Best Contemporary Romance Authors You Should Know
Best Contemporary Romance Authors You Should Know
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Raise your hand if you’re a romance lover!
Romance, whether historical or contemporary, is one of the most popular (and most profitable) genres of all time. But when my friends ask for book recommendations and I ask about their favorite genres, they often give me a sheepish look when they say romance. Followed by, “I’m sure that isn’t the literary stuff you’re reading.” My thoughts on reading, no matter the genre, is to read what you like! And if you like the romance genre (which I do!) then there shouldn’t be any sheepish look to go along with that answer. Be proud of reading the romance genre - there are LOTS of people who read and enjoy it. Besides, who doesn’t love a good story about finding love and falling in love?
One of the things I like about reading in general is how it allows you to travel to different places, but romance allows you to experience a variety of emotions while almost always guaranteeing that the final emotion is happy (got to love those happy endings!)
So what is the difference between contemporary romance and historical romance? Just the time period in which it takes place. Contemporary romance takes place in present time and historical romance takes place in the past. I’m focusing specifically on contemporary romance authors for this list because I find fans of the romance genre tend to prefer either contemporary or historical. I’ll dedicate a different post to historical romance authors, like Julia Quinn, soon. Below I am sharing a round-up of the best contemporary romance authors you might not know (Nora Roberts isn’t on this list because I think everyone knows/loves her already) on different themes and sub-genres, but primarily adult romance and some young adult romance. You just might find a new favorite author!
Click here to read about more romance books and expand your romance reading list!
Best Contemporary Romance Authors
Black Contemporary Romance Authors
Danielle Jackson
Danielle Jackson is a contemporary romance author, avid reader, lackluster-yet-mighty crafter, and accomplished TV binge-watcher.
Once upon a time, she was a publicist in publishing and continues to cultivate her love of books and reading by chatting with the best authors in the business as an event coordinator at an independent bookstore and as the co-host of the Fresh Fiction podcast. She also moderates panels, interviews authors, and hosts a romance book club.
Danielle lives in Chicagoland with her very own romance hero husband, darling daughter, and two tempestuous cats.
Jasmine Guillory
Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author of novels including The Wedding Date, the Reese's Book Club selection The Proposal, and Drunk on Love. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time, and she is a frequent book contributor on The Today Show. She lives in Oakland, California.
Denise Williams
Denise Williams wrote her first book in the 2nd grade. I Hate You and its sequel, I Still Hate You, featured a tough, funny heroine, a quirky hero, witty banter, and a dragon. Minus the dragons, these are still the books she likes to write. After penning those early works, she finished second grade and eventually earned a PhD. She now lives in Iowa with her husband, son, and two cute but horrible dogs.
LGBTQ+ Contemporary Romance Authors
TJ Alexander
TJ Alexander writes about queer love. Originally from Florida, they received their MA in writing and publishing from Emerson College in Boston. They live in New York City with their wife and various houseplants.
Bridget Morrissey
Bridget Morrissey lives in Los Angeles, California, but hails from Oak Forest, Illinois. When she’s not writing, she can be found coaching gymnastics or headlining concerts in her living room.
International Contemporary Romance Authors (Including British, Italian, Canadian and Australian)
Jenny Colgan
Jenny Colgan was born in Scotland and has lived in London, the Netherlands, the U.S. and France. She eventually settled on the wettest of all of these places, and currently lives just North of Edinburgh with her husband Andrew, her dog Nevil Shute, and her three children: Wallace, who is 11 and likes pretending to be 19 and not knowing what this embarrassing ‘family’ thing is that keeps following him about; Michael-Francis, who is 9 and likes making new friends on aeroplanes, and Delphine who is 7 and is mostly raccoon as far as we can tell so far.
Amy Andrews
Amy is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling Aussie author who has written sixty plus contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. She's sold two million books and been translated into over a dozen languages.
Amy Lea
Amy Lea is a Canadian bureaucrat by day and contemporary romance author by night (and weekends). She writes laugh out loud romantic comedies featuring strong heroines, witty banter, mid-2000s pop culture references, and happily ever afters.
When Amy is not writing, she can be found fan-girling over other romance books on Instagram (@amyleabooks), eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and goldendoodle.
Her debut romantic comedy SET ON YOU is forthcoming from Berkley Romance at Penguin Random House in May 2022. It is the first in a series featuring a trio of Chinese-American social media influencers.
Ali Hazelwood
I’m originally from Italy, lived in Japan and Germany, and eventually moved to the US to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. I recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies me. When I’m not at work you can find me binge-watching shows with my three feline overlords (and my slightly less feline husband), running, or eating candy.
Contemporary Romance Authors
Kerry Winfrey
Kerry Winfrey is the author of the romantic comedies WAITING FOR TOM HANKS , NOT LIKE THE MOVIES, VERY SINCERELY YOURS, and JUST ANOTHER LOVE SONG, all published by Berkley. She’s also the author of two YA novels. She lives with her family in the middle of Ohio.
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Rachel Lynn Solomon is the author of You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, Our Year of Maybe, and Today Tonight Tomorrow. She is a Seattle native who loves rainy days, her tiny dog, tap dancing, old movies, red lipstick, and books with flawed, complicated characters. Learn more at RachelSolomonBooks.com.
Jill Shalvis
Multiple New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is … mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning heartwarming and full of humor novels wherever books are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.
Kate Bromley
Kate Bromley is a writer of romantic comedies and contemporary romance. She lives in New York City with her husband, son, and her somewhat excessive collection of romance novels. (It's not hoarding if it's books, right?) She was a preschool teacher for almost seven years and now focuses full-time on combining her two great passions — writing swoon-worthy love stories and making people laugh.
Michelle Major
Michelle Major is the Publishers Weekly best-selling, RITA award winning author of over thirty sexy and sweet contemporary romances. She loves second-chances love stories, smart heroines and strong heroes. A Midwesterner at heart, she’s made the Rocky Mountains her home for nearly half her life and is thrilled to share her books with readers.
Rachel Lacey
Rachel Lacey is a contemporary romance author and semi-reformed travel junkie. She’s been climbed by a monkey on a mountain in Japan, gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and camped out overnight in New York City for a chance to be an extra in a movie. These days, the majority of her adventures take place on the pages of the books she writes. She lives in warm and sunny North Carolina with her family and a variety of rescue pets.
Sariah Wilson
Sariah Wilson is the USA Today bestselling author of The Seat Filler, Roommaid, Just a Boyfriend, the Royals of Monterra series, and the #Lovestruck novels. She has never jumped out of an airplane, has never climbed Mount Everest, and is not a former CIA operative. She has, however, been madly, passionately in love with her soul mate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She grew up in Southern California, graduated from Brigham Young University (go Cougars!) with a semi-useless degree in history, and is the oldest of nine (yes, nine). She currently lives with the aforementioned soul mate and their children in Utah, along with three cats named Pixel, Callie, and Belle, who do not get along (the cats, not the kids—although the kids sometimes have their issues, too).
Kelle Z. Riley
Kelle Z. Riley, writer, speaker, global traveler, Ph.D. chemist, inventor, and martial arts expert has been featured in local newspapers and on national television. Her varied life experiences have all found their way into her writing.
Amy E. Reichert
Amy E. Reichert, author of six novels, loves to write stories that end well with characters you’d invite to dinner. A wife, mom, amateur chef, Fix-It Mistress, a volunteer baby snuggler, and cider enthusiast, she earned her MA in English Literature and serves on her library’s board of directors. She's a member of Tall Poppy Writers.
Julia Whelan
Julia Whelan is an actor, writer, and audiobook narrator. She is perhaps best known for her acting work on ABC’s Once and Again and her award-winning narration of over 300 audiobooks (including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Tara Westover's Educated, and Kristen Hannah's The Great Alone). After a healthy career as a child actor, Whelan attended Middlebury College and Oxford University, graduating with a degree in English and Creative Writing. Her debut novel, My Oxford Year, was published in 2018 by HarperCollins/William Morrow. In her audiobook career, Whelan has been repeatedly featured on Audiofile Magazine’s annual Best Of lists and has won multiple Audie awards and SOVAS. Among other honors, she was named Audible’s Narrator of the Year in 2014 and is also a Grammy-nominated audiobook director.
Ashley Poston
Ashley Poston is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Dead Romantics.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s in English, she spent the last decade working in the publishing industry before deciding to pursue writing full-time.
When not writing, she likes trying various arts and crafts (she’s currently addicted to building miniature rooms) and taking long walks as an excuse to listen to Dungeons & Dragons podcasts. She bides her time between South Carolina and New York, and all the bookstores between.
Victoria Schade
Victoria Schade has been a dog trainer and writer for over seventeen years. During that time her dog duties have included working behind the scenes on Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl as the lead animal wrangler, appearing on two seasons of the Animal Planet show Faithful Friends, writing dog training content and appearing in educational videos for NBC/Universal, Pet360, PawCulture and petMD, and writing two dog training books, Bonding With Your Dog and Secrets of a Dog Trainer.
Helena Hunting
NYT and USA Today bestselling author, Helena Hunting lives outside of Toronto with her amazing family and her two awesome cats, who think the best place to sleep is her keyboard. Helena writes everything from emotional contemporary romance to romantic comedies that will have you laughing until you cry.
Emily Henry
Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read, as well as the forthcoming Happy Place. She lives and writes in Cincinnati and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.
RaeAnne Thayne
RaeAnne Thayne is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 Publishers Weekly bestselling author of more than sixty books. Her books have been described as “poignant and sweet,” with “beautiful, honest storytelling (that) goes straight to the heart.” She finds inspiration from the beautiful northern Utah mountains, where she lives with her family.
Mazey Eddings
Mazey Eddings is a neurodiverse author, dentist, and (most importantly) stage mom to her cats, Yaya and Zadie. She can most often be found reading romance novels under her weighted blanket and asking her boyfriend to bring her snacks. She’s made it her personal mission in life to destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain. With roots in Ohio and North Carolina, she now calls Philadelphia home.
