1. Your substack has skyrocketed to a top 5 read for me. I bookmark and I take notes. I am so over the glut in the romance market, and I’m looking for Romance + Something More, and this is the place to find it.
2. I know we discussed the male author trend and I’m here for it. I was so captivated by Matthew Norman I am now reading “Charm City Rocks.” And you sent me to Colton Gentry. This is the place!
3. Looking forward to Pomona Afton Can Totally Catch a Killer (by Bellamy Rose) and Flirting With Murder by Amanda Sellet. I think I’ve developed an interested in a farce: i am who I am.
Well this comment totally just made my entire day. I really think we need a NAME for this sub-genre of romance, one author's editor calls it romance plus? I sometimes refer to it as romantic fiction in my head? Who knows, but there's definitely (and increasingly!) something there and author that are carving out a space outside of the center of the market.
I'm excited for more male authors, I know that's a controversial take at times (why can't they leave us alone, et all) but in a time of increasing hetero pessimism I find it so refreshing to see men writing women characters with love, affection and care. And I find it so cheering to know that men are out there who see romance and love and partnership as the center of their lives rather than an adjacency.
OOOH the Pomona Afton book looks fun! Adding the first one to my vacation reading list! Thanks!
There's got to be a better terms than "upmarket romance" (I came across an author using this publishing term) or anything that is a respectability judgement but more informative than romantic (or contemporary/historic/speculative/whatever) fiction. Sometimes it would be nice to see books like this on the main floor of my indie bookstore in the new releases section so more people pick them up but I understand the balance between bringing in romance readers who are looking for genre expectations and being shelved in the back upstairs corner. Great list with a lot of intriguing info on what publishing is also excited about and, as always, interesting side-discussions going on in the comments!
Romance Plus! Elevated romance. Like the book you mentioned where the main character lands in a thriller? Genius.
Agree 100 percent on the male authors. There's room for everyone, and new perspectives lead to the PLUS (I disagree with the other commentator even mentioning Nicholas Sparks as an example). You need to interview Matthew! Tell him he's got fans over here. :o)
Fun Fact: "I'm looking for a mind at work" is Lin Manuel Miranda's wink and nod to an episode of the West Wing when Sam describes the types of people he's drawn to.
Adding sooo many of these to my never ending TBR, and also thrilled I have ARCs of several of them!
OMG YES the poet laureate episode!!!!! Ahhhh I am so amazed someone else knows that, I feel like such an old fart making west wing references these days but this makes me so happy.
I’m actually working on an essay that references the west wing now!! Always happy to help add to the TBR 😂
I think I only ever watched a season of TWW, but I'm obsessed with how writers (including lyricists) reference their own pet-enthusiasms in their own writing. LMM always has tons of easter eggs and references.
Such an amazing list and just want to share a hot tip for my fellow Libby users that I picked up from the Downtime newsletter - you can use the “deep search” option to find titles that haven’t been released yet and “notify me” to find out when they’ve been added (and hopefully then be top of the holds list!)
Thank you so much for including NOW THAT WE DON’T TALK on this incredible list!! I’ve read a number of the 2026 debuts already and am so proud to be part of this debut class 💛
what a great list, thank you for including me!! LOVE NOTES has actually been pushed to 2027 with a late feb release date (as of now). but pre-orders/ARCs/etc will still be happening this year! ❤️
OH that makes me feel better, I was really confused why it didn’t pop up on any of my filters for 2026. Boo to it being pushed but yay for pre orders / ARCs happening in 2026!
Great post as always! I think you're going to love Leave and Come Back. Can I also suggest adding Score by Kennedy Ryan and Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton-Harris to your 2026 TBR? I'd love to see your thoughts about both.
You know - I have been wanting to try Terah Shelton-Harris, I was actually looking at One Summer in Savannah for Book Club and then pivoted to You, Again at the last moment. I'm going to commit to reading it in February, thanks for the nudge!
And as for Score, how did I miss that?! I'm already feeling the need to add a coda as I realized this morning I also left off Robinne Lee's much anticipated next book!!
Terah's books are so interesting to me because One Summer and Wildflowers are both contemporary fiction with such strong romantic elements, they should definitely be part of the literary romance conversation. I think you'll appreciate her voice.
Oh this is so good to know! Also, I did go back and do a second pass and added in Kennedy Ryan (along with Robinne Lee, Emily Griffin and Ava Wilder). Clearly my process needs some work because how I missed all those, I'll never know!
Great list, I actually don't know most of these authors despite reading only romance in all its shapes and colours. But I am on a book budget of 0 since a few years, so that's probably why.
I was a bit surprised you said that straight male authors in romance is a new trend, I feel like this is being discussed a lot lately and it confuses me every time. Because I seem to remember that until the early 2000s, male romance authors were a dime a dozen and they were considered the authority on romance (as in most areas of anything in life), highly sought after, always considered prestigious and their books were often made into movies. I mean Nicholas Sparks? Ok, maybe he's the only name that comes to mind. But this blog post (link below) by a male romance author has a list (about halfway down) of very well-known romance (or at least romance-adjacent) books all written by men, they're just not considered romance, more literary fiction and the like.
As he rightly points out, it is or used to be the case that male authored romances always had a tragic ending, maybe because men felt/feel that they won't be taken seriously if they write a happy "unrealistic" ending and should only write serious, life-contemplating books. It does seem that more men are openly showing their love for romance novels as authors or readers, which I think is great, because a better balance in perspective on love from women's and men's points of view can only be positive.
I'm always very intrigued to see what a guy thinks of a romance, and absolutely don't mind reading romance books written by men, though I do prefer a happy ending, so hopefully the new cohort of male authors will be brave anough to write them.
My second surprised moment is that you mentioned you liked seeing a disabled hero/male main character, which you don't see as often as FMCs with injuries or disabilities. I'll concede that there seems to be more injured/disabled FMCs than MMCs in romance but I think it's because most books are written by women where the main main character is a woman, even if it's dual POV, so the focus of struggles is more likely to be on the lady's side.
BUT, I have read plenty of romances where the hero/male love interest is injured or disabled, and it always leads to the male character questioning his masculinity. Helen Hoang's The Heart Principle is a recent and great example, though I guess you could argue the MMC isn't injured or disabled, but I'm sure Quan would disagree 😏 (I mean the guy lost one of his balls, that's life-changing for any guy and not easy to reconcile with.)
Fun Facts by Jordan Lubov is another good one I read recently.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes is a big one.
If you do a google search, you'll find thousands of lists where the MMC is disabled or injured, maybe even some written by men, but they are definitely out there!
This is so fascinating to me because I've been reading romance for decades and can never remember a straight male mainstream romance, but perhaps I need to go and do some digging! In looking at that post you linked, it seems like there were a lot of romantic pieces of literary fiction written in the past and then, of course Nicholas Sparks, who, to your point often did not provide the requisite happy ending.
I think when I'm speaking of male authors and the "new development" of them writing romances - what I'm referring to is those men who are respecting and conforming to the genre standards as defined by women and, predominantly (though not exclusively!), female readers, chief among which is a happy ending. This feels new to me, though my knowledge is certainly not exhaustive!
And re the disabled love interest - what I was moreso alluding to there is the larger piece I wrote a few months ago talking about how increasingly in modern romance, we are getting these deeply idealized male heroes (perfectly therapized feelings, six packs, lucrative careers etc) and women who are damaged or broken in some way or represent marginalized identities. While I think there are definitely examples out there, the trend, writ large is for representation to exist moreso within our female characters and for our male characters to take a well trod path of perfection. However, I have been meaning to read Jojo Moyes, so I'm adding Me Before You to my list! Thanks for the thoughtful comments and the recommendations!
I totally get what you mean and was not trying to "school" you or anything, sorry if it came out that way!
I love all your articles and insights and I read the one you mention about idealised/perfect male heroes, and have seen this trend become almost the norm too. I guess women are writing men the way they wish they were in real life, but some don't manage to make them 3D characters. Basically what a lot of male writers in the past and present (though usually in other genres) have done with female characters -- like writing them with an hour-glass figure, super fit, big perky tits, salon hair even though she just crawled through mud. And that's probably why many women don't like reading books penned by male authors so much.
It seems to me, the more we discuss and think about it, the same problems exist on both sides 🤔
I will say that many women authors who write such perfect male characters base a lot of the good qualities on their own amazing husbands/partners (Bridget E. Baker a.k.a. B.E. Baker especially comes to mind). I know because they often dedicate their books to them or mention this in the Acknowledgements page, or write about their supportive, selfless, thoughtful husbands on social media. These unicorn men really do exist! 😅 (Mine included 🥹) They're probably not all rich, looking like models or Hollywood stars, but I think most of us can agree that a man (or woman) is infinitely more sexy and attractive if he is sweet, funny and kind, regardless what he looks like on the outside.
I like to think, or maybe pretend sometimes, that the amazing looks that the FMC describes about the MMC is mostly her perspective of the guy and he might not be so objectively handsome to everyone else -- like the movie Shallow Hal, where Jack Black sees Gwyneth Paltrow as a stunning beauty even if everyone else doesn't think so. At least in my experience, a guy is attractive and becomes more attractive *because* you like him. It's the classic heart eyes in real life 😍
As for what you explained about the new trend by male authors being that they are following more the romance conventions set by female authors and readers, I can't speak to it so much because I haven't read any romances by men in years (here I am perpetuating the issue, but I'm already looking for some to add to my Kindle). But regardless, I say "who cares about convention?" I'm not sure when or why the industry or readers decided that we only want certain types of romance. Since every time an author, male or female, wrote something that didn't conform or seemed weird and silly at first, people eventually love it *because* it's different and it then becomes a trend-setter (Fifty Shades anyone? Are there even sexy, open-door romances anymore that don't include some kind of BDSM? That's all because of E.L. James. Say what you want, but the lady is a cultural icon).
I mean when, before the early 2000s (don't quote me on this, I didn't check), would we have been excited to read the next installment of sexy, cowboy aliens on a weird planet? Or a sexy mafia boss baker? Everything we now consider "top-tier" romance tropes, sub-genres and must-reads didn't exist until someone wrote it. 😌
This piece convinced me to immediately dig into my copy of Bad Words and OMG YES. Absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for moving this October release to the top of my digital ARC pile!
Ahhhh this makes me so happy to hear! I’m such a broken record but truly, I think that if you appreciate the intelligence and broader commentary present in Bad Words, you would also enjoy Two Left Feet. I reread to prepare for Kallie’s column in Feb and liked it even more on a reread. Thank you for commenting!
Wow this list gave me so many choices for my TBR!!! I also don’t know how I missed 831 stories but am now subscribed to both you and their website. Thank you for sharing so many amazing upcoming releases!! 💕📚
The best endorsement! The tone is very different (much less wistful and sad) but I think of all the authors on this list, Jeff Zentner may consistently have the greatest facility with language in line with Claire Daverely.
I’m honestly still pinching myself over Regina and Jessica giving blurbs. Thanks so much for including L&CB, no thanks at all for extending my infinite TBR (just kidding, I love it and all these have moved right to the top.)
1. Your substack has skyrocketed to a top 5 read for me. I bookmark and I take notes. I am so over the glut in the romance market, and I’m looking for Romance + Something More, and this is the place to find it.
2. I know we discussed the male author trend and I’m here for it. I was so captivated by Matthew Norman I am now reading “Charm City Rocks.” And you sent me to Colton Gentry. This is the place!
3. Looking forward to Pomona Afton Can Totally Catch a Killer (by Bellamy Rose) and Flirting With Murder by Amanda Sellet. I think I’ve developed an interested in a farce: i am who I am.
Well this comment totally just made my entire day. I really think we need a NAME for this sub-genre of romance, one author's editor calls it romance plus? I sometimes refer to it as romantic fiction in my head? Who knows, but there's definitely (and increasingly!) something there and author that are carving out a space outside of the center of the market.
I'm excited for more male authors, I know that's a controversial take at times (why can't they leave us alone, et all) but in a time of increasing hetero pessimism I find it so refreshing to see men writing women characters with love, affection and care. And I find it so cheering to know that men are out there who see romance and love and partnership as the center of their lives rather than an adjacency.
OOOH the Pomona Afton book looks fun! Adding the first one to my vacation reading list! Thanks!
There's got to be a better terms than "upmarket romance" (I came across an author using this publishing term) or anything that is a respectability judgement but more informative than romantic (or contemporary/historic/speculative/whatever) fiction. Sometimes it would be nice to see books like this on the main floor of my indie bookstore in the new releases section so more people pick them up but I understand the balance between bringing in romance readers who are looking for genre expectations and being shelved in the back upstairs corner. Great list with a lot of intriguing info on what publishing is also excited about and, as always, interesting side-discussions going on in the comments!
Romance Plus! Elevated romance. Like the book you mentioned where the main character lands in a thriller? Genius.
Agree 100 percent on the male authors. There's room for everyone, and new perspectives lead to the PLUS (I disagree with the other commentator even mentioning Nicholas Sparks as an example). You need to interview Matthew! Tell him he's got fans over here. :o)
Keep going this Substack could be HUGE.
Fun Fact: "I'm looking for a mind at work" is Lin Manuel Miranda's wink and nod to an episode of the West Wing when Sam describes the types of people he's drawn to.
Adding sooo many of these to my never ending TBR, and also thrilled I have ARCs of several of them!
OMG YES the poet laureate episode!!!!! Ahhhh I am so amazed someone else knows that, I feel like such an old fart making west wing references these days but this makes me so happy.
I’m actually working on an essay that references the west wing now!! Always happy to help add to the TBR 😂
I think I only ever watched a season of TWW, but I'm obsessed with how writers (including lyricists) reference their own pet-enthusiasms in their own writing. LMM always has tons of easter eggs and references.
Such an amazing list and just want to share a hot tip for my fellow Libby users that I picked up from the Downtime newsletter - you can use the “deep search” option to find titles that haven’t been released yet and “notify me” to find out when they’ve been added (and hopefully then be top of the holds list!)
OOOH this is smart! thanks for sharing!
OMG! You just changed my life. Deep search for the win!
Thank you so much for including NOW THAT WE DON’T TALK on this incredible list!! I’ve read a number of the 2026 debuts already and am so proud to be part of this debut class 💛
I'm so excited to read it (and to see your cover!). Congrats on your debut year!
Four copies??? Your mom's book club??? I am so honored.
Thank you for support and for all the incredible work you do for the book community!
what a great list, thank you for including me!! LOVE NOTES has actually been pushed to 2027 with a late feb release date (as of now). but pre-orders/ARCs/etc will still be happening this year! ❤️
OH that makes me feel better, I was really confused why it didn’t pop up on any of my filters for 2026. Boo to it being pushed but yay for pre orders / ARCs happening in 2026!
Thank you so much, as always, for championing TWO LEFT FEET! What excellent, excellent company to be in.
Great post as always! I think you're going to love Leave and Come Back. Can I also suggest adding Score by Kennedy Ryan and Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton-Harris to your 2026 TBR? I'd love to see your thoughts about both.
You know - I have been wanting to try Terah Shelton-Harris, I was actually looking at One Summer in Savannah for Book Club and then pivoted to You, Again at the last moment. I'm going to commit to reading it in February, thanks for the nudge!
And as for Score, how did I miss that?! I'm already feeling the need to add a coda as I realized this morning I also left off Robinne Lee's much anticipated next book!!
Terah's books are so interesting to me because One Summer and Wildflowers are both contemporary fiction with such strong romantic elements, they should definitely be part of the literary romance conversation. I think you'll appreciate her voice.
Oh this is so good to know! Also, I did go back and do a second pass and added in Kennedy Ryan (along with Robinne Lee, Emily Griffin and Ava Wilder). Clearly my process needs some work because how I missed all those, I'll never know!
Great list, I actually don't know most of these authors despite reading only romance in all its shapes and colours. But I am on a book budget of 0 since a few years, so that's probably why.
I was a bit surprised you said that straight male authors in romance is a new trend, I feel like this is being discussed a lot lately and it confuses me every time. Because I seem to remember that until the early 2000s, male romance authors were a dime a dozen and they were considered the authority on romance (as in most areas of anything in life), highly sought after, always considered prestigious and their books were often made into movies. I mean Nicholas Sparks? Ok, maybe he's the only name that comes to mind. But this blog post (link below) by a male romance author has a list (about halfway down) of very well-known romance (or at least romance-adjacent) books all written by men, they're just not considered romance, more literary fiction and the like.
https://www.bwhaggart.com/blog/men-writing-romance-1
As he rightly points out, it is or used to be the case that male authored romances always had a tragic ending, maybe because men felt/feel that they won't be taken seriously if they write a happy "unrealistic" ending and should only write serious, life-contemplating books. It does seem that more men are openly showing their love for romance novels as authors or readers, which I think is great, because a better balance in perspective on love from women's and men's points of view can only be positive.
I'm always very intrigued to see what a guy thinks of a romance, and absolutely don't mind reading romance books written by men, though I do prefer a happy ending, so hopefully the new cohort of male authors will be brave anough to write them.
My second surprised moment is that you mentioned you liked seeing a disabled hero/male main character, which you don't see as often as FMCs with injuries or disabilities. I'll concede that there seems to be more injured/disabled FMCs than MMCs in romance but I think it's because most books are written by women where the main main character is a woman, even if it's dual POV, so the focus of struggles is more likely to be on the lady's side.
BUT, I have read plenty of romances where the hero/male love interest is injured or disabled, and it always leads to the male character questioning his masculinity. Helen Hoang's The Heart Principle is a recent and great example, though I guess you could argue the MMC isn't injured or disabled, but I'm sure Quan would disagree 😏 (I mean the guy lost one of his balls, that's life-changing for any guy and not easy to reconcile with.)
Fun Facts by Jordan Lubov is another good one I read recently.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes is a big one.
If you do a google search, you'll find thousands of lists where the MMC is disabled or injured, maybe even some written by men, but they are definitely out there!
This is so fascinating to me because I've been reading romance for decades and can never remember a straight male mainstream romance, but perhaps I need to go and do some digging! In looking at that post you linked, it seems like there were a lot of romantic pieces of literary fiction written in the past and then, of course Nicholas Sparks, who, to your point often did not provide the requisite happy ending.
I think when I'm speaking of male authors and the "new development" of them writing romances - what I'm referring to is those men who are respecting and conforming to the genre standards as defined by women and, predominantly (though not exclusively!), female readers, chief among which is a happy ending. This feels new to me, though my knowledge is certainly not exhaustive!
And re the disabled love interest - what I was moreso alluding to there is the larger piece I wrote a few months ago talking about how increasingly in modern romance, we are getting these deeply idealized male heroes (perfectly therapized feelings, six packs, lucrative careers etc) and women who are damaged or broken in some way or represent marginalized identities. While I think there are definitely examples out there, the trend, writ large is for representation to exist moreso within our female characters and for our male characters to take a well trod path of perfection. However, I have been meaning to read Jojo Moyes, so I'm adding Me Before You to my list! Thanks for the thoughtful comments and the recommendations!
I totally get what you mean and was not trying to "school" you or anything, sorry if it came out that way!
I love all your articles and insights and I read the one you mention about idealised/perfect male heroes, and have seen this trend become almost the norm too. I guess women are writing men the way they wish they were in real life, but some don't manage to make them 3D characters. Basically what a lot of male writers in the past and present (though usually in other genres) have done with female characters -- like writing them with an hour-glass figure, super fit, big perky tits, salon hair even though she just crawled through mud. And that's probably why many women don't like reading books penned by male authors so much.
It seems to me, the more we discuss and think about it, the same problems exist on both sides 🤔
I will say that many women authors who write such perfect male characters base a lot of the good qualities on their own amazing husbands/partners (Bridget E. Baker a.k.a. B.E. Baker especially comes to mind). I know because they often dedicate their books to them or mention this in the Acknowledgements page, or write about their supportive, selfless, thoughtful husbands on social media. These unicorn men really do exist! 😅 (Mine included 🥹) They're probably not all rich, looking like models or Hollywood stars, but I think most of us can agree that a man (or woman) is infinitely more sexy and attractive if he is sweet, funny and kind, regardless what he looks like on the outside.
I like to think, or maybe pretend sometimes, that the amazing looks that the FMC describes about the MMC is mostly her perspective of the guy and he might not be so objectively handsome to everyone else -- like the movie Shallow Hal, where Jack Black sees Gwyneth Paltrow as a stunning beauty even if everyone else doesn't think so. At least in my experience, a guy is attractive and becomes more attractive *because* you like him. It's the classic heart eyes in real life 😍
As for what you explained about the new trend by male authors being that they are following more the romance conventions set by female authors and readers, I can't speak to it so much because I haven't read any romances by men in years (here I am perpetuating the issue, but I'm already looking for some to add to my Kindle). But regardless, I say "who cares about convention?" I'm not sure when or why the industry or readers decided that we only want certain types of romance. Since every time an author, male or female, wrote something that didn't conform or seemed weird and silly at first, people eventually love it *because* it's different and it then becomes a trend-setter (Fifty Shades anyone? Are there even sexy, open-door romances anymore that don't include some kind of BDSM? That's all because of E.L. James. Say what you want, but the lady is a cultural icon).
I mean when, before the early 2000s (don't quote me on this, I didn't check), would we have been excited to read the next installment of sexy, cowboy aliens on a weird planet? Or a sexy mafia boss baker? Everything we now consider "top-tier" romance tropes, sub-genres and must-reads didn't exist until someone wrote it. 😌
Encouraging to read, when I have one out to agents right now! (With, I can assure you, a happy ending.)
Hi! New subscriber. Love this list!
Oh yay! So happy to hear! I did a favorites of 2025 list a few posts ago too if you’re looking for more immediate gratification!
Oh, thank you for including IN THE GREAT QUIET in this round up! Cannot wait to read all of these stunning 2026 romances.
I’m so excited to dig into the arc!!
Oh, I'm so happy! Hope you enjoy Minnie & Stot's story. xo
This piece convinced me to immediately dig into my copy of Bad Words and OMG YES. Absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for moving this October release to the top of my digital ARC pile!
Ahhhh this makes me so happy to hear! I’m such a broken record but truly, I think that if you appreciate the intelligence and broader commentary present in Bad Words, you would also enjoy Two Left Feet. I reread to prepare for Kallie’s column in Feb and liked it even more on a reread. Thank you for commenting!
Honored to be included! Thank you so much. 🩷 Stellar, thoughtful list as always from you.
Wow this list gave me so many choices for my TBR!!! I also don’t know how I missed 831 stories but am now subscribed to both you and their website. Thank you for sharing so many amazing upcoming releases!! 💕📚
Knowing just how much you also loved Claire Daverley’s Talking At Night tells me enough to trust your taste. 🫶🏼
The best endorsement! The tone is very different (much less wistful and sad) but I think of all the authors on this list, Jeff Zentner may consistently have the greatest facility with language in line with Claire Daverely.
I’m honestly still pinching myself over Regina and Jessica giving blurbs. Thanks so much for including L&CB, no thanks at all for extending my infinite TBR (just kidding, I love it and all these have moved right to the top.)