Slow-burn romance books
Slow burn gives attraction time to build. These books have the slow-burn label in our catalog, so you can look for developing tension without guessing from a cover.
Slow burn describes pacing, not a promise of low heat. Compare the overall spice rating, then explore the chapter Spice Map on books that have one to see how the heat changes through the story.
How to choose your next read
Pair the slow-burn label with a setting or another trope you enjoy. A chapter Spice Map can help you compare where the heat appears without reading story spoilers.
Our spice-rating guide explains what the numbers tell you. Reading is through the app after early access is granted.
10 original stories to explore
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The Twelfth Crossing
Heat 4/5Funeral cosmetician Basia Sikora has spent eleven Halloweens crossing to a vampire court under Manhattan for one night with the man she buried in an empty casket.
Second chance · Forbidden · Slow burn
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The Four-Eleven
Heat 4/5If you grew up between Erie and Pittsburgh, you've heard her: four minutes and eleven seconds of a seven-year-old whispering to a 911 dispatcher from her mother's closet, the call that put her father in prison for life.
Slow burn · Touch her and die · Protective hero
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Crimson Sacrament
Heat 5/5Three days after her father dies in a car bomb in Naples, London lawyer Valentina Marchetti agrees to marry the heir of the Roman family she suspects of his murder, on her own terms, with a way out written into the contract.
Enemies to lovers · Arranged marriage · Mafia romance
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What the Glass Keeps
Heat 4/5Linnea Hart blows wedding goblets in a snowbound mortal town and hides what her glass does that no glass should: it holds light after the flame is gone. Then a letter arrives under pale blue wax.
Slow burn · Touch her and die · Protective hero
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The Taste of Staying
Heat 4/5Sadie Monroe quit a Chicago kitchen in front of a full dining room. Now she has a camp cook's job on a Montana ranch and a letter to prove it. She arrives on branding morning to one man, sixty eggs and a cold griddle.
Grumpy sunshine · Single parent · Found family
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The Clause
Heat 4/5Frankie Reyes runs the machine that decides who gets to stay at Carrick University, and this year the machine needs a love story. Her love story.
Fake dating · Grumpy sunshine · Forced proximity
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Clean Hit
Heat 4/5When the Carrick Forge's enforcer is benched after a rage blackout puts an opponent in the hospital, Dr. Maya Sinclair is assigned to decide whether he is safe to return.
Forbidden · Forced proximity · Slow burn
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Read Option
Heat 4/5An injured NFL quarterback hiding out on Cape Cod meets a fiercely private MFA student who has no idea who he is.
Forced proximity · Secret relationship · Secret identity
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The Cost of Clay
Heat 4/5She needs everything in writing. He has spent six years keeping the real numbers off the page.
Slow burn · Workplace romance · Opposites attract
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Not a Hand to Steady Her
Heat 4/5Nell Kersey finds a book that was never on the inventory: black leather, no title, her mother's name inked into a page three hundred years old.
Forbidden · Slow burn · Morally gray
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