Welcome!  Some of my favorite authors are Nora Roberts, Shannon Butcher, Lara Adrian, Cindy Gerard, Lora Leigh and Sharon Sala.

Shannon McKenna and Suzanne Brockmann are two of my most recent favorites. 

For historicals, you can't beat Lisa Kleypas (and her three contemporary books are great, too).  

Some of my other favorites:  Kresley Cole, Janet Chapman, Karen Marie Moning, Cherry Adair, Christine Feehan (love her Drake Sisters & Ghostwalkers series), Erin McCarthy, and one of my all time favorites is Deborah Smith.

Carolyn, you are getting yourself into so much trouble!  There are so many good authors and I am sure plenty of people here can give you great recommendations...hence why my TBR pile is now over 700 (I keep working on bringing it down). :)

My favorite genre is romantic suspense...Suzanne Brockmann, Cindy Gerard, Marliss Melton, Christina Skye, Genitta Low, Lora Leigh, Janelle Denison (Wilde Series).  I've only read Lora Leigh's SEAL/Elite Ops series--the Breeds and others look a little too HOT for me.  :)

One of my favorite authors is Jill Shalvis--she does a lot about firefighters, pilots, and other exciting jobs (her latest series is on brothers who run an adventure company). 

Other authors that I read--Carly Phillips, Jane Graves, Susan Mallery, Robyn Carr, Debbie Macomber (NOT hot at all--just romance), Jennifer Crusie, JoAnn Ross, and more...these just seem to be the ones I frequent the most.

Welcome Carolyn to PBS (and the wonderful world of romance novels)!

My suggestions:  for contemporary authors Linda Howard, Jayne Ann Krentz-contemporaries (also writes under the names Amanda Quick-historicals and Jayne Castle-paranormal), Kay Hooper, Elizabeth Lowell, Jennifer Crusie. And for more "heat" Lora Leigh. For historicals Loretta Chase. If you haven't tried paranormals yet, Christine Feehan, Karen Marie Moning, Nalini Singh, JR Ward.

May I also suggest you check out All About Romance's "Top 100 Romances" list, it's a great place to finding quality authors and exceptional stories.

Some of my favorites after over 25 years of reading are:  Linda Lael Miller(just finished her Montana Creeds series-really good along with the McKetrick series), Jude Deveraux, Pamela Morsi, Bertrice Small (The Skye O'Malley series), Lavyrle Spencer, Heather Graham, Lori Copeland, Patricia Kay(also writes as Tricia Alexander), Cathie Linz, Rachel Lee (Conard County series) and Julie Garwood.  Once you start reading romance, you find out how many excellent  talented authors there are and you just get hooked.

Welcome!!

Betsy in Michigan

All of the above plus HelenKay Dimon, Gena Showalter, Linda Howard, Diana Gabaldon.

I am new to romance as well.  I found Nora Roberts to be a hit or miss (personal observation) - I added a link to some of their websites

Suspense: 

Suzzane Brockmann:  Troubleshooter Series  (Navy Seals-better story lines) Tall, Dark & Dangerous Series (Fun/Light Reads)  http://www.suzannebrockmann.com/backlist.htm

Marliss Melton (Navy Seals) -Next to Die is my favorite http://www.marlissmelton.com/

Cindy Gerard -  Show No Mercy; Take No Prisoners and Whisper No Lies - Feel the heat is out in October  http://www.cindygerard.com/books.html

Barbara Freethy :  Silent Fall and Slient Run (I cant find her website)

Cherry Adair - special ops and navy seals - (also paranormal special ops and navy seals)  http://www.tflac.com/CherryAdair.html:  I found her to be hit or miss mostly because I am not into the paranormal).

Linda Howard - she doesn't have a website

Iris Johansen

Contemporary

Jennifer Cruise http://www.jennycrusie.com/

Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer (don't lookdown and angus and the hitman (funny books) http://www.crusiemayer.com/

Kate Angell:  baseball related

Carly Phillips - Chicklit

Rachel Gibson - Chicklit

Cathy Linz

Linda Lael Miller (McKettrick series)

Jodie Thomas (twisted creek and rewriting Monday's) also like some of her historical romances

Lori Foster (fighter series)

Diana Palmer

Happy Reading!