Romance Sub-Genre Rec – Romantic Suspense
Hey, and welcome to my new post series – where I recommend various romance sub-genres to you. The idea came to me the first weekend in February, while I was chatting with Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books. She asked me to recommend romance books to her. But she wanted romance with no actual sex, and not too heavy on the romance. Easy, right? Actually, it was. I read a whole lot of romance, and I love what the different sub-genres can bring us.
Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite romantic suspense books, series and authors. I love romantic suspense, because there is an element of danger along with the romance. And therefore, when the characters get to spend some quiet time together, it’s even better. At least that’s how I feel 😉
Brown and Deluca series by Maggie Shayne has a light romance element, but it’s more in the attraction than any actual action. There is a very strong suspense element, as the main female character is a famous writer, who is blind. But she had surgery and can see again. Only, there are times when she sees horrific murders, or where murder victims have been buried. Of course this brings her on the detective’s radar. And he isn’t sure what to think of her – it doesn’t sound plausible. But at the same time, he can’t really see her as a killer. So far, there are four books out, but I have only read the first three. They are good though. And would totally work for you, Evelina, if you want suspense mixed in.
Saving the Princess by Helena Newbury is an incredibly fast-paced romantic suspense. We have an actual princess, and an army vet. On the same flight from New York to Los Angeles, something goes wrong when there is an attempt on the princess’s life. Of course, the army vet couldn’t leave someone innocent to die. Even if he suffered from PTSD and thought he was more or less worthless, he felt the need to keep her safe. There was a lot going on in this story, and while the romance took the back seat, it’s extremely hot.
The Dirty Money series by Lisa Renee Jones is excellent. There is suspense. There is very hot romance. There is treason. There is loyalty. Friendship. Yeah, I truly enjoyed this very wild ride when it lasted. The stories here end of cliff-hangers, so if you are not a huge fan of those, make sure you have the next book ready to get started if you pick these up. There are several other series by Lisa Renee Jones that fit this sub-genre as well. And she writes those really well!
Keep Her Safe by K.A. Tucker is light on the romance (totally for you, Evelina!) and very heavy on the mystery and suspense. It’s extremely well written, and it was impossible for me to guess who was behind what happened. The main character is in his twenties, but there are frequent flashbacks to his mother’s past, and those did shed some light on certain things. But not enough to figure everything out.
Mystery Man – and probably the whole Dream Man series by Kristen Ashley has a good dose of mystery. There is a lot of romance and steamy scenes, too, so I really felt like I got the best of both world. Very good character development, a solid plot and a story that kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat! What more can a romance reader ask for? There’s also the Colorado Mountain series, not all the books involve suspense, but several of them do.
Body Armor series by Lori Foster is awesome. There is mystery and suspense galore. The romance is scorching, too, and I love the way the stories unfold. This series is a spin-off from Foster’s Ultimate series, so if you have read that, you just might meet some characters you are acquainted with already 😉
The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles by Brenda Novak is not only romantic suspense, I would probably add in psychological thriller here, too. Extremely well done, dark, eerie, and with characters I root for so hard it’s sometimes difficult to read their stories. Evelyn is a psychiatrist, and she works with psychopaths who are in prison. Indeed, she has managed to open a new prison, Hanover House, in a small town near Anchorage in Alaska. Her back story includes almost being killed by her boyfriend when she was younger – he killed all her best friends while she was forced to watch, then left her to die in a fire while he disappeared. Needless to say, it’s important to have both a lot of light, and a warm place while reading this series. The romance here is light, but still present.
The Game of Life series by Belle Brooks is awesome! A woman is kidnapped, and her kidnapper seemingly know her – only, she doesn’t know him, or does she? This series is composed of five rather long novellas, they have not all been released yet, but I just know that the last ones will be awesome, too. The suspense is breath-taking, and I am trying as hard as I can to figure out who the Wolf is, and who might be the Rat… Watch this space for my review of book three and four very soon 😉
I could say more about stories in the romantic suspense sub-genre, but some of those could also be classified as post-apocalyptic or dystopian. So I am including them in the posts about that. All of the ones mentioned today are contemporary romantic suspense.
Do you think I forgot someone? Don’t hesitate to add your own romance sub-genre recs in the comments!
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I haven’t read any of these. Keep Her Safe is on my TBR. I hope to get to it very soon. I’ll have to check out these others. Great list.
Keep Her Safe was so good, Melanie! I hope you’ll be able to get to it soon!
These all look great! I don’t have a whole bunch of favorites in this genre but Hostage by Annika Martin & Skye Warren is one of my top reads. 😀
I haven’t read those Stephanie, so thanks for the rec 🙂
Great list, I used to read alot of Lori Foster and enjoyed her books. I see ‘The Siren’ in the picture, I love that series!
The Original Sinners series will be featured in another sub-genre recommendation post 😉
I love romantic suspense for the same reasons. I’ve only read two from your list, Kristen Ashley and KA Tucker. I have Hanover House on my pile to read. I also like Shiloh Walker, Karen Rose, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb, Katie Ruggle, Kay Hooper, and oh so many more if I count my historical romantic suspense and m/m romantic suspense. I will have to take a close look at a few of those on your list.
I have both erotic / suspense and MM romance / suspense coming up later 😉
I’ve been curious about Romantic Suspense since I’ve been seeing it mentioned more recently and saw some hype around K.A. Tucker’s work. Thank you for the recs and great post! 🙂
I think romantic suspense is one of my favorite sub-genres. Because the suspense part makes everything better. And somehow, it also takes a little of the focus away from the romance. I love romance, but sometimes, it’s nice when there’s a little bit less focus on it anyway. That’s not very clear, even if it was in my head 😀
Great list
Ruty @Reading…Dreaming
Thanks, Ruth!
Nice post! I like a good romantic/suspense, hopefully sort of equal with the 2 elements if possible!
I’ve read the first in the Evelyn Talbot chronicles, and the first in the Brown & DeLuca series. KA Tucker’s book is on my wishlist and looks really good. Thanks for doing these lists, Lexxie– I love to make lists… and read lists!
My pleasure, Kari! I love lists, too. And sometimes, making lists helps me find new books to read, too 🙂
I’ll have to think on this to see if there’s something I’d add but you did a fine job with these recs. 😉 I do love romantic suspense and I don’t read nearly enough of it. A few of these series are on my tbr or on my ereaders thanks to you though. 🙂 I like this feature, wifey!
Hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend! We have a long one – President’s Day. 🙂 {{{big hugs}}}
🙂 I’m glad I can keep adding to your TBR, wifey 😀
I need to get back to reading Brenda Novak. I do love a romantic suspense novel. Thanks for the recommendations!
Oh yeah, you definitely need to read Evelyn Talbot if you enjoy romantic suspense, Carole. Novak has really managed to branch out nicely with that series!
Oh!! Thanks for the recco’s ! I love posts like this, and I’ve had Dirty Money in my Kindle Pile forever. I’ll have to give it a try next time I’m in the mood for some romantic suspense!
My pleasure, Mallory! I hope you’ll enjoy Dirty Money when you get to it.
Romantic suspense sounds like a lot of fun, although I do not think I read any – unless Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte count as such.
Keep Her Safe looks like a lot of fun and totally up my alley, I feel the same about The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles.
You should check out both if you have the chance to, Andrea 🙂 I love both authors!
Twitter: bmreviewsohmy
A few of those look pretty good! 🙂
😉 Stormi. I think there are some you’d enjoy here!
Got some good RS books listed. Love the Dream Man series. Love Lori Foster heroes. Have yet to try her Body Armor series.
Oh you haven’t started Foster’s Body Armor series yet? You really should! It’s awesome 🙂
Twitter: Mollykatie112
I really enjoyed the Brown and Deluca series. I reviewed them as they came out for Pure Textuality. But I’ve been reading her books for a long time. Anything by Tucker is wonderful. Allison Brennan has a really good series featuring a couple who are FBI. I’ve read a lot of those. JD Robb is fantastic. Is Motorcycle Man part of the Dream Man series? I have it in my tbr. I liked your list!
Yes, Motorcycle Man is the fourth Dream Man book, Lorna. I have never read JD Robb… I guess I need to remedy that, yeah?
Twitter: avalinahsbooks
I love this series of yours 🙂 can’t say I read suspense, and I totally didn’t get Wuthering Heights, but I still love this post series 😀 and I can’t wait till next one 🙂
Wuthering Heights is in my picture for classic romance 😀 I read it for class in Uni, we had a class called ‘air as a literary element’ and it was great. It might also have skewed the way I thought of Wuthering Heights. Especially because it was more of a dark romance than anything else, really 🙂
Twitter: Mollykatie112
I am wrong. The FBI couple series is by Catherine Coulter but Allison Brennan is a good romantic suspense author as well
Thanks for the precision, Lorna! I’ll check them out 🙂
Twitter: Mollykatie112
JD Robb aka Nora Roberts. There’s 46 books in the series now and the story goes in order. Lots of people pick Roark as their favorite book boyfriend ever. I’ve read probably 36 or so of them. So good!
I haven’t read Nora Roberts either :O I know! But now, it just feels too daunting to start a series that already has 46 books, you know?
I’m always in awe of those who can recommend books and all the more in awe of you because you recommend according to a sub genre and am like…wow! I’ve always been a huge romantic suspense fan but somehow haven’t been reading many of those lately and am glad I’m getting to add all these amazing recs to my TBR 😀
Thank you, Fanna! I have such detailed shelves on Goodreads – that helps a lot. In the beginning, that helped only me, but now, I can use those shelves to share the love across genres, sub genres, authors, triggers, and more 🙂
I hope you’ll enjoy the books you pick up thanks to this post!!
Twitter: Mollykatie112
There was probably 20 when I started and they are so good that my friend and I would buy the new ones as they came out in hardback. Wonderful romance and the characters are even better. Gah! I need to go back to reading these! Oh yeah, they are set in the year 2058 to begin with.