Harlequin Books Free
Otilia Mojarro
Get to know our various imprints and editorial lines to find out where you might fit into Harlequin's extensive publishing program. You can download free books from all of our series at Try Harlequin.
Harlequin Series (sometimes known as "Category Romance") and Carina Press accept unagented submissions from authors. To submit to a romance series, click on the links below. Please submit to only one series at a time, with only one submission at a time. We accept submissions in English only.
Carina Press, our digital-first imprint, acquires across a broad range of romance subgenres. We welcome all pairings/groupings, including LGBTQ+, for publication in our general Carina Press imprint. Additionally, we have a specific line for trope-based LGBTQ+ romances called Carina Adores. Visit the Carina Press Submittable page for more information and to submit your manuscript.
We are committed to publishing for our diverse global readership, and are actively seeking to acquire underrepresented authors, as well as stories which explore underrepresented perspectives on popular time periods.
Some of our most recent acquisitions include a Medieval marriage of convenience, a Georgian Highlander, a blues singer who meets her mobster hero in a 1920s speakeasy, and a Viking warrior who steals himself a princess on the eve of her wedding!
You can find the Historical team on Twitter! Follow @BryonyGreenHqn and @CarlyMbyrne, and check out #HarlequinHistorical. And see what our current authors are up to on the Harlequin Historical Books Facebook Page.
N.B. Please note that as per current editorial policy we ask that you do not submit more than one manuscript at a time for our consideration. Please be patient and wait for feedback before submitting your next project.
Harlequin Intrigue books are for fans of novels by Sandra Brown, James Patterson and Iris Johansen. They are high-stakes thrillers and procedurals where determined characters go through a spectrum of tensions as they work to solve a crime.
Harlequin Intrigue Key Elements:
House, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, The Night Shift, The Good Karma Hospital and Doctors for their tone, medical settings and scenarios, complex characters with strong romantic themes, great dialogue and lives and hearts on the edge. However, the key difference is that the focus of each Medical Romance story is first and foremost a heart-racing romance. The novels offer a wealth of experiences: from the high-octane excitement of the ER to the warmth of family GP practice.
N.B. Please note that as per current editorial policy we ask that you do not submit more than one manuscript at a time for our consideration. Please be patient and wait for feedback before submitting your next project.
Harlequin Romance stories are all about real, relatable and strong, deeply desirable characters experiencing the intensity, anticipation and sheer rush of falling in love. Get swept away by these emotional, glamorous and uplifting romances!
Some of our most popular storylines include: Cinderella (rags-to-riches), convenient marriages, runaway brides, weddings, pregnancy, secret babies, billionaires & millionaires, royalty, aristocracy, working together, falling for the boss, couples reunited, friends to lovers, amnesia, single dads, seasonal (e.g. Christmas and summer). Harlequin Romance no longer features small town and Western settings or cowboy and military protagonists.
One Fine Day for its warmth and tear jerking properties, The Notebook for its emotional depth, The Vow for its emotional conflicts, Dear John for its focus on the central relationship, Life as We Know It, The Proposal and The Back-Up Plan for their fresh storylines.
These novels are romance-focused stories with a suspense element. Powerful romances are at the heart of each story, and the additional elements of excitement, adventure and suspense play out between complex characters.
Harlequin Romantic Suspense Key Elements
Criminal Minds, The White Lotus, Yellowstone, 9-1-1, Broadchurch, Lupin, Blue Bloods, The Terminal List, or modern-day Rear Window or Charade for their solid levels of story, three-dimensional characters and varying levels of suspense with strong romantic themes, witty dialogue and lives and hearts on the line.
Relatable heroines in everyday life finding love in the arms of a strong, honorable man. Love Inspired heroes should be strong and smart, with a core of tenderness, and the heroines should be their equals.
Harlequin is a leading publisher of fiction and narrative nonfiction and in 2024 will be celebrating its 75th anniversary. Harlequin is unique in the publishing world as a destination brand for romance novels, with 65% of readers thinking of Harlequin first when they think of romance novels. The company publishes more than 100 titles a month, in both print and digital formats, that are sold around the world. Encompassing highly recognizable imprints that span a broad range of genres, the publisher is home to many award-winning New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors. Harlequin is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, the second-largest consumer book publisher globally, with operations in 17 countries and 16 languages.
When Richard H. G. Bonnycastle, a former Arctic explorer with the Hudson Bay Company, launched Harlequin Books in Winnipeg in 1948, he had little interest in building a publishing empire around romance novels. Early in its history, Harlequin published inexpensive reprints of detective stories, cookbooks, westerns, and a smattering of tragic love stories.
Lawrence Heisey, a former soap salesman who had been appointed president of Harlequin in 1971, revolutionized romance publishing by distributing Harlequin romances to supermarkets and department stores, where they would be right at the fingertips of Canadian and American homemakers. The company often gave away one book as a free gift with the purchase of household items such as kitchen cleaners or napkins, hoping that shoppers would become hooked and buy the rest of the series.
Harlequin has scaled fresh heights with its new imprints. Multiple #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller placements, overseas triumphs, films and television shows adapted from its novels have all served to help transform the company from the dominant romance publisher into a leading publisher of books for a wide range of readers and tastes.
At Harlequin, we are committed to publishing diverse and inclusive voices so that readers see themselves reflected in the books we publish. We work to foster a culture of respect, openness, support and belonging where our employees, authors and publishing partners feel welcome to express and reflect the voices, experiences and thoughts of a diverse society.
As a publisher and as an employer, we embrace a broad definition of diversity and we aim to include people of all ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations, ages, classes, religions, national origins and disabilities. As an employer partner of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion and Pride at Work Canada, Harlequin employees have access to resources and training to further support being an open, accepting and welcoming place to work and to publish.
As we work to publish more stories by authors in underrepresented communities, we recognize the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and the need for greater representation in publishing by Black authors. We are working to acquire and further promote stories by Black authors in several ways:
With input from employees, initiatives have been developed to remove barriers and better attract and retain a diverse workforce, including offering paid internship positions for new graduates interested in working in publishing. Anti-racism training and education is provided to employees to raise awareness and further build an open and inclusive culture for our staff, authors and partners.
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Based in Toronto since 1969,[2] Harlequin was owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, from 1981 to 2014. It was then purchased by News Corp[3][4] and is now a division of HarperCollins.[5][6] In 1971, Harlequin purchased the London-based publisher Mills & Boon Limited and began a global expansion program opening offices in Australia and major European markets such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, and Scandinavia. Harlequin launched an audiobook program in 2015.[7]
Harlequin was founded in 1949 by Richard Bonnycastle in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as a paperback reprinting company.[6][8][9] He founded the business while working at Winnipeg's Advocate Printers, a branch of Toronto's Bryant Press, as a way to keep the presses busy.[10]
The business would be owned by Advocate Printers, Doug Weld of Bryant Press, and Jack Palmer, head of the Canadian distributor of the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies' Home Journal. Palmer oversaw marketing for the new company and Bonnycastle took charge of the production.[10]
Harlequin released its first book, Nancy Bruff's The Manatee, in May 1949.[10] In the beginning, Harlequin typically acquired rights from other publishers, though a few original books were published as well.[10] Among the novels they reprinted were works by James Hadley Chase, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Somerset Maugham. Their biggest success was Jean Plaidy's Beyond the Blue Mountain (1951). Of the 30,000 copies sold, only 48 were returned.[11]
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