Eloisa James' Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Eloisa James recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Eloisa James' favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

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It Had to Be You (Chicago Stars, #1)

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

4.2

The Windy City isn’t quite ready for Phoebe Somerville -- the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars’ head coach Dan Celebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. Celebow is everything Phoebe abhors. And the sexy new boss is everything Dan despises -- a meddling bimbo who doesn’

Recommended by Eloisa James.

Eloisa James

Not particularly. I’ve never gone to a professional football game, and I don’t see myself going to one in the near future. But I will follow a great writer anywhere – into sports, outer space, even the Bronx. [source]

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Lord of Scoundrels (Scoundrels, #3)

Loretta Chase

4.3

DETERMINED LADY

Tough-minded Jessica Trent's sole intention is to free her nitwit brother from the destructive influence of Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain. She never expects to desire the arrogant, amoral cad. And when Dain's reciprocal passion places them in a scandalously compromising, and public, position, Jessica is left with no choice but to seek satisfaction...

LORD OF SC

Recommended by Eloisa James.

Eloisa James

The past is the ultimate escape: we dream ourselves backward, into a time when women wore fabulously interesting and sensual clothing and, perhaps more importantly, to a time when relationships between men and women were highly structured. Hooking up is a far more confusing process than going to a debutante ball. [source]

Flowers from the Storm

Laura Kinsale

4.3

The Duke of Jervaulx was brilliant - and dangerous. Considered dissolute, reckless, and extravagant, he was transparently referred to as the "D of J" in scandal sheets. But sometimes the most womanizing rakehell can be irresistible, and even his most causal attentions fascinated the sheltered Maddy Timms.

Then one fateful day she receives the shocking news - the duke is lost to the world. And Madd

Recommended by Eloisa James.

Eloisa James

As a romance writer, I hugely admire those authors who take on a serious challenge. It’s not particularly difficult to match two smart, funny people, especially if they have a modicum of good looks and at least one paycheck between the two of them. It is far more difficult to create a novel that circles around a relationship that seems impossible. Because we write in a genre (romance), I think it is particularly important that the reader experience some uncertainty – a nervous sense that this time the promise of the genre might not come true (a parallel would be the mystery that is utterly unsolvable halfway through). [source]

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Welcome to Temptation (Dempseys #1)

Jennifer Crusie

4.1

Sophie Dempsey wants to help her sister film a video and then get out of Temptation, Ohio. Mayor Phin Tucker wants to play pool with the police chief and keep things peaceful. But when Sophie and Phin meet, they both get more than they want. Gossip, blackmail, adultery, murder, vehicular abuse of a corpse, and slightly perverse but excellent sex: all hell breaks loose in Temptation as Sophie and P

Recommended by Eloisa James.

Eloisa James

This book offers a brilliant mix of funny dialogue and a hysterical plot. A wedding photographer is pushed into shooting a porn movie set in a little town called Temptation. The hero is the town sheriff. The plot plays perfectly to Crusie’s talent for creating witty, frantic heroines. [source]

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Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1)

J.R. Ward

4.3

The only purebred vampire left on the planet and the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who killed his parents centuries ago. But when his most trusted fighter is killed—orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate—Wrath must put down his dagger and usher the beautiful female into another world.

Racked by a restlessness in her

Recommended by Eloisa James.

Eloisa James

I think Ward did a fantastic job of capturing the complicated zeitgeist in America, post-9/11. This is a vampire book that plays directly into the sort of fears raised by the terrorist attack: the ‘good’ vampires fight ‘bad’ vampires, who merge into the general population and can’t be detected (except by the smell of baby powder, hardly an infallible attribute). [source]