By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the tons and tons of Harlequin titles priced at $1.99! That’s because Harlequin has discounted over 18,000 books for the next eight days! The sale ends October 25th and you can read more about the sale over at their blog. Here is the list of imprints bring discounted with links to Amazon imprint pages:
Harlequin Blaze
Harlequin Desire
Harlequin Heartwarming
Harlequin Kimani Romance
Harlequin Historical
Harlequin Intrigue
Harlequin Medical Romance
Harlequin Nocturne
Harlequin Presents
Harlequin Romance
Harlequin Romantic Suspense
Harlequin Special Edition
Harlequin Superromance
Harlequin Western Romance
Love Inspired
Love Inspired Historical
Love Inspired Suspense
Rather than pull out four or five books to focus on, we’re going to list some awesome titles that we have previously featured on the site. But what we really want is you recommendations. So please tell us in the comments what books included in this Harlequin sale you think would make a great gift for a friend!
The Playboy Sheikh’s Virgin Stable-Girl by Sharon Kendrick is a part of SBTB history. ( A | BN | K | G )
Yours Forever by Farrah Rochon ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) earned a B- during our RITA® Reader Challenge!
Jeannie Lin’s historical romances are highly recommended and feel free to start with My Fair Concubine ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ).
Back to the Good Fortune Diner by Vicki Essex ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) was a previous Sizzling Book Club pick!
Sex, Straight Up by Kathleen O’Reilly received an A- grade from Sarah! ( A | BN | K | G )
If you want more crazysauce, The Mistress by Maya Banks ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) has pregnancy, amnesia, and kidnapping.
And of course, we can’t mention pregnancy and amnesia without mentioning Pregnesia by Carla Cassidy ( A | BN | K | G ), which prompted this amazing guest review.
Carrie gave Deep Deception by Cathy Pegau ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) a B+. It’s a F/F noir scifi romance!
If you want a sweet, farmer hero, check out All I Have by Nicole Helm ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which earned an A grade from Elyse.
Want something for Halloween? Maybe try The Headmaster by Tiffany Reisz ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Because there are so many Harlequin titles available, it’s impossible to list them all! The below links are affiliate coded, so if you’d like to use them while browsing and shopping the sale, that would be really awesome of you. If not, no worries and thanks for hanging out with us!
In case anyone is looking for recommendations beyond the usual names that are always mentioned, especially for those who like seeing diversity in the regular Harlequin/Silhouette lines:
– Mergers and Matrimony by Allison Leigh, a Silhouette Special Edition from 2006, has a Japanese hero and a white heroine, and both characters are in their 40s. I haven’t read it in a while, but I remember enjoying it a great deal and holding on to a copy of it. (There’s a sequel with the hero’s daughter and a white hero, but I honestly can’t remember anything about it or if I enjoyed it, which probably speaks for itself.)
– Silent Night Stakeout by Kerry Connor, a Harlequin Intrigue from 2010, has a black hero and heroine. It was a DABWAHA nominee that year.
– Wedding? Impossible! by Karen Templeton is the rare contemporary romance with both an Asian-American hero and heroine. They’re both of Chinese descent.
– Soldier’s Night Mission by Cindy Dees is a fun action-adventure story with a black hero and (I think) Latina heroine.
– I’ll Be Watching You by Tracy Montoya is a serial killer thriller with a hero and heroine who are both Latino. Though it’s been a while, I also remember having fond memories of Next of Kin, which also has a Latino hero and heroine. Plus the heroine is a librarian, but an actual-human-being type of librarian, not some uptight stereotype.
Two I forgot:
Marie Donovan wrote two Harlequin Blazes (well, she wrote more than that, but these two stand out) that were both really sexy, more so most in the line, and featured characters both interesting and diverse:
Her Body of Work has a Cuban-American hero, a Swedish heroine and great sexual tension.
Her Book of Pleasure has an Asian-American, or maybe biracial, heroine.
I’ll second the recs for Sex, Straight Up and All I Have. The follow-up to All I Have, called All I Am, has a wounded-soldier virgin hero who makes gourmet dog treats. How can you not want to read that??
I’d also rec anything by Sarah Mayberry, especially her Superromances, and Janet Lee Nye’s debut Superromance, Spying on the Boss. (Superromance is my favorite category line. Could you tell?)
Wow, this is so good and so bad for my wallet at once.
NT, thank you for the recommendation of Mergers and Matrimony by Allison Leigh! This book is total catnip for me – interracial, older MCs, plus, as a bonus, I’m going to be visiting Japan next spring so I’m looking for books set there. Needless to say, I’m going to be one-clicking on this one. There are so many books on sale that I never would have found this on my own (and it doesn’t help that they’ve whitewashed the cover by cutting off the hero’s face).
For me Harlequin is Sarah Morgan – anything by her is amazing!
Ugh, just realized I got the title wrong for one of the books I mentioned above. The Cindy Dees book with the black hero and Latina heroine is Soldier’s Rescue Mission, not Night Mission, which is a different book. Sorry!
JenM,
Glad to help! I hope you enjoy it. And yeah, the whitewashing is annoying. Though at least they use his last name on the back, unlike the Templeton book I mentioned, which doesn’t show either the hero or heroine and omits both of their last names from the back cover blurb. Like, I see what you did there, Silhouette. Not cool.
LOVED All I Have. Just picked up the first one (with the naked farmer, which you hear ALL ABOUT in All I Have and I ended up finding out it wasn’t the first book in the series, which drives me nuts) with this sale.
I picked up many Jill Shalvis and Molly O’Keefe in the Harlequin sale. This sale is a killer deal and killer on the wallet and I am half afraid to look further. $1.99 is a great price but it sure adds up when I one click like a lunatic. 😉
To add to the diversity list: First Comes Marriage by Sophia Sasson (Heartwarming, so it’s a sweet romance). Indian-British doctor finds herself living on a failing cattle ranch. Trying to win over the small town residents with vegetarian hotdogs is the least of her problems. I loved this book.
Rumors that Ruined a Lady by Marguerite Kaye is a historical that has stuck with me- I think because it shows a path to HEA that feels realistic for a woman escaping an abusive relationship in 1830s England.
I Rec Nicole Helm’s ‘All I Am” and “To Close to Resist”.
Historical I Rec: lyn Stone’s ‘The captain and the wallflower”. A tad heavy on the mystery but likable leads.
@Theresa Romain, thanks for the rec, especially “wounded-soldier virgin hero who makes gourmet dog treats” — I bought that book so fast!!!
I second or third the rec for All I Am by Nicole Helm. I loved that book so much! I would also add grumpy to Theresa Romain’s description of the hero and I love a grumpy hero. I really need to get around to reading the first one.
There’s some Carla Kelly on sale as well. I also love Karina Bliss especially What the Librarian Did. Of course Sarah Mayberry and Sarah Morgan are amazing.
Does anyone have a recommendation for authors similar to Janice Kay Johnson? I have read everything of hers I could get my hands on, but have not been successful in finding similarly compelling Harlequins – she does some Intrigues i think, and Superromances (though those still tend towards suspense plots) – & her characterization/plotting are just great.
It’s a slow day at work, so I’ve been looking for more underappreciated gems that are never mentioned. Another rec:
A.K.A. Goddess by Evelyn Vaughn – Vaughn’s books were easily the best of the Silhouette Bombshell line. This was the first, and the best, of them. A truly kickass heroine who was strong, intelligent and capable with no trite sob story past, on a globetrotting adventure full of action and thrills, in a story that is fundamentally about the power of women. I don’t often agree with the RITA choices, but this book won that year, and it deserved it.
Thanks for the recommendations, I have totally clicked on a few of these (diversity is a selling point for me!) Any recommendations for Sarah Morgan besides the O’Neil brothers that don’t include doctors, shiehks, fictitious countries or surprise pregnancies? I love Sarah Mayberry and I bought and read Nicole Helm’s “All I Have” and liked it enough to buy the next one!
I highly recommend Carla Kelly’s regency romances from Harlequin Historical.
I also really liked The Sargeants Lady by Susanna Fraser.
@leftcoaster In Too Deep by Lori Foster & One Enchanted Moment by Sarah Morgan (two books in one) has one of her Puffin Island books and doesn’t contain any of those. I haven’t read that one yet, but I read the first two Puffin Island books and enjoyed them. Also Playing by the Greek’s Rules is the prequel to the Puffin Island series and I don’t believe it has any of those things, but I haven’t read it yet. I have read A Night of No Return, Once a Ferrara Wife, A Night of Scandal, Burned, and Unexpected all of which I enjoyed and I don’t remember containing any of those plot points.
@Christine,
Do you have particular favorites? Her backlist is a bit intimidating.
@Stephanie, I wound up buying the whole Armstrong Sisters series based off your rec and a peek at the first and fourth books. That and a complaint someone left about the third book made the series an insta-buy.
Harlequin usually has a code for buy 3 get the 4th free on its website on Fridays. I wonder if they will this week given the big sale.
I’m taking this opportunity to add some classic Harlequins to my Kindle. So far I’ve found:
“Newlyweds of Convenience” by Jessica Hart. It’s a slow burn, not a conflagration, but I loved it.
“Passion Becomes You” by Michelle Reid
“Marriage on the Rebound” by Michelle Reid
“Gold Ring of Betrayal” by Michelle Reid (yes, I’m a big MR fan!)
“Dark Fire” by Robyn Donald
“Daddy by Accident” (Maternity Row) by Paula Detmer Riggs (I wonder what ever happened to her? I used to love her books!)
Yay for Harlequin sale! One name I haven’t seen here is Kate Hardy. I like that her heroes tend to be pretty low on the alphahole scale (pretty impressive for a Presents title) and that her heroines tend to be pretty competent… this is especially true for her medical ones where the heroines are nurses or doctors. She has windowpane type prose, which makes for excellent brain candy. A good Presents title for her would be “In Bed with Her Italian Boss” or I’d say “The Children’s Doctor’s Special Proposal” or “Falling for the Playboy Millionaire” are good tastes of the kind of medical romances she writes.
Also shout out for eReaderIQ– if you aren’t following your fav authors on there, you should! You get push notifications when their titles drop in price with lots of settings of how you want that to happen. You can also do that for individual titles. My phone blew up as soon as this sale happened thanks to eRIQ, and I know they can use all the love they can get these days since Amazon messed with their affiliate links.
Ooh, I am buying soooo many books right now.
I love HelenKay Dimon’s Intrigue series (name escapes me at the moment). Cynthia Eden has another series I love too, about brothers. The first is kind of a creepy weirdo but the others are great. I have also gotten really into the Protect and Serve series by Karen Anders. It’s about military police/investigation and I love the characters and the investigation details.
So many good ones!
A few more:
For those who miss (or missed) the old Harlequin Love & Laughter line, Stephanie Bond’s were some of the best. Irresistible? is hilarious. Naughty or Nice? was my second favorite of hers.
Another Intrigue by Kerry Connor, Her Cowboy Avenger, is an emotional small town murder mystery/reunion romance with a Latino hero and heroine.
Since virgin heroes have been mentioned, Maisey Yates had one last year, Bound to the Warrior King, that she really pulled off, more than I expected she could.
Also remembered another with a Japanese hero/white heroine I mostly enjoyed, Scandalously Expecting His Child by Olivia Gates. The title is stupid; she doesn’t get pregnant until halfway through, and the book falls apart a bit at the end, setting up a huge threat and impossible obstacle that is then dismissed off the page like it’s nothing. But 90 percent of the story is great. The hero is a billionaire/assassin; the heroine is a tough corporate spy who seduced him in disguise. It takes place in Japan too.
Seriously, this is too overwhelming. I love a good sale, but I’d like it better if they’d split it up into more manageable segments over a period of time or something. I’ll probably just read thru the recommendations here (thanks!) and see if anything strikes me.
I need to remember everything I want to recommend before pushing Submit!
Back in 2000-2001, Intimate Moments had a 12-book series, A Year of Loving Dangerously, that was mostly disappointing. But there were two really good ones:
Night of No Return by Eileen Wilks was set in Egypt with a secret agent hero and archaeologist heroine. She was smart, strong, and a virgin, and it was nice to see a heroine allowed to be all those things, not just helpless and naive because she hadn’t had sex. Plus, it was just a good story.
The final book, Familiar Stranger by Sharon Sala, is a reunion romance with a hero and heroine in their 50s.
Meg Maguire has a boxing series (the Wilinskis) that is in the sale that’s pretty good. Three titles, but they went through a name change. I believe the first one is “Going the Distance”
@Sue C: Try “The Admiral’s Penniless Bride” to start with Carla Kelly. I loved it – funny, sweet, with a decidedly non-traditional hero and a marvelous heroine.
Most of Kat Cantrell’s Desire backlist is part of this sale.
I loved “The Things She Says” (romance reading heroine!), and enjoyed “Matched to Her Rival” a lot.
“Marriage With Benefits” has a Latina heroine, too, for anyone who is seeking diverse characters.
I just found out there was actually a Superromance earlier this year where the hero and heroine are both Asian-American, and this time they’re both on the cover! The Big Break by Cara Lockwood. This isn’t necessarily a recommendation, because I haven’t read it yet, though obviously I will. But I thought I should mention it. Plus it’s set in Hawaii. And involves surfing. So, yeah. Click.
Kind of sad how remarkable it is to see two people of Asian descent on the cover of a contemporary romance, but here we are.
@NT, I love that you mentioned I’ll Be Watching You and Tracy Montoya because I LOVE that book so much, like an unreasonable amount.
I thought of a few more good ones to recommend–Addison Fox has a 4 book Romantic Suspense series that’s adventure romance, which I can’t get enough of.
I also really like Jana DeLeon’s Mystere Parish (sp?) series. Actually the stories are not exactly amazing but I love books set in Louisiana/New Orleans so I dig those.
I am embarrassed by how many books I have bought. I bought a whole pile yesterday, and now I’m back at it today. I need to seriously put my harlequin account on hold after this because it is going to take me forever to get through all these books. Does anyone else buy directly from Harlequin? Ugh, their ebook management is awful. I keep trying to see if I bought a book before and there’s just no good way to tell that. If anyone from Harlequin is listening, please make bookshelves searchable!
OMG so many books and I am so bad at restraint. @SandyCo, love Michelle Reid! Marriage on the Rebound is one of my favorite 90’s-era HQ’s, slightly wacky storyline that requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but still totally awesome in a very specific way. 🙂 I am going to try her other books that you mentioned as well. Because they are $1.99, wooooo! Also @Mara thanks for the tip about eReaderIQ, what a great idea!!
@CelineB Thank you so much for the help! I have all of those with the exception of , so they’ve been added!
@NT I really appreciate the help sussing out diverse books…I love to put my money where my mouth is, but they don’t always make it easy! I’m in a mixed race relationship and it gives me warm fuzzies when ever I see something close to my pairing represented in a book!
I just recently started reading Jeannie Lin so I am over the moon that I will get several of her books, that I haven’t read, for just $1.99
@Heather S, thanks for the rec!
@Mara, oooh another author. I have been looking for physician heroines and non-alphahole heroes! Yayy.
I’m sure everyone’s sick of me, but if anyone wants a few more recommendations for books that are out of the ordinary:
Untouchable by Stephanie Doyle – Part of the seemingly endless Athena Academy series, which started in Silhouette Bombshell and then as a 12-book standalone after Bombshell was canceled. Most of them weren’t very good, but this one stood out. The heroine is the result of genetic experimentation that left her with poison skin. Like, her skin is poison to the touch. She’s been living in a monastery (convent?) in India, and once the hero shows up, the two of them go on the run through the country with people trying to kill them. Great action, strong characters, interesting setting. A fun read.
Straight Silver by Darlene Scalera – In 2005 Harlequin Intrigue tried publishing a few first-person mysteries narrated by quirky heroines. One was blah, one was bad. This one was good. The heroine is a former stripper turned community college student in Memphis, and when one of her old colleagues is murdered and no one seems to care, she investigates. It’s so different than the usual Harlequins. The snappy style is distinctive, and the characters are earthier and rougher than are usually found in romances (though not mysteries). Out of all the thousands of Harlequins I’ve read, it certainly stands out.
Would greatly appreciate recs for other historicals (already picked up a Carla Kelly mentioned in the one of the earlier comments). Thanks!
Does anyone have any recommendations on where to start on Harlequins? I’ve been wanting to take a crack at Harlequin as a relatively new romance reader, but I’ve had trouble figuring out where to even start. This sale seems like a great opportunity to dip my toes in, but I have no idea how to even approach it.
I like historicals, Lisa Kleypas, Mary Blogh, etc., but am really open to anything. I typically prefer alpha male heroes with a soft side.
Any help anyone has would be much appreciated!