Here are 95 books that Tempt Me, Taste Me, Touch Me fans have personally recommended if you like
Tempt Me, Taste Me, Touch Me.
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Women’s fiction was my go-to genre after discovering Danielle Steele many years ago. I progressed from epic emotional family dramas to chick lit/romcoms, wanting to read books that made me laugh and gave that feel-good feeling. I love a happy ever after, and don’t mind knowing that the main characters will end up together because for me it’s all about the journey. I’ve been so lucky since being an author, to have received lots of emails and social media messages, telling me how much my books have either helped someone, inspired someone, made them laugh, given them hope, and generally left them with a warm feeling in their heart.
A brilliant thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining book, Jemima is a young lady who is in need of a number of life changes.
She’s overweight, treated like a skivvy by her flatmates, and belittled by her colleagues.
She does embark on big changes in her life, and when she achieves the goals that she sets for herself, realises that it doesn’t matter how much you change the outside of your body, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
A definite life lesson and we should also just be kind, because we never know what is happening in someone’s life.
Discover the addictive and uplifting story of reinvention, self-discovery and the meaning of true love from the bestselling author of Life Swap and The Friends We Keep
'Inspirational, uplifting, made me laugh and left me feeling very happy' 5***** Reader Review 'Compulsively readable' Sunday Times 'Perfect if you want to feel uplifted . . . So relatable' 5***** Reader Review _______
Jemima Jones is overweight. About seven stone overweight.
Treated like a slave by her thin and bitchy flatmates, lorded over at the Kilburn Herald by the beautiful Geraldine (less talented, but better paid), her only consolation is food.
I’ve struggled with weight and body issues most of my adult life. When I first wrote Worth The Weight (nearly 20 years ago), I had just lost a lot of weight and was coming to terms with what that meant to my self-image vs my body image. Package deal? Able to be separate the two? The weight loss romances on this list spoke to me. But the “love all those curves” books spoke to me on a different level. And the body-positivity movement has spoken to me on yet another level as I evolve into the imperfect, but hopefully always learning, person I am still becoming.
One of the first books I remember reading that had lots of sex with a plus-size heroine. There are many now (thank goodness – a long time coming!), but when this first came out, it was quite unique.
Grace Jenkins has long wanted Noah Harper. She gets her chance, but her body image makes her hesitate.
I loved Noah’s flat-out desire of Grace and all her curves. This made me come up with a mantra that I use to my friends, on myself, and in my writing: To men; any naked is good naked.
"Lori Foster delivers everything you are looking for in a romance." —Jayne Ann Krentz
He Made Her Feel Beautiful
Awkward, insecure Grace Jenkins has had little experience with men. But that hasn't stopped her from dreaming hard about Noah Harper. Gorgeous, strong and darkly sexy, Noah has a rough edge beneath his polish that promises no mercy in the bedroom. When Grace learns Noah's engagement has ended in scandal, she shyly offers him her support and her friendship. But Noah's looking for something extra . . .
Noah wants Grace--badly. He wants to possess those curves that go on forever,…
I’ve struggled with weight and body issues most of my adult life. When I first wrote Worth The Weight (nearly 20 years ago), I had just lost a lot of weight and was coming to terms with what that meant to my self-image vs my body image. Package deal? Able to be separate the two? The weight loss romances on this list spoke to me. But the “love all those curves” books spoke to me on a different level. And the body-positivity movement has spoken to me on yet another level as I evolve into the imperfect, but hopefully always learning, person I am still becoming.
He Loves Lucy uses the reality-show trope to hilarious, and lovely perfection. Lucy Cunningham is a PR exec who allows her client, a fitness club, to use her as a weight-loss guinea pig. Trainer Theo Redmond is up to the task, but finds working with Lucy to not be work at all.
I loved all of Susan Donovan’s early romances, but this one has a warmth, charm, and humor that has stuck with me through the years. When thinking about this list, this book was the first one that jumped into my head.
Marketing exec Lucy Cunningham is thrilled when her firm lands the Palm Club account. The campaign concept for Miami's hottest fitness club was Lucy's idea: Take one fitness challenged woman, put her in front of TV cameras and into the hands of the club's top personal trainer, Theo Redmond. And there's a big cash reward for each pound shed. It seems like a brilliant idea-until Lucy gets picked to be the guinea pig. It's obvious she needs to drop the pounds, but the idea of letting it all hang out in front of some Malibu Ken jock has her choking…
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
I wholeheartedly believe that embracing your geeky side is an important part of life and self-discovery. When romance novels incorporate nerdiness, it gives characters (and therefore readers) the ability to understand themselves and what they want on another level, and to gain the courage to pursue what they want. I know that my own forays into TTRPGs, LARPing, Ren Faires, and other such interests have helped shape me as a person. I’m more confident and embodied because I embrace my inner geek, and I want that for my characters and my readers, too. That’s why I want to read and write as many of these stories as possible!
Olivia Dade is the queen of romcoms with twists, and this may be her best work, IMO! Marcus is so sexy and such a golden retriever MMC, and I loved April just as much. This is a perfect example of two main characters who are both great but somehow even better together.
And Olivia Dade is truly hilarious–I especially loved the interlude chapters with the awful scripts Marcus had encountered over the years. This is one of the easiest romances for me to recommend to people because there’s something for everybody!
Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who's secretly posting fanfiction of his own.
Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he's known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet's favorite couple to…
I know small spaces from first-hand experience. As a writer based in New York City, I have lived in a series of impossibly small spaces, including a 6’ x 8’ bedroom in an apartment with no living room and a teeny-tiny studio that was made livable by installing a Murphy bed.
Today I live in less than 700 square feet with my husband and son. When I set out to write my own book, I wanted to inspire readers to make the most of their own small homes and discover the freedom that living small provides. I have an extensive personal library of books about small-space design, but these five are my all-time favorites.
Do not be deterred by the words “country” and “tiny” in this book’s title! This is a fantastic collection of small-ish homes that ran in the American edition of Country Living magazine. There are only a couple of actual tiny homes—most are more in the range of 1,000 or so feet. Likewise, very few of the homes are deeply “country” in style; instead, the overall look of the interiors is a fresh take on farmhouse style – with urban apartments and minimalist homes in the mix. The photography is beautiful, and there are so many homes included that this is a great value for its cover price.
Bigger isn't always better: Country Living offers a look inside more than 25 tiny homes that maximize function and style.
Downsizing has become a big trend--and many people are choosing to live small and smart in compact houses that don't require huge mortgages or upkeep. Country Living showcases a coast-to-coast collection of sustainable dwellings, all ranging from 100 to 1,500 square feet. Take an inside tour of these impressive little abodes, like a converted 1840s schoolhouse in New York, a 22- x 24-foot kit barn in California wine country, a 1914 New Hampshire coastal row home, and a renovated 1950s…
I’ve been making up characters and telling myself stories for as long as I can remember. I’m also a mood reader. I’ll read just about anything, but the stories I always yearn for are the ones that take me far away from this world, make me swoon, and devastate my soul. As a mood reader, I also have phases, and I’m in a fantasy phase right now. Magic, romance, adventure. These are just a few of my favorite things to read and write. As I read, I am inspired by the emotions that flood my senses when I read a good book.
I loved how different this fantasy rom-com was from anything I had read before picking it up. From the meet-cute to the epilogue, I adored all of it. I was shocked at first by the contemporary language and the modern world-building within a traditional fantasy setting.
The MFC was relatable, reacting to the crazy world around her as I’d imagine I would if I were taken on a wild adventure with a dragon shape-shifter. Funny, witty, steamy, and exciting. This book had it all.
Return to Hope Creek is a second-chance rural romance set in Australia.
Stella Simpson's career and engagement are over. She returns to the rural community of Hope Creek to heal, unaware her high school and college sweetheart, Mitchell Scott, has also moved back to town to do some healing of…
Being overweight presents an intriguing paradox: being physically large and hard to miss, but also being essentially invisible and easy to ignore. Having struggled with weight for my entire life, I’m very familiar with this juxtaposition of opposites. I wanted to write a novel with a plus-sized protagonist set in a different time, the late 1970s in this case, before the notions of size positivity and body diversity had come to life in society’s collective imagination. For me, this was a way of making fat people more visible in books, especially as main characters. I put together this list of books for the same reason.
Bea Schumacher is a plus-sized fashion blogger and outspoken critic of the lack of diverse body types in the media and on the reality dating show, Main Squeeze, in particular.
When she is asked to star on the show and pick the man she wishes to marry, Bea agrees, excited about what this might mean for her career and her love life.
This book gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at reality television and provides a satisfying answer to what is real and what is staged. I loved how the plot ofMain Squeezeand the novel formed co-centric rings and how Bea learns to recognize and use her power in both these arenas.
While romance and insights abound, they are also tempered by laugh-out-loud humor, making this read both enjoyable and thought-provoking.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Real love . . . as seen on TV. A plus-size bachelorette brings a fresh look to a reality show in this razor-sharp, “divinely witty” (Entertainment Weekly) debut.
“Effortlessly fun and clever . . . I found the tension impeccable . . . and that made my reading experience incredibly propulsive. Read it in a day and a half.”—Emily Henry, #1 bestselling author of Beach Read and The People We Meet on Vacation
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • Marie Claire • Mashable
I am a plus-sized woman of color, and I feel women like me are woefully underrepresented in romance books. Too many times, I read a book claiming to feature a “curvy heroine”, only to find she’s a size 6, or just wears baggy clothes. Even worse, some novels make plus-sized female leads lose weight before they get their happily ever after! There are great books out there that show love comes at any size and they deserve to be showcased.
I loved the Egyptian mythology featured in this book, and you could tell the author did her research. Detailed descriptions created a vibrant fantasy world where monsters are real and walk among us, sometimes as accountants.
This book was instalove at its finest with a swoonworthy, overprotective male lead. Even so, I loved that the plus-sized heroine was independent and capable throughout.
I have always felt like a bit of a misfit. I was taller, bigger, and clumsier than the other kids. I listened to the wrong music, wore the wrong clothes, and read the wrong books. I wasn’t cool. And when I became a high school teacher, I saw many kids, especially young women, who I could see felt the same. When Young Adult literature came into its own, I really loved all the wonderful ways YA stories were telling the stories of the kids who didn’t fit in, and it made me want to read them, and eventually write one of my own.
I was teaching high school when this novel came out over twenty years ago, and it immediately struck a chord with me, and with my students. This story of a lifelong friendship and the pain that comes with growing up has so many great characters. But Carmen has always been my favorite. The relationship with her father, her emergence into the (literal) spotlight, and her willingness to speak her mind to her loved ones, make her, for me, the true heroine of this novel. One of my favorite moments is her surprise and wonder when the pants actually fit her, not just her skinny friends. The idea that she had access to all the things they did, regardless of her size, is a beautiful metaphor for living.
Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget have been best friends all their lives. They live in the same small American town and usually spend every moment of their long summer holidays together. The year they turn 16 is the first time they have separate plans for the summer but the girls are determined to keep in touch. Tibby buys a pair of jeans in a second-hand shop and the girls discover that the trousers magically fit each of them perfectly, despite their different figures and heights. They hit upon a wonderful plan of sharing the jeans throughout the vacation - sending…
James Malloy is a ferry captain--or used to be, until he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by a "girl" named Courtney Farris. Now, instead of piloting Brenton Island’s daily lifeline to the glitzy docks of Newport, Rhode Island, James spends his days beached, bitter, and bored.
Being overweight presents an intriguing paradox: being physically large and hard to miss, but also being essentially invisible and easy to ignore. Having struggled with weight for my entire life, I’m very familiar with this juxtaposition of opposites. I wanted to write a novel with a plus-sized protagonist set in a different time, the late 1970s in this case, before the notions of size positivity and body diversity had come to life in society’s collective imagination. For me, this was a way of making fat people more visible in books, especially as main characters. I put together this list of books for the same reason.
This book is a memoir of the childhood and early adulthood of a woman overshadowed by her own weight.
The writing in this book is beautiful and evocative, particularly the descriptions of food and eating. That being said, this work is, otherwise, a tough read. The author feels unwanted and alone. She never achieves self-love or the sense of belonging she desires. Moore grew up long before size positivity existed and so she focused her energy and strength on changing rather than accepting herself.
Though it is, at times, an excruciating chronicle of pain, this memoir is an important work because it reminds us how destructive anti-fat bias was in the past, highlighting, as well, how it continues today.
A angst-filled memoir of one woman's obsession with food and one's body offers a poignant coming-of-age story that sets the author's love/hate relationship with food against her painful longing for a family, love, and a sense of belonging. By the author of Never Eat Your Heart Out. 35,000 first printing.
