Finding your next SFR fix

"Science Fiction Romance" is a very broad sub-category. It includes all the nuances of romance – M/F, MM, FF, menage, and all the choices they entail, like love triangles, enemies to lovers and so on. It allows for any level of sexual heat from sweet to erotic. And then it allows those two selections within all the sub-types of science fiction from space opera to dystopian themes through to love in a laboratory. And then there are elements which might be considered paranormal but are acceptable as SF if the werewolf or the dragon is an alien, or the zombies are created by some scientific process.

All that diversity is great. To each their own and there's sure to be something to suit everybody's taste.

The problem is finding the type of books that suit you, the reader.

I subscribe to several of the free or discounted mailing lists. There's no SFR category so it's either SF or paranormal romance. (As an aside, I've been amazed lately at how many dystopian stories about a pandemic are out there. I'll settle for living through one, thanks all the same.) And I'm not really into shifter romances – certainly not the usual tropes. I also get lots of space opera and military SF in my inbox. But not too much SFR.

I could search through Amazon, I suppose. But that's not as easy as it sounds. The 'other people who bought this book bought these' feature isn't bad, but these days Amazon gives priority to paid advertising. It's all very frustrating.

But we readers of SFR have one other resource – the SFRStation.

Several years ago the SFR Brigade website had a library where authors could list their books with a couple of minimal categories attached. But the library wasn't very functional because there were few ways to search. Books were listed by author and there wasn't much else. It was a limitation of the Blogger platform. Then Corinne Kilgore, one of the Brigade's members and a web developer by trade, created a website with a database which allowed for more categories – and a number of ways of searching. When Corinne decided to move on, Steph Pajonas took over the station and she has improved its functionality even more.

A reader can search on a whole host of categories, covering pairing type, heat, and SF flavour, as well as by author.

There's an advanced search which allows you to combine sub-categories to narrow down your search to precisely what you want.

The Station doesn't sell books. Once you've selected a book you're taken to the Books2Read site and from there, you can pick the vendor of your choice.

As an ex-developer, I can say the site is slick and easy to use. If you're an author and you'd like your book(s) listed, read the 'For Authors' section of the site.

The site sends out a weekly newsletter to subscribers informing them of books added to the station in that interval, a bit of wonderful free advertising for authors and a great resource for readers.

So, if you're searching for your next SFR read, get yourself over to the SFR Station and see what's on offer. You're sure to find a book you'll love.