My Favorite Romance Authors

[mizarchivist]

ursa_cerulean  has been an amazing influence in my life. The thing that's relevant to this post is my introduction to the romance genre. I fell for the societally popular prejudice that Romance is crap. No-- Romance is great! Who doesn't want a happily ever after from time to time. Others have spoken more eloquently on the value of romance. TL;DR- I got over it and here is a very short explanation of who I read and why I love them to bits and pieces

Alisha Rai -Wow, her kink is fabulous. She captures current issues like woah. Indian-American, so brings that to the party. Really excellent with modern/current settings
Rose Lerner- Jewish and that features prominently in much of her work. She's super into gothic romance and the early 1800s. Her period pieces are a delight.
Courtney Milan- Also has written a lot of historical, but more towards later 1800s.
Alyssa Cole- African-American and like Alisha, writes very brilliantly in a current setting and frames current issues masterfully.

They are all to a one interested in portraying

• complex, grey situations and people complexly
• enthusiastic consent
• addresses issues we all struggle with compassionately particularly the patriarchy and toxic masculinity
• representation for race, religion, sexual expression, sexual identity, gender, neuro-diversity, age, body type, relationship models, economic... I could go on.

Every single one of them write beautifully, have amazing and nuanced sex or just hot sex, and follows the formula of happily ever after.

Comments

[gilana]

Thanks, I'll have to check them out! I generally prefer contemporary romance, ideally with quirky characters, so I'm not sure these will be the right fit for me, but it's always fun to try new books, and being able to request library books online makes it a lot cheaper and easier.

[mizarchivist]

I get that :) I leave you to Google and reviewing their bodies of work to see if they meet your preferences.

[ursa_cerulean]

3/4 of these are contemp: Courtney Milan, Alyssa Cole, and Alisha Rai all have stuff set roughly now.

I will ramble on for ages about how awesome they all are, but Alisha Rai writes the stuff closest to my heart.

[ursa_cerulean]

Hey, did you catch that Rose Lerner's upcoming book, Sea Lavender, is a f/f gothic sort of not Jane Eyre?

[mizarchivist]

I did because I joined up with the patreon crew to keep on her weekly list. I'm very excited about Not Jane Eyre shenanigans.

[mizarchivist]

I finished the right swipe last night and now I'm mad I don't have more to read.

[fenicedautun]

You might want to try Nalini Singh's contemporary (I recommend Rock Hard and Rebel Hard as good starters), and KJ Charles is delightful. Let me know if you ever want to get together and book squee at each other? (Possibly with some SYTYCD)

[ursa_cerulean]

I know! I was so sad. Go catch up on Celia Lake? The next one is Goblin Fruit and it might be my favorite.

[mizarchivist]

DID YOU KNOW?? I work AT a library (With a circulating collection and part of an extensive network), which means I have no excuse to not find these? Just saying, that's pretty flipping great.

::edit:: oh look! Rebel Hard. Ereader- done. Now I just need to connect my overdrive acct w the device I have (not with me)

I'll ping you re: social in email or similar