Paranormal Romance is honestly the genre mashup area of romance. Take fantasy (or urban fantasy) mix with suspense, but be sure the final confection has an emotionally satisfying HEA. The mashup means, this is often where “crazy plots” and high drama come to live. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief for many elements – not just the romance. You will find the monsters common in horror novels, but here they have sex appeal instead of being scary. Time Travel and psychic abilities also live here. For long running series, the world building can be crucial to fan appeal, and cross-over appeal.
The following are very popular authors, but feel free to bring any paranormal romance to share with the group! (Teen Romances welcome!) Try to read two books that feature different paranormal abilities/creatures or have strong differences in world-building backstory of the paranormal element. (i.e. If you want to read two vampire romances, pick two where the vampires are very different from world-building perspective.)
Kresley Cole
Immortals After Dark; Vampires + Werewolves, etc.
Gail Carriger (Urban Fantasy Fans!)
Parasol Protectorate; Steampunk w/ werewolves, Vampires & more!
Laurell K. Hamilton
Merry Gentry; Fae (Scorching!)
(Anita Blake starts off urban fantasy, moves to erotica, and only has HEA in most recent books)
Larissa Ione
Demonica; Demons
Lords of Deliverance; Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Lora Leigh
Breeds; Shifters (Scorching!)
Kathy Lyons
Grizzlies Gone Wild; Shifters
Also stand-alones under Jade Lee w/ Dragons
Lynsay Sands
Argeneau; Vampires (more humour than others)
Gena Showalter
Lords of the Underworld; Demons & Psychics
Nalini Singh
Psy-Changelings; Psychics & Changelings (AKA Shifters)
Guild Hunter; Angels/Archangels
R. Ward
Black Dagger Brotherhood; Vampires protecting against evil
Fallen Angels; Angels & Demons
— OR —
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Dark Hunter; Vampires protecting against evil, with some Greek mythology
If you want to repeat an author you did earlier, check out:
Nora Roberts
Sign of Seven Trilogy
Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy
Circle Trilogy
Jayne Castle (AKA Jayne Ann Krentz & Amanda Quick)
Harmony
If you want the “kitchen sink” approach to paranormal elements, try
Sandra Hill’s Deadly Angels
For more ideas, see:
Goodreads, with a grain of salt
Fated Mates Podcast, especially for Kresley Cole readers
The “Interstital” episodes are non-Cole and excellent
Gateways to Romance episode tackles RA issues