Science Fiction Romance Recommendations for Summer Reading Bingo

Note: Portions of this post previously appeared on my author blog. While we strive to present new content here on the AMAZING STORIES MAGAZINE blog, occasionally we do highlight items of interest first published elsewhere.

This week I’m going to change focus a bit from new releases in SFR but promise to still provide you a plethora of recommendations for good reading in the genre.

The Ripped Bodice Bookstore in SoCal is conducting their third annual Summer Romance Bingo. It’s an amusing exercise to take their bingo card of categories (tropes) and identify science fiction romance titles that satisfy the requirements for readers. I recently asked the members of The Science Fiction Romance Brigade on Facebook, who are authors and avid readers, to recommend books for this purpose. (Authors were allowed to recommend their own titles and I included some of mine where applicable.). Some categories were hard to fulfill and others were wayyy popular!

As the Ripped Bodice notes on their rules page, “You can interpret the categories however you want” so we took a bit of license on a few to make SFR fit a general romance trope.

To be clear, we’re NOT playing bingo here, merely providing a list of suggestions! Hop over to the Ripped Bodice site if you want to enter their reading contest, which runs through August 31, 2019.

Many of the books were suggested for more than one category; however I only listed each title in one category to keep the list as unique as possible.

It makes for a fun reading list and a different lens with which to view SFR.

I’ve included all the categories below and two to three suggestions in each. (The suggestions were listed in the post in no certain order.) To see all the books the SFR Brigade placed in each category, which were too many to include here, you can visit the original post on my blog.

Beach on the cover:

DEVI’S DISTRACTION (ICEHOME BOOK 7) by Ruby Dixon

STAR CRUISE: MAROONED by Veronica Scott

TREASURE OF THE ABYSS (THE KRAKEN BOOK 1) by Tiffany Roberts

Next door neighbor:

THE CYBORG NEXT DOOR: IN THE STARS by Bianca D’Arc

ALIEN ADORATION (ALIEN NEXT DOOR BOOK 1) by Jessica E Subject

VS: Note: This is a 3 book series so she has two more next door neighbor titles plus this one:

DRAGO: STARGAZER ALIEN MAIL ORDER BRIDES #13 (INTERGALACTIC DATING AGENCY) by Tasha Black.

On the page atheist (I totally left this category up to authors to interpret):

STRANDED WITH THE CYBORG by Cara Bristol

Cara states “…the entire Psy-Ops series is an atheist one.”

OVEROAD FLUX: GALACTIC CONCORDANCE BOOK 1 by Carol Van Natta, who states “…all the major characters in my space opera series are atheists.”

Show Business (There were so many fun ones proposed for this category!):

STAR CRUISE MYSTERY DANCER by Veronica Scott

EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES: HEROES AND VILLAINS  by Liana Brooks

ALIEN ATTRACTION (ALIEN Mate 2) by Cara Bristol

LGBTQ Paranormal (or SFR) – Another category with many excellent recommendations:

THE STARK DIVIDE (LIMINAL SKY BOOK 1) and THE RISING TIDE (LIMINAL SKY BOOK 2) by J Scott Coatsworth

THE 5TH GENDER by Gail Carriger

THE EMPRESS AND THE AMBASSADOR (AEON 14: THE EMPIRE BOOK 1) by M D Cooper

Assassins (lots of assassins in SFR!):

SILENT LUCIDITY (THE INFINITE CITY BOOK 1) by Tiffany Roberts

OVERLOAD FLUX: CENTRAL GALACTIC CONCORDANCE BOOK 1 by Carol Van Natta

ASSASSIN’S HUNGER: SHEERSPACE BOOK 3 by Jessa Slade

Eloping (This one was hard to fill):

MISSION TO MAHJUNDAR by Veronica Scott

The hero is escorting her to her arranged marriage but when they arrive, things are not as they were supposed to be, the two of them are in love and they flee…so, kind of elopement! This category was hard for SFR!

Takes Place in Multiple Countries (or on multiple planets for SFR) Another category with plentiful suggestions:

EDGE OF NOWHERE by Felicia Davin

THE DARKNESS WITHIN US (THE DARK DIMENSION SERIES BOOK 1) by Brooke Hodge

THE WARRIOR’S MATE (IRIDUAN TEST SUBJECTS BOOK 4) by Susan Trombley

Sassy Grandparent (or as close as we could come):

PEARL’S DRAGON (DRAGON LORDS OF VALDIER BOOK 10) by S E Smith

BODIES IN MOTION (NEWTON’S LAWS BOOK 1) by Liana Brooks

A sassy Aunt!

MINDER RISING: CENTRAL GALACTIC CONCORDANCE BOOK 2) by Carol Van Natta

Heroine Smells Like a Flower:

CHOOSING CHUCKLES (CYBORG SPACE EXPLORATION BOOK 1) by Cynthia Sax

VIOLET SOULS: THE EVOXIAN LEGACIES BOOK 1 by Abbey McMunn

MATEER: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 2) by Veronica Scott

Both leads over 50:

GAIL’S FAMILY (ICEHOME BOOK 4) by Ruby Dixon

DELTA-V intergalactic dating agency (cyborg cowboys of carbon county book 2) by Elsa Jade

LAST SHIP OFF POLARIS-G: A CENTRAL GALACTIC CONCORDANCE NOVELLA by Carol Van Natta

Title includes character’s name:

 VREHX (CONQUERED WORLD BOOK 1) by Elin Wynn

RAVEN (XIAN WARRIORS BOOK 2) by Regine Abel

TOREL: STAR CROSSED ALIEN MAIL ORDER BRIDES (INTERGALACTIC DATING AGENCY) by Susan Hayes

Happily Ever After (Note: To be considered a romance there must be an HEA or a Happy For Now ending so as you can guess, we had a ton of books for this):

UNDYING (VALOS OF SONHADRA BOOK 7) by Tiffany Roberts

MAMA AND THE ALIEN WARRIOR: TREASURED BY THE ALIEN by Honey Phillips and Bex McLynn

CYBORG (GALACTIC GLADIATORS BOOK 10) by Anna Hackett

Dragons (A very popular trope in SFR right now, so there was no lack of suggestions to read):

UNDER FYRE (ALIEN DRAGON SHIFTERS BOOK 1) by Cara Bristol

THE DRAGON’S QUEEN (SHIFTERS OF KLADUU BOOK 4) by Pearl Foxx

DRAGON’S BABY (RED PLANET DRAGONS OF TAJSS BOOK 1) by Miranda Martin

Kilts:

GLADIATOR (GALACTIC GLADIATORS BOOK 1) by Anna Hackett

WARLORD SKY (CHAMELE BARBARIAN WARLORDS BOOK 1) by Cynthia Sax

YA Historical (We adapted this to a call for steampunk, YA or NA if possible):

HEART OF IRON (LONDON STEAMPUNK BOOK 2) by Bec McMaster

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE (AGES OF INVENTION BOOK 2) by S B K Burns

SPECTERS IN THE STORM by Pauline Baird Jones

Wine & Spirits (We settled on books where drinking of substances took place…):

SALVATION (BOOK 2 OF THE PROPHECY SERIES) by Lea Kirk

BRIGHT STAR, THE APPRENTICE, VOLUME 2 (THE TWELVE SYSTEMS CHRONICLES) by E G Manetti

BLOOD KING: REVAMPING THE MONARCHY (THE HEART NEBULA BOOK 3) by Ava Cuvay

Cowboys:

MACH ONE: INTERGALACTIC DATING AGENCY (CYBORG COWBOYS OF CARBON COUNTY BOOK 1) by Elsa Jade

MINE UNTIL MIDNIGHT by Linda Mooney

SPACE COWBOYS AND INDIANS (COSMIC COWBOYS BOOK 1) by Lisa Medley

Roadtrip (We tried to go for a roadtrip across a planet…):

CLAIMED BY AN ALIEN WARRIOR by Tiffany Roberts

NOBODY’S HERO (THE BURNED LANDS BOOK 1) by Bec McMaster

DARK PLANET WARRIORS by Anna Carven

Epistolary (We decided to do our best to find a book or two where chunks of the plot were told through e mails, texts, letters, etc.):

ILLUMINAE (THE ILLUMINAE FILES BOOK 1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

JUMPER’S HOPE: CENTRAL GALACTIC CONCORDANCE BOOK 4 by Carol Van Natta

CLARA, DREAMING: A SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE SANDMAN RETELLING: FOXWEPT ARRAY BOOK 2 by A W Cross

Royalty:

DIGNITY (TO BE SINCLAIR BOOK 1) by Eva Caye

COLLISION (BOOK 3 OF THE PROPHECY SERIES by Lea Kirk

STAR PRINCE (STAR SERIES BOOK 2) by Susan Grant

Tarot (or other fortune telling):

THE STAR KING by Susan Grant

THE RULE OF LUCK (A FELICIA SEVIGNY NOVEL BOOK 1) by Catherine Cerveny

Someone wears a costume:

PICO’S CRUSH: CENTRAL GALACTIC CONCORDANCE BOOK 3 by Carol Van Natta

POLAR TERROR: A HEROES AND VILLAINS STORY by Liana Brooks

CYBORG POOL BOY by Naomi Lucas

Prom (or other big elaborate dance/event):

NIGHTINGALE: THE APPRENTICE VOLUME 6 (THE TWELVE SYSTEMS CHRONICLES) by E G Manetti

THE INTERGALACTIC DUKE’S INCONVENIENT ENGAGEMENT: BLACK HOLE BRIDES #1 (INTERGALACTIC DATING AGENCY) (BIG SKY ALIEN MAIL ORDER BRIDES BOOK 5) by Elsa Jade

GIRL GONE NOVA: PROJECT ENTERPRISE BOOK 2 by Pauline Baird Jones

F/F Contemporary (we decided to try for near future SFR if possible or PNR):

MUSES (PARANORMAL GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE CHRONICLES BOOK 2) by Elizabeth Andre

RULEBREAKER by Cathy Pegau

THE LILY AND THE CROWN by Roslyn Sinclair

For the entire expanded list of recommendations made by the SFRB members, visit the original blog post.

Happy reading and I’ll be back with the new releases report in two weeks!

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