9 of the Best Redemption Rom-Coms to Tug at Your Heartstrings

When I hear the phrase “redemption rom-com,” this is the first book I think of. While it’s significantly more effective if you’ve also read Something Borrowed, the evolution of Darcy in Something Blue is apparent from the beginning of the HEA. Darcy, our central character, might have been the betrayed one in Something Borrowed, but she’s not without fault. As she moves away from the US to start again, she also has to figure out how she’s behaved in life, and what she should do to make her life more worthwhile. 

This Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com takes us to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, where Piper has been essentially exiled by her stepfather. After a night of excess and bad choices lands her in jail in L.A., she’s sent to Westport to run the family dive bar and maybe learn to be a grown-up. But she didn’t plan on immediately running into Brendan, the grumpy local who doesn’t expect her to last the week.

What happens when a surly academic seeks to redeem himself in the eyes of the woman he screwed over both personally and academically? 

Corrie is an expert on the subject of Chimalli, an ancient Aztec warrior. The expert, actually. So when the job leading an expedition through the Mexican jungle was instead given to Ford, she felt pretty betrayed, even by an academic rival. But when she’s asked to help the expedition, we learn that Ford was the one who recommended her, in an attempt to make up for the ways he wronged her, both in grad school and in the confines of this project. 

The second book in the If Shakespeare Was An Auntie series, Tastes Like Shakkar is heavily inspired by Much Ado About Nothing. Bobbi will do anything for her best friend, even work with Bunty Padda. Bobbi heard Bunty say something offensive about her and has held a grudge ever since, but has to give him a chance when they have to spend a lot of time together.

Jeremy Wentworth loved the town of Wentworth as a young man, where he got to explore the world with Chloe. But then he left without a word, and Chloe was left to wonder what had happened to him. When he reappears as an adult, he’s ready to come clean about his identity and apologize to Chloe for disappearing without a trace. The ensuing deal between the two leads to all kinds of shenanigans, but ultimately leads to Jeremy’s redemption in Chloe’s eyes.  

Quito did something he’ll never forgive himself for, but he’ll have to deal with it sooner than expected in order to do a favor for his father. The older man is retiring, and he wants Quito to invite his best friend from high school—an up-and-coming action star—to perform at his retirement concert. But how will Quito ever get Emmett to forgive him for what he did?

(Okay, this sounds very serious, and it is, but it is also funny and joyful and full of music!)

This one doesn’t come out for a few months, but you’ll definitely want to put this one on your list if you want to laugh your head off while also watching a pop singer go on her own personal redemption tour, starting at her family ranch. After Native singer Avery makes a choice that she sees as one thing but many see as something completely different, she retreats to her grandmother’s ranch in Oklahoma to lick her wounds. And the cowboy sent to pick her up isn’t helping. But working on the ranch, getting back to her roots, and coming into her own are all things that will help her gain redemption not only in the eyes of her most important fanbase, but in herself. 

There’s nothing quite like a disgraced influencer, and Chellie had a heckuva time pouring her life down the drain after her boyfriend betrayed her. But the best way to recover from a meltdown is to disappear for a bit, right? What she doesn’t expect when she books her quiet retreat is the mountain man who runs the resort where she’s staying (and pulling together some fresh sponsored content). And also…she might be befriending…a bear??

You can’t have a redemption list without at least one supervillain turned hero! Joan’s redemption arc is one she’s been working on for a long time—supervillainy isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be, and she’d rather just run a food truck or something. But when Sadie mistakes her for one of the city’s superheroes, she realizes she needs to get on the fast track to Goodness, otherwise everything she never knew she wanted might get flushed down the drain.