Fifty Shades of Rawhide

Romance is alive and well in Western fiction. From Bethany House’s Old West and Christian Westerns, to Harlequin’s and Kensington’s traditional bodice busters, to Totally Bound and Samhain erotic Westerns, readers are burning up for the next romance novel. Even self-publishers Davie Sime and Connie Morse understand the magic of love in the West with their first book, Lonepine: An erotic, western romance set in Montana 1962 (Raven Productions).

Whatever your pleasure, readers seeking to add a little heat to their Western reading will discover that fifty shades of romance are available from numerous publishers. No matter how hot you want to go, there’s an author writing for you about red-hot, between-the-sheets, rawhide lovers of the West.

The fact is, the majority of best-selling Westerns have always had romance. Zane Grey knew this in 1912 with Riders of the Purple Sage, and over 100 years later, Western romances are still a hotbed of publishing success. But, as author Max Evans once told me, “Show me a Western without a romance, and I’ll show you a Western that doesn’t sell.” In fact, the romance genre lassoes 13 percent of all fiction sales, or $1.08 billion annually.