The worst feeling in romance isn’t a bad book.
It’s finding a perfect one six months late.

We started Shamelessly Obsessive to make sure that never happens to you again.

Shamelessly Obsessive was founded by Sofia Sokol, who reads romance all day and considers that a completely reasonable way to live. Nothing lands in this catalog because an algorithm swept it up. A human puts it there. Finding your next favorite is the whole job.

What this is

Shamelessly Obsessive is a discovery and promotion platform for romance. On the website, in our curated emails, across our socials, we do one thing relentlessly: find the books you’re about to be obsessed with and put them in front of you before the rest of the world catches on.

No algorithm guessing at your heart based on one impulse buy. No bottomless scroll of covers with nothing behind the sorting. Real curation, run by someone who reads this genre like it’s a calling, dressed up in a style that finally treats romance like the main event it is.

Every book here is findable by what actually matters. The trope. The heat level. The subgenre. The very specific ache you’re in the mood for. Romance isn’t one shelf. It’s a hundred doors, and you already know which one you’re standing in front of. We hand you the key.

We started with indie

Because indie romance is where the genre is bravest. It’s where authors write the book of their heart instead of the book of a committee. Where the tropes get weirder, the feelings get bigger, and your next favorite author is publishing right now to forty devoted readers who are keeping her a secret.

We find her first. Then we tell you. That’s the entire model of your new favorite habit.

Yes, that includes trad

Indie is where we started. It was never a rule about who gets in.

Here’s what most readers don’t know. Unless you’re the lead title, a traditional publisher gives an author a cover and a distribution deal. Then it hands her the marketing plan. The whole plan is: post more.

The newsletter is hers. So is the ARC team, the ad spend, the 6 a.m. video about her own book. Same as the indie down the hall, minus the freedom to run her own sale.

And most of our favorite authors are both. A trad series over here, an indie series over there, one brain making all of it. Splitting that catalog down the middle would mean handing you book three with no road back to book one. We are not doing that to you, and we are not doing it to her.

You have never once checked a copyright page before falling in love. Neither have we.

The enemy was never publishing houses. It’s obscurity. It’s the right book sitting nine pages deep in a search nobody scrolls. Whoever printed it, if it needs finding, we’re already looking.

For the authors

The part we’re proudest of: inclusion in our catalog is free. Not free-for-now. Not free-with-an-asterisk. Free, permanently, because a discovery platform that charges admission at the door isn’t discovering anything. You wrote the book. You get the author page. Your readers find us, our readers find you, and everybody wins except the algorithm.

The promise

We will never be neutral about books. Neutral is for search engines. This whole thing runs on one fuel source: the unhinged, whole-hearted, entirely shameless love of this genre.

The readers who get it are already inside. The only question is how long you’re comfortable being the last to know.

Obsessively yours,

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you’re wondering, answered. If your question isn’t here, send it to us. We love mail almost as much as we love a good grovel scene.

A discovery and promotion platform for romance. We catalog books, feature them on the site, in our curated emails, and across our socials, and you find your next obsession before the rest of the internet does. Think of us as the friend with impeccable taste who always texts you about a book before it blows up.

Two ways. Authors submit them directly, and we add books we love and think you should know about. Either way, a human puts them there. We are not scraping bestseller lists or letting an algorithm decide what you see.

No. We’re the matchmaker, not the bookstore. Every book links out to retailers like Amazon and Bookshop.org, where you buy directly from them. Full transparency: some of those links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It keeps the lights on and the catalog free for authors. Buying through our links is the easiest way to support what we do.

Some placements on the site and in our emails are paid, and every single one is labeled as sponsored, clearly, every time. Nothing else is.

Paid placement never buys a better position in your search results, and it is never sold inside our editorial features or roundups. When we tell you we love something, nobody paid us to say it. If you cannot tell the difference between what we love and what somebody bought, this whole thing stops being worth reading, and we know it.

Every book carries one of five heat levels, reported by the author, so you always know what you’re walking into:

  • Sweet. Closed door all the way. All the feelings, none of the on-page steam.
  • Warm. A little sizzle. Tension, kisses, maybe a fade to black.
  • Steamy. The door is open. On-page intimacy woven into the love story.
  • Hot. The door came off its hinges. Frequent, explicit, unapologetic.
  • Scorching. The door is ash. Maximum heat for readers who want it all.

Heat levels are self-reported by authors, so treat them as a well-lit trailhead rather than a legal document.

A trope is the shape of the love story: enemies to lovers, grumpy sunshine, fated mates, second chance, only one bed. Readers don’t search for “a romance novel.” They search for the exact ache they’re in the mood for. So we built the whole catalog around it. Pick your trope, your subgenre, your heat level, and go.

Nope. No accounts, no passwords, no profile to maintain. Browse everything, free, forever. If you want to keep track of books and never miss a new drop, that’s what our email list is for. It’s the closest thing we have to a membership card, and it costs nothing.

First, the free trope guide: Know Your Obsession, our complete field guide to the tropes we catalog, what each one is and the specific feeling it exists to deliver.

After that, curated recommendations, new releases, deals worth your one-click finger, and first word on everything we do. It’s the platform in your inbox, minus the scrolling. Unsubscribe whenever you like, and you keep the guide.

Yes. Everything we publish on the site, in emails, and on socials is general audiences. The books themselves range from sweet to scorching, and that’s exactly what the heat levels are for. We tell you what’s behind the door. You decide whether to open it.

Constantly. Authors submit year-round and we’re always adding. If you want the newest releases delivered rather than discovered, the email list rounds them up for you every week.

We love this energy. Send it to us, or tell the author to submit it. Listing is completely free for authors, so there’s no reason your favorite hidden gem should stay hidden. Consider it your civic duty to the genre.

Not a cent. Browsing is free, the emails are free, the obsession is free. The only thing at risk is your TBR pile, and honestly, it was already out of control.

Your Next Romance Obsession Starts Here.

Sign up today and instantly unlock a FREE field guide to romance tropes. Then stick around for irresistible book recommendations, new author discoveries, giveaways, and all the swoon delivered straight to your inbox.