Slaughter (Play to Win) delivers a playful sports romance slightly more concerned with the sports than the love story. Assistant coach Jade Dunn wants nothing more than to be the first female head football coach in Greenbelt Senior High history. With her boss retiring at the end of the season, she has a fighting chance. She just needs to focus and prove she’s the best person for the job. Enter Francesca “Franny” Lim, who, after battling her way to a coaching position in football-crazed Texas is ready to do the same thing in Greenbelt, S.C.—even offering to work with the team for free. Jade sees Franny as competition and is less than welcoming. As the bitterness between the two grows, however, so does the sexual tension. Conflict comes when Jade goes a little too far to ensure the team wins its first game against a fierce opponent, jeopardizing her chance at becoming head coach. The romance takes a bit of a backseat to the coaching drama and as a result the women’s path from animosity to affection feels rushed. Still, Slaughter makes the on-field action fun and delivers some steamy sex scenes along the way. It’s not perfect, but there’s plenty to cheer about. Agent: Kim Lionetti, Bookends. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Wells balances a gentle exploration of grief with a charming culinary tour through Europe in her entertaining debut, which walks the line between romance and general fiction with a heroine more focused on finding herself than finding love. Life is passing by workaholic attorney Cassie Brooks. Though her accountant boyfriend, James, encourages her to embrace what brings her joy, Cassie is determined to make partner by 35 and willing to ignore all else to do so. Then James dies unexpectedly, forcing Cassie to reevaluate her priorities—especially after discovering James’s secret life as an internet-famous food critic with the handle @NewYorkSecretDiner. When the Secret Diner Instagram account receives an invitation to travel Europe reviewing prominent restaurants, Cassie takes up James’s mantle and accepts. Leaving her old life behind, she travels to Paris, Venice, and Barcelona, sharing her adventures online while finding her voice and rediscovering her passions. The true love story here is between Cassie and James, whom she grieves throughout, but there’s also a sweet possibility of new love with sommelier Eamon, whom she meets abroad. The emotions are muted, with readers rarely invited into Cassie’s internal monologue, but the far-flung backdrops and descriptions of meals entice. Foodies and armchair travelers will be especially pleased. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

In Lavine’s often humorous, sometimes heart-wrenching debut, a jaded romance author navigates a slew of rom-com tropes. After bestseller Margot Bradley’s secret folder of alternate drafts where she breaks up fan-favorite couples leaks to the public, her sister, Savannah, sends her to a resort in Alaska to ride out the outrage. Upon arrival, Margot’s shocked to learn that the retreat is entirely off the grid and that she’s expected to participate in weekly wilderness excursions. Worried about leaving chronically ill Savannah with no way to contact her, Margot panics, but Savannah’s left her a letter explaining that Margot must go on the excursions each week to learn how brave she is. After completing each outing, she’ll receive another letter. Margot isn’t sure what terrifies her more: the excursions or the man leading them, who seems to have stepped out of a romance novel. Forrest Wakefield, a “doctor for a worthy cause” with “muscles for days,” is in Alaska caring for his ailing father. As he and Margot repeatedly end up in rom-com scenarios—forced to share only one bed, for example—she realizes that the situations she always scoffed at writing really might lead to love. It’s sweet to watch the leads bond over their mutual understanding of caretaking and sacrifice. Readers will have no trouble rooting for this pair’s happy ending. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Leder debuts with a smart and snappy romp starring wannabe activist Dee Blum, who drops out of her senior year at UC Berkeley and heads to Costa Rica with Bay Area nonprofit Justice Alliance, where she’ll be planning eco-tours for the company’s wealthy donors. (The fact that her on-the-ground partner Matías Khalil is “uncomfortably cute” is just a bonus.) While scouting for excursion sites, Dee meets Adrián, and they immediately start dating. As their scouting takes them to various coffee estates, Dee comes to realize that even the “fair trade” sellers are bending ethical rules. She sets out to right this wrong, along the way learning more about both Adrián’s and Matías’s politics, leading her to a fraught romantic choice. This love triangle feels well balanced, and Leder keeps the pages turning as Dee makes narrow escapes from unauthorized sites and goes from idealism to practical action. The snarky humor that dots Dee’s internal monologue helps temper her naivete, making her a heroine who’s as easy to laugh with as cringe for. With an unusual setup, a gorgeous backdrop, an earnest political message, and a memorable cast, this is sure to make a splash. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Belle (Fourth and Long) kicks off the Greydon series with this spirited Regency. Sebastian Grey, sixth Earl of Greydon, views marriage as purely a practical arrangement, hoping that his future wife will rein in the scandalous behavior of his sister and widowed mother. Emmeline Hart, a viscount’s sister who raised her younger siblings (proving she is practical and steady handed) and has expressed no interest in a love match, seems like the perfect candidate. Almost as soon as he and Emmeline are married, Sebastian sends all his female relations to his country estate where he hopes Emmeline will keep them in check while he stays in London. But when each letter she writes to him describes her blossoming friendship with his dashing brother, Sebastian is surprised to grow jealous. Emmeline, meanwhile, realizes that she wants more from their marriage than merely playing family peacemaker. Though the heroine’s arc is not quite as developed as the hero’s, there’s plenty of romantic tension between the two, and Belle adds depth to the marriage of convenience plot via the reality show–level antics of the extended Greydon clan. The result is a fun and fast-paced historical. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

The sumptuous first book in the Never List series from Presley (The Veil of Blood & Magic) combines deliciously smutty romance with a surprisingly strong fantasy foundation. In the stratified kingdom of Lumathyst, Rylee is an Ashlander, a group condemned to a life digging in the kings’ mines, and a thief. But she’s also secretly a demi, someone with the blood of the goddess running through their veins—and if that ever got out, her life would be in danger. Lumathyst is ruled by four cruel, immortal god-kings, each of whom has a son, a quartet of princes known collectively as the Legends of Chaos. To cement their power, these princes must find one woman strong enough to be the fated mate of all four of them. Multiple choosing ceremonies, where this mate is selected, have gone awry, and during the most recent failure, Rylee’s sister mysteriously disappeared. So when the princes try again, she disguises herself and sneaks into the ceremony to investigate—only to wind up getting chosen herself. Intrigue flies as Rylee keeps her identities secret from her new lovers. Meanwhile, the polyamorous love story packs some serious heat: brooding Jax, sweet Axl, intellectual Pierce, and gentle Kal each bring something unique to their spicy romances with Rylee, but it’s when they’re all together that the relationship works best. This is BookTok catnip. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Mare’s fun solo debut (after Big Name Fan, with Ruthie Knox) skillfully blends a fascinating science fictional concept—individual decisions creating shifts between parallel universes—with cozy, down-to-earth queer romance. Tressa Fay has all but given up on love, but when a wrong-number text from a woman named Meryl leads to flirting, she is eager to meet Meryl in person, only to have Meryl stand her up. Tressa Fay believes she’s been catfished—until Meryl’s sister shows up with the alarming news that Meryl can’t have texted Tressa Fay, because she’s been missing and incommunicado for a month. Upon closer investigation, Tressa Fray notices that Meryl’s texts are all time-stamped as being sent in May, when it’s already early October. It becomes clear that somehow Meryl and Tressa Fay are able to text over the five-month gap. Tressa Fay warns Meryl about her disappearance, and the women desperately work together to prevent the inevitable from their different locations in space-time. What follows is a heartwarming multiverse tale of fated love, family, and memory. Fans of Mare’s past collaborations will not be disappointed. Agent: Tara Gelsomino, One Track Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Halle (Darkhouse) launches her Thieves of Dragemor series with this fun if familiar romantasy starring an enterprising heroine caught between two powerful crime syndicates. Lavender-haired thief Brynla Aihr, the daughter of political rebels, is driven by rage against the ruling religious sect the Daughters of Silence, which hanged her father, sacrificed her mother to dragons, and confined her in a convent at age 12. Brynla escaped and, now an adult, she steals precious dragon eggs for the formidable House Dalgaard. These eggs provide suen, or magical power, to those that possess them, though they mysteriously do not affect Brynla. On a mission with her teleporting black hound, Lemi, Brynla is kidnapped by dashing Andor of the opposing House Kolbeck and brought to his estate. Andor promises Brynla he will rescue her beloved aunt from exile in return for her switching sides to work for House Kolbeck. As the pair confront Dalgaards, Daughters of Silence, and fierce dragons, they go from enemies to lovers, with Andor falling for Brynla’s tenacity, spite, and pride. Though the plot is predictable and somewhat slow-moving, there’s fun to be had as Halle constructs a rich mythology full of dragon lore and political intrigue. The author’s fans will not be disappointed. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Poston (A Novel Love Story) delivers a winning magical realist romance that explores artistic creation, grief, and new beginnings—all through the medium of a sweet, slow-burning love story between a burnt-out songwriter and a former boy band “bad boy” who’s eager to make a comeback. “Popcorn pop song” writer Joni Lark is stuck. She hasn’t written a new song in nearly a year, she’s run out of old material to revise, and on top of that, her parents have decided to close the Revelry—the family-run music venue where she has always been able to find inspiration—due to her mother’s worsening dementia. So when she starts hearing a man’s voice in her head, Joni thinks she’s cracked from stress. The voice, Sebastian, is equally convinced that Joni is imaginary, until a phone call proves that they are both real people tied together by a mysterious psychic link that’s somehow connected to a half-finished song. Poston mines this setup for both humor and pathos as she teases out a deep history connecting her protagonists. This moving romance will delight Poston’s fans and should earn her plenty of new ones. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

The wonderfully confident heroine of this refreshingly body-positive romance from Allen (Curvy Girl Summer) avoids attachments both professionally and personally. Indeed, when it comes to relationships, successful Black plus-sized fashion influencer Nina Ford believes in having a roster of beaus to scratch different itches: she’s got Russ (the Fun One); James (the Funny One); Dru (the Romantic One), and Tyrell (the Smart One). But lately, she’s noticing deepening feelings for Russ, who lives out of town and whose life outside of their liaisons she knows relatively little about. When Nina is invited to an influencer get-together in New York City, she lands a job as a brand ambassador for RL Fashions, an up-and-coming fashion label that requires she be exclusive to them while under contract. Though she balks at the constraint, the offer is too good to pass up. Then she discovers that Russ is the company’s owner and CEO—and there’s a prohibition on dating coworkers. Allen skillfully ratchets up both the chemistry and the stakes as Nina and Russ attempt to resist their attraction. The romance is spicy and believable, but the real draw is Nina, who makes no apologies for her life or her body and delightfully stands up to haters. Readers are sure to be inspired. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink