Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and I’m sure many of you are looking for something to read to get you in the romantic spirit. As a book blogger, I wanted to give my recommendations but I rarely ever read books in the romance genre. There’s nothing wrong with them but I typically prefer the romance to be more of a sub-plot, not the main story line. As I was looking through my books, I realized that quite a few fit this description. Some have more romance than others but all have something more to offer. If that sounds interesting to you, keep reading!

💘WARNING: There may be spoilers since I am talking about the romantic pairings within these stories. I will also be ranking the heat level to the best of my ability. The heat level refers to the amount of sexual content within the story. I’ll be using this ranking system:

💕Heat Level 1: Clean romance (no swearing or on-page steam) 🔥
💕Heat Level 2: Sweet romance (mild swearing and some sensual scenes) 🔥🔥
💕Heat Level 3: Middle of the Road (some on-page naughtiness) 🔥🔥🔥
💕Heat Level 4: Steamy (on page scenes and language) 🔥🔥🔥🔥
💕Heat Level 5: Explicit/Graphic 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

💕Heat Level: 🔥

Katherine by Anya Seton is technically historical fiction but the romance between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, is just breath taking. Katherine and John are the ancestors of most of the British royal family but their story isn’t one of arranged marriage and boredom. If you’re wanting drama and unpredictability, this is your book. You can read my full review here.

💕Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout is New Adult fantasy. It’s pretty common for New Adult books to contain a good amount of either love or lust but this one really does it well. Poppy and Hawke are one of my favorite bookish couples and I love the world they live in. You can read my full review here.

💕Heat Level: 🔥🔥

This one is for the sci-fi fans; Lost Stars by Claudia Gray takes place in the Star Wars universe and follows two best friends, Thane and Ciena. This is a friends to lovers to enemies kind of story and it’s just so good. It’s also really good as far as books in the Star Wars universe go. You can read my full review here.

💕Heat Level: 🔥

My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten was one of those books that left me really wanting more. I was so sad when it was over! This book is the DEFINITION of a cute, YA read. It definitely falls more into the romance genre than some of these other books but I consider it to be more of a coming of age type story. It’s about a girl named Rowena Duncan who decides to spend her summer vacation working at a Renaissance Faire where there’s plenty of adventure, friendship and romance to be found. You can read my full review here.

💕Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥

The Blood Rose trilogy by Kaki Warner consists of Pieces of Sky, Open Country and Chasing the Sun. This trilogy falls into a few different genres: historical fiction, Western and romance. Each book tells the story of a different brother in the Wilkins family. The Wilkins are a rough and tough ranching family but they all have hearts of gold under rough exteriors… they’re also incredibly handsome. These books were my favorites in 2020 because I love the way Warner writes romance. You can read my review for Pieces of Sky here, Open Country here and Chasing the Sun here. 

💕Heat Level: 🔥🔥

Lovely War by Julie Berry is a unique mix of romantic historical fiction and Greek mythology. It follows two couples during World War I and has some really odd twists that makes it stand out from other historical romance novels. You can read my full review here.

Final Thoughts:

I hope you guys enjoyed this different take on romance recommendations! I am exploring more in the romance genre so I’ll eventually have some of those to recommend. What are you reading during this romantic season? Thanks for reading and have a great day!