The best romance books whose authors go outside the box

It’s difficult to discuss this book without revealing certain plot points, but I will say it’s a prime example of what I love and respect in a romance novel: characters enduring and then persevering through trauma. We are taken from Lily’s first doubts and fears about her new love, through a complex and escalating set of circumstances. Hoover guides us through her heroine’s emotions—all her pain and fear, her love and joy, her doubt and self-loathing—with precise, engaging prose. It’s an expertly mapped, masterful journey from A to Z, with no aspect left untouched, until finally, Lily comes to an ultimate conclusion that somehow made me cheer in triumph and cry for her loss at the exact same time.

This novel is a taboo, student-teacher, forbidden love read, but those are tag words only. I’m a little obsessed with it because the writing. This book is alive. It's electric. The words jump off the page and sink claws into your skin. The author, at the end, laments that she's not poet enough to write her hero’s poems. I beg to differ. This entire book is a poem if you go by my preferred definition, which is a string of words meant to evoke. That's all this book does. Evokes, stirs, and is unapologetic in its heroine, Layla. She is no blushing rose, but a tornado of unapologetic desire, and who defies genre tropes. Her character renders this book more than a romance novel, but a force of nature.

I will never write an age-gap, rock star romance because the perfect one has already been written. The Idea of You is lush, elegant, and decadent; like a ten-course meal you don’t want to stop eating. But it’s the ending that pushes this book out of the norm, fearlessly and honestly. You close the last page having to pay the bill for that lavish meal but fully satisfied, because good things can’t last forever. I believe what serves the story should always come first and admire an author who bucks convention and keeps to her convictions. This novel is a shining example of just that.

I could actually list all of Fisher’s romances or her newer psychological thrillers under this banner of writing that is outside the box. She has taken the idea of “writing fearlessly” and run with it. Lives by it. There is nothing typical about Mud Vein, with prose that feels like mild electric shocks to the brain one minute and brings you to tears the next. It reads as though Fisher doesn’t waste time questioning herself or second-guessing her words—they’re alive and vibrant, and that’s highly aspirational. I have "write fearlessly" literally tattooed on my body, so I take it seriously. ;) 

Shifter romances aren’t new, but this heart-wrenching story about a boy and his adoptive “pack” sets the standard. The prose reads like a simple, placid little pond and then you jump in and realize it's miles deep. Klune does what my hero, Stephen King, is so darn good at and what I aspire to do in my own paranormal novels: he imbues the story with characters that live and breathe and feel like real people. This makes the supernatural aspects of the plot feel authentic and keeps you absorbed from page one to the end.