You know how when you see a movie or a TV show and you suddenly need all your friends to watch it too so you can talk about it? That's how I am with books. I have forced my husband to read sooo many things. (Don't feel sorry for him; he's done the same with me, and we both have experienced plenty of happy surprises.)
At any rate, I'm gonna do that now to you. Right now. Brace for it.
You need to read:
Sharon Lynn Fisher, writer of science fiction romance and other assorted awesomeness. Once upon a time, she judged a contest that I entered, and when I read her scores--which she kindly signed--I looked her up. I read her books, all the time thinking, Holy wow this is the person who read my crap? Because she has oodles of talent and I want to be just like her when writer-me grows up.
Her next book, The Absinthe Earl (Irish fairies, absinthe, an earl, and "a door sealed for centuries"), comes out in October but is pre-oderable now. I adored both Ghost Planet ("a world where every colonist is tethered to an alien who manifests in the form of a dead loved one") and The Ophelia Prophecy (who knew genetic engineering could be so sexy and so, er, buggy at the same time?), both of which are just sitting there ready to be clicked on.
Of course, the reason I started writing science fiction romance in the first place was Catherine Asaro. She was already a legend when I saw her speak on a convention panel years and years ago, and she was so in-your-face that abso-freakin-lutely her hard-SF books had kissing in them, and none of the shocked and horrified dudes on the panel with her dared say anything about it. Maybe because she's awesome. Maybe because she has more scientific advanced degrees than all of them combined. I dunno. At any rate, the first book of hers that I read was The Phoenix Code (android nookie! scientist heroine!), but her Skolian Empire books are sublime. She started a new spin-off series in that world a few years back, the latest of which was published in 2017. I hope she continues writing those books because whoa.
Shifting gears a little, the book I'm reading right now is adorable and I want others folks to read it too--so we can talk about it, right. Ha! It's called David Mogo, Godhunter, and it's Suyi Davies Okungbowa's first novel. Although the description calls it "Nigerian god-punk," it's kind of urban fantasy with a Nigerian accent and a wrapping of YA. I'm loving it so far and want the writer to keep going, so buy his stuff. I mean, it's only one book. You can afford it.
And than we can talk.
