Irish Thoroughbred is American author Nora Roberts's debut novel, originally published by Silhouette in January 1981 as a category romance.

In the novel, Dee moves to the United States, where her sick uncle arranges for her to marry his employer, wealthy American horsebreeder Travis Grant.

This book's popularity helped pave the way for other romance authors to experiment with heroes and heroines who had greater economic and emotional parity.

[1][2] Roberts submitted her work to Harlequin Enterprises, a Canadian company considered the foremost publisher of romance novels in North America.

[3] Unconvinced that the market would appreciate novels such as Dailey's – all featuring American protagonists and set in the United States – Harlequin was unwilling to further expose itself to risk.

"[4] In an effort to take advantage of the untapped talent of American writers, in 1980 Simon & Schuster created a new imprint, Silhouette Books, to serve as a counterpart to Harlequin.

As the story begins, the young and penniless Dee emigrates to the United States to live with her uncle, Paddy, who works on a large horse farm.

[16] The opening pages, alluding to the introductory scene of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, detailed the heroine's awed reaction to the extravagance of an American estate.

This plotline of an impoverished Irishwoman's surprise at the wealth of America essentially reframed the Irish emigration to the United States of the 19th century.

[15] The heroine of Irish Thoroughbred conformed to this pattern in part, by being sexually inexperienced, immature, and poor,[7] but Roberts deliberately deviated from the rest of the stereotype by providing her with a hot-tempered and independent personality.

"[2] The popularity of this book and Roberts's subsequent novels helped transform the genre, making authors more willing to give heroes and heroines economic and emotional parity.

[15] Despite the greater independence that Roberts allotted her heroine, Dee is trapped within a patriarchal culture in which her uncle and prospective husband arrange her future.

The arranged marriage and ensuing events, including the misunderstanding and her running away, were common plot elements for romance novels at that time.