Buckle up, folks, we are going for a ride. That is the current spirit of the billion-dollar romance publishing industry, according to statistics provided by the Romance Writers of America. Readers are eagerly coming along and expect well-written stories with fresh characters in new settings to accompany their journey. No dented, rusty, old cars, just the latest model off the showroom floor, perhaps with a few sexy hockey players in the backseat.

THE SPORTS LIFE

From the Olympics to the National Hockey League (NHL), sports-themed romances continue to thrive. Jodi Rosoff, director, marketing and publicity, for Grand Central Publishing’s Forever and Forever Yours lines, considers “hockey players the new Highlanders. And the heroines of these books have to be just as strong to keep up with their über-alpha counterparts.” Writing for the Forever imprint, ­Victoria Denault will release the sixth book in her “Hometown Players” series, Game On (Oct.), and the second book in the San Francisco Thunder series, Slammed (Dec.).

HarperCollins’s romance powerhouse Avon Books is giving love a sporting chance with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Rachel Gibson’s Simply Irresistible (Nov.), a re­issue of her first NHL romance in the “Chinooks Hockey Team” series. “It is pretty plain to see that hockey romance is melting all the ice in the contemporary genre,” says Pamela Jaffee, senior publicity director at Avon. Gibson’s next novel, The Art of Running in Heels (Avon, Dec.), takes her Chinooks into the reality television realm when a bride-to-be leaves her fiancé at the altar in front of millions of viewers and flees in a floatplane to Sandspit, Canada.

Popular ebook author Kate Meader’s Undone by You (Pocket Star, Mar. 2018) combines same-sex romance with the fastest game on earth. Dante Moretti is the first openly gay professional hockey general manager. Cade “Alamo” Burnett, the team’s star defenseman, can’t provide any defense against his interest in Dante, but both have to consider the risk to their million-dollar careers. Meader gets the women into the game with So Over You (Pocket Star, Dec.). Injured National Women’s Hockey League player Isobel Chase is a personal coach to Vadim Petrov, a puck bunny ­favorite known as the Czar of Pleasure, as he works back from a bad year with a knee injury. Tara Gelsomino, executive editor at the Crimson Romance division of Simon & Schuster (S. & S.), predicts an upsurge in such athlete heroines who cross into professional male sport territory.

When asked about female participants, Diversion publisher Jaime Levine tends “to describe them as skilled and fierce, rather than gritty.... Women’s strength has always been an important theme in romance, and we don’t see this changing!”

Lia Riley offers the second book in her “Hellion Angels” ebook titles, Head Coach (Avon Impulse, Nov.), after Mr. Hockey. Readers meet the Denver Hellions, an NHL team, and their biggest fans, the Hellion Angels—and do not call them puck bunnies. Jaci Burton’s Shot on Gold (Jove, Feb. 2018) sets up a romance between an American hockey player and a U.S. figure skater participating in the Olympics. He’d love to, per the publisher’s blurb, show her “how hot life off the ice can be.”

It’s not all about hockey: from S. & S.’s Pocket Star ebook imprint, a freelance publicist who never takes on a client she can’t handle tries to ignore the charms of a hunky MMA (mixed martial arts) playboy billionaire in Tara Wyatt and Harper St. George’s No Contest (Jan. 2018). In the authors’ Take Down (Nov.), an MMA champion prefers to block out the noisy world until he meets a journalist who challenges him with prying questions and astute ­observations.

Santino Hassell is a new addition to Penguin Random House (PRH) who has made a name for himself with his gritty New York City romances featuring gay and bisexual men and women. In his new “New York Barons” series, NFL team players who identify as LGBTQ are struggling to find love in a profession that is not particularly accepting. The next release is the ebook Down by Contact (­InterMix: Penguin, Jan. 2018).

All-INCLUSIVE

When it comes to inclusivity, the publishing representatives we spoke with are on the same page. Diversity of backgrounds, orientations, settings, characters, and characterizations are vital to the health of the genre. According to Shauna Summers, executive editor of PRH division Ballantine Books, “We’re always looking for diversity/inclusion in the books we acquire and publish, both from authors and within the books. For [­ebook imprint] Loveswept, we’ve been publishing a wide range of queer romance over the last couple of years, particularly M/M [male/male], which has been a lot of fun.”

“Love is love,” says Nicole Fischer, editorial director of Avon’s Impulse ebook line. “Our goal has always been to publish the best romances and that would not be possible without including characters with diverse backgrounds and authors with diverse voices. Every reader deserves to see themselves...which is why we are actively seeking and publishing books that highlight different sexualities, cultures, races, religions, ages, body types, and disabilities.”

Author and journalist Nicole Blades agrees: “While there have been definite shifts toward more rich and elevated story­telling starring more people of color, the fact is we need more.” Have You Met Nora? (Dafina: Kensington, Oct.), Blades’s upcoming release, introduces a biracial woman who has been passing as white.

According to Berkley vice president and editorial director Cindy Hwang, “We’re definitely seeing more diversity in romance...from authors who are people of color and who feature people of color in their works.” In the interracial romance The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (Jove, Feb. 2018), a groomsman and his last-minute guest go on a fun and flirty fake date.

Cat Sebastian’s M/M “Seducing the Sedgwick” historical romance series begins with It Takes Two To Tumble (Avon, Dec.), and an M/F series, “Regency Imposters,” explores gender identity in Unmasked by the Marquess (Avon, Apr. 2018). Avon is also excited to publish RITA Award winner Alexis Hall’s first queer historical series, with an older heroine and a bisexual hero, launching with A Lord for Whenever (Mar. 2018).

Crimson’s Gelsomino thinks diversity in characters’ life experiences and perspectives are what make a novel vibrant and memorable. As a case in point, An Unsuitable Heir by KJ Charles (Loveswept, Oct.) features fraternal twin trapeze artists inheriting a manor house, but their relatives are not so welcoming. [See our interview with Charles on p. 25.]

The popular Alison Bliss is soon to publish the third book in her “A Perfect Fit” series, More To Love (Forever, Jan. 2018), showcasing plus-size women. Erika Tsang, editorial director, Avon Books, says, “Having diverse characters should be a given in any story. To paraphrase [author] Beverly Jenkins, if you can relate to sparkly vampires and shape-shifters, you can relate to people of color, people of all kinds, searching and falling in love.”

Paranormal IMMORTAL?

Speaking of shape-shifters, reviews from the publishing experts we contacted were mixed on the paranormal subgenre’s future, though it continues to have a strong fan base with digital readers. Esi Sogah, senior editor at Kensington Publishing, indicates there is still a strong readership for paranormal romance, but readers are definitely looking for more than vampires and werewolves; they want authors to bring something new to the table. A valiant move in that direction is Shelly Laurenston’s Hot and Badgered (Apr. 2018), which features honey badger–shifters.

Forever’s Rosoff sees paranormal as an opportunity. Her colleague Forever editorial director Leah Hultenschmidt feels paranormal is underpublished. “There are still plenty of shifter fans out there.”

Christine Warren’s Baby, I’m Howling for You (St. Martin’s, Jan. 2018) features librarian Lennie Landry, a wolf on the run from a pack of coyotes and a stalker. She finds refuge in Alpha, WA, where she meets Mark Fischer, who is escaping his past—or so he thought. Thanks Fur Last Night (St. Martin’s, Jan. 2018) is a paranormal anthology headlined by best-selling authors Eve Langlais, Milly Taiden, and Kate Baxter. Also from St. Martin’s is Donna Grant’s Heat (Jan. 2018), which involves an outcast dragon who is drawn to a woman whose mind has been overtaken by magic.

You can’t discuss paranormal romance without a major nod to the prolific Christine Feehan. In Covert Game (Berkley, Mar. 2018), another title in her “GhostWalker” series, super­soldiers race against the clock to neutralize danger.

TRÈS STEAMY

Whether the romance involves dragons, vampires, or just plain folks, readers like them hot and steamy, compelling, and emotionally driven, says Kensington executive editor Tara Gavin, though she also notes that interest in highly erotic fantasy may be waning. Waterhouse Press is ramping up its “Misadventures” series with Misadventures of a Good Wife (Oct.) by Meredith Wilde and Helen Hardt, about a woman who presumes her husband is dead following a plane crash until she sees his “ghost.” Kendall Ryan’s Misadventures with the Boss (Apr. 2018) involves a blind date between an employee and her new employer.

In Opal Carew’s X Marks the Spot (St. Martin’s, Apr. 2018), when Abi and Liam’s marriage falls apart, Abi decides to act on her attraction to Del. She thinks she is in bed with Del but soon realizes she is actually with Liam. Oops—or maybe not. Zara Cox’s Arrogant Bastard (Forever, Feb. 2018) provides espionage, intrigue, danger, and passion as a young housewife transforms into the Black Widow.

Alisha Rai’s Wrong To Need You (Avon, Nov.) promises to make romance lovers swoon. This second book in the “Forbidden Hearts” series is a contemporary Romeo and Juliet, featuring Rai’s signature heat along with a forbidden romance.

Contemporary CONCERNS

Everything new is contemporary again, with playful banter and clever humor to sustain older fans and also attract millennials. Save a Truck, Ride a Redneck (Pocket Star, Oct.) by Molly Harper invites readers to Lake Sackett, GA, in a new “Southern Eclectic” series that provides a snarky tale of a college student who returns to her hometown for the summer.

Forever’s Rosoff believes romances that take place in larger cities often have strong ebook sales and more of an international following. Such is the case with Undercover Attraction, the fifth book in the Katee Robert’s “O’Malleys” series (Nov.). Dangerous Aiden O’Malley offers ex-cop Charlotte Finch a chance for justice after she was betrayed by her fellow officers, but to seize it, she has to pretend to be his fiancée.

Making her Avon debut, Alyssa Cole presents a look into modern-day royalty in A Princess in Theory (Avon, Feb. 2018), while Lauren Dane’s Whiskey Sharp: ­Unraveled (HQN, Jan. 2018) is the first in her “Whiskey Sharp” series featuring hair stylist and punk rocker Dolan at Seattle’s sexy vintage-styled barbershop and whiskey bar. ­Christina Lauren’s Roomies (Gallery: S. & S., Dec.) combines humor and besotted lovers in New York City with a daring subway rescue by a darling of Broadway.

Yes, it seems geography does matter. Diversion’s Levine says geography is “crucial in most romance stories because location functions as a character. It is a benefit that gives readers an additional connection point.” Note the rise of Miami-based Latinx romances. Next Year in Havana by ­Chanel Cleeton (Berkley Trade, Feb. 2018), set in Miami and Havana, focuses on a freelance writer who uncovers her late grandmother’s history. Nadine Gonzalez’s Exclusively Yours (Kimani Romance, Feb. 2018) features Miami realtors and a regretful, bitter affair between coworkers.

Ranchers and Cowboys

According to Monique Patterson, editorial director, ­romance and executive editor, St. Martin’s Press, “we have seen cowboys start to bubble up lately.... The cowboy can be different from the billionaire (though sometimes they are one and the same). What is exciting is that both are in demand.” Kensington’s Gavin believes the American West has an appeal that always attracts readers. “The Western hero, the stalwart man against the land,” she says, “is an archetype that readers enjoy again and again.” Forever’s Rosoff concurs: “We are obsessed with cowboys.”

Beautiful Lawman (Avon, Dec.) continues Sophie Jordan’s “Devil’s Rock” series, as her heroine pushes the line and focuses on the instant-adversaries trope when she meets an arrogant sheriff. As locations (and more), Montana and Texas are hot, as illustrated by two new Avon titles: Montana Heat: True to You by Jennifer Ryan (Feb. 2018) and Cowboy, It’s Cold Outside (Oct.) by Lori Wilde. According to the promo, “nothing is sexier than a Texas cowboy with a five o’clock shadow and cowboy hat.”

Cowboy Up (Pocket, Dec.) by Harper Sloan features a one-night stand between a shy bookstore owner and a rancher and auto shop owner. Maisey Yates’s Smooth Talking Cowboy (HQN, Feb. 2018) is the first in her “Golden Valley” contemporary Western titles.

Wounded Warriors

Riding high as well are military romances with realistic protagonists. Called the master of the military genre by Kensington’s Gavin, Lindsay McKenna is releasing the fourth book in her best-selling “Wind River” series, Wrangler’s Challenge (Zebra: Kensington, Nov.). Here, a veteran who lost a foot during her service comes to the Bart C Ranch for some equine therapy. Gavin sees McKenna’s books as providing heart-wrenching emotion with an action-packed plot.

Cowgirl, Unexpectedly (Lyrical: Kensington, Feb. 2018), an ebook by Vicki Tharp, is the new “Lazy S Ranch” military series that also features a heroine back from war, wounded both physically and spiritually, who takes a new job as a cowgirl. The Wicked Billionaire by Jackie Ashenden (St. Martin’s, Oct.) involves a ruthless Navy SEAL who feels ­obligated to protect the widow of a teammate when she is threatened.

Hearkening back to history

Conflicts of all kinds lead to thoughts of history and its influence on the romance world. Yelena Casale, chief marketing officer, City Owl, sees an increase in the historical titles set outside 19th-century England. There is interest in the Italian and French Renaissance, frontier America, and especially the American Revolution, what some are referring to as the Hamilton Effect.

New York City’s Gilded Age is showing strength as well. Joanna Shupe’s Avon debut, A Daring Arrangement (Oct.; see review, p. 67), introduces an English beauty with a scheme to win the man she loves and the American scoundrel who ruins her plans. Beverly Jenkins’s Tempest (Avon, Jan. 2018) ventures into Wyoming in the third book in her “Old West” series. This title involves the fate of a mail-order bride who greets her intended with a bullet instead of a kiss.

The popularity of historical romance “is always hard to predict,” according to Diversion’s Levine. “We expect 19th-century England and the American West will remain robust parts of the market. That being said, sometimes the expansion is not about time period, but about culture....” In Jane Bonander’s Her Sister’s Bridegroom (Jan. 2018), a now penniless young woman accepts a proposal meant for her twin sister.

Fan favorite Eloisa James opens the Georgian “Wildes of Lindow Castle” series with Wilde in Love (Avon, Oct.). The spirited Miss Willa Ffynche wants nothing to do with Lord Alaric Wilde, the most celebrated man in England, whose private life is publicly splashed over every newspaper and on the London stage (see review, p. 66). Sabrina Jeffries’s The Secret of Flirting (Pocket, Mar. 2018), next up in her “Sinful Suitors” books, has spymaster Baron Fulkham positive that Princess Anne of Chanay’s royal persona is a ruse and that she’s ­really a mysterious actress he met three years before. Loretta Chase’s A Duke in Shining Armor (Avon, Nov.), the first in her “Difficult Dukes” series, sees the Duke of Ripley following the bookish, bespectacled Olympia as she tries to escape her wedding to his equally rapscallion friend and fellow duke (a Fall Editor’s Pick, LJ 9/15/17, p. 34). RITA Award–winning Kelly Bowen offers heart and heat in A Duke in the Night (Grand Central, Feb. 2018).

Historical romance readers will thrill at the return of Betina Krahn with A Good Day To Marry a Duke (Zebra: Kensington, Dec.), the first in her “Sin & Sensibility” series, set in 1890. An American heiress is in London looking to land—what else?—a duke.

Sweet and Savory

Sweet romances can be set in any time period. According to Ilise Levine, Shadow Mountain’s sales and marketing manager, the focus is on the cat and mouse game of relationship-building, featuring sparks, chemistry, and passion and emphasizing the romantic tension of leaving things unsaid. Two new “Proper Romance” contemporaries should find avid fans. In Check Me Out by Becca Wilhite (Feb. 2018), an assistant librarian is torn between the high school civics teacher and a poet as the library is threatened with closure. Julie Wright’s Lies Jane Austen Told Me (Nov.) will be a treat for Austen fans as our obsessed heroine quotes the author and imagines she has found her Darcy.

Dawn Anderson, associate editor for Kregel Publications, announced the third book in the “Regency Brides: A Legacy of Grace” series with The Dishonorable Miss ­DeLancey (Oct.), by Australian author Carolyn Miller. According to Anderson, Kregel has also explored other settings, such as the 1890s Appalachian Mountains and the 1930s Oklahoma Dust Bowl, looking for a strong romance story well supported by its historical underpinnings.

Selena James, executive editor, Kensington, sees a lot of interest in stories in which romantic ideals are more important than sex. Belle: An Amish Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Sarah Price (Zebra, Oct.) is the first book in a new Amish fairy tale series. Zondervan is offering Love Held Captive (Oct.) by the much-revered Shelley Shepard Gray, the third and final installment of the “Lone Star Hero’s Love Story” series set after the Civil War.

the gift of love

Holiday-themed novellas, short stories, and novels transcend genre. James believes anthologies are a significant part of the romance world because they help introduce readers to authors they may not know, offering a cross promotion to launch debut writers.

Ebook publisher Tule is promoting Kate Hewitt’s A Vicarage Christmas (Oct.) about the handsome stranger who turns out to be the heroine’s father’s new curate. In Barbara Ankrum’s A Little Christmas Magic (Nov.), a military widow returns to her late husband’s Montana hometown and falls into a relationship with his one-time best friend. The Nurse’s Special Delivery by New Zealand author ­Louisa George (Harlequin Medical Romance, Dec.) is a new ­ebook for the author as she launches her “Ultimate Christmas Gift” series.

Tamera Alexander’s historical holiday novella, Christmas at Carnton (Thomas Nelson, Oct.), tells the story of a child, a former soldier, and a destitute woman who all discover the true meaning of Christmas. The ever-popular Debbie ­Macomber’s story of online dating, Merry and Bright (Ballantine, Oct.), notes the pluses and minuses of falling in love with someone you haven’t yet met (see the review, p. 65).

October marks the 50th anniversary of Catherine Marshall’s landmark Christy (Evergreen Farm: Kregel, Oct.), set in Ashville, NC, and the Smoky Mountains of 1912.

Romantic Suspense

Readers want “spellbinding” in their romantic suspense, along with new settings and fresh characters. Laura Griffin’s Touch of Red (Pocket, Oct.), the 12th title in her “Tracers” series, offers twists and turns with a crime scene investigator tracking down a murderer. A master of series suspense, Brenda Novak sets us up with Hello Again (St. Martin’s, Oct.), the second title in her series featuring Dr. Evelyn Talbot set in an Alaskan treatment center for psychopathic criminals.

Christine Feehan will debut her “Torpedo Ink” series with Judgment Road (Jove, Jan. 2018), a spin-off of her popular “Sea Haven” and “Drake Sisters” titles featuring members of the Torpedo Ink motorcycle club.

St. Martin’s has plenty of suspense on tap for next year. Lisa Renee Jones’s End Game (Jan. 2018) is the final novel in the scorching “Dirty Money Series,” in which Wall Street meets Sons of Anarchy. The streets of Charleston, SC, provide the backdrop for Tara Thomas’s new suspense series “Sons of Broad.” In the opener, Darkest Night (Feb. 2018), a notorious playboy would give up ­everything to be with the woman he has loved for years.

Christina Dodd’s Dead Girl Running (HQN, Apr. 2018) introduces a woman running to the Pacific Northwest “from a year she can’t remember, a husband she prays is dead, homelessness, and fear.” And rounding out a genre with which she has become synonymous, Jayne Ann Krentz makes us Promise Not To Tell (Berkley, Jan. 2018), as a Seattle gallery owner raised in a cult meets a PI who is a fellow survivor of that experience.

can there be enough LOVE?

With regard to format, romance readers are not picky when it comes to where or how a story is published—they just want it to be good. St. Martin’s Patterson also sees beyond format. “As always, we have been interested in the authors that we really feel we can grow—whether they are self-published or not. All it takes is one book to kick [in] the door in a new way and leave it open for other writers to walk through. As a publisher, you hope that you are the one to help an author do just that.”

IN SO MANY WORDS

Joyce Sparrow has been writing reviews for LJ for more than 20 years and was among the pioneers to undertake e-original romances in 2011. She lives in Florida