Romance Retellings for 2026

Retelling: The Illiad and The Odyssey

Sweetbitter Song is a story of star-crossed love under the shadow of war. When Melantho and Penelope first meet, they are drawn to each other despite themselves and their differences in station as an enslaved girl and a princess. But such a relationship is not allowed in Sparta, and they’re soon torn apart. Years later, Melantho is sent to Ithica to serve the new queen and her husband, determined to keep her distance from the woman she once loved. That proves easier said than done, though, especially when Odysseus and the men of Ithaca sail off to foreign shores.

Retelling: Hansel and Gretel

In this cozy romantasy, a girl who was once bartered away by her family to become an apprentice to a witch has grown into her own as a woman named Miria. She’s found magic and love with a woman she rescued from the woods. But when she learns that the woman is engaged against her will to the brother who abandoned and forgot her, she’ll have to venture out of the woods at last to save her love and get her revenge.

Retelling: The Pied Piper

This dark romantasy Pied Piper retelling follows a warrior forced to become bodyguard to an arrogant prince. Morgana wants nothing more than to return to the fighting arenas where she made a name for herself, but now she’s protecting a prince she’d just as soon threaten herself. But as the two grow closer and Morgana puts her life on the line again and again for Prince Adrion, the powers she’s long suppressed come back to the surface. With them comes a truth that could upend everything: Morgana is the last of her kind, a fae, the very sort of monster the prince was raised to destroy.

Retelling: The Great Gatsby

When tragedy forces 17-year-old Nick to leave Oklahoma behind for New York, he hopes his new start at a prestigious private school will be his chance to make a name for himself. But the supposedly integrated school has all the same prejudices he thought he left behind. His growing feelings for the son of the school founder only complicate matters, especially when his investigations into the school expose dangerous truths.

Retelling: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

An orphan destined to grow into a legendary knight begins training alongside another young man destined to play a role in Merlin’s prophecies: Galehaut. When Lancelot is forced to leave behind his island home and the man he’s grown to love to follow Merlin on a quest for the Holy Grail, he’ll have to guard his heart—and his truest self—from the knights he grows to call friends and the wizard and king he is destined to follow.

Retelling: Pride and Prejudice

This gorgeous Pride and Prejudice retelling by one of my favorite historical fiction authors is set in Joseon-era Korea around the same time the original book is set in England. Of all the (many) Jane Austen retellings I’ve read, this is maybe the only one that effectively captures the romance and social commentary of Pride and Prejudice in equal measure. The story follows a book transcriber and a writer during a time when fiction is strictly outlawed. When the two meet, they don’t realize they’re the same people who’ve kept up a secret correspondence between their alternate personas. In person, they loathe each other. On paper, they’re intimate friends. Will they be able to bridge the gap between their secret identities and their differences in status, all while evading the government officials trying to dismantle the underground literary scene?

Retelling: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Puck is a nonbinary reality TV producer in this fun and appropriately chaotic Shakespeare-inspired rom-com. They’ve created a hit reality dating show by putting troubled couples through hell over the years, but when their college roommate announces her engagement to another of Puck’s friends, they know this marriage is headed toward disaster. Over the course of a week at an upscale Appalachian resort where the wedding festivities are taking place, Puck secretly rearranges the couples in their friend group. But a determined bridesmaid set on making this wedding happen could upend Puck’s plans—and all their ideas about what makes a happily ever after.