The Book of Love
#11823.50 adjusted 3.54 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2024 Reading commitment Low Kelly Link Last reviewed 2026-10-28
Overview
Kelly Link’s first novel, published in 2024 after decades of acclaimed short fiction, is a long, strange and tender book set in Lovesend, a small town on the Massachusetts coast. Three teenagers who vanished are suddenly back, caught up as pawns in a struggle between supernatural powers that include gods, an ill-tempered moon goddess and a music teacher who is not what he seems, and they must face a series of trials to escape the fate waiting for them. Link has called it a love letter to the romance and Gothic novels she read in her twenties. It won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science fiction and fantasy and was a Nebula Award finalist.
Dark fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Book of Love Kelly Link
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Book of Love | 2024 | 1 | core | 3.50 (11,251 ratings) |
Standalone novel.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Book of Love? The Book of Love's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Book of Love finished? Complete (2024).
- How much reading does The Book of Love take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book).
- How is The Book of Love ranked? #1182 in this site's official ranking, based on 11,251 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #1182?
Ranked #1182 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.50 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (11,251 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #1181, Grimpow (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 1 book · Complete · 11k ratings · Ranks #1182 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction), 2025: won: The Book of Love; Announced 25 April 2025.
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2024: finalist: The Book of Love
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what The Book of Love and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps Mythic fantasy / Sword & sorcery · Ongoing · Low commitment · 3.65
- Mortal Love Historical fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.63
- Wilderwood Romantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.62
- Rusalka Historical fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.60
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.50 across 11,251 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: The Book of Love (Kelly Link), The World of Vonahr (Paula Volsky) accepted 2026-10-28
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-10-28
Rule: Core Canon = the single novel The Book of Love (2024).