Cindy Hwang’s
Favorite Romance Books

Perhaps more sword-and-sorcery romance than paranormal romance, but regardless of how it’s classified, A Heart of Blood and Ashes is one of the most intense romances you’ll read this year or next. Milla Vane is a master at world-building and trust me, this story is EPIC–it’s an enemies to lovers road trip wrapped around bloody battles, vows of vengeance, gods and goddesses with dinosaurs thrown into the mix. Yes, DINOSAURS.

It’s really hard to bring something fresh to a subgenre that built the foundation for genre romance the way that historical romance did, but Bringing Down the Duke took on that challenge with style to spare. A delicious battle-of-the-sexes ensues between a stuffy aristocrat and a suffragist who also happens to be part of the first class of women to matriculate at Oxford University. This is one fight where the reader is the ultimate winner!

A real-world romance set around a knit shop in contemporary Harlem? A knit shop that three very different foster brothers who have to put aside their differences in order to save the store their foster mother owned? Just the concept alone had me excited to read this one, and Kwana Jackson delivers on all fronts, including a touching romance for one of the brothers.

Captive Prince was already making waves with bloggers and readers online as a self-published novel before I got this in as a submission–I was curious about all the attention it was getting and it didn’t take more than a few pages before I discovered what all the fuss was about and why it was so well-deserved. A beautifully written fantasy that featured the ultimate enemies-to-lovers situation that paid as much attention to the political intrigue as it did the sexual tension between the two male protagonists.

Jayne Ann Krentz has had a storied career for decades–even before I started my first job in publishing she was one of my favorite authors. And like the fine wines Jayne enjoys, she just gets better and better. One of my personal favorites is Promise Not to Tell, which is actually the middle book in a trilogy but definitely can be read as a standalone. The chemistry between the two leads is just amazing–their banter is both full of tension and fun!–and like all the best villains, it’s someone you’ll love to hate.