Highland Crown is a Scottish romance between a Highlander and a Lowlander, both on the run from the British authorities for aiding Scottish rebels and well... shooting a soldier. The authors, a husband and wife team, call it an adventure romance, and that's absolutely true. There's a lot of hiding and escaping and stabbing. The hero is shot not once, but twice. (Thankfully, the heroine is a doctor.)

Spring has sprung and May is an embarrassing bouquet of riches for fans of unusual historicals! Rule of thumb, I try to keep my Top Picks shopping list to around 4 or 5 titles.  This month, well it’s seven. Some of these are fairly big releases that you may already know about, but I think you’ll find a few surprises on this list as well. Let’s dive in!

I'm not sure how it's possible, but Just Past Two is even hotter than Three-Way Split. The plot is fairly straightforward: a married couple goes to a college reunion and events there set off a very sexy chain reaction. Their sex life has been reliable and consistent, but now they can be honest about their needs and fantasies and the results are a rollercoaster of sexual gratification and fear of rejection.

Hooked on You is a mostly cute romance with a few choices that are complicated. The book is largely about two women in their 50s discovering that their sexualities are not as clearly defined as they thought for most of their lives. And it’s tricky telling a story like this because it can so easily come off as the cringey “gay for you” trope and wildly biphobic, but I think Matthews pulls off the exploration of sexuality well.

Boundaries, agency and trust are central themes in Adrianna Herrera’s second Dreamer novel, American Fairytale, where a dashing divorced Dominican millionaire philanthropist attempts to sweep a wary and overworked Cuban-Jamaican American social worker off his feet when they are awkwardly reunited after their impulsive hook-up at a boozy gala. The novel is supremely sexy and with high emotional stakes, as they can’t resist kicking off a secret affair, complicating their lives while making them reexamine their past choices. Like in American Dreamer, Herrera’s representation of modern Latinx culture is rich and nuanced, aware of how wealth, skin-color and immigration status greatly affect a person’s life as Latinx in the US. Herrera continues to fills her novels with engaging secondary characters, who feel solidly real, from Tom’s business partners and neighbors, Sanjay & Priya to Camilo’s fragile mother, Dinorah and his irrepressible co-worker Ayako.

While I really enjoyed American Dreamer, I adored American Fairytale. I loved the angst, and the sources of conflict between Tom and Milo. I particularly appreciated how Herrera contrasted the various complicated caretaking relationships in the book. Dinorah’s mental health struggles were compassionately depicted, Herrera is able to skillfully present the worry, guilt and occasional resentment Milo carries, while still presenting Dinorah as sympathetic and frankly fascinating character in her own right. Her history, choices and reactions are her own, and not simply something Milo has to respond or is able to solve for her. Likewise Tom has to learn how not swoop in and try to throw money at problems and instead learn to listen and do the harder work of being present in order to have Milo feel like a partner to a problem to be solved.

Hey everyone! I’m H. Bentham, a romance reader, bookstagrammer, and author from the Philippines. I started reading romance not very long ago but the genre is a huge favorite of mine and a lot of it is thanks to #romanceclass. Suzanne asked me to write a RomanceClass starter post to help you find a book / books that’ll hopefully make you love RomanceClass as much as we do. Here we go!

Though they're in the same series, Wrong Bed, Right Girl is totally different from Wrong Bed, Right Roommate. The heroine in this one, Talia, is the sister of the hero in WBRR, and she's just moved out of the apartment to let her brother and best friend have their own space. Unfortunately, the prima ballerina she's subletting from was an informant for the DEA and she's left town and the ballet for *reasons.* Talia's pretty much taken over her life, which means that when Reed comes to check on Stacey, he ends up literally falling into the bed that's now Talia's. 

Comics Will Break Your Heart is a Romeo & Juliet-style young adult romance that features the youngest generation of two feuding comics families. Miriam's mother settled the big lawsuit case years ago, after her father died, but now the TomorrowMen franchise is massive and has spawned a sure-to-be-huge live action film. Miriam is resentful, even before the scion of the Warrick family, Weldon, shows up in town for the summer. Weldon has been sent back to his father's hometown so as to "not be a distraction" to his father.

Whether you started reading romance by sneaking books from your grandmother’s house or by opening a box of books and the most unlikely book was sitting there, we all have stories about how and when we first started reading romance. And usually, there’s a book or series that solidified the love affair. Below are some of the books that got the Love in Panels teams hooked on romance.

Playing Around by Suzanne Clay is an extremely diverse book. Two main characters are POC, one of their roommates is of Asian descent, and one of the relatively important characters is trans. The college where the story is happening is very liberal, in contrast to the hometown of the main characters, where the population is … all white.