Unortho­dox Love by Hei­di Shertok 

Shertok’s debut is a Mod­ern Ortho­dox delight that han­dles some heav­ier sub­jects with humor and chem­istry. Our hero­ine, Pen­i­na, is infer­tile, which has made find­ing a match in a com­mu­ni­ty focused on pro­cre­ation almost impos­si­ble. But what hap­pens when she finds love out­side the nar­row­er bound­aries of Ortho­doxy? It means grap­pling with an obser­vance gap, par­tic­u­lar­ly notable as Pen­i­na is Shomer Negiah — the only pre­mar­i­tal touch­ing between her and our hero/​her boss, Sam, is inci­den­tal — and hav­ing to dig into the nit­ty grit­ty of find­ing oth­er ways to become a par­ent with­in the con­fines of Jew­ish law, mak­ing for a rom-com rich in both detail and heart. 

The Inti­ma­cy Exper­i­ment by Rosie Danan 

Speak­ing of obser­vance gaps, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more intrigu­ing one than in Danan’s rom-com between a savvy woman who’s made her name in sex work and a hot reform rab­bi look­ing to grow his con­gre­ga­tion. The result is smart, steamy, and sur­pris­ing­ly full of Jew­ish phi­los­o­phy on top of dis­cus­sions of faith and inti­ma­cy. Plus, with Nao­mi being active­ly inter­est­ed in fur­ther explor­ing her Jew­ish roots, and Ethan being an eager teacher, it’s easy to fall for the jour­ney they take together. 

Break­out Year by KD Casey

All of Casey’s gay base­ball romances, which include the Unwrit­ten Rules series, have Jew­ish rep­re­sen­ta­tion, but this newest is the first with a Jew­ish-Jew­ish pair­ing, includ­ing an Ortho­dox for­mer ballplay­er named Aki­va who’s had to wres­tle with all sorts of things being in seem­ing con­tra­dic­tion to his reli­gious life. Cur­rent pro baller Eitan knows all about that, being the first active open­ly gay play­er, and though he and Aki­va knew each oth­er once upon a time, they’re only reunit­ed by the most unusu­al of cir­cum­stances — Aki­va turns out to be the per­son Eitan hired to pre­tend to be his boyfriend. It’s not the sporti­est of Casey’s books, but it’s a great read for sports romance fans and Jew­ish romance lovers alike. 

Hold Me Down by Sara Tay­lor Woods

For those look­ing for a kinky New Adult Romance, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one more com­plex, thought­ful, and Jew­ish than Woods’s debut. This erot­ic romance stars a Jew­ish col­lege stu­dent named Talia who’s get­ting a mul­ti-lay­ered edu­ca­tion, includ­ing an intro to the world of BDSM. Famil­ial expec­ta­tions play a big role in this one, and no doubt many a Jew­ish new adult will see them­selves in Talia, whether or not sub­mis­sion is their per­son­al thing.

Crav­ing Flight by Tam­sen Parker

Speak­ing of BDSM romances, Park­er pro­vides a very dif­fer­ent con­text, pair­ing up a ba’alat teshu­va divorcee named Tzip­po­rah with strong and silent wid­ow­er Elan. While the Ortho­dox lat­er-in-life pair­ing isn’t exact­ly a love match at first, com­ing to find they have sim­i­lar, less ortho­dox inter­ests in bed leads them to a beau­ti­ful and authen­tic mar­i­tal bond. 

Mat­zo Match by Roz Alexander

If you’re look­ing for Sap­ph­ic Jew­ish romances that cov­er the less com­mon hol­i­days, Alexander’s Hot for the Hol­i­days series is your dream des­ti­na­tion. An inter­ra­cial les­bian age-gap romance, Mat­zo Match is the first in the series. It kicks off with Passover prep, cen­ters on a Seder, and is hot­ter than a mouth­ful of maror.

Kiss­ing Kosher by Jean Meltzer

Meltzer is one of tra­di­tion­al publishing’s most pro­lif­ic authors of Jew­ish Romance. This bak­ing-cen­tric rom-com is my per­son­al favorite. Hero­ine Avi­tal suf­fers from chron­ic pelvic pain (if you’re new to Meltzer’s cat­a­log, you’ll find it chock-full of chron­ic dis­abil­i­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tion), but she can bake one hell of a bab­ka — she just needs a lit­tle help. But Ethan isn’t the dream assis­tant she’s look­ing for…at least in the sense that he’s work­ing under­cov­er for his fam­i­ly. But he also knows just how to help Avi­tal deal with her pain (spoil­er: it’s the secret ingre­di­ent in Mag­ic Bab­ka), and how to help her find plea­sure afterward. 

Soon By You by Dahlia Adler

“Dahlia Adler’s lat­est nov­el, Soon By You, is an ene­my-to-lovers romance that peeks into the closed world of New York City’s young Ortho­dox Jews with authen­tic­i­ty, spice, humor, and a gen­er­ous amount of f‑bombs.” ~Bran­di Larsen, JBC reviewer