10 Toe-curling, slow burn romances that will melt your heart

Tired of instalove in your romance reads? Well, if that’s the case, boy do we have some reading suggestions for you! Here are our picks for the best slow-burn romances you’ll ever read:

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Love in Lingerie
Author: Alessandra Torre
 
Amazon Blurb:
I hired her to fix my company, to bring Marks Lingerie back to life. I didn’t expect her to become my friend. I didn’t expect to fall in love with her.
 
The first rule of business is to never touch your employees. I think there is another rule about not falling for your best friend—a rule against imagining the curves of her body, or the way her breathing would change if I pulled down her panties and unzipped my pants.
 
Now, I can’t wait any longer. I’m tossing out the rules.
 
Damn the company.
Damn our friendship.
Damn my fears.

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Coming Home
Author: Priscilla Glenn
 
Amazon Blurb:
Leah Marino hasn’t been on a date in two years. After discovering the man she loved had manipulated and deceived her, she refuses to even entertain the idea of a relationship. Instead, she focuses her attention on taking care of her family, a role she’s assumed since the death of her mother and the one place she knows her kindness won't be taken advantage of again.
 
When a nostalgic trip back to her childhood home results in a chance encounter with Danny DeLuca, a smart-mouthed mechanic who’s as attractive as he is mysterious, Leah's carefully cultivated walls begin to crumble. She finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Danny, despite his unreliable behavior and mixed signals.​

But Danny has a secret...
 
One that could shake Leah's already precarious foundation and bring her world crashing down around her. Suddenly, she's faced with an incredibly difficult decision--is she willing to risk everything for the chance at finding the love she's always wanted? Or are some obstacles just too big for the heart to overcome

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Bone Deep
Author: Bonnie Dee
 
Amazon Blurb:
Love sees deep below the surface.
 
In the aftermath of WWII, widowed Sarah is dragged to a carnival by friends where she’s riveted by the unearthly gaze of the tattooed man in the freak show. When this sensitive soul hides in her hayloft after escaping imprisonment by the evil carnival owner, Sarah shelters Tom on her farm. Deeply drawn to the quiet yet powerfully magnetic man, Sarah fights her attraction while learning about his mysterious past and gentle nature.
 
When a child goes missing, Tom uses his psychic gift to find her, but his assistance doesn’t stop the locals’ mistrust of such an exotic stranger. Small-town prejudice tears the lovers apart and a very real threat from the carnival owner endangers them both. 

Can Tom and Sarah rise above obstacles of fear and hatred to create the family both have always craved?
 
Revised from an earlier published edition.

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Taking Connor
Author: BN Toler
 
Amazon Blurb:
There’s a stereotype for how a convicted felon appears to the public.
 
Connor Stevens fit that bill.
 
His reputation preceded him. With a hard body and vivid tattoos dispersed across his flesh, he certainly drew the judgmental eyes of conservative tight-asses. Even I had those same thoughts…regardless of how highly Blake spoke of him.
 
But those opinions were about to be challenged.
 
I’d promised to pick Connor up from prison—where he’d served eight years for manslaughter. When Blake passed away, I had every intention of honoring our agreement. Taking Connor home would be my ultimate show of gratitude.​

Blake never disclosed why Connor killed a man, and I never had the guts to ask. Ever daunted, and against my better judgment, I soon grew to feel close to Connor, in spite of how perverse it was. Still, I vowed to brush off those feelings at all costs.
 
At least I thought I would. Until all hell broke loose…
 
Diving head-first, I relished in the time spent in Connor’s damnation. But when he was thrust into hell, it didn’t matter how wrong it was to love him. It was immaterial what he’d done…or why. I came out swinging and clawing, and submerged into the inferno with him, refusing to leave until we both walked out hand in hand. My instinct was to fight.
 
Connor wouldn’t burn alone. 
 
I would save him.
 
Or turn to ash right beside him.

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I Love You to Death
Author: Natalie Ward
 
Amazon Blurb:
When Ash loses her boyfriend, she is consumed by grief, loneliness and an overwhelming sense of guilt for her role in not only his death, but the deaths of everyone she has ever loved. Refusing to let anyone in for fear of losing them too, she becomes withdrawn, spending her days reliving the nightmares from her past.
 
Until she meets Luke.
 
Initially scared by his intensity and interest in her, Ash tries to push him away. But as Luke slowly starts to chip away at the walls she’s built, Ash finds herself doing the one thing she swore she’d never do again — falling in love.
 
When the familiar feelings Ash had hoped were long buried with her past begin to resurface, she is forced to ask herself if falling in love again is really worth the risk.​

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Semi-Charmed
Author: Isabel Jordan
 
Amazon Blurb:
Psychic and paranormal PI Harper Hall isn’t that surprised when her business partner skips town. Really, she can’t help but feel it’s her own fault for trusting a guy named Romeo in the first place.
 
But if Harper wants to consult for the police on a high profile case, she’ll need a new partner—preferably one with some supernatural skills of his own. Enter Noah Riddick, a slayer left jobless by the legalization of vampirism.
 
Riddick’s dark secrets and shady past have forced him into exile from human society—an exile he was completely comfortable with until gorgeous and exasperating Harper waltzed into his life. Now, all too aware of how…unlifelike his life has truly been, he agrees to partner with her (as if saying no to Harper Hall was ever really an option).​

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Vicious
Author: LJ Shen
 
Amazon Blurb:
Emilia
They say love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances, and it’s true.
The man who comes to me in my dreams also haunts me in my nightmares.
He is a brilliant lawyer.
A skilled criminal.
A beautiful liar.
A bully and a savior, a monster and a lover.
Ten years ago, he made me run away from the small town where we lived. Now, he came for me in New York, and he isn’t leaving until he takes me with him.
 
Vicious
She is a starving artist.
Pretty and evasive ​like cherry blossom.

Ten years ago, she barged into my life unannounced
​and turned everything upside down. 
She paid the price. 
Emilia LeBlanc is completely off-limits, my best friend’s ex-girlfriend. The woman who knows my darkest secret, and the daughter of the cheap Help we hired to take care of our estate. 
That should deter me from chasing her, but it doesn’t. 
So she hates me. Big fucking deal. 
She better get used to me.

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53 Letters for My Lover
Author: Leylah Attar
 
Amazon Blurb:
This is not your typical love story. It’s not so black and white. Lines are crossed. Walls are smashed. Good becomes bad. Bad becomes very, very good.
 
Shayda Hijazi - the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect daughter. For thirty-three years, she has played by the rules, swallowing secrets, burying dreams and doing whatever it takes to anchor her family. Shayda Hijazi is about to become her own worst enemy.
Troy Heathgate - untamed, exhilarating, dangerous; a man who does exactly as he pleases. Life bends to his will. Until he comes across the one thing he would give it all up for, but can never have.
 
Born on the same day in opposite corners of the world, their lives collide. And nothing is ever the same again.​

Spanning three decades, 53 Letters for My Lover is a fiercely sensual, emotional ride to the heart of an epic love that defies it all - an intimate exploration of love, loyalty, passion, betrayal, and the human journey for hope, happiness and redemption.
 
CONTENT WARNING: This novel is a blend of women's fiction and romance. It involves infidelity and an attempted rape. If you are not comfortable with these subjects, this may not be the book for you.

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Waiting for Wyatt
Author: SD Hendrickson
 
Amazon Blurb:
My name is Emma Sawyer.
I met Charlie and Wyatt on the same sultry, summer day. The moment happened out of nowhere, all fast and quick and a little strange. Or maybe that was just Wyatt's personality.
 
It was Charlie that brought us together. Little Charlie with those ridiculous ears. I found the dog, waiting in a pool of his own blood. Waiting for someone. Waiting for me.
 
Now Wyatt, he wasn't waiting for anyone. At least that's what he said, except I saw something different in the broken guy all alone out in the woods. I knew he needed me before he knew it himself.
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Wyatt with his hidden dimples. Wyatt with his warnings to stay away. He was a hard lump of coal, ready to burn everything around him. The more he burned, the more it pulled me into the pain I saw etched on his troubled face.
 
I wanted to help Wyatt. I wanted to save him like he had saved all the Charlies in the world. He told me not to fall for him, but I did anyway. I fell hard and fast and deeply in love with Wyatt Caulfield.
 
But that was before I knew his secret.

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All In
Author: Emma Scott
 
Amazon Blurb:
Reeling from her loss, Kacey Dawson is grieving and heartbroken, her addictive demons hauling her back into the alcohol-soaked abyss she worked so hard to crawl out of. Kacey teeters on the edge of oblivion, and must fight her way through the pain, to build a new life for herself with her music, and somehow fulfill the promise she made to Jonah…one she feels is impossible to keep.
 
Theo Fletcher has a secret burning in his heart, one that he holds close, while he struggles to keep strong for his family that is falling apart. His mother’s health is fragile and his father’s disapproval is breaking him down. Theo is afraid if he follows his heart, he’ll fail, and not just himself, but his brother who believed in him when no one else did.

Drawn together by their pain, Theo and Kacey slowly build a friendship, re-forge old ties, help each other to heal, and give one another the courage to reach for their dreams. Together, from the depths of grief and guilt, they learn to laugh again, to trust again, and quite possibly find something beautiful and lasting amid the shattered pieces of their broken hearts.

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Did your favorites make the list? If not, let us know! We’d love to hear from you.