11 Best Forbidden Romance Books

Forbidden romance books are the perfect pick when you want to skirt the edge between something tame and something taboo. I’m sharing some of my favorite forbidden romance books where the characters really should be forbidden to fall for one another but just can’t help themselves.

These recommendations include everything from the steamy to the hilarious but they all include some element of the forbidden.

Happy reading…because life is better with a love story!

*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

My Favorite Forbidden Romance Books

Welcome to the Dark Side
by Giana Darling

I was a good girl. I ate my vegetables, volunteered at the local autism centre and sat in the front pew of church every Sunday. Then, I got cancer. What the hell kind of reward was that for a boring life well lived?

I was a seventeen-year-old paradigm of virtue and I was tired of it. So, when I finally ran into the man I’d been writing to since he saved my life as a little girl and he offered to show me the dark side of life before I left it for good, I said yes. Only, I didn’t know that Zeus Garro was the President of The Fallen MC and when you made a deal with a man who is worse than the devil, there was no going back.

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Good Girl Fail
by Roni Loren

O’Neal Lory has been taught that one mistake can undo an entire life of right decisions. That it doesn’t matter if a person has been good ninety-nine percent of the time. One misstep, one snap judgment, can derail everything. So, she’s taken a lot of right steps on the straight and narrow path. Eighteen years of them, in fact. Perfect grades. No rules broken. And definitely no boys.

Until she kisses him.

Auden Blake knows he shouldn’t touch his little sister’s best friend, knows that innocent girls like her should stay far, far away from him and his roommate Lennox—especially when she could reveal their behind-closed-doors activities to his family.

But when sheltered O’Neal goes rogue, ditching her scholarship to a conservative all-girls college and showing up at Bennette State—his school—instead, it’s going to take everything Auden has to keep his and Lennox’s hands off the curious good girl whose teach me vibes could unravel them both.

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Praise
by Sara Cate

He calls me perfect. His flawless pet. His good girl. Broken down and wounded by my emotionally neglectful ex, I wanted someone to tell me I was good enough.

Then, I stumbled into a new job with a boss who brings me to my knees—literally. He has me do things a real secretary would never do.

Emerson Grant tells me I’m more than just good enough. I’m worthy of his praise.

There are a million reasons why I should stay away. The owner of the Salacious Players’ Club is not just my new boss, he’s twice my age. And my ex-boyfriend’s father.

With him, I am treasured. I am adored. I am his. I’m a good girl, but I’m falling for the wrong man. Emerson Grant knows what he wants— And he wants me. So how far will I go to hear his approval?

Related: Salacious Players Club Books in Order

Reverse
by Kate Stewart

Thirty years ago, my father became the other half of a broken love story. A relationship he’s kept hidden for decades.

Upon unearthing his secret through a series of emails in our paper’s archives, I began my search for the truth. Haunted by my father’s love story, and in my quest for answers, I never imagined I would discover a love of my own. Or that my love for Easton Crowne would be key in discovering the reason behind what split our parents up.

Doomed from the start and knowing the havoc our relationship would inevitably wreak on our families, I could never have prepared for the toll it would take or the cost of the truth.

But in order to find our ending, we had to go back to their beginning. My name is Natalie Butler, and this is my star-crossed love story.

My book review of Reverse.

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The Tragedy of Felix and Jake
by J. Daniels

They say the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. They say the best way to stay sober is to love yourself.

I’m great at making bad decisions. Addict? Check. Poor impulse control? Check. Obsessed with the guy I’m sponsoring? Check Check Check.

There is no one worse for me to want in my bed than Jake Tully. He’s hot and grumpy and literally a terrible idea. Terrible. Worse, no one has ever made me feel the way he does — valued. But here I am – thinking about him again. Falling for my sponsor is not my worst idea yet, but it’s damn close.

Felix Fields is everything good. He’s thoughtful and kind. I can’t help but think about every bad thing we could do between these sheets. But we can’t be together. I’m not willing to risk my recovery for anyone – even if he might be perfect for me.

Finding a love like this is nothing short of a tragedy.

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Grinder
by Marie James

Senior year, two hockey championships under his skates, and parents who didn’t freak out when he swung the proverbial closet door open and stepped out… Damon Grant’s life couldn’t get any better. At least that’s what he thought.

When Jonah Kingston showed up at the barn as the new hockey coach, Damon couldn’t believe his luck. What was it about the dark-haired, bright-eyed, former hockey star that made him want to grind on and off of the ice?

Related: Best Hockey Romance Books

Group Therapy
by B.B. Easton

I am this close to finally becoming a full-fledged psychologist. PhD? Check. Prestigious postdoc position providing therapy to entitled millionaires and C-list celebrities who only occasionally throw pumpkin spice lattes at my head? Check. Letter of recommendation from my velociraptor-like supervisor?

That’s going to take a miracle. Not only because, to impress her, I have to cure our most-prized client’s writer’s block in time for him to meet an impossible deadline, but also because that client just so happens to be …

Thomas Freaking O’Reardon. Yeah, that Thomas O’Reardon. The wickedly brilliant, achingly beautiful, devastatingly British bestselling author whose psychological thrillers line my bookshelf at home and whose face I might or might not picture while I … you get the point. Sitting in a confined space with him; inhaling the crisp, clean scent of his cologne; gazing into his broody blue eyes while trying to remember to nod and listen and come up with suggestions that don’t involve taking our clothes off … it’s torture.

So, when Thomas casually asks me out at the end of a therapy session, I’m forced to make an impossible choice: say yes and risk losing my dream job, or say no and risk losing my dream guy. In a panic, I blurt out a third option—the only solution I can think of that will allow me to see this man after hours without it being considered a career-ending ethics violation: Group therapy.

The only problem? I’ve never actually done group therapy. And side problem: my other clients are … a handful. But what’s the worst that could happen? I mean, it’s not like I’m going to lose all control of the group and let it devolve into a chaotic, bloodthirsty, topless fight club. Right?

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Worship
by Ellis James

You think you know me. That’s the way I want it. Making you feel like we know each other—like we could go grab a beer sometime—is part of my job. Maybe the most vital part. It doesn’t hurt that I’m easy on the eyes, single at 35, and born richer than sin. My aesthetic matters much more than it should, but all the better for my worthy cause. And it’s a worthy cause.

I’ve made an art of making you feel good, and my influence makes you want to be good. Good like me. You think you know me, but you don’t.

Everyone has secrets. Mine could cost me everything. So I’m a fortress. No one’s ever even gotten close. Until tonight. See that man, the tall guy dripping on the bow of my yacht? The one I just pulled from the ocean? He’s the one who’s going to cost me everything.

If Tomorrow Never Comes
by Allison Ashley

Uncertain of what tomorrow brings, Elliott Holland decides to live it up—on the eve of a stem cell transplant to treat her leukemia. It’s destiny when she crosses paths with handsome and charming Jamie Sullivan. The chemistry is magic. So is a beautiful evening that ends with a bittersweet kiss goodbye and no expectations of ever seeing each other again.

One year later, Elliott’s future looks good. Her cancer is in remission. Her career in graphic design is taking off. And she’s finally met Carly, the young woman whose stem cell donation gave Elliott a second chance at life. Then, in a twist of fate both blissful and unfair, she meets Carly’s boyfriend. It’s Jamie, the man Elliott kissed like it was her last day on earth. Neither of them has ever forgotten it.

Now, the most difficult decisions of all lie ahead. Whatever risks there are to the heart, one need wins out: to grab hold of everything that can make someone feel alive again.

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Tempt
by Melanie Harlow

You’ve heard the story about the wedding planner who falls for the groom? Well, this is the one where she falls for his father. And that groom? He’s my ex.

I didn’t realize who the gruff, gorgeous older man was the night he rescued me from a creep in a Manhattan hotel. All I knew was that a hot, bearded stranger with a protective streak showed up right when I needed a reminder that real gentlemen still exist.

(Although he left his manners behind after asking me up to his room.) It was the hottest night of my life, but I never thought I’d see the former Navy SEAL again.

Imagine my surprise at the rehearsal dinner one week later, when my handsome stranger is introduced as the father of the groom. Even more surprising? What we felt in New York was no fluke.

In public, we pretend there’s nothing between us. In private, we can’t keep our hands off each other.

The situation is beyond complicated. Zach never even knew he’d fathered a child until recently, and he wants to earn his son’s trust and respect. As for me, I’m looking for a man who wants to start a family, and Zach has made it clear he’s not that man. He’s older, newly divorced, and he lives across the country.

But no matter how many times we draw the line, we keep crossing it. Nothing so wrong should ever feel so right.

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So This is War
by Meghan Quinn

Did I think I was going to fall for my coach’s daughter? The answer would be no. I’m still unclear on how I got into this predicament in the first place. A year ago, I was a man with one thought on his mind, the redhead I met at a hotel bar. Twelve months later, I found her.

Unfortunately for me, she not only happens to be my very off-limits coach’s daughter, but also… my new assistant and roommate.

I don’t even need an assistant, but Coach Wood doesn’t take no for an answer. Add in him writing up tasks for his daughter, Wylie, to complete for me? Well, it’s his own form of sweet torture. We are talking tasks that I would never ask her to do.

Tasks that make her despise me. Hate me. That make her utter four words that cause a shiver to crawl up my spine . . . Posey, this is war.

My book review of So This is War.

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