It should come as no surprise that I love cats. 

Cats in romance novels are wonderful too. There should be more of them. I especially love it when the hero has a cat. Real men love cats. 

Here are some wonderful Contemporary Romance Novels with Cats!

My lists are never in any particular order. Enjoy!

1. Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley Hero (big tough biker) has a kitty. 

Lauren Grahame has spent her whole life thinking something special was going to happen. She didn’t know what it was, she just knew it would one day be hers. But she learned the hard way that special wasn’t on offer.

So, after divorcing her cheating husband, Lauren searched for nothing special and she thought she found it when she landed a job as a waitress in a biker bar in Carnal. It was perfect: a nothing job in a nowhere bar in Nowheresville.

Then Tatum Jackson walked in. Part-owner of the bar, he took one look at high-class Lauren and wanted nothing to do with her. And he made this known, loudly.

Tate’s angry insults seared in her brain, Lauren decides the feeling is mutual and she doesn’t want anything to do with the gloriously handsome Tate Jackson. The clash of the bartender and barmaid begins but, even though Tate makes his change of mind clear (in biker-speak, a language Lauren is not fluent in), Lauren is intent on going her own way.

Until a serial killer hits Carnal and Lauren finds out Tate isn’t a bartender, he’s a bounty hunter. He stakes his claim for Lauren before he goes on the hunt for a killer but Laurie doesn’t speak biker nor does she understand bounty hunters and Tate comes back from the hunt to find his old lady has moved on.

Life throws curveball after curveball at Laurie and Tate as secrets are revealed, women are brutally murdered, Tate leads Lauren to special and Laurie tries to find her inner biker babe.

2. The Nerd's Pocket Pets by D.R. Grady Tiny Kitty

Shelby Conroy has always had this thing for Mr. Clean and now she’s met his look-a-like. Sam Welby is an oncology pediatrician, former Navy SEAL, and all around yummy man. Except she’s supposed to be working for him, not drooling over him. Sam has managed to fight his attraction to Shelby so far, but he’s a little confused as to why her lab coat pockets wriggle.

3. Geek with the Cat Tattoo by Theresa Weir 

Beauty and the geek… 

Shy music geek Emerson Foshay breaks into a cold sweat and is rendered speechless whenever Lola Brown, the girl of his dreams, steps into his guitar shop. But once a stray cat named Sam follows him home, everything changes and Emerson becomes the coolest guy in town. 

4. BEAST by Pepper Pace

Interracial fairytale is the story of Beast; a marine with a destroyed face and a plus sized beauty who has identity issues. A lesson learned is that beauty is not what is on the outside...In this romance that is taken from the Beauty and the Beasts' fairytale, it will leave you questioning 'who is the beauty and who is the Beast?' 

5. Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a Kitchen Aid mixer to die for, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O. Adding insult to O-less, she also has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Every moan, spank, and—was that a meow?—punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has—yep, you guessed it—no O. Enter Simon Parker. When the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. Their late-night hallway encounter has…well…mixed results. Because with walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick. A delicious mix of silly and steamy, this is an irresistible tale of exasperation at first sight.

6. Night Magic by Karen Robards Hero is allergic and they are on the run. 

Romance writer Clara Winston dedicates her newest book to her cat, Puff, without knowing what havoc she is about to unloose on her placid (boring?) life. Because there’s a rogue CIA agent out there whose code name is Puff, and some very bad guys want to kill him. When the bad guys show up at mild-mannered Clara’s house, thinking that she can lead them to the man they’re hunting, she is rescued by that man, disgraced CIA agent Jack McClain. Jack is green-eyed, black-haired, infuriatingly macho—and every bit as sexy as the romantic heroes she’s always writing about. Clara hates him on sight, but if she wants to survive he is the only game in town. With Puff very reluctantly in tow, they go on the run for their lives, battling each other until the sizzling chemistry between them explodes into red-hot passion.

7. Long Time Gone by Meg Benjamin

Erik Toleffson wasn’t looking to become Chief of Police. He’s got enough trouble trying to rebuild his relationship with his three brothers who, until just recently, ran the other way when he approached. He’s not the bully they grew up with, but bad memories are tough to overcome. 

Morgan Barrett is as worn out as a vat full of crushed grape skins. She never planned to run Cedar Creek Winery, but there’s no one else to shoulder the load as her father recovers from an injury. All she needs is a little sleep. Just a five-minute nap in the booth at the Dew Drop Inn…if that guy across the bar would stop staring at her as if putting her head down on the table is a crime.

After Morgan yawns in Erik’s face, there’s nowhere to go but up. With time, though, their relationship warms like a perfectly blended Bordeaux. Until the shady mayor digs into Erik’s past and dredges up information that could drive a permanent wedge between him and his brothers—and sour any chance of a future with Morgan.

8. Whisper Falls by Toni Blake

Tessa Sheridan came crawling back to her quaint hometown of Destiny after her big-city interior design career crumbled. Now not only must she struggle to make ends meet, but she has to contend with a biker next door and the roar of Harleys shattering the serenity of her cabin in the woods by Whisper Falls.

Worse still, her sexy, bad boy neighbor makes her feel breathless and weak—and shy, petite Tessa knows what a major mistake it would be to get involved with someone so . . . dangerous. 

They say that former teen rebel Lucky Romo has a dark, secret past—that he’s trouble with a capital "T." Still, Tessa feels all tingly when she sees how well he fills out a pair of tight jeans. And when Lucky invites her into his world, she knows the intense heat sparking between them could lead her somewhere wild and wonderful . . . and, yes, dangerous!

9. Back in Black by Lori Foster

Gillian is a PR expert hired to smooth out the rough edges on hot- headed sports club president Drew Black. He's rough, raw and ready for any challenge Gillian throws his way. But which one's going to end up on top?

10. Purrfect Voyage by Ruth J. Hartman

Kitty Carter is used to getting into strange situations when she chases her cat, Arthur. But this latest escapade is just too much! When Arthur chases a mouse at the marina while she's doing research for her book, she follows him down the dock and onto a yacht. Not entirely her plan, since she falls down some stairs and hits her head, and wakes to find herself out to sea. And she and Arthur aren’t the only ones on board!

Did I miss your favorite? Let me know! Vote for the best kitty in Contemporary Romance on my Goodreads list: Cats in Contemporary Romance 

When KC Gilmore wanted something to heat up her cold, lonely nights, she should have been more specific. Sand, unbearable heat, and caring for the wounded in Kuwait wasn’t what she had in mind. An ocean between her and Max Morrison, her business partner and best friend and the man caring for her son and dog has caused her to view Max in a different light. Now she has to struggle with growing feelings for the one man she can’t do without. Will telling him destroy their precious friendship?

Review

Sigh. If I wasn't a fan of DR Grady there is no way I would have made it this book. I have an investment in this series and these characters so I read on but it wasn't good.

The characters are great--Max is funny, tender, smart. KC is real and dedicated. The Morrison Clan is over the top. The premise is good. Best Friends to lovers and the heroine gets called to serve in the Middle Eastern Wars as a doctor in field hospital. We have the fun email romance or we are promised that. The truth is we get little romance which is okay since Max has already known he loved her and KC realizes it just before she leaves it gets solidified through letters and pictures and Max's care taking of her son and dog.

Here is what is wrong:

So much telling. So much.

We are told when things are funny. They things that should be funny are really you had to be there funny moments so that are not funny. Heartwarming but not funny.

We are told information and then retold the same information in email or dialogue. Groan. Edit. Please, edit. This is endless and dulls the whole book. There is no zest.

The novel wraps up in a chapter or two when she gets home so no really couple time and then the married and preggers epilogue. I don't mean sex. This is a sweet clean romance which values sex after marriage.  I mean time to really be in a romantic relationship.

Max is not really nerdy. And if he is such a genius I don't see it. Again we are told about it. Bah.

Anyway. Not a good outing by I writer I usually enough.

Lots of people want to grow up to be Doctors. Not me. But I don't mind reading about them in my Romance novels. :) 

Here are some great Doctors in Contemporary Romance for your reading pleasure. Click on the link to vote of the best of the best on my Goodreads list.

1. Forged in Steele by Maya Banks

Steele, a KGI team leader, is an enigma not even his teammates understand. His emotions are tightly locked down and nothing can break that icy exterior. Nothing except Maren Scofield, a doctor on a mission, a woman who has gotten under Steele’s skin and threatens to crack that unflappable cool he’s legendary for.

Steele is determined not to allow Maren past his carefully guarded defenses. But when she’s in danger, there’s no way he’ll allow anyone else to protect her.

Maren’s hiding something. He’s sure of it. But he isn’t prepared for the shocking discovery her secrets reveal. Or how they will forever alter the course of his destiny. He has a decision to make. Hold tight and shut her out. Or take a chance on something more powerful than he’s ever faced: Love.

2. The Corpsman and the Nerd by D.R. Grady

When KC Gilmore wanted something to heat up her cold, lonely nights, she should have been more specific. Sand, unbearable heat, and caring for the wounded in Kuwait wasn’t what she had in mind. An ocean between her and Max Morrison, her business partner and best friend and the man caring for her son and dog has caused her to view Max in a different light. Now she has to struggle with growing feelings for the one man she can’t do without. Will telling him destroy their precious friendship?

3. Flight Surgeon by Michael Jennings

When a beautiful young country singer falls for a rich, handsome flight surgeon, the course of true love encounters turbulence along the way. Briana is innocent and mischievous, while Michael is serious and focused on his work for Doctors Without Borders. What starts as an easy flirtation soon becomes more complicated than either of them had bargained for.

She loves him . . . but can she trust him?

Briana and Michael are inexperienced in the ways of love, although their attraction promises the deeper union they both yearn for. But a giant misunderstanding threatens their budding relationship. Will they learn to communicate, trust and forgive before it’s too late?

4. The Derby Girl by Tamara Morgan

Roller derby girl Gretchen "Honey Badger" Badgerton lives in the moment, no apologies. Like every woman in Pleasant Park with a pulse, she finds Dr. Jared Fine irresistible, but she's taken by surprise when her unattainable new neighbor asks her out.

On paper, Jared is the perfect man: gorgeous, wealthy and charitable. But his golden image is just that, and opening an upstate practice is a welcome chance to start a new life. When Gretchen stops to help him with a flat tire, he's intrigued by her feisty attitude—and her sexy body art. There's something refreshing about being with a take-charge woman who doesn't expect him to be anything but himself.

Though Gretchen is hesitant to shatter Jared's "bad girl" illusion of her, she has to face facts: she's fallen for the good doctor. She's used to putting everyone else's needs before hers, but as their relationship heats up, can she handle having someone take care of her for a change?

5. Friends Without Benefits by Penny Reid

Friends Without Benefits can be read as a standalone, is a full length 120k word novel, and is book #2 in the Knitting in the City Series.
There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Finney: 1) She suffers from severe sarcastic syndrome, especially when she's unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her like Nico Manganiello, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Elizabeth Finney is almost always right about everything: the musical merits of boy bands are undervalued by society, “benefits” with human Ken dolls are better without friendship, and the sun has set on her once-in-a-lifetime chance for true love. But when Elizabeth’s plans for benefits without friendship are disarmed by the irritatingly charismatic and chauvinistic Nico Manganiello- her former nemesis- she finds herself struggling to maintain the electric fence around her heart while avoiding electrocution or, worse, falling in love.

6. The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann

After a near-fatal head injury, Navy SEAL lieutenant Tom Paoletti catches a glimpse of an international terrorist in his New England hometown. When he calls for help, the Navy dismisses the sighting as injury-induced imaginings. In a last-ditch effort to prevent disaster, Tom creates his own makeshift counterterrorism team, assembling his most loyal officers, two elderly war veterans, a couple of misfit teenagers, and Dr. Kelly Ashton. As the town’s infamous bad boy, Tom was always in love with Kelly, a sweet “girl next door” who has grown into a remarkable woman. Now he has one final chance for happiness, one last chance to win her heart, and one desperate chance to save the day.
 

7. Laugh by Mary Ann Rivers

Dr. Sam Burnside is convinced that volunteering at an urban green-space farm in Lakefield, Ohio, is a waste of time—especially with his new health clinic about to open. He only goes to mollify his partner, suspecting she wants him to lighten up. Then Sam catches sight of Nina Paz, a woman who gives off more heat than a scorcher in July. Her easy smile and flirty, sizzling wit has him forgetting his infamous need for control.
 
Widowed when her husband was killed in Afghanistan, Nina has learned that life exists to take chances. As the daughter of migrant workers turned organic farmers, she’s built an exciting and successful business by valuing new opportunities and working hard to take care of her own. But when Sam pushes for a relationship that goes beyond their hotter-than-fire escapades, Nina ignores her own hard-won wisdom. She isn’t ready for a man who needs saving—even if her heart compels her to take the greatest risk of all: love.

8. Healing Her Heart by Audra North

Informing the next of kin of a patient's death is hardly cardiac surgeon Greg Stanton's favorite activity. Tired of spreading bad news, he decides to take a week off and enjoy a few extra curricular activities—one in particular that hopefully involves a certain blonde director.

Carrie's experience as the Director of New Beginnings, an Assisted Living Residence, has taught her that the wisdom of the elderly is often more healing than any drug. So when Greg drops by her office to tell her one of her residents passed away and mentions he's taking some time off, Emily suggests that he spend the time volunteering at her facility.

Greg is in need of a way to de-stress. After being burned by her ex-fiance, Carrie needs a little fun. What's a little sex between friends? But when their casual arrangement is complicated by real feelings, one of them will have to step up to save what could be something special before they both tear it apart.

9. Doctors Beyond Borders by Georgie Tyler

When Ariadne Tate takes a deployment to Sudan with a medical aid organisation, romance is the last thing on her mind…but Dr Ford Gosden puts a glitch in her plans. Too damn attractive for his own good and a thoroughly nice guy, Ford slowly seeps under Ariadne's skin.

But Sudan is not a stable place to form a relationship, and as political tension escalates in the region, Ariadne has no choice but to focus on her job and her safety. Under the protection of a UN convoy, she heads out into the war-torn countryside — and the unthinkable happens. Captured and held hostage by a renegade with no chance of escape, Ariadne's hope for a new life with the man she loves begins to fade and the fight for her life begins.

10. Just Down the Road by Jodi Thomas

When Tinch Turner lost his wife, he gave up on living. Now he spends his nights brooding, boozing, and brawling. When one of his escapades lands him in the ER, he finds himself staring up at the beautiful new doctor in town. For the first time in years, he feels a spark, but Addison Spencer wants nothing to do with the unruly rancher—or any man for that matter. She’s only in Harmony four months, long enough for the trouble she left behind to be over. But then a vulnerable little boy barrels into both their lives, forcing them out of the past—and into a future where love is just down the road...

In the meantime, as Reagan Truman grieves for her beloved uncle, she finds comfort in the makeshift family she’s made in Harmony—and in a new baby, the first born in the Wright Funeral Home in 45 years, proving to everyone that life does go on…

I know I had to have missed your favorite. Let me know! I am always on the look out for new authors and books. 

Bringing the Father's Day List Party to a close with Proud Papas: Romance Novel Heroes and Heroines with Great Fathers!

Sadly, in Romanceland much like in Disney films one or both parents of the hero or heroine is usually dead, the stepparent awful, or the parents mysteriously non existent. (Don't get me started on Max and Ruby. A Grandma across town is not enough for naught bunnies childern. Yes, I belong to the Facebook Group Where are Max's and Ruby's Parents?)

I suppose dealing with a involved, present, supportive parent let alone two may by just too much to handle in some romance novel plots and genres for various reasons: changes character development, enlarges the cast, reduces angst for example.

However, some of my favorite love stories I adore because the hero and heroine have been shaped by a wonderful parent or set of them. In the case of this list, fathers that trust, teach, support and like their adult childern. Any of us who have lost a parent or simply have a parent that sadly falls into the more Disney based reality knows that even grown ups need father love. 

In my list of Proud Papas, my very favorites are a father who likes to blow up things, has every confidence in his kick ass daughter and offers side splitting dour advice to her mate (Beast Behaving Badly), a curious bear shifter married to a super smart feminist who also gives great dating advice (The Mane Squeeze), a lawyer father who has always empowered his daughter, falters, and then stands beside her not doing for her but allowing her to do (Deeper: A Novel), and father and grandfather Chocolate Kings who love so fiercely you can't help but love them too (The Chocolate Thief). The father even gets his own novella and Happily Ever After. I think Grandpa should too. 

Here is the full list of wonderful books! Some of the fathers have passed away but their love is still very much alive. 

1. Imperfect Chemistry by Mary Frame  

2. The Nerd's Pocket Pets  by D.R. Grady 

3. Live by Mary Ann Rivers 

4. Friends Without Benefits by Penny Reid

5. Dangerous Curves Ahead by Sugar Jamison 

6. The Chocolate Thief and Sun-Kissed by Laura Florand

7. Beast Behaving Badly and The Mane Squeeze by Shelly Laurenston 

8. Deeper: A Novel  by Robin York 

9. A Scandalous Plan by Donna Lea Simpson 

10. Collecting by Viola Grace 

To vote for the best of the best, go to the Goodreads list: Proud Papas: Romance Novel Heroes and Heroines with Great Fathers! 

To check out some simply gorgeous fathers and get more recommendations for Great Father Heroes of all kinds in Romance Novels, visit my Pinterest Boards: Family Man: More of the Best Father Heroes in Romance and Father Love: Best Father Heroes in Romance.

I hope you enjoyed the Father's Day Weekend List Party.  

To finish off this week's salute to Best Romances Featuring Brothers, I shall end with Best Contemporary Romance Series with Brothers.

Here you go!

1. Chase Brothers by Lauren Dane

  Giving Chase- Kyle

  Taking Chase- Shane

  Chased-Marc

  Making Chase- Matt 

2. The Kowalski Family by Shannon Stacey

   Exclusively Yours- Joe

    Undeniably Yours- Kevin 

    Yours To Keep- Sean 

    All He Ever Needed- Mitch 

    All He Ever Desired- Ryan 

   All He Ever Dreamed- Josh 

3. Billionaire Brothers (The Harrington Brothers) by Lily Everett

    The Firefly Cafe- Dylan

    The Summer Cottage- Logan

     Island Road- Miles 

4. Friday Harbor (The Nolan Brothers) by Lisa Kleypas

    Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor- Mark 

    Rainshadow Road- Sam

    Dream Lake- Alex

5. Wilder Adventures (The Wilder Brothers) by Jill Shalvis

   Instant Attraction- Cameron 

    Instant Gratification- Stone 

    Instant Temptation - TJ 

6. Wild Irish (The Collins Brothers) by Mari Carr

   Waiting for Wednesday- Tristian 

    Sweet Thursday- Justin and Killian

    Friday I'm in Love- Ewan 

    Any Given Sunday- Sean 

7. Coulter Family by Catherine Anderson 

  Sweet Nothings- Jake 

  Bright Eyes- Zeke