There’s just something about a good father that is incredibly sexy, so it’s no wonder why the single dad trope is so popular! These romances often feature found families, heart-melting moments, and plenty of swoons. I love it when a single dad finds his perfect complement, and the family scenes can be downright adorable. Though many of these are super steamy too! Whether it’s a boss with his nanny, an alpha billionaire, or a cinnamon roll sweetheart, there are so many different scenarios where the single father trope shines.
The heroes on this list are all in need of a little love in their life. Banter and lots of sexual tension are common in many of these, though the steam levels vary. There’s a little something for everyone on this list, and they’re all 4 or 5-star contemporary romance novels that kept me hooked while I was reading. If I’ve reviewed a book, the link is included, as well as blurbs and links to Amazon for easy addition to your TBR. Happy reading!
Last on the List by Amy Daws
Only a bad nanny knows what it’s like to kiss the boss.
CEO millionaire, Max Fletcher is a single dad in desperate need of a nanny.
Cozy Barlow is in the middle of her self-appointed “gap year” and doing everything she can to detach from her past.
But when her sister begs her to interview for the nanny position of a high maintenance client, she doesn’t have a good enough reason to say no.
And when Max locks eyes on the twenty-something in a tie-dye sweatsuit who pitches the idea of daydreaming all summer—he prepares to give this bad nanny the boot.
One problem: Max’s little girl thinks this plus-sized in body and spirit nanny might be her new bestie, so she hires her on the spot.
Now Max is stuck with this bizarre woman who hates everything he represents—corporate greed, money, status, power.
But one stormy night when the power goes out, he discovers Cozy doesn’t hate him. In fact, he’s the leading role in her fantasies.
Fantasies he would very much like to make a reality.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3wwaKNc
Funny Feelings by Tarah DeWitt
When falling in love is the punchline…
Farley Jones is being forced to date Meyer Harrigan, the man she has come to love, in order to make all of her stand-up dreams come true.
It’s agony— a tragedy, even. In lieu of flowers, please send cash…
Meyer and his daughter Hazel have been everything to her since they came into her life three years ago. So, all joking aside, the stakes are especially high when it’s not only her career, but both of those relationships on the line.
A former stand-up star himself, Meyer has been vital to the trajectory of her career since he began managing her… Since he became her closest and most treasured friend, in the process.
This friendship is the only reason why, when the biggest opportunity of Farley’s career includes thrusting him back into the spotlight to stir up publicity, he agrees— in spite of his grumpiness, his protectiveness over Hazel, and his disdain for public attention.
It doesn’t take long for their act to bring all those other funny feelings out into the open, and, like most matters of the heart, it quickly begins to feel like anything but a joke.
Funny Feelings is a swoony story about friendship, love, and looking for the laugh in life. It touches on the creative spirit and all that comes with sharing that gift, and how oftentimes the comedians in our lives are the most sensitive, or struggling. It features two friends, one incredible little girl, and a kaleidoscope of feelings along the way.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3PPco40
Good Vibrations by Kayley Loring
A former model, a grumpy lawyer, and a single dad walk into an audition for a children’s musical… They’re all Miles Brodie. It’s only cute if you aren’t the director who’s being bribed to cast his daughter.
DEAR MS. CROSS,
Re: Our discussion
1. True. Casting my daughter as the lead in your musical could be considered bribery if people find out I’m investing in it, but no one needs to know.
2. I only want to hire you as Macy’s singing coach so her vocal skills will improve.
3. Maybe if you’d spent less time surfing and more on your singing career, you wouldn’t be in this financial predicament.
4. Re. your living situation—my neighbor has a guest house. If you cast Macy as Alice, I will pay for your first three months’ rent.
Do we have a deal?
Best regards,
Miles Brodie
DEAR MR. BRODIE,
1. It absolutely is bribery, but I absolutely need that money for my production. Thanks!
2. It is very cute that you will do anything to get Macy this part, but I would only coach that sweet child as a favor to all mammals with functional hearing.
3. If I spend less time surfing, will you spend less time jogging on my beach with your shirt off?
4. You want to pay me to live next door so you don’t have to drive anywhere to frown at me?
5. I have another condition for casting Macy as Alice—you have to perform the part of the Cheshire Cat.
Purrrrrrr,
Aria
* This is a 70,000 word standalone steamy romantic comedy novel.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/39Gc7zE
Make Me Yours by Melanie Harlow
He’s my brother’s best friend.
The hot single dad next door.
And one accidental sext later, my massive crush on him is no longer a secret.
It’s my own damn fault. I’m thirty years old, for heaven’s sake. I’m a kindergarten teacher and a (reasonably) responsible adult. I should know better than to get tipsy and draft a fake text listing all the dirty things I wish Officer Cole Mitchell would do to me.
I wasn’t supposed to hit send.
He wasn’t supposed to see it.
And he definitely wasn’t supposed to text back telling me to go on . . .
Because after that, things escalate quickly.
Cole is everything I’ve ever wanted. He’s sexy and protective. A devoted father to his little girl. A dedicated cop the whole town adores. The kind of guy you can trust to keep his hands to himself, even when you’re desperately hoping he won’t.
I’m not the girl he thought he’d end up with, but after all this time, I might finally get the chance to say the words I’ve always dreamed of . . . make me yours.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3pV1mx2
Forbidden by Karla Sorensen
No man has ever been able to rattle Isabel Ward. Until Aiden Hennessy walks in the door of her gym—ownership papers in hand.
The former fighter is a lot of things- a devoted single dad, a widower trying to start over, and a watchful presence that knocks her off her very capable feet.
To make matters worse, Isabel had a crush on him for the entirety of her teenage years. Doodles in her diary, and letters declaring her admiration—while never sent—haunt the absolute crap out of her now that she has to face him every single day.
She’s not the only one affected.
No woman has tempted Aiden to move on from the memory of his wife—until Isabel. But she’s too young, too feisty, too much of everything he should avoid.
Working together makes avoidance impossible, and so is pretending like the blistering chemistry between them doesn’t exist.
Now that the unshakeable woman is shaken and the un-temptable man is tempted, Isabel and Aiden have to decide what they’re willing to risk for a taste of the forbidden.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dpZSpo
My Perfect Enemy by Jessica Prince
Rule number 1: Never fall for the enemy.
Rule number 2: Never get involved with a local.
Luna Copeland lives by those rules, which complicates things tremendously when her new boss turns out to be a former one-night stand. As if that isn’t bad enough, he’s also a world-class jerk. But she just can’t make herself stop thinking about their one night together.
When Nate Warren left Whitecap years ago, he was certain he wouldn’t come back. But when his daughter starts acting up and getting into trouble, the small coastal town proves to be the best place for her. With an unruly teen on his hands, the last thing he has time for is romance. Unfortunately, he can’t get his sassy assistant out of his head.
When ignoring their attraction fails, Nate decides he wants all in. He just has to convince Luna she wants the same.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3G7kHnj
Doughn’t Let Me Go by Teagan Hunter
It was just supposed to be one night.
No kissing. No feelings. A wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am tangle in the sheets and we go our own ways.
Only it’s a small town, and I was bound to run into the irresistible Porter Jones again.
I just didn’t expect it to be at my job interview…which he’s conducting.
Now the live-in nanny to his adorable seven-year-old daughter, I’m doing my best to avoid falling for his charms.
Except it’s much harder than either of us anticipated.
What’s a few romps between friends?
No kissing. No feelings. Just fun.
Sounds simple, right?
Right…
Doughn’t Let Me Go is a standalone single dad romantic comedy full of laughs, steam, and just enough love to make you swoon.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3zzGGCi
Single Dad Seeks Juliet by Max Monroe
Dear Internet: Am I a horrible person for wanting to sabotage my work assignment—completely wreck a dating contest—because I hate the idea of love?
I know it sounds bad, but just hear me out, okay?
I (33F) work at a local paper, and two months ago, my editor assigned me a huge project—run the upcoming, highly anticipated Bachelor Anonymous contest.
In essence, I’m supposed to help a reader-nominated bachelor find his special someone, and while I should be excited to handle something of this magnitude solo, I can’t help but get queasy over how gross it feels.
Like, how cheesy could this thing get?
Not to mention, I’m the last person who should be involved in this—my dating and relationship history is a cluster. Generally, the person in charge of these things shouldn’t fantasize about lighting the whole three-ring dating circus on fire.
Anyway, men from all over Southern California, vying for the coveted bachelor role, submitted their personal ads to my paper. The readers voted, and Single Dad Seeks Juliet won by a landslide.
Enter Mr. Bachelor Anonymous (40M), the single dad Romeo seeking his Juliet.
Blah, blah, blah, right? Wrong.
You guys—and I cannot stress this enough—this guy is the ultimate man in a six-foot-three, chiseled-muscle, freaking Adonis package with aquamarine eyes that would haunt the dreams of an insomniac.
He’s a former Navy SEAL, successful business owner, motocross-riding, charming, supportive, funny-as-heck single dad, and the more time I spend with him, the more I want to bring this contest thing crumbling to the ground for an entirely different reason.
Real talk: I think I’m falling for him.
Me, the woman who despises love, might be falling for the completely off-limits Bachelor who I’m ironically assigned to help find love, while five other women think they’re the only contestants competing for his heart.
So, Internet. Am I scum? Or is all fair in love and war?
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2SSrWri
Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon
A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this electrifying romance from the author of The Ex Talk.
Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/34gOM56
When the Time is Right by M. Mabie & Aly Martinez
Fate doesn’t always happen overnight.
Hudson Bradley is the cockiest, most stubborn, hard-headed man I’ve ever known. And for fifteen years, he’s been my brother’s best friend.
But lately, what I’m feeling for him isn’t friendship at all.
Why is my heart racing every time his blue eyes lock on mine?Why does every word he rumbles in my ear make my body come alive?And worst of all, why did I bet him that I could find a woman he and his son would both love?
If I hadn’t given up on love altogether, Hudson would have been perfect for me. After all, he was there the day my world fell apart. He’s spent the last six years piecing me back together.
There are a million reasons why we could never work, but after a single kiss, I can’t remember any of them.
Now that the time is right, I have to make him mine—before I lose him forever.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3fu7TbW
Doctor Heartless by J. Saman
He’s cruel. Insufferably attractive. And broken beyond redemption.
After the nightmare I just ran from, those details should have made him the perfect storm of do not touch. Except I didn’t know any of this—other than the attractive part—when I met him.
Our story started on a lie.
He pretended to be someone else, and I didn’t ask a lot of questions. Nor did I try to stop him when he snuck out of my hotel room in the wee hours of the morning. I was determined to start my new life on an uptick and a wild one-night with a hot stranger felt like just the ticket.
Only I should have known something that good wouldn’t end that easy.
On my first night in my new house, our paths cross again when I discover he’s my new neighbor. No longer the charming man I met in the bar, he’s a grump, completely unfriendly, and utterly intolerable. As if this couldn’t get any worse, I quickly learn I’m also his daughter’s new teacher.
A wonderful daughter I can’t help but fall in love with.
Something I refuse to do with him. Our button-pushing back and forth never fails to get under my skin. If anything, his sudden off-limits status makes resisting this devil of a single dad that much easier.
Regardless of the temptation he presents. How searing his heated gaze is when I catch him staring. Or how breathless our stolen moments leave us.
After all, this is the fresh start I so desperately need, and I will not let anything get in my way.
No. I can’t give in to Doctor Heartless. No matter how hard he tries to change my mind.
DOCTOR HEARTLESS is a 95k word deliciously STEAMY, grumpy/sunshine, enemies-to-lovers romance that will hit you straight in the feels! It is a standalone in the bestselling Boston’s Billionaire Bachelors series featuring Boston’s hottest billionaire doctors and the women they fall head over heels for!
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3v2cj4U
Happily Letter After by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward
From New York Times bestselling authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward comes a love story about taking chances and the surprises that come with them.
My love story all started with a letter.
Only it wasn’t from the man I’d eventually fall in love with. It was from his daughter. A sweet little girl named Birdie Maxwell who’d written to the magazine that I worked for.
You see, once a year my employer fulfilled a few wishes for readers. Only that column didn’t start up again for months.
So I fulfilled some of her wishes myself. It was harmless…so I thought. Until one day I took things too far.
While anonymously granting yet another of Birdie’s wishes, I got a look at her father. Her devastatingly handsome, single dad father.
I should have stopped playing fairy godmother then. I should have left well enough alone. But I just couldn’t help myself. I had a connection to this girl. One that had me acting irrationally.
Like when I showed up on their doorstep.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/31LV20I
To Hate Adam Connor by Ella Maise
So you may ask, who is Adam Connor? He is the recently divorced, Academy Award-winning actor who just moved in next door with his kid. He also happens to be an exquisite male specimen and the most infuriating sly bastard I’ve ever come across.
Let’s be honest here, wouldn’t you wanna take a peek over the wall to catch a glimpse of him, hopefully when he is naked? Wouldn’t you melt away after watching him work out as his five-year-old kid cheered him on? Do I even have to mention those abs, or those arm muscles? Oh, wait, you would never spy on him? Sure…
While I was being thoughtful by not breaking and entering and was actually considering going over to offer him a shoulder—or maybe a boob or two—to cry on (y’know, because of his divorce), instead he had me thrown in jail after a small incident. Jail, people! He was supposed to grant me countless orgasms as a thank you, not a jail cell.
After that day, I was mentally plotting ways to strangle him instead of jumping his bones to make sweet love. So what if my body did more than just shiver when he whispered dirty little things in my ear? I can’t be held responsible for that. And when was the last time he’d kissed anyone anyway? Who’d enjoy a kiss with a side of heart attack?
Even if he and his son were the best things since sliced bread—and I’m not saying he was—I couldn’t fall for him. No matter what promises he whispered on my skin, my curse wouldn’t let us be. I wasn’t a damsel in distress—I could save myself, thank you very much—but deep inside, I still hoped Adam Connor would be the hero of my story.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QgrmjK
Liar, Liar, Hearts on Fire by Pippa Grant
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for weeks.”
“Kiss me? I thought you wanted to throttle me.”
“Kissing and throttling aren’t mutually exclusive with you.”
Tripp Wilson has to go.
Yes, yes, he’s gorgeous, he’s an adorably patient mess of a single dad, he kisses like a god, and he’s possibly the only person in the world who can turn around this baseball team I just inherited, but still, he has to go.
I don’t trust him.
That kissing thing?
Let’s call it a mistake. Pretty sure he’d agree. After all, he was the one pretending to be someone else when it happened.
But if I don’t take him on as the president of operations of the Copper Valley Fireballs, the worst baseball team in the history of professional sports which now belongs to me, I’ll be forced to sell the one last link I have to my family.
But there will be no more kissing. No more flirting. And no more swooning over him with his two preschoolers.
First of all, because he lied to me.
And second of all, because I might be lying to him too.
All’s fair in business and baseball, right?
Tell that to my heart.
Liar, Liar, Hearts on Fire is a rocking fun romance between a single dad obsessed with baseball, an heiress with secrets, baseball pants, a rundown team, and rabid ducks. It stands alone and comes with a guaranteed happily-ever-after.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HhKeL1
One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle
An author finds inspiration in Tuscany in the form of a hot Italian single dad…
This summer is going to be a scorcher.
A writer who’s blocked–I’m a total cliche.
Lucky for me, my agent has a cure that’s an even bigger stereotype–a month at her villa in Tuscany, with nothing to do but find my muse.
When he walks right in the front door, adorable son in tow, it feels like fate has finally done for me what it does for every other cliche’d girl I’ve seen in the movies. Except that he’s completely off-limits. In this case, business and pleasure can never mix.
Because Claudio is my agent’s ex.
Still, he’s smart, charming, and wickedly sexy, plus a great father to Vanni. He’s fast becoming the cure to all my writing woes. And it’s clear he wants me as much as I want him.
As the hot Italian summer wears on, it becomes harder and harder to resist. Succumbing to the heat even just one time could ruin my career.
Or he could be exactly what I need.
A NEW STANDALONE SINGLE DAD ROMANCE from the New York Times Bestselling author of A Nordic King and The Pact.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3gcyCuu
Love single dad romance? Check out my list from a few years ago here.
Want more romance recommendations? Check out some of my other lists!
15 (More) Great Grumpy / Sunshine Romance Books
15 Sexy Single Mom Romance Novels
15 Fiery Forbidden Romance Novels
15 of My Favorite New Adult & College Romance Books
15 Marvelous Marriage of Convenience Romance Books
15 HOT & Steamy Fling to More Romance Books
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