Five Great Category Romances
At the end of June of 2023, I made a very bad decision.
You see, I have a habit of buying books and then…listening to audiobooks that are not the books I bought. Clearly, something needed to change.
So why not read one category romance a day for an entire month? What could go wrong?
Max, my love, what the heck is a category romance?
Category romances are currently Harlequin novels. Basically, Harlequin has lines such as Presents, Intrigue, and Special Edition, that release between four and eight books each month. These books have strict word counts, are trope-filled, and fit the subgenre constraints of the line. For example, a Harlequin Intrigue must have a romantic suspense plot, focus more on suspense than romance, and be around 55k words, give or take, like, maybe 500. The other important aspect is that these books are only printed for the month that they are released. These suckers become out of print immediately, though you can still get the modern releases as e-books.
I think I’m on the verge of being a full-blown collector of category romance. Their ephemeral nature makes me want to snatch them all up with my clammy hands. Their relatively short length (none of these exceed 300 pages) made them ideal for the one-book-a-day challenge.
Of course, this still meant I would need to read a book a day. Quite a challenge.
I did not, as it turns out, read 31 books in July.
…I read 36.
And 31 of them were category romances.
So I think I’ve got somewhat of a grasp of what works for me in category, now. So here are five category romance books that you should give a shot. They’re all from different lines, so you’ve got some variety, here. I’m going to rank these from most reasonable to least. I loved and will fight for all of these, but, like, be forewarned. Things get bananas later in this list.
If these books strike your fancy, I've put links to the books in each of their images.
by Adriana Herrera
Harlequin Desire, 2021
[Desire was a line featuring contemporary romance about filthy rich people. Think Dynasty or Gossip Girl all grown up. It came to an end at the beginning of 2024, but you can get a lot of the later releases as ebooks.]
You might know Adrianna Herrera from her current diverse historical romances, but she began writing for Harlequin, mostly through Carina Press. She has two Desire novels, the first of which is the utterly fabulous One Week To Claim It All, a delicious second-chance romance set against the backdrop of the Latinx film industry.
When illegitimate Esmeralda Sambrano-Peña inherits her father’s film empire, no one’s really happy about it. Her late father’s wife is absolutely furious and begins scheming to snatch everything away. And then there’s her dad’s protege—her infuriatingly hot ex, Rodrigo Almanzar—who wants the studio for himself. Esmerelda has one week to come up with a rock-solid pitch for why she should be in charge of her father’s legacy, and she’s determined that nothing will get in her way. Not her awful relatives, or Rodrigo, who might not be as awful as she thought.
This book is SO. GOOD. UGHHHH. The telenovela-level family and romantic drama is delicious. Esmerelda and Rodrigo have amazing chemistry and the smut is truly chef’s kiss. There’s also a lot about the importance of Latinx representation in the film industry that enriches both of our main characters. It’s just a magnificent contemporary romance that everyone should read. I’m kind of salty that it’s not more well-known.
Her Halloween Treat
By Tiffany Reisz
Harlequin Blaze, 2016
Tiffany Reisz is one of the o.g. erotic romance authors, most known for The Original Sinners series that begins with The Siren. Her category romance series is Men at Work, and the first book, the contemporary, friends-to-lovers Her Halloween Treat, is, well, a treat. I’m sorry, I had to make the pun.
Joey Silvia is devastated to find out that she is the other woman. She heads home to small town, Oregon to lick her wounds, and who does she run into but Chris Steffensen, a friend from high school who is now tall, blond, and jacked. He’s hot and a perfect candidate for the best rebound sex of Joey’s life. Chris is more than happy to step in (and quite good in bed), but he’s also been in love with her since high school, so he doesn’t just want to be her rebound. He wants her for real.
I didn’t actually read this in July. I read it in May. But it was my first five-star read of the year and it helped me realize how much potential category romance had. The emotional depth packed into these 220 pages is truly something to behold. I felt like I knew these two so well and fully bought into the choices they made. They’re genuinely adorable and I was rooting for them so hard. Also, the smut is masterful. It’s clear Reisz cut her teeth on erotica. Despite being very hot, the whole story is really sweet. There’s not a lot of darkness and angst here. Just two great, hot people being great and hot together and realizing that they should continue to be hot and great together. And isn’t that what we all want?
What the Lady Wants
By Jennifer Crusie
Harlequin Temptation, 1995
[Temptation was the predecessor to Blaze. It was the sexy category romance of the 80s and 90s, which…feels kind of average by today’s standards. But from what I’ve read, there are some buck wild plots in here. You can find reprints with different covers or grab some of the big names as ebooks.]
Mitch Peabody is trying to make it as a private detective in…the 90s. A fantastic choice, clearly. Nearly throwing in the towel, Mae Sullivan walks in his office, dressed like a femme fatale, asking him to help her find something her murdered uncle had in his possession. Something is fishy, but Mitch is intrigued by both the money offered and by Mae herself. The two of them get sucked into an absolutely wacky mystery, falling in love while Mae’s comically overbearing, mafia-adjacent family tries to break them apart.
This book is a bit of a grower. I wasn’t sold on it for the first few chapters, but by around 40 pages in, I was utterly charmed. This book is absolutely hilarious. Mae’s uncles and her cousin are truly the best menaces to society. They think no one is good enough for Mae, so Mitch becomes enemy number one and they terrorize him to no end. It’s incredible. Crusie went on to write some iconic chick-lit romances of the early 2000s such as Bet Me and Welcome to Temptation, and her sharpness and zippy dialogue sparkle here. Maybe my affection for classic noir is rose-tinting my glasses, but this is such a fun sendup of works like The Big Sleep. It embraces fun and silliness with a gumption I wish I saw more in current romance. And Mae and Mitch are so fun together. Just writing about this book made me smile, so go read it and grin with me.
Red Rose
By Mary Balogh
Signet Regency Romance, 1986
[Signet was a different category romance publisher. Their regency romance line ran from the mid-70s to the mid-2000s. I’m guessing a lot of these are well and truly out of print, but the big names, like Balogh, you can find redone as ebooks. Or you can try your luck with ebay lots.]
Edward Marsh, the new Earl of Raymore and loather of women, finds that with his new title he has inherited two wards. Both of them are grown, and he immediately decides to work to get them married. The younger, who is actually related to him, is sweet and proper and all too ready to enter the marriage mart. But then there’s Rosalind Dacey, not a blood relation but still his responsibility, who has no desire whatsoever to get married. But, being a man who hates women, he is determined that he knows what’s best for her and how to get it. He’s going to get her married off to Sir Bernard Crawleigh, a very nice man who doesn’t care that Rosalind is disabled. And that’s all well and fine, except Edward might be slightly in love with Rosalind, and vice versa.
So this is where you need to start taking my recommendations with a grain of salt. Edward is…infuriating in this book. Rosalind has a limp and this is part of why she’s so hesitant to get married, and his solution is to try to hide it? And then he has the audacity to be mad at her when she shows everyone that she’s disabled? And then they make out and he’s angry that she was into it and slut-shames her? LORDT! I wanted to walk through the pages of this book and slap him at least five times, a sensation I rarely ever feel when I read books. He is a complete mess. I can understand why people couldn’t get past him.
There were a few reasons I stuck with it. First, Rosalind rakes him over the coals constantly. She does not hold back when telling him off for being the absolute worst. And I regrettably adore a couple that rips each other to shreds verbally. I blame Living Single for installing this button in me. Second, the secondary romance arc in this was absolutely adorable, and tied into both Rosalind and Edward’s character arcs. Third, Mary Balogh has some of the best character writing I’ve ever seen. Her ability to get into her character’s heads and track when they’re lying to themselves is astounding. She’s most famous for her Bedwyn Saga, which also has a lot of wonderful character work, but that’s been her greatest strength since her category era. Finally, when Edward realizes he’s been A COMPLETE DOOFUS, the fold is SO GOOD. It’s just…the pure, distilled pining in the back quarter of this book. DELICIOUS.
This just hit every single beat for me. I’m not convinced it will work for everyone, but boy did it for me.
And now we’ve reached the most unhinged category romance that I gave five stars. And it’s a doozy.
Claimed In the Italian’s Castle
By Caitlin Crews
Harlequin Presents, 2020
[Presents are the truly over-the-top books. We’re talking billionaires, royalty, sheikhs (sigh), kidnapping, high drama, and alphahole leading men. This line is where chaos reigns, people. And this book exemplifies that.]
Nineteen-year-old Angelina lives in a crumbling castle because her family is dirt-broke. So broke that her father basically offers up his daughters to thirty-six-year-old Benedetto Franceschi, a smoking hot billionaire with the slight problem that his previous six wives have mysteriously vanished. Yes, you read that right. Six. Of course, Benedetto is immediately drawn to Angelina and her nimble piano-playing fingers. Their courtship is steamy and fast because this marriage is to pay off her family’s debts, and then Benedetto whisks her away to his gothic castle on an island. Everything’s great, except there’s this door that he tells her to never go in. And then he vanishes for, like, months, and Angelina slightly loses it, and what the heck, why not look in, right? What could go wrong?
I…okay.
Here me out.
This might be a camp classic.
This is one of the most ridiculous books I’ve ever read in my life. I cannot express the unbridled glee I felt when I read the blurb and realized that this was a flipping BLUEBEARD retelling. How, I asked myself, was Caitlin Crews going to take a fairytale about a serial killer and make it work as a contemporary romance? Was he going to be a serial killer in this? Surely not. Harlequin is the Wild West, sure, but it isn’t straight-up dark romance…right?
I screamed, cackled, and screamed some more at the reveal of this book. It’s just…absurd. Comical. Enthralling. And I will not spoil it for you, because I really want you to go read this insane book. The entire novel is a fever dream from start to finish. I’ve never read anything else like it. So please go read it and rate it on Goodreads. I cannot be the only one in the five-star trenches on this one.
In summary, category romance is truly delightful. I hope I’ve sold you enough to at least give it a try.
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