Here are 36 books that Seducing the Sedgwicks fans have personally recommended once you finish the Seducing the Sedgwicks series.
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I started reading romance because I wanted to drown myself in stories of women stepping into their power and getting everything they wanted. Romance is a genre often looked down upon because of the happy-ever-afters, but I think that’s part of why it can be so deliciously subversive. Most (but not all) romance novels are centered on women, their voices, their sexuality, their desires, and their victories. In a world that’s often cruel, escaping into a world where dreams and fantasies are possible can be liberating. I started writing romance because I wanted to be a part of these stories and craft a world for others to escape into.
For fans of slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers fantasy, this book is gold.
With Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone vibes, this book tells the story of a human woman who is kidnapped and wed to the Frost King, a brooding immortal.
The writing is beautiful, and I appreciated how it took a long time for the heroine and hero to trust each other and break down their walls. Both characters are deeply flawed, yet you still root for their happiness.
The world-building is lovely and folkloric. Getting into the steamy parts takes a while, but it’s worth the wait!
Lush. Dark. Romantic. Introducing a newly reimagined tale written in the vein of Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone.
Long before civilization, there were the gods. And before the gods, there was the earth, the celestial bodies, and air given flesh. They are the Anemoi-the Four Winds-and they have been banished to the four corners of the world.
Wren of Edgewood is no stranger to suffering. Her parents are gone. Survival is all she knows. For three hundred years, the land known as the Gray has been encased in ice, surrounded by a great barrier called the Shade,…
I started reading romance because I wanted to drown myself in stories of women stepping into their power and getting everything they wanted. Romance is a genre often looked down upon because of the happy-ever-afters, but I think that’s part of why it can be so deliciously subversive. Most (but not all) romance novels are centered on women, their voices, their sexuality, their desires, and their victories. In a world that’s often cruel, escaping into a world where dreams and fantasies are possible can be liberating. I started writing romance because I wanted to be a part of these stories and craft a world for others to escape into.
Have you ever dreamed about escaping all your problems by picking up and moving to Scotland to become a sword-maker?
That’s exactly what the heroine does in this book. Contemporary romance isn’t my favorite, but everything Alyssa Cole writes is full of emotional depth, diverse characters, and chemistry for days.
The hero of this book is a sexy, lovable grouch, and the heroine battles her own insecurities and struggles with ADHD in a way that makes you want to cheer by the end of the book.
I loved the themes of finding your own path despite family expectations, and how the hero never tried to rein in the heroine but stepped up his own self-growth to meet her.
An NPR Best Book of the Year - A Bookish Favorite Book of the Year - A Bookpage Best Romance of the Year
Award-winning author Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series continues with a woman on a quest to be the heroine of her own story and the duke in shining armor she rescues along the way...
New York City socialite and perpetual hot mess Portia Hobbs is tired of disappointing her family, friends, and-most importantly-herself. An apprenticeship with a struggling swordmaker in Scotland is a chance to use her expertise and discover what she's capable of. Turns out she excels…
I started reading romance because I wanted to drown myself in stories of women stepping into their power and getting everything they wanted. Romance is a genre often looked down upon because of the happy-ever-afters, but I think that’s part of why it can be so deliciously subversive. Most (but not all) romance novels are centered on women, their voices, their sexuality, their desires, and their victories. In a world that’s often cruel, escaping into a world where dreams and fantasies are possible can be liberating. I started writing romance because I wanted to be a part of these stories and craft a world for others to escape into.
I’m a sucker for stories about two outcasts who find belonging together, and this book does that beautifully.
It’s about a ballerina who haunts her beloved home after being murdered in the 1920s. She’s bored and desperately lonely until a crazed vampire becomes imprisoned in her mansion.
Because he’s not human, the vampire can see the beautiful ghost, and sparks fly.
This book is a master class in writing sexual tension since the characters can’t touch initially. Once they could touch, I loved how the heroine was fully comfortable in her sexuality and assertive with her less experienced vampire partner.
The author also does a great job of showing how the two progress and change through their own character arcs, with love being the catalyst for their growth.
On the night lovely Neomi Renate, a famous ballerina at the turn of the century, was murdered, an evil force turned her into a spectre - a phantom that's neither alive nor dead - and cursed her to relive her harrowing death every month during the full moon. Unable to leave her home, she has managed to scare away any trespassers, until she encounters an inhabitant even more terrifying than Neomi herself.
When Conrad Wroth, a vampire warlord who's been half-mad for centuries, first beholds Neomi, he knows nothing will stop him from claiming the ethereal beauty as his own…
I started reading romance because I wanted to drown myself in stories of women stepping into their power and getting everything they wanted. Romance is a genre often looked down upon because of the happy-ever-afters, but I think that’s part of why it can be so deliciously subversive. Most (but not all) romance novels are centered on women, their voices, their sexuality, their desires, and their victories. In a world that’s often cruel, escaping into a world where dreams and fantasies are possible can be liberating. I started writing romance because I wanted to be a part of these stories and craft a world for others to escape into.
No, this isn't the title of a B-movie—it's the fun, sexy, and surprisingly sweet start of a series with wonderful world-building and likable characters.
This book is about how a group of human women abducted by evil aliens crash-land on a planet full of hunky, endearing aliens and the adventures they share.
I loved how the aliens cherished and celebrated the women in this story instead of reviling their humanity, as I've seen in other sci-fi stories. The spicy scenes are hot, and the heroine is a natural leader who doesn't passively wait around to be rescued.
This is a dual-POV story, and the alien hero's confusion over human quirks is quite funny. Escapism at its best!
You'd think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you'd be wrong. Because now, the aliens are having ship trouble, and they've left their cargo of human women - including me - on an ice planet.
And the only native inhabitant I've met? He's big, horned, blue, and really, really has a thing for me...
I’ve been a longtime reader of romantic historical and fantasy fiction, and I love to see positive queer representation in those genres. Regardless of who we love, we all need a little escapism in our lives, and it’s even better when it has heart and depth as well as romance and humor and happy ever afters (and plenty of plot). My favorite relationship dynamic is not quite enemies-to-lovers and not quite opposites-attract…it’s more direct-vs-sneaky. I hope you enjoy my five favorites in this very specific niche!
This book feels like a cozy, comfortable read: two lovely people being lovely to each other, particularly around being gentle with each other’s past traumas. But it also has plenty of plot, humor, and wonderful characters; I particularly appreciate Demas’s talent for quick and simple but highly effective character sketches.
Damiskos is another straightforward ex-soldier type, innocently visiting an old friend to buy fish sauce and unprepared to encounter plotting philosophers. Varazda, a eunuch and slave, is prickly in a fun-to-read way until he begins to trust Damiskos, and then it’s wonderful to see how well they work together, both in unraveling the scheme and in supporting and caring for each other. On a more superficial note, I adore Varazda’s outfits.
Five years ago, Damiskos's brilliant military career was cut short, leaving him with a permanent disability and scars that are not all physical. Adrift and still grieving, he tries to find meaning in an unsatisfying job.
Work takes him to the remote seaside villa of an old friend, where, among an odd assortment of guests, he meets the eunuch sword-dancer Varazda. Enigmatic and beautiful but distinctly prickly, Varazda is the antithesis of the straightforward and serious Damiskos. Yet as they keep getting in each other's way at the villa, their mutual dislike is complicated by a spark of undeniable attraction.…
As a historical romance reader, I’m a sucker for stories about the glamorous aristocracy falling in love. While Regency and Victorian romances have explored feminism for at least the last two decades, the genre often falls short of asking more of itself. Of course the debutante shouldn’t need a man – but while the story liberates her, it doesn’t take any notice of the non-aristocratic, non-Anglican, non-White, less-abled, and/or non-cishet straight characters around her. I yearned for stories that required my favorite aristocrats to acknowledge, examine, and leverage their privilege. All five of these authors deliver – without forgetting our favorite tropes and genre conventions!
When I want a historical romance that knows exactly what it is and how to hit the right notes with each of its tropes, I turn to Erica Ridley.
Take the opening conceit of The Perks of Loving a Wallflower: It felt so familiar to read about a shy heroine who has a secret group of bluestocking friends and who is trying to avoid her parents’ matchmaking schemes.
From there, however, Ridley uses the conceit of a missing cipher to match Philippa with Tommy, a master of disguises and rejecter of labels.
Through a very fun, comforting historical romance plot, we get to explore gender roles, identity, and class snobbery.
As a master of disguise, Thomasina Wynchester can be a polite young lady-or a bawdy old man. She'll do whatever it takes to solve the cases her family takes on. But when Tommy's beautiful new client turns out to be the highborn lady she's secretly smitten with, more than her mission is at stake . . .
Bluestocking Miss Philippa York doesn't believe in love. Her heart didn't pitter-patter when she was betrothed to a duke, nor did it break when he married someone else. All Philippa desires is to decode a centuries-old manuscript to keep a modern-day villain from…
I’ve been a longtime reader of romantic historical and fantasy fiction, and I love to see positive queer representation in those genres. Regardless of who we love, we all need a little escapism in our lives, and it’s even better when it has heart and depth as well as romance and humor and happy ever afters (and plenty of plot). My favorite relationship dynamic is not quite enemies-to-lovers and not quite opposites-attract…it’s more direct-vs-sneaky. I hope you enjoy my five favorites in this very specific niche!
There’s a reason this book is called Slippery Creatures (aside from all the Shakespeare references), and it’s not because of straightforward, upright, just-a-bit-stroppy ex-soldier Will Darling.
Having accidentally inherited a highly sought-after secret along with his uncle’s bookstore, he’s practically surrounded by slippery creatures, not least of whom is Kim, a helpful aristocrat with unclear intentions, a shady past, a delightful fiancée, and an awful lot of baggage.
I became so invested in their relationship that I actually looked into whether Will would be eligible to be drafted in WWII. And no matter how often I re-read it, I laugh whenever I get to certain little jokes or witty exchanges. It’s funny, clever, touching, and so engaging.
Will Darling came back from the Great War with a few scars, a lot of medals, and no idea what to do next. Inheriting his uncle’s chaotic second-hand bookshop is a blessing...until strange visitors start making threats. First a criminal gang, then the War Office, both telling Will to give them the information they want, or else. Will has no idea what that information is, and nobody to turn to, until Kim Secretan—charming, cultured, oddly attractive—steps in to offer help. As Kim and Will try to find answers and outrun trouble, mutual desire grows along with the danger. And then…
Two people (or more!) who find a home in each other when they don't have a home in the world make my heart leap. I love romance, and I've been writing and drawing them professionally for over 20 years. I got my start writing and drawing sexy comics when I was out of college, my work has been featured in the Museum of Sex in NYC and various anthologies focused on queer and intersectional feminist stories about love and sex. I love stories about queer people, or outcasts, or people who don't quite understand themselves yet.
There are so many lovely, soft moments in this book that I adore. Catherine blushed on the other side of a closed door, unable to make a decision. Best friends sitting so close, knowing each other’s secrets.
I love the subtle humor, the incredible warmth, and the depth of each character’s angst and heartache.
The whole town is whispering about how Catherine Benson lost her virtue, though they can never agree on the details. Was it in the public garden? Or a moving carriage?
Only a truly desperate man would want her now - and that's exactly what Andrew Davener is. His family's estate is in disrepair, but Catherine's sizeable dowry could set it to rights.
After the two wed, Catherine finds herself inexplicably drawn to Andrew. But could falling in love with her husband tear her marriage apart? In this richly detailed Regency romance, duty and passion collide in a slow-burn tale of…
Two people (or more!) who find a home in each other when they don't have a home in the world make my heart leap. I love romance, and I've been writing and drawing them professionally for over 20 years. I got my start writing and drawing sexy comics when I was out of college, my work has been featured in the Museum of Sex in NYC and various anthologies focused on queer and intersectional feminist stories about love and sex. I love stories about queer people, or outcasts, or people who don't quite understand themselves yet.
The colors and compositions sweep me off my feet, make me feel drunk. There is so much fluidity of line I can almost see the characters moving across the page.
This book is so charming, so inventive, such a lightning bolt to my heart and brain.
Two people (or more!) who find a home in each other when they don't have a home in the world make my heart leap. I love romance, and I've been writing and drawing them professionally for over 20 years. I got my start writing and drawing sexy comics when I was out of college, my work has been featured in the Museum of Sex in NYC and various anthologies focused on queer and intersectional feminist stories about love and sex. I love stories about queer people, or outcasts, or people who don't quite understand themselves yet.
These are real people; they have to be because I’ve never read a book and felt more like I knew the characters in real life. The dialogue makes me feel like a teen riding in the backseat with friends, at a crossroads in life, flying by the seat of my pants.
E.K. Weaver's critically-acclaimed road trip romance comic is collected here in this award-winning, commercially-successful omnibus edition. Less Than Epic tells the story of Amal (just out of the closet and freshly disowned by his parents) and TJ (a mysterious and eccentric vagrant) and their journey across the continental United States.
