Of the same kinds, class, or nature

I will second commenters above who suggested the Sookie Stackhouse books (aka Southern Vampire Mysteries) by Charlaine Harris and anything and everything by Jo Beverly (OMFG! Love her)

I read LOADS of romance in this genre (hehehe) so here are a few that I recently really enjoyed:

Madeline Hunter
Ravishing in Red
Provocative in Pearls

New author and I can't emphasise enough how much I loved these - so much so that I've added her to my auto-buy list. The next 2 books are due out later this year.

Candace Camp - Matchmaker series
The Courtship Dance
The Wedding Challenge
The Bridal Quest
The Marriage Wager

Lots of fun series and I liked the characters. This author also has an extensive backlog that I plan on working through as well as a newer series that has 3 books out already.

Loretta Chase - Carsington Brothers
Miss Wonderful
Mr Impossible
Lord Perfect

SQUEE! Book 4 is due out soon. The dialogue in these books is fab! And she is really just a great storyteller as well. She also has some good standalones. Her latest one (Don't Tempt Me) was a bit too cliched for me, but I still finished it.

Jacquie D'Alessandro - Ladies Literary Society series
Sleepless at Midnight
Confessions at Midnight
Seduced at Midnight
Tempted at Midnight

I wasn't sure about this series at first, but later books won me over.

And err loads and loads of really BAD books if you want a good laugh :P