Passion. Romance. Angst. Moody heroines and the heroes who love them (or turn that around!) I write books that make you sigh and cry. So, why haven’t you heard of them?
I’ve been writing and publishing my steamy stories since the early 2000s. If you’re new to reading spicy romance, you have so many great reads to choose from. It’s easy to miss older titles! Not every book goes viral on Booktok, and some books have been around longer than TikTok existed.
So, if the books aren’t new releases, why should you check them out? The only person who can answer that question is you! What do you like to read? Are you yearning for stories about older heroines? How about a second-chance romance? Messy people making bad choices? Books that shred your heart and sew it back up with a guaranteed HEA? Maybe you like an ambiguous ending, or maybe even a relatable, spicy contemporary women’s fiction story about passion, love, and self-realization…where the HEA is hers, and not necessarily theirs.
Interested in learning more?
Here are five books I wholeheartedly suggest you take a chance on:
Dirty
I wanted him the first time we met. The problem with desire is that it’s like pouring water into a vase full of stones. It fills you up before you know it, leaving no room for anything else.
I don’t have room in my life for Dan.
But I can’t stop wanting him.
Why should you read this book:
- First person POV
- Damaged FMC and the MMC who loves her not despite her past, but because of it
- Female empowerment through sex and sexuality
- Dark subjects (trigger warnings: suicide, SA, incest) with healing resolution
- HEA (they work hard to get there!)
What do other people say about Dirty?
“…by far the most arousing, tantalizing, toe-curling, panty-obliterating, sensual read I have ever come across.” Natasha is a Book Junkie
“This story contains some of the most intense plotting and interesting characters I’ve read in ages, and it tackles issues not often encountered in romance of any subgenre.” – All About Romance
“…Vivid, sharp and unforgettable.” – Lauren Dane
Coming Up for Air
I’ve loved Tom Williams for most of my life, but always in secret. He was my brother Bohdan’s best friend, and we’re the reason Bo is dead. Years have passed, but the truth about us, about what happened that night, is all still a secret. One we’ve kept from everyone.
One I wish I could keep from myself.
I knew Tom would be at the family reunion. I even knew we’d end up in bed. What Tom doesn’t know is that the husband he thinks waits for me at home is soon going to be my ex-husband…which means that finally, after all this time, Tom and I could have a chance to make what’s always been between us into something real.
I love Tom, but I’m afraid it’s too late for us.
Time can’t save a marriage.
Time can’t unbreak a heart.
Time can get me to the edge of the dock…but it cannot make me jump.
Why should you read this book:
- First person POV
- Characters in their late 40s
- Second-chance romance
- Dark past and shared trauma
- Trigger Warnings: infidelity, death
- HEA (they work hard to get there!)
What do other people say about Coming Up for Air?
“Megan Hart has done the impossible and made me love this story. It’s a heartbreaking tale that brings the love, loss, and grief of a failed marriage, a lost love, and a broken past into the perfect triangle. Beautifully written and haunting.” — Elizabeth Wonacott, NetGalley Reviewer
“A powerful story of love and heartache.” — SH, NetGalley Reviewer
“This book beautifully combines second chance romance with just the right touch of suspense-two genres I love. The slow burn may take its time, but the writing had me hooked from the start. I especially appreciated the focus on mature characters finding love again, which felt fresh and real. It’s a well-crafted story with an intriguing premise that leaves a lasting impression.” — Paul Styles, NetGalley Reviewer
“This book is emotional and complicated. It shows that life is not as simple as we might want it to be and loving someone isn’t always enough, or sometimes we just run out of love for a person who constantly puts us down. Eliska was relatable and while sometimes frustrating, it was easy to see where she was coming from because these things are not so black and white.” — Michelle B, NetGalley Reviewer
“This was a bit of a slow burn but man, it had some steamy parts! This was a pretty powerful love story with some mystery elements to it.” — Heather S., NetGalley Reviewer
“This is a mature, spicy, second chance romance that follows a woman who is finally ready to start putting herself first.” Samantha D, NetGalley Reviewer
Tear You Apart
You never know how thirsty you are until someone offers you something to drink.
I’m on a train.
I don’t know at which stop I got on or where I’ll get off; I only know the train is going, going fast and the world outside becomes a blur. The trees and sky mesh and meld and become something else. I’m on a train and I should get off, but I don’t.
“Here,” the universe says, “here is a chance for you to not simply be ‘fine’ or ‘all right’ or ‘resigned.’ Here is a chance for you to be satisfied and content and maybe even on occasion deliriously, amazingly, exuberantly happy and full of joy. For you to have everything you didn’t know you needed but you always felt was missing.”
His name is Will.
He is not the man I’m married to.
But he is the man I want.
Why should you read this book:
- First person POV
- Characters in their late 40s
- Hot sex, broken hearts (sighs and cries!)
- She grows, even though it hurts
- Trigger Warnings: infidelity
- Sometimes the HEA is not when they end up together
By the Sea of Sand
Life is not easy by the Sea of Sand. The remote outpost and its lighthouse were never meant to serve as a place for wounded soldiers to recover, but that’s what it has become. Teila has lived in the lighthouse for her entire life, and now she also takes care of the men and women who gave their sanity fighting the Wirthera’s hive mind.
Captain Kason Reed was willing to give his life for the Sheirran Defense Forces, but now he can’t remember anything except bits and pieces of the war. When his attraction to his caregiver, Teila, causes him to make advances toward her, she becomes the aggressor, urging him with her body to explore the memories of his past—memories that all seem to draw him back to Teila…
Those returned by the Wirthera never come back whole. Their bodies are flooded with nanobots designed to trigger homicidal rage when the soldiers remember what happened to them. No matter how much Teila wants her new patient to remember her and the life they shared, before, she can’t remind him.
If she does, he might kill them all.
Why should you read this book:
- Sci-Fi romance
- Amnesia
- Hot sex
- High stakes (he literally might die if he remembers her. Or kill her. Or everyone.)
- HEA (they deserve it!)
- Novella (it’s cheap!)
A Dark, Cold Touch
The position of lady’s companion at the grand, isolated Hemford House was meant to save Estelle Glass from the scandal of her own making. But when she arrived at the mansion and was greeted by the stern, mysterious and intimidating Mrs. Blackwell, Estelle began to see what had been meant as a punishment might possibly become more like a reward…if only she could manage to find her place in the dreary household and the service of Mrs. Virginia Hemford, the childlike beauty Estelle had been sent to serve.
Soon the secrets of Hemford House begin to reveal themselves, one by one, as Estelle tries her best to take care of Ginny and avoid her confusing feelings for the intimidating Mrs. Blackwell. Estelle finds herself caught up in a web of rules designed to keep Ginny “safe”…but safe from what, exactly?
Or from whom?
What accident claimed the life of Ginny’s previous companion? Why does Mr. Hemford avoid his wife’s company, no matter how charmingly she tries, and fails, to seduce him? And who’s reaching to take Estelle’s hand in the night with that dark, cold touch?
Only when Estelle learns the deadly secret everyone at Hemford House has been keeping can she truly understand what it means to take care of Ginny Hemford…or to be cared for by Rachel Blackwell. Can the women of Hemford House escape the hauntings of its ghosts, or will the past consume them all?
Why should you read this book:
- Historical Gothic Romance (complete with creepy house!)
- Sapphic
- Slow burn
- Age Gap
- Enemies to Lovers
- HEA (they deserve it!)
- Old school paperback feeling!
- AppleBooks
- Kobo
- Nook
- Buy direct and save!
- Listen to it on Everand