The Romantic Novelists Association presented the 2024 Romantic Novel Awards at a ceremony in London on May 20.

The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms, and this year includes a new category, the Christmas / Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award.  The complete list of winners is here.

The winner in the category of genre interest is:

THE FANTASY ROMANTIC NOVEL AWARD

Winner

• Girl, Goddess, Queen by Bea Fitzgerald (Penguin)

Persephone wasn’t taken to hell: she jumped. Now all she has to do is convince the Underworld’s annoyingly sexy, arrogant and frankly rude ruler, Hades, to fall in line with her plan. A plan that will shake Mount Olympus to its very core.

Finalists

• Ghosted Rosie by Mullender (Sphere)

When Emily’s boyfriend disappeared from her life, she pretended she didn’t care. But when he suddenly appears in her flat, she realises she wasn’t ghosted after all. Andy, now a spirit, died in mysterious circumstances – and to get him to the other side, Emily needs to find out how…

• One Christmas Morning by Rachel Greenlaw HQ (HarperCollins)

Eva attends a party at a manor house in Cornwall and wakes up on Christmas morning in the body of another guest. As Eva relives Christmas Day from the perspectives of those closest to her, she realises she needs to change, before she loses those she loves.

• Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major (Harper Fiction)

It’s Monday and busy literary agent Emma’s ‘dateversary’ – only Emma has forgotten. Again. And by the end of the day everything has changed. When she wakes the next morning it’s Monday again. She realises she has the chance to change everything, and potentially save her husband from his fate.

• The Wicked in Me by Suzanne Wright (Piatkus)

When witches come back from the afterlife, they don’t always come back the same. And they don’t always come back alone