Two of the books my paranormal romance-mad friend lent me. I have more, but my basic summary for all of them is that they often have interesting world concepts and female leads, but tend to fall apart on plotting, follow-through, and having a male romantic lead that I do not want to stab with a fork.

Meljean Brook, The Iron Duke. In a nanotech steampunk AU Victorian (somehow, despite lack of royalty) England, Wilhemina Wentworth (Mina) holds a precarious existence as a detective inspector, resented due to her mixed blood and struggling to support her family. And then a frozen corpse is dropped from an airship onto the doorstep of the titular Iron Duke (Rhys Trahaern), and she is assigned to investigate a case that will threaten the very foundations of her society, etc etc, while in the meantime the Iron Duke has developed one of those "I stalk because I love" oppressive interests in her that is somehow perfectly healthy in this type of romance novel.

( The Iron Duke. )

The Native Star, MK Hobson. Emily Edwards is a backwater witch in an 1876 AU America with magic, whose livelihood is being wiped out by a more appealing mail-order patent magic business. In order to support her blind adoptive father, she casts a love spell on a local lumberman, only to have it go horribly wrong - but, before she can sort this out, the magically enslaved zombies who work the local mines rebel, and Emily ends up on the run with a supercilious big city warlock (Dreadnought Stanton) and a chunk of magical and exceedingly desirable rock embedded in her palm. Mutant racoons, diabolical villains, biomechanical helicopters, plots to end or save the world, and (of course) true romance ensue.

( The Native Star. )