Romance Book Recommendations

Y'all asked, but you probably should not have

I’ve always read all genres. I love a good memoir, autobiography, and have read all kinds of fiction and non-fiction across the board. As I’ve gotten older- I’ve found myself seeking out the promise of a happily ever after that comes with reading romance novels. I discuss more about it in the post below.

SHE WROTE A ROMANCE NOVEL !? WHY?

I need a happy ending, I need to know that love will prevail. Give me magical realms, werewolves, dragons, orcs, witches and more. Sophie Strand of Make Me Good Soil recently wrote a brilliant piece entitled Why We Need Romantasy where she sums up similar thoughts i’ve had brilliantly.

---

I am sharing my unhinged and slightly hinged book recommendations along with my darling friend and fellow romance writer Carrie Etzel of Sister Swan. Don’t say I did not warn you.

Farai: Dragon Series by G.A. Aiken. Its violent, spicy, fierce, filled with badass women, cunning dragons, and laugh out loud humor. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but when I read this- i’m kicking my feet and giggling. I am on my third or fourth re-reading of this series. I love the themes of family, the utter fierceness of Anywll the Bloody, her rage, and her protectiveness of her children.

Carrie: If references to 19th century British lit, social satire, neurodivergent representation, and rolicking absurdity are your thing, check out India Holton. All her books are amazing, but her completed trilogy starts with The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, a book I’ve gone back to again and again, I love it so.

Farai: Marie Force . Much like the Bridgerton series, Force’s books are formulaic (which is comforting to me- no complaints here), intertwined, cozy, drama filled, and never ending. I’ve read every book in her 25+ Gansett island series, and I'll keep reading whatever she drops next.

Carrie: I can’t decide if I enjoyed Martha Water’s I To Swoon and To Spar, on that first romance rec, or To Love and to Loathe more, but these are Regency romcoms without some of the problematic virginity troupes. To Have and to Hoax may have the funniest “deflowering” scene I’ve ever read, and the whole premise of TLATL is that maybe The Rake isn’t as good a lover as he thinks he is. Who better to ask for sexy times feedback than a widow who already thinks poorly of him?

Farai- The Maid and the Crocodile - Another YA coded fantasy with a love story. The Author was inspired by books like Howls Moving Castle and takes readers on a ride through the eyes of Small Sade- a curse eater.

Carrie: Ana Maria and The Fox, by Liana De la Rosa, is a wonderful historical romance examining race, propaganda, and political ennui in Victorian England. Ana Maria is the oldest daughter of a powerful Mexican family, sent, with her sisters, to both escape the French occupation, and to drum up support for her country. Gideon Fox, an up and coming member of parliament and grandson of an enslaved woman, has his own causes to fight for. I loved the sweetness of their story, and it set me reading about the Second Franco-Mexican War.

Farai : Lore of the Wilds - This one is categorized as science fiction and fantasy and has less of a romance plot even though it is there. They had me at brown skinned curly headed, dreadlock having fae. The second book is out now and I can’t wait to read it.

Carrie: The Witchwood Knot, by Olivia Atwater, is the perfect gothic mystery with a tantalizingly slow burn romance thrown in. It reads like Jane Eyre fan fic, if faeries were real and bitingly dangerous. It doesn’t register on the spice scale–this romance is mostly yearning.

Farai : Zoe Chant books. - These are shifter romances written by a group of authors under one name. Many in the series are well written, funny, and the world building is engaging.

Carrie: Kait Nolan writes small town and romantic suspense, and shines in both. I just reread her Wishing for a Hero series. If I Didn’t Care was the first book of hers I read, and it held up just as well a second time through. I love authors who write a whole community, and Nolan does this really well.

Farai: Jamie Wesley - Football players who own a cupcake shop and the dynamic women they fall in love with. Carrie loved Jada’s personal growth arc, and seeing a misunderstood character find and play to her strengths.

Carrie: Sherry Thomas’, The Hidden Blade, and My Beautiful Enemy, is a slow arcing, lovers to enemies to lovers, cross continent duology. I read these years ago and am still blown away by the story. The first book primarily focuses on the childhoods of the main characters, the second book contains their romance.

Farai: Lisa Rayne writes Black historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed Never Cross A Highlander. It was so well written, I loved the world building, and the fact that the FMC was an herbalist.

Carrie: Devney Perry’s Clifton Forge series gives the danger of MC romance without glamorizing systems that destroy communities. The Tin Gypsy MC has disbanded, disillusioned and devastated by the effects of organized crime, but their old life keeps reaching for their new one. Steel King is the first in the series.

Farai: Jasmine Guillory - She has several published books and I enjoyed them all. The first one I read was Royal Holiday and I ate it right up. I love a good “later in life” romance story.

Carrie: I love a good marriage of convenience story, but that troupe is a little harder to do in contemporary novels. Xeni, by Rebekah Weatherspoon, was a fantastic example of making it work.

Farai: The Bridgerton series and subsequent books in that series by Julia Quinn. I love a book series that ties everything up in neat little bundles. I found comfort in the series because all the siblings found love. Even if the books were written some 20 years ago and are not without problematic tropes (most older written books just do) there is still a lot I enjoy about the series. My preferred reading of these characters is fanfiction written over on Archive of Our Own.

Carrie: Evie Dunmore’s A Portrait of a Scotsman gets down and dirty with the emotional implications of the “trapped into marriage” trope. It’s the third in her series, A League of Extraordinary Woman, featuring FMCs who are suffragettes.

Farai: Lila Appleton and Cora Crane - Monster romances with cozy worlds. Enjoyable if you can suspend your disbelief enough to imagine a woman bonking a minotaur. Sometimes I just skip past the smut so I can stay in a cute world where a woman can earn a living as a weaver or potion maker.

Carrie: I just read Bryn Donavan’s Her Knight at the Museum, and it was a blast. Yes, please give me instalove, a 15th century knight in modern Chicago, and a professional, geeky FMC.

Farai: Lara Adrian - The Midnight Breed series specifically. Think angsty military bros filled with lots of PTSD and big hero complexes. Except they are all vampire warriors descended from an alien race fighting a human trafficking ring of epic proportions complete with underground bunkers, burning in the sun, all while being filthy rich of course. I cannot help but recommend this series because it was probably the first paranormal romance I read in my early twenties. It wasn’t even on purpose, I think my sweet Aunt actually bought it for my by accident when she picked up some books for me to read on a long flight back home. I devoured the whole series and i’ve re-read it a couple times.

Carrie: I do love Grace Burrowes. She has so many interconnected series, and hits that historical romance full of kidnappings and blackmail sweet spot. I love how she writes male friendships, and though most of her books are romance, her mystery series, Lady Violet Investigates, might be my favorite.

Farai Stalked by the Kraken by Lillian Lark - He’s an ancient sea creature shifter, she’s a sweet matchmaking witch. There’s tentacles and a human trafficking plot. Again, suspend your disbelief and its a cute story. Oh and there’s a sex club?! Idk you have to read it. This was Carrie’s first monster romance (outside of fairy tales) and sold her on the genre.

Carrie: Mimi Matthews is another closed door historical romance author who writes diverse and complex characters in a more realistic Victorian England. Rules for Ruin is prefaced by the idea of a Miss Havisham character, who, after being jilted, opened a school to train girls to destroy the patriarchy. If you want an enemies to lovers story full of slowly unfurling longing, this is it.

Do you have any recommendations of your own?

Happy Reading.