Must-Read Spicy Romance Novels

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sylvia Day comes the first novel in the Crossfire series — a provocative masterstroke of abandon and obsession that redefined the meaning of desire and became a global phenomenon.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

A destination wedding in Tulum should be a breeze, but Dr. Janelle Cross — the sister of the bride and the ex-girlfriend of the groom — can’t catch a break. Between her maid of honor duties, her sister’s Bridezilla antics, and her family tiptoeing around her non-existent feelings for her ex, Janelle is desperate to let off some steam. So, when the best man, Rome proposes they give into their undeniable chemistry, Janelle agrees, under one condition: Their affair can only last a week …

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

In fifth grade, Misha and Ryen became pen pals, bound by three rules: no social media, no phone numbers, no photos. For seven years, they were each other’s anchor, until Misha stumbled on a picture of a girl named Ryen and knew he had to find her. Ryen hasn’t heard from Misha in three months and feels the loss deeply, knowing she should’ve broken one of their rules. Meanwhile, a mysterious vandal targets her school, and a compelling new student arrives who seems to know exactly how to break her down and pull her in.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

A junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett Vandermeer prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school. She has no time for relationships — at least, that’s what she tells herself. Swim captain, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes. So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water …

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist. On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend … After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other … They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long-distance dating disaster of the century or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want …

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: She needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires an escort, Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan. Before long, the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic …

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

When Freya’s husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, he lands her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Teal Flores is desperate for two things — control over her gift of weather, and a date to her ex’s wedding. The first isn’t possible until she finds her long-lost mother, but the second has a very handsome last-ditch solution: Carter Velasquez. Carter needs Teal too. His chance at receiving an inheritance is dependent on him being married by age thirty (blame his traditional Cuban grandmother), so who better to pose as his wife than Teal? But fake marriage and cohabitation prove tricky when mutual attraction charges the atmosphere — quite literally for Teal, whose volatile emotions cause lightning strikes.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

In the Rebel Blue Ranch series, Gus Ryder has a lot on his plate. He doesn’t know what’s harder: Taking care of his family’s 8,000 acre ranch, or parenting his spunky six-year-old daughter, who is staying with him for the summer. He needs help. His little sister’s best friend, the woman he can’t stand, is not who he had in mind. But when no one else can step in, Teddy’s the only option he’s got. Tempers flare, tension builds, and for the first time ever, Gus and Teddy start to see each other in a different light.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

In the Ice Planet Barbiarians series, women on earth are stranded on an alien planet, and find love with the aliens there. In the first installment, fall in love with the out-of-this-world romance between Georgie Carruthers, a human woman, and Vektal, an alien from another planet. Georgie is not equipped for life in the desolate winter wasteland. When a big blue horned alien introduces himself in a rather … startling way and says that she’s his mate, she must trust that he’ll help her and her people survive.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love, and she’s happy for all of them, truly. There’s only one problem — Iris is a romance author facing a deadline for her second book, and she’s completely out of ideas. Iris goes to a bar in Portland and meets a sexy stranger, Stefania, and a night of dancing and making out turns into the worst one-night stand Iris has had in her life. To get her mind off everything, Iris tries out for the lead role in a local play but comes face-to-face with Stefania, whose real name turns out to be Stevie. Desperate to save face in front of her friends, Stevie asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend. Iris is shocked, but she agrees. As the two women play the part of a happy couple, lines start to blur.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Billie Burke is smart, endlessly driven, and fabulous — it’s no accident she landed a job as the beauty editor at the world’s leading fashion magazine. Caught in a whirlwind of long office hours and fashion industry party-hopping, she hasn’t had time to focus on her nonexistent love life. Instead, she’s been living vicariously through her friends. Then she meets Jay Lane, a gorgeous up-and-coming Brooklyn writer who knocks her right out of her stilettos. Soon Billie finds herself doing things with Jay in broad daylight that she’s never even dared to think about in the privacy of her head. In no time at all she’s addicted to an affair that’s as crazy and seductive as New York itself. But there’s a lot she doesn’t know about Jay, whose rough past seems determined to start creeping back into their present …

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

As a skilled kitchen witch, Dina Whitlock knows her way around a pastry recipe. She is not as much of an expert on romance, thanks to the hex hanging over her head. But who needs love when your best friend is getting married, right? Scott Mason has returned from global travels thrilled to embark on his new role as a curator at the British Museum. With his best friend’s wedding approaching, and Scott as best man, this is his chance to make up for lost time. Little does he expect to be enchanted by the magical maid of honor. But the hex still holds, and Dina knows that Scott is in danger of more than just bad luck — because she’s falling, hard. Will Dina be able to undo the hex before it’s too late?

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: A few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive frontman threaten to bring it all crumbling down. Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his reasons for pushing this deal through — and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out of the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no strings attached, and has a built-in deadline: The day one of their companies prevails.