Thanks everyone! After reading all the recommendations maybe I should have said I've run out of SF Romance and can't find any more, not I can't find any
.
Space Opera is one of my major reading categories so I have it covered (Vorkosigan, Liaden, Mageworlds, Cherryh, Mike Shepherd, even some furry books whose author I can't remember.) This seems to be the go-to for SciFi Romance that isn't called Romance. The branded as SciFi Romance keeps turning into erotica stories wrapped around sex scenes (IMO.) I'm counting the days for the new Vorkosigan
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
Jean Johnson is more MilSciFi to me with only a drop of romance -- read it, will read the next one even if heroine has delusions of Mary Sueism. Read Scarabaeus, don't remember it being more than average but its been a while.
I devoured everything McCaffery back in HS. The Crystal Singer series should go into the Romance list as well now that I think about it.
Read all the Jayne Castle Harmony and St. Helens series (and Amanda Quick historicals.) More sorta paranormal urban fantasy before there was a genre. The Rainshadow updates strike me as bigger-badder power than the last book with mediocre writing and plot.
I'll look into Susan Kyle and a bunch of others everyone has listed. I think I've checked Grant, Koch, and Showalter but they all turned out to be 1st person so I'll double check. True Blood has me thinking of a popular vampire series -- must be a different author.
The Cat Star series is pretty much the perfect example of what I hate about books branded SciFi Romance: 1st person and silly sex scenes for no reason other than to have sex scenes. Guilty pleasure is Eve Langalais' 'Abducted' series and some Kaitlyn O'Connor -- both are branded as erotica and follow the Mars Needs Women trope but these two strike my funny bone. I just skip over the sex scenes when they get tiresome.
@FizzyWater I gave Jess Granger
Beyond The Rain 4 stars (that means its a re-read),
Beyond the Shadows only 2.
I'll pitch Kate Elliot's
Jaran to SciFi love story fans. Space faring girl meets Genghis Khan mash-up with a good aliens vs. humans plot to wrap around it.