Every month my list of seasoned, more mature romance books gets longer and longer. I think more people are reading books with older main characters, and many times, they don’t even realize it! Even Passionflix is getting into the game with Kristen Ashley’s The Will. It’s the first book in her Magdalene series, and both leads are over 40. Check out the vast array of books on this month’s list, I hope you find something fun to read!
Books marked with a 
are books I’ve read and highly recommend!
Hit & Run by Freya Barker
This is the first book in Barker’s new PASS series, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Much to her chagrin, Rosie is back home taking care of her mother, who is no longer able to care for herself. Rosie’s relationship with her mom was strained at best before her medical issues, now their troubles are only amplified by the toll dementia is taking on her mom’s mind and body. Rosie is forced to work the overnight shift at a local hotel. While on the job, she witnesses a famous celebrity not being his best. In fact, this celebrity’s careless ways have fatal consequences.
Jake is tasked with guarding a prima donna celebrity who appears to have fallen off the sobriety wagon while he is in town filming a movie. The security company Jake works for has him investigate and try to smooth over the consequences of nasty celebrity’s behavior. Unfortunately, desire gets all mingled in with duty when he encounters the sole witness to the misdeed, Rosie. Rosie’s knowledge of said events puts her life in jeopardy and Jake has to figure out who the bad guys are and how he can keep her out of harm’s way when harm seems to be a magnet she wears around her neck! I feel like the other members of this security team will end up with their HEA as the series progresses, and I am here for it! Freya Barker does an excellent job harnessing the suspense and intensity of the situation. She also tosses in smoking-hot sex scenes that genuinely fit the pacing of the story. Rosie and Jake aren’t naive sex-crazed kids feeling the brush of young love, they are mature characters, cognizant of their precarious situation and smart enough to recognize the good thing that’s crossed their paths. Hit & Run is out now, check it out!
A Bet with Benefits by Karen Booth
This is the third book in Booth’s Eden Empire series. This series is about three wildly different sisters that take over the family business (a high-end department store) after their grandmother dies. A Bet with Benefits is a category romance in Harlequin’s Desire line. Booth’s writing style is always a win for me. She has a way of pulling you into a story, so thoroughly you’ll shut off the rest of the world for a bit and just let the plot take you away. I always enjoy her books, and this second chance romance doesn’t let me down.
Mindy Eden has had an on-again, off-again fling with Sam for years. But, lesson learned, she’s over him now and is ready to move on. Right? As sisters are wont to do, they challenge Mindy to spend a week as his plus-one for a friend’s wedding. Never one to back down from a challenge, Mindy agrees thus sealing her fate with the man she’s never been able to fully walk away from. This is a fast, smooth read with bumps in the road at the right spot and romance that will leave you breathless. Category romance has always been catnip for me, make the characters on the more mature side, and it’s a book I can’t put down.
For the Love of Us by Kaylee Rose
Rose is a new to me author, but the blurb had me at hello! It screams empty nest!
What happens when the kids leave for college and you remember you’re not just mom, but a woman too?
Simply going through the motions, on autopilot day after day, weighed heavily on me.
The one thing which bonded my husband and me, before the kids came along, was slowly cast aside as their needs grew more demanding.
Intimacy became an act; a performance, without the desire, passion, and lust we once shared.
My need to feel desired and wanted by my husband ate at me and I was determined to make him see the woman he married.
I wasn’t going to give up and hatched a plan, one which would hopefully forge a new beginning for us.
Fighting to keep our love alive was a risk, but, for us, I was prepared to do anything.
Shattered Sunset Promises by Nancy Kay
Shattered Sunset Promises is a romantic suspense/thriller/mystery all rolled up into one book! Malory is at a crossroads. Having lost the love of her life ten years ago, and her job recently, she is facing an uncertain future. Then fate steps in and hands her an opportunity that seems almost too good to be true. She inherits a cottage and decides to pull up roots and move away in hopes of a brighter future. Of course, when something seems too good to be true it usually is. The cottage Malory inherits has a sorted past and our hero, John is investigating not one but two murders that happened on the property. With a murderer on the loose, will John be able solve the mystery in time and keep Malory safe?
Grit by Elizabeth Hunter
I have not read Hunter’s 7th and Main series but book #3, Grit has a whopping 4.53-star rating on Goodreads so I’ve bumped this one up my TBR list tout de suite! Grit is a friends to lovers tale about Melissa, a widow, a rancher, an orange grove owner, and a single mom. She’s busy, far too busy to take time out for herself and her love life. Cary is her friend, a very patient friend that’s been by her side for a while now. He’s helped her and supported her along this widowed, single mom journey and he is ready to move out of the friend zone. This story ticks off so many boxes for me it’s shameful I haven’t read the whole series yet! Also, can we take a moment to admire that cover? Grit is out now!
Having Faith by Georgia Tingley
Out now, Having Faith is a second chance, best friend’s younger brother, older woman/younger man slow burn of a story. Tingley is a new to me author which makes this even better! Faith and Adam had an ill-advised one-night-stand ten years ago. Faith went on to marry and divorce someone else. When she’s invited to meet the ex’s young new trophy wife, Faith’s friends think Adam will be the perfect foil and ego boost Faith needs for the potentially disastrous dinner. Adam, having missed his opportunity all those years ago is not about to let Faith slip through his fingers again.
Autumn at Blaxland Falls by Eliza Bennetts
I really found some winners for us this month. Autumn at Blaxland Falls is the second book in Bennetts’ Seasons series. Single mom Joanna “Jo” Mendis never thought she’d return to her hometown of Blaxland Falls. It carries too many painful memories and secrets that will touch all that she loves and cares about. Unfortunately, a job opportunity demands her return. Once she arrives back home, she’s met with her lifelong friend Dee (who gets her HEA in the next book), her ill-tempered mother, her evil ex and a Norwegian billionaire that owns the hotel she’s working in. The darkness Jo thought she left behind when she left is more prevalent than ever, and when the secrets, ghosts, and skeletons of the past tumble out into the daylight, no one will be the same.
