8 Romance Novels Living in My Head Rent Free

8 Romance Books that are living in my head rent free right now.


These are in no particular order I’ll flag spoilers and mention content warnings where relevant but I just want to share with y’all about the books that just won’t leave and maybe if other people read them and tell me about them my brain will give up a bit more real estate for other thoughts like work and snacks. 



The Land of the Beautiful Dead by  R. Lee Smith 

Content warnings: Violence, so much violence, zombies, abuse, suicide, parental death, child death, torture, and mentions of sexual assault (there are probably more but I can’t recall off hand go in assuming more content warnings)

This book has broken me. In all the worse and best ways. It is a tome. Coming in at a whopping 733 pages, this book is intimidating to start. I’ll admit, when I went into it, I fully thought I’d DNF it after 25% percent. 

The writing of Smith is elegant, the story unfolds in a way that reminded me of floating down the river. The hours passed, the scenery passed, but I didn’t realize how much had changed (in the book and about myself) until I finished it and put the book down. That’s right, I read it in one sitting. I couldn’t stop. 

This book has all the story elements I usually avoid. An immortal lead, zombies, characters put into situations where they have to sell their bodies for safety, bitter hopelessness in a miserable world. And yet, I could not stop reading.

When I was done reading The Land of the Beautiful Dead, I was so enraptured by the way Smith approaches themes of death, dying, immortality, undying, and most importantly the good death. What does it mean to die a good death? What are you willing to sacrifice to have it? Who deserves a good death? And for the truly evil, should suffering continue after death.

Standing ovation. Gold Star. This book is a 10/10 thought provoker. There is steam, smut, and a brilliantly built romance that I should probably mention more, but you can get those in any Beauty and the Beast retelling. What I haven’t found anywhere else is the thought provoking, emotion churning, terrifyingly beautiful story in The Land of the Beautiful Dead. 


Serpents Mate by Susan Trombley

Anyone who follows me on Goodreads knows that I love alien romances. It is my current favorite sub genre to read. I like them campy, I like them scary, I like them weird, I like them steamy. Susan Trombley is the queen of making the truly alien romantic. 

The first book in the Iriduan Test Subject’s book (The Scorpion’s Mate) is brilliant, don’t get me wrong, but The Serpent’s Mate is the one that lives rent free. 

Particularly one scene. If you’ve read the book, the scene is the kiss

Unlike the first two books of the series, the alien male lead in Serpent’s Mate had volunteered to be a test subject. This book explores themes of patriotism, sacrifice, and what it means to choose between ideologies to find the truth. 

The sex scenes are steamy, the biology is fascinating, and the romance feels natural in the strangeness of a human and a serpent alien genetic test subject. 

To be honest, I adore every book I’ve ready by Susan Trombley. She really understands how to make the gaps in culture, language, and biology challenging to the characters and a key part of how the romance builds. Her books are wild rides of weird and I’m here for it. But this one is the one I can’t stop thinking about....and I first read it in October 2018.  



Glint (The Plated Prisoner Series Book 2) by Raven Kennedy

Content warnings: Most warnings related to violence and sex, power imbalance related abuse, cheating, harems, rot.


The most recent inclusion on this list, I read the first three books of the Plated Prisoner series over the weekend. The second book is the one that’s just broken me in all the best ways. 

This series is a King Midas retelling that is honestly a little hard to read. Not because of the prose (which are lovely) but the way that Raven Kennedy hits hurts

This wasn’t the first series of Raven Kennedy’s I’ve read (I loved the Pack of Misfits series and couldn’t get into the Cupid series and intend to try out her other books), but Gild, Glint, and Gleam punch with an accuracy and strength I was not prepared for in a King Midas retelling. 

The gut punches started in book one chapter one and didn’t stop (book three ends in a cliff hanger and book four isn’t out until May 2022 and I’m only a little bitter about it).

The themes that have captured my mind in a gilded cage are why this book has been placed on this list before the welcome is even overstayed. 

The series could have been titled: 

Power, Security, and the Art of Weaponizing Love: What we give up to feel safe and how to get it back. 

I stayed up until 3am reading this series and I don’t regret a second of my lost sleep. I felt every cutting word as Auren’s story developed. The world unfolded like a golden sheet floating into a fire. Absolutely brilliant and I feel my understanding of how I as a person have traded my own power, love, and sense of self for feelings of safety. I receive a catharsis I didn’t know I needed related to this trade off and I’m earnestly grateful for having read these books. That said, they’re absolutely brutal. Had I tried to read these ten years ago, I probably would have ended up in a much worse place. Please take the content warnings at the top into consideration before proceeding. 



Beyond the Next Star by Melody Johnson

Content warning: PTSD, violence, medical related humiliation and trauma, alien abduction, human/non-human pairing


Beyond the Next Star is a different sort of alien abduction romance and it’s beautiful. The story is in dual POV and we learn early on that the alien male lead has purchased a human as an emotional support animal.

Yup, you read that right. 

Alien romances have referenced humans as pets for years so I didn’t think this book would be as earth shattering for me as it was. But it was. 

The story is a series of emotional whiplashes as we follow these two sentient beings coming to grasp with the reality of their individual situation. There are hilarious scenes, like the alien trying to train the human in much the way humans train dogs. And there are gut punches as we follow the female human character as she’s treated like a pet and regular vet trips and all the misery that entails. 

I think of this book all the time. How much agency do our pets have? I’ll be honest, as a pet lover this book has really made me question my life and what I’m doing with it. 


Grr!: An Alien Warrior Romance by Zeta Star

Content warning: Alien abduction, non-human/human pairing

This book made me angry. Immediately after I read it, I wrote a several hundred word diatribe to my friends explaining how angry this book made me. 

Why did it make me angry?

A book called Grr! Has no right to be as good as this book was. The title and blurb do not do this book justice.

It hits all the charming, steamy, campy, fun that the rom-com sphere of alien romances hit while having an action packed adventure without the deus ex machina that seems to happen in most alien romances that would compare. 

I adored the way that the characters worked together despite a language barrier. I loved that they worried about each other feeling taken advantage of as they fell for each other. I loved this book so much, after reading it on KU....I bought it and then proceeded to pester everyone I know to read this book because I needed more people to be as aggressively angry about how stupidly good this book is when it has no right to be with a title of Grr!

Love Code by Ann Aguirre

This is another sequel that outshines the first book in my opinion. Strange Love is the first book in the Galactic Love series and it’s precious. I mean, there is a talking dog. What more do you need? 

Apparently a lot because that’s what Aguirre gave me in Love Code. I downloaded this after a glowing review on reddit and this book did not let me down. It’s probably the least dark of all the books on my list. Just thinking about the characters in this book lightens my heart, warms my soul, and makes me positively giddy. 

The amount of consent and consent affirmation in this book is a breath of fresh air (particularly compared to the rest of the books on this list). 

The romance is genuine and explores a lot of the themes from the other books, but in a positive context. When the power imbalance between the leads in Love Code is addressed, it’s to affirm that both characters understood the power imbalance and how to make sure the one with less power was safe, secure, and knew they were not expected to  behave in a certain way to continue getting that safety. 

The book explores life, living, and unlife through the lens of an AI into a meatsuit. Aguirre approaches discovering what it means to be alive with and without flesh in a hilarious, heartfelt book that will forever be embedded in my brain. 

Gladiator Queen by Auryn Haley

This is another series I read back in 2018. The whole trilogy is available in a bundle on Kindle Unlimited. It was a story I initially clicked on because the title cracked me up and I was in an ironic mood. (Sidenote: this is how I fell down the Ice Planet rabbit hole also in 2018. My irony reads often lead to obsessive fandom). 

The details are fuzzy on what happens in which of the three books so I’ll keep my discussion to why this lives rent free in my head. 

Gladiator Queen is a story of a delicate princess thrust into the gladiatorial pits of her country because of political machinations. The world building enraptured me. The action sequences were heart pounding, terrifying, and gut wrenching in a way that I couldn’t look away, even when I wanted to.  It’s clear that Hadley spent a lot of time researching gladiators, fighting styles, and common injuries. 

That alone might have been enough to make this series refuse to leave my cranial apartment complex, but there is so much more to the Gladiator Queen. The romance is a slow burn that at no point feels guaranteed. The stakes are high and when the life and death stakes seem to go away, higher stakes take their place. 

This series also spends time to live in the horror of the pits, but, unlike a lot of violent content in romance novels, it spends the time after to process the pain. The characters struggle with the guilt of what they’ve been forced to do to survive and lean on each other to make it through. The characters’ emotional struggles and handling of their trauma in a way that feels both real and cathartic is art, pure and simple. 

That said, I cannot get myself to reread this series, which is rare for me. I think about this book a lot and it has had an impact on the way I see references to gladiators in the media. 


Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven

Grace Draven is an absolute character queen. I waffled between Radiance and Phoenix Unbound for this spot because both books of Draven’s live rent free in my head, but I went with Phoenix Unbound because it has a few more elements that linger for me. 

This book hits a few themes that other books on this list have hit. As I wrote this paragraph I discovered that this book has all the elements of the other books that live rent free in my head in one way or the other.

The characters struggle with themes of self vs the whole, hiding elements of the individual’s identity, trading power for security. There is exploration of the good death, and culture shock. The characters have to grapple with what it means to perpetuate their own ideologi

On top of all that, it also has gladiators. I know what doesn’t this book have?

So those are eight of the books living rent free in my head. Honorable (non romance) mentions: ,most books by Drew Hayes (if you play DND and haven’t read NPCs what are you doing with your life), Caitlin Doughty, and William Shatner’s autobiography Up Till Now.

What books are living rent free in your head? I’m dying to know.



What I do in Quarantine (besides write)

There’s something terrifying about the world right now. I don’t need to tell you about that. I am fortunate enough to work from home full time, so rather than beginning my full-time authorial career walking to the library, or coffee shops. 

I have my office.

And my living room.

And my kitchen.

And on the rare occasions the weather is cooperating, my deck. (But there’s a duck that’s been harassing me so even when the weather’s nice I get a half hour max outdoor office time.)

It’s very glamorous, I know. 

The point of this digression is that I have a bit more time on my hands and a bit less brain power to do something creative with it. So I’m going to tell you about my media consumption highlights since February. The great, the good, and the still holds up. 

I’m by no means a critic or an arbiter of taste. Here are the shows, books, movies, and podcasts that have been keeping me sane when my essential worker husband leaves me alone all day. 

Movies- New to me:

  1. Onward- A 2020 Pixar movie available on Disney Plus. I’m 99.9% sure they made this movie for me. It has Chris Pratt playing an RPG loving nerdy older brother to Tom Holland’s more skittish wants to be cool younger brother. It is amazing and if you like DND or heartfelt movies, watch it. (And tell me about it because I’m dying to talk to people about it.)

  2. Willow- A 1988 Ron Howard  movie available on Disney Plus that left me saying “How have I never seen this before” every five minutes. It’s amazing. Starring young Warwick Davis as Willow, it is a fantasy film of adventure, friendship and special effects that held up surprisingly well. Plus Val Kilmer hot off of Top Gun. 

This is the point where I should admit I don’t watch a lot of movies. Honorable mentions include the animated Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback of Notre Dame. Both held up really well to a re-watch probably over a decade since the last time I’ve seen either. Although, if there is a “no Jason Alexander gargoyle cut” floating around, let me know. It would increase my husband’s enjoyment of Hunchback exponentially. 

TV- New to me:

  1. Beforeigners- If you follow me on twitter, you know I’m obsessed with this HBO show. It is a Norwegian cop drama that takes place in modern Oslo with a major twist. People from the past are showing up in the present day. After the opening, there is a time jump and we follow one of the past people as she starts a career as a cop. 

    1. Trust me, this show is amazing. 100% if you watch it, please email me, Facebook me, tweet me, dm me on Instagram, smoke signals, anything. I love this show and do not have enough people to talk to about it. 

  2. Fargo- A bit late to the hype on Fargo, but I’m halfway through season two and I am obsessed. We’re watching on Hulu but I think it aired on FX. Each season has a different cast and case than the previous and so far, I’m loving it. Fargo season 1 was a blast and I am eagerly waiting my husband’s return from work so we can finish season two. 

    1. I am very familiar with Duluth so I was disappointed in the utter lack of hill...and lake in the Duluth scenes, but they have   and everything else is amazing, so I let my nitpick slide. 

  3. What We Do In Shadows: This one is on Hulu (for me I think it’s also airing on FX) and is AMAZING. If you liked the 2014 movie, you will still like the show. Season 2 is airing, and every episode has me laughing out loud. My husband is constantly quoting Lazlo lines to me, but I know deep down, I’m more of a Colin Robinson type (though I kinda wish I was Nadya). 

TV- re-watches that hold up (or that I’ve re-watched and not cared if they held up)

  1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer- (Hulu) except for a few episodes and some cringey CGI in the early seasons, Buffy has held up for me. Currently cued for me is “The Body” so if you’ve seen the series, you know what I’m in for this afternoon. 

  2. Top Chef (hulu; Amazon prime) I will make a confession here, I’m obsessed with profession-based reality competition shows. Top Chef is my favorite. I have it on in the background a lot when I cook, clean, cry in a corner after spending too much time on twitter and mourning the state in the world. Something about a group of people competing to prove who is the top of their chosen field is great to me. 

    1. (If, for some reason, a person reading this is a reality TV show producer and is interested in making a show about corrugated box designers... let me know... for reasons).

  3. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Hulu) I’m not sure I need to explain myself here. The show is funny. The characters are amazing, and I love them.

Podcasts:

  1. Wine and Crime: Three friends drink wine, chat True Crime, and unleash their worst Minnesotan accents. These girls never fail to make me laugh. 

    1. I listened to ep. 169: Stripper Crimes when it came out and I’m still laughing about Lucy twerking to Come on Eileen... on a pool table.... At three in the afternoon. 

  2. Omnibus: Ken Jennings and John Roderick have over 250 episodes out about the most random things. Honestly, I don’t even listen for the episode titles anymore, these guys go on the most interesting and odd tangents. 

Books:

Disclaimer here: My reading list in the current environment is purely for comfort reading. My rereads are things I’ve read a million times. And my newly-reads are things that I was confident wouldn’t hurt my soul. As a writer who frequently does soul crushing stuff, I’m well aware of the apparent hypocrisy and I accept your judgement.

Old favorites:

  1. In the past week I have re-read all 21of Ice Planet Barbarians and the first 3 of the Icehome series by Ruby Dixon. Yes, these books are about blue alien barbarians and their human mates. No, I don’t particularly care how ridiculous that sounds. These books are like coming home to me in the weirdest way possible and I will continue to insta-buy every one that comes out until Ruby Dixon retires. 

  2. I fill my audible cue with The Utterly Uninteresting and Uninteresting Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes. Drew Hayes is another author where I don’t even read the descriptions of his books anymore, I just buy them. Normally the Super Powereds series is my go-to, but I needed to laugh so I turned to Fred. The Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes is episodic so I can pick a chapter, listen to it as I do a chore, then get my giggle on as I pretend to clean my house. 

New Books (since quarantine...I’ve definitely re-read these too. I’m a re-reader. I also read very fast).

  1. As a speed reader and a Kindle Unlimited devotee, the fact I purchased the paperback of this book after reading the kindle edition, should be enough to tell you how much I love Harpyness is Only Skin Deep by D.H. Willison. It’s a different sort of portal fantasy that follows a character from Earth and one from Arvia as they both try to make their way in the world. I love Rinloh the harpy. She’s so freaking adorable and I just need more of her in my life. (Plus the paperback edition has a mantis on the spine).

  2. The Faerene Apocalypse series by Jenny Schwartz. For someone as afraid of the plague as I am, I was really surprised I dove into these books as hard and fast as I did. There is something reassuring about the way Amy pragmatically handles everything the apocalypse throws at her. I devoured all five books in one sitting and then immediately reread the first one. 

Not that anyone asked, but my other quarantine activities are  petting Stinky. That’s it. This cat is taking up so much of my free time I can’t do the cool stuff like baking bread or picking up arts and crafts. He is literally sitting on my lap as I write this blog post. Not that I’m complaining. He’s adorable. 

I hope everyone stays safe, washes their hands, and consumes media that makes them happy. 

Please tell me about your favorite quarantine media. I’m accepting any and all suggestions.