Hybrid Forgotten by Romy Lockhart is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

When Monsters Love by Debbie Cassidy is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

On The Edge by K.G. Reuss is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Congratulations to Ashley N. Rostek on the release of Free Me.

If a harem is a group of women sharing a single man, then a reverse harem is, quite simply, the opposite – a group of men sharing a single female.

But as to when and where this term originated, that’s up for discussion.

If you Google reverse harem, you’ll often find sites which suggest it derives from the Japanese “ハーレムもの or harumumono”. The direct translation is more like “harem stuff”, and really, doesn’t imply whether it’s a male or a female at the center of the attention.

There’s also the suggestion that reverse harem takes its origins from the Arabic “حَرِيمٌ” or harim, which can mean “a sacred inviolable place”, or “female members of the family”.

Seeing as none of these sites and sources lead back to a source that I’d be happy quoting, I’m going to leave that researching to you and focus on the what…

Only, even the “what” isn’t quite so cut and dry!

For a book to be considered reverse harem, it needs three things:

1. There needs to be a female at the heart of the group
2. There needs to be three or love interests (two is ménage)
3. She absolutely cannot choose just one person at the end of the story.

But, as with most things, here comes a caveat.

When it comes to the harem members, over the last couple of years, it has become more and more common to see some of the guys either in established relationships with one (or more) of the other guys, and even a female in there too.

We get it – some of you like books with MM or FF in them, and some of you don’t. That’s why there are four tag options to help you with your searching (this is, of course, dependent on whether a book has been tagged correctly):

• MM within the harem
• MM outside of the harem
• FF in the harem
• FF outside of the harem

If you want it, include it, and if you don’t, have the search exclude it for you.*

Ultimately, what I can say with certainty, is that about five or six years ago reverse harem was considered a “trope”. A theme within the romance genre, that so many people said would die off into obscurity.

Nearly 15,000 books later, I think we can all agree that reverse harem has firmly rooted itself as a sub-genre of romance!

*Please note, regardless of your opinion on this content, we will not be moving any of these tags to be listed under kink or trigger – these are people’s sexual preferences.

Happy release day to Sirena Song for their latest release Tame Me!

Happy release day to Mila Young for their latest release Mark Me!

Hiding Her Scars by Mercy Ryan is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

It’s release day for Nicola M. Cameron! Their book, Crystal Blade, is available now!

It’s release day for Aisling Cousins! Their book, Uniting Their Pack, is available now!

Monsters Above by R.L. Caulder is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

It’s release day for Jarica James! Their book, Pucking The Players, is available now!

Congratulations to J.J. Dean on the release of Crush.

It’s release day for Alisha Williams! Their book, Tainted Hearts, is available now!

Swamp Princess by E.L. Rose is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Happy release day to Grace McGinty for their latest release Break My Bones!

End of the Road by Kelsey Soliz is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

It’s release day for Lacey Carter Andersen! Their book, Wolf Laws, is available now!

It’s release day for Lara G Elmore! Their book, Wolf Born, Goddess Blessed, is available now!

You’re probably reading this wondering what on earth is going on at Why Choose?

Back in the beginning, when Charlie and I created Why Choose? as a joke, while we were still deciding on our look and branding, someone (Serenity) had the brightest of ideas to use Comic Sans at the site’s font. And someone (Charlie) decided that was a brilliant idea, and did just that.

We laughed.

A lot.

For the first two weeks, long before we went live, everything was written in Comic Sans and it looked AWFUL!

Unfortunately, that decision has haunted us until this week!

I’m trying to find a place to rent in Delulu land and convince myself that none of you noticed the lingering traces of the font. That, when you loaded the home page, for the briefest of seconds, you didn’t see the menu bar flash to Comic Sans…

We’ve spent all this time trying to find where in this site the font was hiding, but Comic Sans was pulling a Where’s Wally? (or Where’s Waldo?).

However, last night, something in Charlie must have snapped because he went checking the code to see where that font was clinging on.

Today, I can report, Comic Sans has gone.

Honestly, in the grand scheme of the site and everything we’ve built—and have yet to—this is small. But for us, it really is a victory, and I’m celebrating!

Happy Wednesday!

Serenity

PS. No, I didn’t toy with the idea of posting this in Comic Sans at all…

It’s release day for Sylvie Haas! Their book, Stepbrothers in the Bratva, is available now!

Crone Alone by Chloe Gunter is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Congratulations to Nicky Shivers on the release of Totally Wrecked.

It’s been a while, but new tags have been added to the site this week! (Actually, a few have been here for a little while, but we never made the announcement, so I’m doing a round-up here.)

Genre – Human Omegaverse (This is for non-shifting omegaverse/sweetverse. Please do not combine with the “Omegaverse” tag as this is specifically for any shifter/alien romance etc)
Trigger – Pregnancy Complication
Trigger – Somnophilia
Trigger – Homophobia
Trigger – Racism
Kink – Somnophilia
Kink – Pet Play
Trope – Forced Proximity
Trope – Office Romance
Trope – Arranged Marriage
Trope – Found Family
Store Availability – Kobo Plus
Translation – Portuguese
MM Outside of the Harem
FF Outside of the Harem
HEA
HFN
Cliffhanger
Jealous/Possessive FMC

If you have read any books where you think these new tags apply, please feel free to help us update the site and make suggestions to the relevant books!

Bad Moon Rising by Steffanie Holmes, Katie May is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

It’s release day for Lexie Winston! Their book, Ice Me Out, is available now!

It’s release day for Iris James! Their book, Love & Blood, is available now!

It’s release day for Kyra Alessy! Their book, Villains and Vengeance, is available now!

Midnight Descent by Leigh Kelsey is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Happy release day to Lyra Winters for their latest release Delightfully Charmed!

It’s release day for Maggie Alabaster! Their book, Song of Scent and Magic, is available now!

Happy release day to Alisha Williams for their latest release Just A Summer Fling!

Congratulations to Tessa Cole on the release of Wolf Devoted.

Congratulations to Amber Nicole on the release of Karma.

It’s hard to believe that, back in 2020, in the middle of a lockdown, Why Choose? was nothing more than an idea in this author’s head.

As an avid reader of reverse harem stories, I had gotten so frustrated trying to find more books to read. There are some brilliant, active Facebook groups dedicated to reverse harem book lovers, but I was frequently only ever seeing the same books being recommended (and don’t get me wrong, they’re constantly recommended because they’re good books!) when I knew there were more out there.

We all know that searching for reverse harem books on certain retailers is far from easy and code words have to be used/deciphered.

Which led to me starting a simple excel spreadsheet of reverse harem authors. A list that I wanted to share with everyone.

I had two goals. Goals which are the same back then as they are today:

1. Help readers to find their next favourite author, and collect all the book boyfriends.
2. Help authors to find readers to who will fall in love with the characters and worlds they’ve created.

There’s no gatekeeping here. If there’s any reader out there that can understand the concept of having more than one favourite, it’s the reverse harem reader, right?

In my other, other life, I am a nightclub DJ, which is how I know Charlie (the site’s developer). Knowing that he knows way more about developing sites and apps than me, I gave him a call to ask him how much it cost to make an app because the figures I were finding were making my eyes water. Apparently, that’s right.

But Charlie was intrigued and the next thing I knew, he became my business partner and Why Choose? was born.

By the time the site went live, we were at close to 6,000 books. Today, we’re close to 15,000!

We didn’t start tracking page hits until a month later, but in September of 2021 we had 44,292 hits. In June 2023, it was 261,078!

But this is still the beginning for us.

We’ve got a few more site features to come (it’s easier to build them on a website and test them out than to do an app because you have to force updates to each device), so keep your eyes peeled.

And the app?

It’s coming. We’ll be wanting app testers too, and I’ll personally be reaching out to some of the most active members on the site.

Congratulations to Jillian West on the release of The Monster’s Wife.

Happy release day to Chloe Gunter, Jarica James for their latest release Sweet Summer Secrets!

Found Bonds by Eunice Amnell is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Congratulations to Debbie Cassidy on the release of Demon Reborn.

It’s release day for Leelah Renn! Their book, Finding Aria, is available now!

Congratulations to LJ Swallow on the release of For Dear Life.

It’s release day for Sydney St. James ! Their book, Demon in My Heart, is available now!

It’s release day for Jayce Carter! Their book, The Devil’s Due, is available now!

Congratulations to Quell T. Fox on the release of Set Me Free Collection.

The Secret of Pain by Lily Wildhart is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Their Siren’s Seduction by Salem Cross is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Congratulations to Stacey Brutger on the release of Dragon Flames.

A Mer-Curious Kidnapping by Corey Blanchet is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

Congratulations to Kris Butler on the release of Beautiful Envy.

Congratulations to Maggie Alabaster, Jo Bradley on the release of Trap.

It’s release day for Jenna Daring, Jaye Pratt! Their book, Tens – The Revelation, is available now!

Happy release day to Elle Thorpe for their latest release Rebel Revenge!

Thorns by Ellen Mint is out now! Add it to your TBR list!

It’s release day for Cindy Pike! Their book, Jagged Soul: Cora, is available now!