Before I start, I just want to give a shout out to all my folks who bring stories they know I like to cover. You make my life tremendously easier. XO times 1000.

Time.com just recently posted a story about how the romance genre of interracial relationships is in hot demand. They chose to highlight a black man and a white woman on this post, and that’s okay; but I’ll be hyperlinking all the interracial romance novels where the black woman is the heroine, thankyouverymuch.

Apparently, authors are tapping into what’s now becoming an American reality. People are hooking up despite race, culture and creed, and women are finding that damn sexy.

Devotees of romance fiction, predominantly female, are demanding that their favorite category be ethnically as diverse as the real world. One of the newest branches of the popular genre is interracial romance, which just a few decades ago would have been too hot to handle. After all, the first African-American romance imprint came on the scene less than 20 years ago. “Readers are able to say through social media and direct interaction, ‘I want to see myself in a romance,’ and not every romance reader is white,” says critic Sarah Wendell, author of Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels.

Publishers are taking heed, as well they might: readers vote with their wallets. Romance fiction brought in a cool $1.4 billion in 2012, making Love Lit the largest sector of the U.S. book-buying market. Says Dianne Moggy, the heads of editorial series at Harlequin, the world’s largest romance publisher, “We have more and more authors and readers who have either African American backgrounds, Latino, Chinese, Indian in terms of Asia, South Pacific and certainly Native American.” As Moggy says proudly, “We’re just seeing reality reflected in our books.”

This who interracial romance rage makes me wonder how many women are reading these books to psyche themselves up for the real thing.

Whatever the case, me thinks this is yet another indicator that the world is changing. If you’re still dipping your toe in but want to read about fictional characters who have already taken the plunge, consider these:

Come Home Again (The Donovans, by Nana Malone

Betting the Billionaire, by Avery Flynn

A Test of Love, by Kendra Wright

Seduced by the Italian Billionaire, by C.J. Howard

Color Blind (Able to Love), by Michelle Lindo-Rice

Remember Me, by Michelle N. Onuorah

Broken, by Zena Winn

Soul Sweet, by Nichelle Gregory

Texas Heat, by Rhonda Laurel

The Boy is Mine, by Lena Skye

Found Love, by Y.L. Stokes

Make Her Want It, by Tracy Ames

Seduce Me, by Tracy Ames

Bruised, by Stacy-Deane

Captivated, by Stacy-Deane

All Caught Up, by IT Hardy

Beauty of Man and Woman, by Mercedes Keyes

Zomosapiens, by Dave Moon

Waves of Change, by Delka Beazer

The Nanny, by Vera Roberts

The Naughty Sins of a Saint, by Tiana Laveen

Ti Amo, by Sienna Mynx

Romancing the Mob Boss, by Mallory Monroe

Red Hots, by Yvette Hanes

Caramel Kisses, by T.J. Michaels