10 Romance Heroines Who Define Ambition

Akira Mori (A Gentleman in the Street, by Alisha Rai)
Tired of the billionaire title just going to brooding heroes? Meet Akira Mori, a take-no-prisoners, bisexual billionaire. Akira can command a room and with her steely confidence, and she makes it clear that she always get what she wants. Except for the man who’s been haunting her dreams for a decade: buttoned-up author Jacob Campbell. A refreshing and feminist erotic romance with an amazing role-reversal of common tropes.

Bryony Asquith (Not Quite a Husband, by Sherry Thomas)
Bryony Asquith’s marriage is behind her. Three years following an annulment from her husband, Leo, she’s pursuing her dream working as a doctor in her own clinic in India. She never expected to see Leo again, until he shows up at her clinic, thousands of miles away from his home in England. While Leo arrives in India to deliver a message, he’s also determined to win back his ex-wife, by any means necessary.

Natalie Grayson (Cream of the Crop, by Alice Clayton)
Natalie is an ad executive in Manhattan and while she loves the city, she lives for her weekend farmer’s market. Specifically, she lives for Bailey Falls Creamery owner Oscar Mendoza. He’s the strong, silent type who can make some mean brie. When the company she works for wants to launch a new tourism campaign, Natalie sees the perfect opportunity to get a little closer to the dairy farmer of her dreams.

Alexandra Dempsey (Playing with Fire, by Kate Meader)
Strong career women aren’t just found in tall skyscrapers, surrounded by glass windows and cubicles. Sometimes, work requires getting bit more physical, like with firefighter Alexandra Dempsey. And being dedicated to her job and her family of firefighters means setting aside her personal distaste for mayor Eli Cooper to save his life. Alexandra doesn’t expect the gesture would lead to a public relations extravaganza. After all, she was just doing her job.

Cade Corey in (The Chocolate Thief, by Laura Florand)
Cade Corey is the heiress to a chocolate fortune. Talk about a dream job! She has big ideas for her family company, straying away from mass-produced bars and delving into artisan flavors and premium chocolate production. To help her, Cade sets her sights on curmudgeonly French chocolatier, Sylvain Marquis, to head up development, and she’ll even fly to Paris to track him down, if it means getting him to sign the contract and join the team.

Helen Chang Frobisher (Hard Knocks, by Ruby Lang)
Helen Chang Frobisher is on a one-woman mission. As a neurologist, she knows firsthand what sort of damage concussions can cause on an athlete’s brain. Her goal: to ban hockey from Portland. However, falling for veteran hockey player Adam Magnus throws a bit of a wrench into her plans. Hard Knocks is a sweet, opposites attract sports romance with a smart doctor who won’t be pushed around by a gruff hockey player.

Frederica “Free” Marshall (The Suffragette Scandal, by Courtney Milan)
Frederica “Free” Marshall has no time to get wrapped up in roguish forger Edward Clark’s plans for revenge. As a suffragette who runs her own newspaper, she’s doggedly focused on furthering women’s rights. But as threats against Free increase, Edward soon realizes that the two of them may have more things in common than he originally thought, namely a similar enemy. The Suffragette Scandal is a historical romance with an activist heroine who spurns societal norms.

Cameron Lynde (Something About You, by Julie James)
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde takes her job very seriously, especially after someone winds up dead in the hotel room next to hers. Unfortunately, while the murder is under investigation, she’s assigned the one FBI agent she never wanted to see again: Agent Jack Pallas. Cam’s antagonism for Jack is equally matched; he fully blames Cam for a case gone awry and he’s still harboring quite the grudge. A full-blown enemies-to-lovers romance with plenty of tension that crackles off the pages.

Nevada Baylor (Burn For Me, by Ilona Andrews)
Set in Houston, in a time when magic runs rampant through selective breeding and special lineages, P.I. Nevada Baylor has her work cut out for her. Blessed with being a walking lie detector, she typically takes small jobs like investigating cheating spouses and white collar crimes. But when she finds herself dragged into tracking down a fire-wielding maniac and teaming up with a powerful, magic-using, reclusive billionaire, Nevada must protect more than her family business.

Sal Casillas (Kulti, by Mariana Zapata)
There are few things Sal Casillas cares more about than soccer. She fell in love with the sport as a little girl and now plays professionally. Despite her easy-going demeanor, she’s determined to keep her success going. When her team hires soccer legend Reiner Kulti as their latest coach, Sal soon realizes the man she had put on a pedestal as a child is not what she thought he’d be. He’s grumpy, cynical, and just a tad jaded about the sport. Truthfully, Sal isn’t sure how she’ll make it through the season when she’s constantly torn between throttling and kissing her newest coach.
Which career-oriented heroines are your workplace icons?