Looking to add something unexpected to your October TBR? Monster romance has become one of the most beloved corners of the romance genre, pairing fantastical creatures with unforgettable love stories that keep readers coming back for more. Whether your ideal book boyfriend has fangs, horns, scales, or claws, there's a monster romance out there waiting to sweep you off your feet.
We've rounded up some of our favorites to help you discover your next obsession. Ready for even more? Join our Monster Romance Reading Challenge for more recommendations and a month full of monstrously good reads.
I Accidentally Summoned a Demon Boyfriend
by Jessica Cage
Open a book. Read a spell. Whoop, there he is... a demon.
The last single friend in her group and tired of being stood up by her girls, a drunken Rayna turns to her first love, a book. After jokingly casting a spell her favorite character used to conjure a loving boyfriend, the results aren't nearly as funny.
Because the damn spell worked, just not in the way she thought it would!
Now she has a brooding demon who she needs to sever the magical bond with if she ever wants to live a normal life again.
A Soul to Keep
by Opal Reyne
All Reia ever wanted was freedom.
Known as a harbinger of bad omens and blamed for Demons eating her family, Reia is shunned by her entire village. When the next offering is due and the monstrous Duskwalker is seen heading their way, her village offers her an impossible choice - be thrown into the prison cells or allow herself to be sacrificed to a faceless monster.
However, he is not what he seems. His skull face and glowing eyes are ethereal, and she finds herself unwittingly enchanted by him.
All Orpheus ever wanted was a companion.
Each decade, in exchange for a protection ward from the Demons that terrorise the world, Orpheus takes a human offering to the Veil - the place he lives and the home of Demons. The brief companionship does little to ease his loneliness, and their lives were always, unfortunately, cut short.
He'd thought it was a hopeless endeavour, until he met her. She's not afraid of him, and his insatiable desire deepens within every moment of her presence.
But will Orpheus be able to convince Reia to stay before she's lost to him forever?
Whispers of the Deep
by Emma Hamm
One of the many engineers that keeps Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it's her dream to help it flourish.
But then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend. An undine. A dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.
Arges has fought his entire life for his people. With deadly creatures under his control, he plans to eradicate Beta once and for all to protect his kind and their peaceful way of life. But when a human woman saves him, she unknowingly creates a bond between them, one he can't ignore. Even though her flaming red hair haunts his dreams, he needs her for information on the undine's enemies.
So he steals her. Keeps her. Feeds her. Only to realize their bond is far deeper than captor and captive. He cannot let her go-but he cannot keep her under the sea. In a battle to determine if love can survive a war beneath the waves, it will be their decision that changes the tides.
Meetings with the Minotaur
by M a Wardell
Big horns. Big secrets. Even bigger... chemistry.
Jamie
My five-year plan did not include impersonating a high-level executive to impress the big boss, but here we are. One day I'm slinging mail, the next I'm in a meeting trying not to drool over the CEO's thighs like a disaster in khakis.
He thinks I'm a brilliant strategist. The truth? I'm just trying to keep my 'professional' smile in place while staring at his horns. But the more time we spend together in late-night work sessions, the more I realize the heat between us isn't just my imagination. Can I help win the company's biggest account and the Minotaur of my dreams, or will my little lie get me sent back to the basement?
Magnus
Discipline is my salvation. As CEO of Labyrinth Solutions, I maintain control. In the boardroom, in my life, and over the beast that lives inside my suit. Then Jamie Torres walks into my world.
He's a new junior strategist; sharp, ambitious, and so distractingly handsome it makes my head spin. His scent is peppermint and temptation, and his shy glances at my horns make my possessive instincts roar to life. But keeping my hands off him might be the one merger I'm not powerful enough to negotiate.
My Boyfriend Is a Swamp Monster
by Paige Lavoie
A struggling songwriter returns to her childhood summer camp and comes face-to-face with the imaginary boy from her past-and a second chance she never believed was real.
Marina is used to being overlooked. She works at her manipulative aunt's boutique, writing songs on a broken keyboard and spending her free time with her grandmother. Her last close friend was a boy from summer camp years ago, but he was imaginary, so he doesn't count. When Marina lands an audition that could change everything, her Grams pushes her to find inspiration where it all started. Armed with an old camp notebook, Marina returns to the now-abandoned campground, hoping to write one good song. Instead, she meets a handsome stranger.
Gil has never forgotten the girl who made his summers full of sunlight. He remembers the snacks she shared with him, the songs she wrote, and the promise he made to always come back for her. But he wasn't prepared for the wave of emotions he felt when she came back. Eager to keep his second chance from slipping away, Gil spends the weekend with Marina, hoping she'll realize he's the boy she imagined all those years ago.
Together, they return to a time where the summer is magic and the days are never ending. Marina can't help but wonder if Gil is real, then maybe happy endings are too.
Haunt: A Small Town Ghost Romance
by Meg Alivien
Kennedy Chesterfield is dead, yet she can't stop her spirit from popping up in random places among the living. Confused, frightened, and unable to stay in one place longer than a few minutes, Kennedy seeks help from the witches of Shadow Hills-the paranormal small town her mother grew up in. A seance is performed in the town's most notorious haunted house, and with success, Kennedy is anchored to the location. But there's a problem: the house is already occupied.
Tucked within the forest outside of town, Theodore Vanderbilt has spent decades haunting his family's home. Alone, and perfectly content, Theo is happy to keep to himself, hidden away from the judgmental eyes of Shadow Hills, and the descendants of those his family hurt. But when his only friend approaches him about a lost ghost in need of a place to rest, he finds himself opening his home, as well as his heart, to a redhead who upends his entire afterlife.
Both Kennedy and Theo are holding on to guilt from the actions they took in life. Each has something to learn from the other, and with time-and a little forced proximity-they just might find they both have a second chance at happiness.
The Kraken's Sacrifice
by Katee Robert
Catalina only made her deal with the demon because she had nowhere else to go. The world has kicked her every chance it got, so she's all too happy to leave the realm she knows behind. What's the worst that could happen?
She doesn't anticipate being auctioned away to a kraken.
Thane is cold and distant...but he's not unkind. Isolated as they are, Catalina finds herself seeking his company again and again. And when she finally agrees to uphold her portion of the bargain?
That's when things get really interesting.
But she only gave the demon seven years, and when the time is up, she'll have no choice but to leave behind the kraken who's stolen her heart and return to the world that doesn't want her.
Bite Me
by S L Cokeley
Emma Osborne is determined to make her mark at Doxlothia University-home to the most elite vampire and werewolf communities. She dreams of joining the culinary club, and culinary prodigy, Dacre Everhart, seems to be the only thing standing in her way. As she and her sisters make themselves known on campus, their blood is drawing new, unwelcome attention.
Everything in Dacre Everhart's life is exactly how it should be. He's well on his way to becoming the heir his family desires until he discovers a troubling truth: He is scent-matched to Emma, the stubbornly optimistic baker he can't seem to escape. The journey to the top is hard-won, and it's even harder when the opposition is biologically attractive.
In a world that wants to tear them apart, who will rise above the secrets and lies for a chance at sweet success? Or will their greatest craving turn out to be each other?
Bite Me is a new adult paranormal romance and the second installment in a series of interconnected standalones set in a new world where werewolves, vampires, and humans coexist peacefully...most of the time.
The Monster in the Manor: A Contemporary Beauty & the Beast Retelling
by Lyonne Riley
Peony Austin has just left her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, seeking a new life for herself. But it's hard to achieve independence when all she has is ten dollars to her name. Sleeping in her car, Peony takes a job as a housekeeper for the reclusive billionaire, Mr. Edgewood.
Rupert Edgewood has good reasons for hiding. In exchange for his fortune, he lives as a monster, destined to never find true happiness. After driving away everyone with his temper and discerning taste for food, the winds of change come when Peony arrives and cooks him meals straight out of a fine dining restaurant.
As Rupert starts to fall for his new housekeeper, they still have never met. Will Rupert at last reveal himself despite his curse?
The Lone Wolf Paradox
by M J Etkind
Two lone wolves are pushed to confront what it means to build a pack of their own and rely on their village after being alone for so long. The only risk, they might just fall for each other in the process.
When Bea Howell puts her beloved farmhouse up for rent as a last-ditch effort to save her family's apple orchard and moves into the garage apartment to earn extra money, she never expected that a total asshole, full-time lumberjack, and fellow werewolf would move in with kids in tow.
Untethered by a pack, Lane has spent most of his adult life on the move and uncommitted to any man or woman. When his parents, who are raising his sister's children, are ostracized from the community, he returns to Maine and moves the kids across the state in search of anonymity and a fresh start. Renting the quaint farmhouse was an obvious choice, but his werewolf landlady, was a surprise.
Having sworn off a relationship after her divorce, Bea is surprised when she starts to develop feelings for the interloping werewolf, leading to Bea's increased involvement in Lane's family life. Distracted by his infatuation, Lane can't help but aid Bea with the floundering farm, which makes him unavailable when the kids need him most. As their lives intertwine, Bea is wooed by Lane's quiet competence, while Bea's tenacity only furthers Lane's attraction.
The Beast Lord
by Juliette Cross
Jessamine Glenmyr is on the run. She thought she'd fled far enough, living a life of obscurity in the Borderlands among rogues and outcasts. She was wrong. When her enemy finds her, she flees deeper into dark fae territory, risking death in the frozen woodlands. Anything is better than being used and forced to murder for the man who wants her. Or so she thinks until she's attacked by mercenaries and left for dead in the woods.
Lord Redvyr is annoyed when his wolf drags an unconscious and wounded light fae into his hunting camp. Their kind can never be trusted, and yet, as chief of his people, he is compelled to help her. The last thing Redvyr wants is a beautiful and beguiling fae wreaking havoc in his clan. But what bothers him most of all is how perfectly she calms the raging monster inside him--something no one else has ever done.
When grimlocks, foul creatures believed to be long-dead, crawl out of the mountains and begin abducting women and children, Redvyr finds an unlikely ally in Jessamine, who's been hiding a secret magick all her own. And she's willing to risk everything for the broody clan leader, even while knowing her power might guide her enemy straight to her.
But when they discover that the grimlocks serve a nefarious master deep under the mountain, there may be no magick in this world to stop the evil that's coming--an evil that threatens to tear Jessamine and Redvyr apart and plunge their world into darkness.
The Dragon's Bride
by Katee Robert
Briar Rose might have a name out of a storybook, but she learned at a very young age that no prince was coming to save her. She'll have to save herself. Unfortunately, even that is an impossible task in her current situation-trapped in a terrifying marriage to a dangerous man.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, which is how she finds herself making a deal with a demon. Freedom from her husband...in return for seven years of service.
She expects the service to be backbreaking and harsh. She doesn't expect to be put on an auction block in a room full of literal monsters and sold to the highest bidder.
To Sol.
A dragon.
He might seem kinder than his fearsome looks imply, but she knows better than to trust the way he wants to take care of her, or how invested he is in her pleasure. In her experience, if something seems too good to be true, it certainly is.
Falling for Sol is out of the question. She's suffered enough, and she has no intention of staying in this realm...even if she leaves her heart behind when she returns to her normal life.