU and purchased ebooks, highlights and notes
- Google Sheets — Our color-coded TBR spreadsheet
- Audible — Monthly credit for audiobooks, great for walks
- StoryGraph — Goodreads alternative with better mood/tropes tracking
None of these are sponsored — they’re just what works for us. The key is finding tools that fit YOUR reading style, not copying someone else’s system wholesale. Take what’s useful, ditch what isn’t.
What’s on your TBR right now? We’re always looking for recommendations — drop your current read or your top 3 wishlist picks and let’s swap!