There are a lot of tropes in genre fiction and naturally, the romance genre has a ton.

One that I’ve discovered that I enjoy is the forbidden romance. Not the “I can’t be with you because I have hang-ups” kind of forbidden, but the “We absolutely cannot be together because outside reasons” forbidden.

These two books are on the opposite ends of the spice scale and their outside obstacles are wildly different, but their forbiddenness satisfies my thirst for the trope.

Love at 350° by Lisa Peers- On the very mild end of the spice scale, we have love during a TV baking contest. Tori Moore is a high school chemistry teacher with dreams of opening her own bakery. With an empty nest looming, her twins get her an audition on American Bake-o-Rama, where she meets Kendra Campbell, the notoriously tough judge, who’s going through her own life upheaval. It takes no time for the two of them to develop heart eyes for each other, but there’s a clause in the contract about fraternizing that would cost them both dearly.

This is a very sweet story and due to the nature of the contract, the romance is a very hands-off slow burn. I realize that doesn’t sound like it would be too entertaining, but it is. In part because there’s a lot of story going on around the romance. Tori’s facing a huge life change as a divorced woman with her twins leaving for college and the prospect of leaving a job she loves for the dream she craves and winning the contest would be her springboard. Meanwhile, Kendra is facing the closure of her beloved restaurant while dealing with her business manager brother’s matchmaking.

And then there’s the competition itself, which is very much like The Great British Bake-off with the likeable contestants you’re sad to see leave. But this show has a little more drama including secrets and sabotage.

The book also includes a recipe for paper bag apple pie. Who doesn’t love pie? (Don’t answer that.)

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner- And on the absolute other end of the spice spectrum, we have a May-December romance with one big complication. Cassie Klein uses Family Weekend at college to go off-campus and ends up landing a very hot one-night stand with an older woman…who turns out to be the mom of one of her best friends at school. Oops! Erin Bennett wasn’t meaning to hook-up with a college student when she went to visit her daughter at school and she definitely didn’t mean for it to be her daughter’s friend.

Things get complicated when Parker brings Cassie home for the holidays. Cassie and Erin find that any hope of keeping their hands off each other impossible and start hooking up on the sly. The complications get even more complicated when the super hot sex sprouts genuine feelings.

What I like is that Erin and Cassie have lives and relationships outside of this burning, horny passion. Cassie has school and friend drama beyond keeping it from Parker that she’s hooking up with her mom. Meanwhile, Erin’s faced with keeping this secret from Parker while also battling her ex for her daughter’s attention.

It’s a whole lot of messy and a whole lot of good. And the sex is really, really hot.

If you give these forbidden romances a try, I hope find them irresistible. And if you don’t, keep it a secret.