A few months ago, Slate wondered if billionaire heroes were finally out in romance. Regular romance heroes could have told them, duh, yes. Other than Annika Martin’s Billionaires of Manhattan series, AAR hasn’t reviewed a romance with Billionaire in the title in five years. I occasionally run across them in contemporary romances but, even there, they are thin on the ground–now we just see leads that are wildly wealthy but insanely so. There also appear to be fewer football players–the last romance we reviewed with a football hero was in 2022. (I’m getting these from our Power Search which is only as good as our tags so I could be wrong.)

As for what’s in, I’m definitely seeing more male leads who are plus-sized, who struggle with depression, and who are happy to have their partner be in charge between the sheets. There also seem to be a lot of men who cook and bake!

What are you seeing? What do you think is out for heroes? What’s in? Do you like these trends? And, just for fun, who’s a recent hero you love?