August is Romance Month! Well, technically it's "Romance Awareness Month"... But since others (well, libraries at least), are dropping the "awareness" I thought we could too! To properly celebrate I'd like to suggest starting a romance series. Romance as a genre has many series. Some are continuing stories, while other function as standalones in the same "world" or with characters readers come to know in previous books. Each of these suggestions are the first in their series, and are personally approved by me (self-dubbed "friendly neighbourhood romance reader").
Now is the perfect time to begin Nalini Singh's paranormal Psy-Changeling Trinity series as the the sixth book in the series was just released! I cannot sing the praises of this series, or its predecessor series enough. Singh is a wonderfully engaging writing, with unique world building, and memorable characters. This series can be read in order (to avoid spoilers for recurring characters), but can be read as standalones as well.
If you are looking for some romantic suspense with a dose of *spice*, look no further than Maya Banks' Slow Burn series. Banks has a keen talent for balancing angst, story, and spice. She also has a pretty healthy backlist, so finding your next read shouldn't cause any trouble.
For fans of historical, you can get no finer a series than Lisa Kleypas' Wallflowers. This quartet features some great heroes and heroines. Though my personal favourite is Devil in Winter (the third in the series), it was only made so by the absolute anticipation built in the proceeding books. I would definitely suggest to read this series in order to fully enjoy AND appreciate each season.
Contemporary romance is always a go to for any romance reader. They can have a wide variety of tones, and varying degrees of angst, and drama. There has been what seems like a concerted effort to feature main characters with mental or physical health challenges, different races, and different body types. Romance gets a lot of criticism for being "fantasy-like" and the push back from contemporary authors to feature characters with more "true to life issues" has been refreshing. For example, as of late there have been a bevy of excellent choices featuring plus size heroines. Two such titles are:
Let me know your favourite romance series! I love getting recommendations, and hearing all about what other romance reads people are enjoying!
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