Dangerous and thrilling, Midnight Ruin showcases Katee Robert’s ability to explore kink and polyamorous partnerships deftly and with care. (The partnerships in question? The triad between Orpheus, Eurydice and Charon!)
Jenny Holiday’s engaging, introspective Canadian Boyfriend is everything a romance novel should be.
Tia Williams broke out in a big way in 2021 with her emotional second-chance romance, Seven Days in June, and her follow-up novel sounds like a intriguing change of pace. A romantic and exuberant tale set around a flower shop in Harlem, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde follows the titular character as she attempts to strike out on her own, away from her wealthy and judgmental Atlanta family, only to encounter a mysterious and charming musician.
Paranormal romance fans will swoon over Ali Hazelwood’s Bride, which follows a marriage of convenience between a vampire and an alpha werewolf.
Tessa Bailey’s grumpy-sunshine golf romance is a total delight: witty, hot and laugh-out-loud funny.
Anita Kelly is one of those authors who gets better with every book, topping their own high standard with each deeply felt new romance. A basketball romance so charming that even benchwarmers will fall head over heels, How You Get the Girl follows high school coach Julie Parker and her new assistant, Elle Cochrane, a former pro player who offers to help Julie practice dating when they’re not on the court.
Kennedy Ryan began her Skyland series with the marvelous Before I Let Go, and will return with another emotional, complex love story. This Could Be Us follows Soledad Barnes as she builds a new life as a single mother after an unexpected divorce, and faces an even more unexpected chance at new love.
After her reality TV show-set debut rom-com (The Charm Offensive), Alison Cochrun surprised readers with the 180-degree turn of Kiss Her Once for Me, a sweet and gently melancholic holiday romance. Her third novel is yet another switch-up in tone, a roadtrip rom-com starring two ex-best friends who reunite to drive their former English teacher and mentor across the country after he reveals he only has a few months to live.
In Abby Jimenez’s superb Just for the Summer, two people cursed a la “Good Luck Chuck” try to break their unlucky streaks by dating each other—only to fall in love.
Felicia Grossman’s Wake Me Most Wickedly is a genderswapped spin on Snow White set in the Jewish community of 1832 London.
Jenny Holiday’s Regency romance Earls Trip may be tongue-in-cheek, but this tale of childhood friends-turned-lovers also has real heart.
Featuring laugh-out-loud banter and flawed but lovable characters, Funny Story is Emily Henry at her best.
Julie Anne Long exquisitely captures sensuous, romantic longing in My Season of Scandal, a love story between an innocent debutante and a notorious politician.
Once upon a time, a vampire and a selkie went after a magical pirate ship and fell in love along the way. If you’re familiar with the work of Katee Robert, you’re already on board (sorry). And if you’re not, trust us when we say that even if you’re not a fantasy or paranormal romance fan, it’s impossible to not have a grand time on the good ship Robert.
A grocery chain heir. A starving artist. A marriage that’s a fraud—until it isn’t. No one writes romance like this bestselling duo.
The outrageously fun Meant to Be series lets powerhouse romance authors put their own contemporary spins on classic Disney princess tales: Julie Murphy did Cinderella, Jasmine Guillory did Beauty and the Beast, Zoraida Córdova did The Little Mermaid and now Christina Lauren will update one of Disney’s more modern but no-less-beloved films, Tangled.
Zen Cho writing a contemporary rom-com with a K-drama-esque plot?! Maybe this is the best timeline after all! For non-SFF fans, Cho is the acclaimed author of Regency fantasies Sorcerer to the Crown and The True Queen, as well as the marvelous modern ghost story Black Water Sister. We’re beyond intrigued to see what Cho’s ever-engaging voice brings to a whole new genre.
A bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is a testament to Casey McQuiston’s talent.
Elizabeth Hoyt’s third Greycourt novel has been a long time coming (her last book, When a Rogue Meets His Match, was published way back in 2020, and four years is an enormous gap in romance), but her fans’ enthusiasm for this series following two rival families in Regency England hasn’t flagged in the slightest.
Two romances give the popular trope a royal twist and a gender flip.
Karina Halle’s The Royals Upstairs is a transportive pleasure for us commoners.
The author’s latest, Confounding Oaths, comes complete with an evil fairy godmother, plus sweet new releases from Emma R. Alban and Katie Shepard in this month’s romance column.
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) by reading one of these excellent books by Hispanic and Latinx authors.
Take a trip back in time with four novels that revisit the ’80s and ’90s. The Gen Xers in your book club will have a blast.
Lana Harper brings Thistle Grove, her beloved paranormal romance series, to a close with the richly crafted, eerie yet warm Rise and Divine.
A gentle, ghostly love story with a queer Jewish relationship at its center, Rules for Ghosting will make you laugh and make you cry, maybe even at the same time.
Iona Grey’s The Housekeeper’s Secret is a dark delight, plus Eloisa James kicks off an adorable new Regency series.
Erica Ridley’s latest Wild Wynchesters romance is a wonderful and wacky opposites-attract love story between a dashing female bodyguard and a shy inventor.
A bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is a testament to Casey McQuiston’s talent.
Witty, insightful and uncompromising, Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance is an emotionally charged and beautifully real romance.
“Shakespeare ended so many of his lighter plays with weddings only because he didn’t have prom at his disposal.”
Plus, two swoony trips (a Victorian seaside bike ride! a food tour of Italy!) round out this month’s romance column.