Romance Authors for Readers of all Spice Levels
Okay Spice Lovers, this one’s for you.
Disclaimer: I love romance novels of all spice levels, but I’m now expanding my repertoire of romance authors. I just discovered Ana Huang — who was my introduction to a next-level spice than what I grew up with. After Ana Huang, I found Nikki St. Crowe and Lauren Asher, and I have a few others up their alley now on my TBR wish list.
I had to do my research for this one. Using Goodreads mostly while also digging around the Kindle library for “if you liked this, read this next’s.” I haven’t read some of these (marked with an * for clarity), but others, I have and do recommend with another disclaimer:
Not everyone agrees on the pepper system. For some people, three peppers are too much. And that’s okay! For others, it’s not enough. That’s okay, too!
However, if you choose to read any of the authors, I encourage you to read the pages prior to the first chapter as some authors have offered a Content Warning and a trigger list. Nikki St. Crowe is a prime example.
That being said, I thought it best to provide a list of authors for romance readers of all spicy preferences.
Soft Romances (No to Low Spice)
- Mhairi McFarlane*
- Debbie Macomber
- Jane Austen* (On my TBR)
- Brigid Kemmerer* (On my TBR)
- Luanne G. Smith
- Charlie Holmberg
Mild Romances (Low to Yes, Sex)
- Grace Draven*
- T. Kingfisher*
- Jeffe Kennedy*
- Nora Roberts
Experienced Spice (CW and TW’s)
- Ana Huang
- Lauren Asher
- Nikki St. Crowe
- E.L James*
- Colleen Hoover
I attempted to provide a wide array of subgenres, too. Nora Roberts has written a plethora of romance novels over the last couple of decades. Varying from contemporary romances (i.e. Bride Quartet) to magical realism (i.e. Sign of Seven and Key of Light). Charlie Holmberg writes more in the historical, magical realism realm of things where magic lives easily in society (i.e. The Spellbreaker duology and The Paper Magician series).
More so, Nikki St. Crowe’s Viscious Lost Boys series and Brigid Kemmerer’s Cursebreakers series are fairytale retellings. Mhairi McFarlane, Jane Austen, Lauren Asher, and (mostly) others deal in contemporary romances. No magic. Just life and romance.
I hope this list can help give you a nudge forward to finding a new favorite author in the romance realm of our cozy book world!
Let me know if I missed your favorite author in the comments! I’m always looking for new authors to try and hopefully, I can add to the list.
