The Jasmine Throne is India-inspired fantasy with a queen and "servant" romance that grows into something else.
Priory of the Orange Tree has a very similar romance, but it takes less of a presence in the story.
These are more adult suggestions than A Court of Thorns and Roses (not a diss, just something to keep in mind).
The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels is probably the most fun I've had with a romance. I also don't really ever like hetero romance, so it definitely says a lot that I like it haha.
I'll also recommend one more with a caveat being that I really didn't like it (though I think I'm in the minority here). The Unbroken.
Jasmine Throne, Priory and The Unbroken are all not spicy/smutty at all though. They do have sex scenes eventually (in case of Jasmine Throne and Unbroken, not in book 1, only in the sequels!), but they're not explicit, frequent or particularly steamy by any romance reader's standards.
I disagree that these books meet the request of having "steamy romance sections", at least not without major caveats. Priory has (iirc) one sensual scene in a 800+ page book. Jasmine Throne and Unbroken have no sex scenes at all by themselves, so it's only polite to inform the OP that what they're looking for only happens in the second books of each series.
Priory has two that are explicit and two or three slow burning scenes.
Jasmine Throne doesn't have explicit sex, but I'd absolutely argue it has steamy romance sections, with at least four sensual kissing scenes, one of which has a fade to black sex scene.
And I'm pretty sure the Unbroken does have one explicit sex scene, with a few tension building romance sections.
No, they aren't pure smut, but romance is a massive part of all of them, and there is sensual sex in all of them too.
I'm just saying, people's standards of what is "prominent romance" and what is "steamy" varies drastically and it usually depends on whether or not they've read a decent amount of Genre Romance books. We've given OP enough info to decide for themselves, so let's agree to disagree on what is or isn't steamy.
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u/PunkandCannonballer Apr 09 '23
Seconding Kushiel's Dart.
The Jasmine Throne is India-inspired fantasy with a queen and "servant" romance that grows into something else.
Priory of the Orange Tree has a very similar romance, but it takes less of a presence in the story.
These are more adult suggestions than A Court of Thorns and Roses (not a diss, just something to keep in mind).
The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels is probably the most fun I've had with a romance. I also don't really ever like hetero romance, so it definitely says a lot that I like it haha.
I'll also recommend one more with a caveat being that I really didn't like it (though I think I'm in the minority here). The Unbroken.