Romance Books to Read Next If You Want Something That Absolutely Wrecks You
By USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Pinder
If you have landed here, I am going to guess something about you. You have finished a book — maybe a series — and you are sitting there with that specific, slightly bereft feeling that only happens when a story has really gotten into you. You are not looking for just any romance books to read next. You are looking for something that makes you forget to eat. Something that has you sneaking chapters at traffic lights. Something that, when you finally finish it, leaves you absolutely wrecked in the most wonderful possible way.
I have been writing romance for over a decade and have published over 100 novels across multiple series. Honestly, the question I get most often from readers is not ‘what is your favorite book you’ve written’ — it is ‘what should I read next?’ And I love that question because it means a reader is still hungry. Still chasing that feeling. So let me point you somewhere real.
What Makes a Romance Book Actually Wreck You?
Not all emotional payoff is created equal. I think about this a lot — maybe too much, honestly. There is a difference between a book that makes you sigh happily at the end and a book that you are still thinking about six weeks later while you are folding laundry.
The books that wreck you in the best way have a few things in common. The tension is about something bigger than attraction. The characters have real internal wounds that the relationship actually heals — not just conveniently resolves. And there is at least one moment where you think the author is not going to give you what you need, and then she does, and you have to put the book down for a moment because you are not prepared.
Those are the books I set out to write every single time I sit down at my desk. Here are the series and stories I recommend most when someone asks me for romance books to read next that will genuinely get under their skin.
Modern Scottish Lairds — Snowbound, Rugged, and Emotionally Devastating
I have to tell you — if you have not tried a Scottish highland romance, this is your sign, and the Modern Scottish Lairds series is exactly where to start.
Here is the thing about forced proximity in a Scottish castle during a blizzard: there is nowhere to hide. No polite excuse to leave the room. No filling the silence with social noise. It is just two people, an ancient stone castle that has seen centuries of human drama, and a storm that is completely indifferent to everyone’s carefully constructed emotional walls.
Wrong Scot — Miriam and Banner
Miriam arrives in the Highlands thinking she has a plan. She does not account for Banner — brooding, direct, quietly devastating in the way that men who have stopped performing for other people tend to be. The snowstorm that locks them in together is basically the real hero of this book, and I mean that with complete affection.
What I love about writing this series — and what I was trying to capture when I wrote Miriam and Banner specifically — is that the setting does emotional work that a candlelit dinner in a city restaurant could never do. Ancient walls have witnessed things. There is weight there. And two people who are forced to actually sit with each other, without distraction, without escape routes, tend to become real to each other in ways that a hundred coffee dates would not accomplish.
The rugged Scots in this series are not performing ruggedness. They grew up in these castles. They carry the history of their families in their bones. And the women who end up with them are absolutely done being underestimated.
If you want romance books to read next that feel like being wrapped in a wool blanket next to a roaring fire while a storm rages outside — with all the emotional intensity that implies — start here.
Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/scottish-highland-romance.
House of Morgan — A Dynasty Series That Keeps You Reading All Twenty Books
If you are the kind of reader who wants the long game — the series that builds across twenty books into something genuinely epic — the House of Morgan is the series I am most proud of and the one I recommend most passionately.
Here is the setup: Mitch Morgan built a criminal empire across multiple continents. He had four branches of children by four different women — in different cities and countries, most of them not knowing the others existed. He let everyone believe his daughters were dead as punishment to women he claimed to love. And then he died before page one.
Every book in the House of Morgan is his children refusing to become him.
Peter Morgan — The Son Who Found Everyone
Peter Morgan was raised to be his father. He knows the dark side of everything. But he always had a heart — and when he discovered what Mitch had done, he tracked down every branch of the Morgan family. The French branch. The Italian branch. The Pittsburgh branch. He found them all and brought them together as a family, because he refused to be his father.
That single act is the heroic spine of the entire series. Every Morgan from every branch, choosing a different life than Mitch built for them.
Jennifer Gonzales — Where the Story Is Right Now
And then there is Jennifer. Honestly, Jennifer Gonzales is the reason readers buy all twenty books.
She is a former telenovela actress who became a Hollywood star in spite of a family that held her back. Her eggs were stolen — twice. Once by Peter’s father, once by Peter’s wife Belle, who faked her own death and spent years manipulating the people around her. Jennifer left. She came back to expose Belle and reclaim what was stolen from her. And now she is living at Peter’s house, getting to know her children, and figuring out who she is when she is not surviving something.
Her core arc is not ‘will she end up with Peter.’ Her real arc is learning to trust herself. She has been sold, stolen from, reduced to her face, and used by nearly everyone who should have protected her. She is becoming a full person who knows her own worth. The romance with Peter is the reward at the end of that journey.
I never reduce Jennifer to a beautiful woman who loves a man. She is the most complex character I have ever written, and I am genuinely proud of where her story is now — and where it is going.
Twenty books published. Twenty-five planned. One dynasty. This is the saga for readers who want something that will actually wreck them — across hundreds of hours of reading.
Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/billionaire-romance.
Ready to start? Explore all the series and find your next obsession at victoriapinder.com/romance-book-series.
Romance Books to Read Next If You Love Spies, Stolen Thrones, and Fake Marriages
Not every reader comes to romance for the sweeping family saga. Some readers — honestly, some of my favorite readers — want the thriller pulse under the romance. The kind of book where the stakes are not just emotional but genuinely dangerous.
For those readers, I always say: start with the Irresistibly Series.
Irresistibly Strong — Eva and Jake
Eva was hired to spy on Jake Bentley. She married him for cover. Then she fell for the man she was sent to betray.
The Bentley brothers are the rightful heirs to the throne of Hoskell — a throne stolen by the Kirno conspiracy that assassinated their father the King and froze their assets. Seven brothers. Counter-espionage. Safe rooms. A woman who came to destroy them and ended up saving them instead.
Eva and Jake’s story is the lead romance of this seven-book series (plus a prequel), and it is currently gaining real organic traction with readers who find it and cannot stop telling their friends. The reading order starts with the prequel Irresistibly Lost, then Irresistibly Found, Charming, Tough, Played, Rugged, Strong, and Dashing.
Trust me — ‘she was hired to spy on him, married him for cover, and fell for the man she was sent to betray’ is a hook that earns every single page of what follows.
Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/enemies-to-lovers-romance.
Royal Romance and Fake Marriages — The Princes of Avce
Sometimes what a reader needs is an escape that is complete. A fictional kingdom. A prince who is genuinely impossible and genuinely worth it. A fake marriage that stops being fake somewhere around chapter six even though everyone is pretending otherwise.
That is the Princes of Avce — twelve books set in the fictional kingdom of Avce, built around billionaire royals, forced proximity, and fake marriages that wreck everyone involved emotionally before they resolve into something real.
Rossie and Stefano’s story is one of my favorites to recommend as an entry point. She was abandoned at the altar and fled to Paris. He is an Italian marchese with a contract marriage on offer and absolutely no intention of catching feelings. They are both catastrophically wrong about how this ends.
If your search for romance books to read next includes anything with the words ‘royal,’ ‘fake marriage,’ or ‘one bed,’ this series has you covered across twelve full books.
Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/royal-romance.
Secret Babies and Pro Athletes — The Steel Series
A Steel love is forged to last. That is the tagline I wrote for this series and I stand by every word of it.
Ten books. Secret babies with pro athletes. Fake marriages with ruthless power players. These are the romances for readers who want high heat in the emotional sense — characters with real wounds, real stakes, and relationships that are tested before they are earned.
The Steel Series is also where I recommend starting if you love a hero who is genuinely powerful in the world and genuinely out of his depth with the one person who matters to him. There is something irresistible about watching that dynamic play out — the man who controls boardrooms and press conferences, absolutely undone by a woman and a secret she has been keeping.
Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/secret-baby-romance.
Small Town, Second Chances, and the Coastal Pull of Virgin Cove
I love a small town romance that understands the specific emotional texture of a town that remembers everything. The past does not disappear in a small town. It just waits.
Virgin Cove is a coastal small-town series built on second chances and fake dating — two tropes that I think work especially well together in a setting where everyone knows everyone and there is genuinely no such thing as a private moment.
The tension in these books comes from history. From two people who knew each other, drifted apart or were separated by circumstance, and are now standing in the same small town with nowhere to go but toward each other. The fake dating layer adds the delicious complication of performing something that may or may not still be pretend.
If you love contemporary romance with a coastal setting and real emotional stakes — and you want your next series to feel like summer on the water — this is exactly what to read next.
Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/small-town-romance.
A Personal Note on Why I Write the Books I Write
I want to tell you something real, because I think it matters when you are deciding which author to invest your reading hours in.
I write romance because I genuinely believe that stories about people finding love — real, complicated, earned love — are some of the most important stories we have. Not because they are escapist (though they absolutely are, and that is a gift). But because they model something true: that people can change. That wounds can heal. That trust can be rebuilt. That someone who has been reduced by the world can become whole again.
That is Jennifer Gonzales’s story. That is Miriam’s story in Wrong Scot. That is Eva’s story in Irresistibly Strong. Every heroine I write is, in some way, learning that she deserves the thing she has been fighting for.
I have published over 100 novels and I am still sitting at my desk at midnight not wanting to leave my characters. I think that is a good sign. I hope it means the books feel that way to you too — like places you do not want to leave.
If you want to explore everything, you can browse all my active series at victoriapinder.com/romance-book-series. And if you want to start somewhere free, grab a free book at victoriapinder.com/free-books — no pressure, no catch, just a story to see if we are a match.
Frequently Asked Questions About Finding Romance Books to Read Next
What romance books should I read if I want a long series I can really sink into?
The House of Morgan is my strongest recommendation for readers who want an epic, long-form series with real depth. Twenty books published, twenty-five planned, one dynasty — and every book builds on what came before. Start at the beginning and let it take you. Available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/billionaire-romance.
What is the best romance book with forced proximity?
Wrong Scot from the Modern Scottish Lairds series is my top forced proximity recommendation — snowbound in a Scottish castle with a brooding laird is exactly as wonderful as it sounds. For a royal forced proximity read, any of the Princes of Avce books deliver that tension beautifully. Explore both at victoriapinder.com/forced-proximity-romance.
Are there romance books with fake relationships that actually have emotional depth?
Yes — the Irresistibly Series (fake marriage for cover between a spy and her target), the Princes of Avce (fake royal marriages), and the Virgin Cove series (fake dating in a small town that remembers everything) all deliver fake relationship tension with real emotional payoff. Find them all at victoriapinder.com/fake-relationship-romance.
Where do I start if I have never read Victoria Pinder before?
Honestly, it depends on your trope preference. For Scottish romance: Wrong Scot. For billionaire dynasty saga: Book One of House of Morgan. For royal fake marriage: Princes of Avce Book One. For spy romance with fake marriage: start with the prequel Irresistibly Lost. All available on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more at victoriapinder.com/romance-book-series.
Do Victoria Pinder books have happy endings?
Every single one. Every Victoria Pinder novel is one couple — one hero, one heroine — with a complete happily ever after. The journey to get there is emotionally intense and sometimes genuinely suspenseful, but the HEA is always real, always earned, and always worth it.
USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Pinder has published over 100 novels across multiple romance series including the House of Morgan, Modern Scottish Lairds, Princes of Avce, the Irresistibly Series, and more. Her books are available wide on all major retailers. Browse every series and find your next obsession at victoriapinder.com/romance-book-series, or grab a free book to start at victoriapinder.com/free-books.
