Goldbeck (You, Again) takes an empathetic look at the struggles of adulting in this lively contemporary. Twenty-six-year old Sam Pulaski is drowning in student loan debt and living with her mother after Covid decimated her plans to pursue a PhD in art history. She often fantasizes about an alternate timeline where the pandemic never happened, in which “Sam Pulaski 1.0” is doing research in Europe and dating men named Luca. Instead, for five years, Sam’s been bartending at a kitschy bar in Columbus, Ohio, and struggling to figure out what to do next. Enter divorced dad Nick Martino and his precocious nine-year-old daughter, Kira, who move into the condo next door. Sam quickly falls for both of them. It turns out that Nick, pushing 40 and the general manager of a local Chili’s, is extremely good in bed and endearingly devoted to his daughter—but is Sam ready to settle down permanently in a life she never planned? The choice becomes even more high stakes when Sam’s mother and her nonbinary partner Perry get married and announce their plans to become digital nomads—which leaves Sam needing to figure out her life immediately. Through passionate prose, Goldbeck convincingly portrays the turbulence of the world after Covid and the paralyzing perils of indecision. Her lead characters feel raw and real, and their romance sparkles. This fires on all cylinders. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/19/2025 | Details & Permalink

Making good use of the grumpy/sunshine trope, Krempholtz's cozy romantasy debut pairs a formerly evil witch on a quest for redemption with the handsome new landlord who tests her ability to stay kind. Once known as the fearsome Thornwitch, Violet Thistlewaite sheds her wicked ways and heads to small-town Dragon’s Rest, where she hopes for a fresh start and to use her plant-based magical abilities to open a flower shop. She finds the perfect spot when she meets Pru Marsh, who offers her retail space, living quarters, and use of half the greenhouse at the back of the property. The catch is that Pru and her twin brother, Nathaniel, an alchemist, live and work in the other half of the building—and Nathaniel didn’t sign off on his sister’s offer for Violet to share his greenhouse. Worried about his own flagging business and reticent to let a stranger into his space, Nathaniel is initially rude to Violet, but she vows to break through his grumpiness. When the pair are forced to work together to rid the town of a terrible blight, an opposites-attract romance blossoms. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch as Nathaniel’s resistance to Violet’s charms crumbles. This is a fun, feel-good romp. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

A demon falls in love with his human captive in this tepid romantasy series launch from Caggiano (Bound and Tide). Brooding Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne, son of Zagadoth the Tempestuous, “Demonic Lord of the Infernal Plane,” is sent to Eirengaard to fulfill the prophecy that he will kill Archibald Lumier, human king of the Eiren realm, and thereby free his father from captivity. He has created a powerful talisman that will serve as the murder weapon, but must steal an artifact to cloak its magic from the Ebon Sanctum Mallor, which houses “some of the most potent, accursed objects in existence.” Enter sunny thief Ammalie “Amma” Avington, who also aims to break into the Sanctum to steal the Scroll of the Army of the Undead for reasons that remain mysterious for much of the book. Damien thwarts Amma’s attempt and, in retaliation, she swipes his talisman, which unluckily embeds itself inside her body. As Damien drags her across the realm looking for ways to retrieve it, a slow-burn romance sparks. The trek to Eirengaard meanders, interspersed with unnecessary side quests that add little to the story, and the romantic tension feels scant until the very end. Caggiano mines some humor from juxtaposing elaborate high fantasy prose with more casual, slang-studded dialogue, but readers will wish for more substance. This disappoints. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Best friends enter a marriage of convenience in Daws’s dreamy third Mountain Men Matchmaker rom-com (after Seven Year Itch). Addison “Roe” Monroe dreams of taking over her “old-fashioned” father’s Colorado lumber company, but he won’t hand over the reins until she’s been married for one year. Roe’s best friend, Luke Fletcher, has loved her since the day they met and proposes a fake marriage, but Roe turns him down, worried about ruining their friendship. Instead, she’ll try to find a suitable hunk of a husband at the local Man of the Mountain lumberjack competition. So Luke, at the urging of his adorable matchmaking nine-year-old niece, Everly, throws his axe into the ring. When he’s injured in the competition, a stricken Roe caves and agrees to marry him. But a marriage license won’t be enough to convince her father of their union—they’ll need to have a full-blown wedding at which they appear legitimately in love. Faking it inevitably gives way to real feelings, but Daws keeps the tension high and the pages flying even as the plot plays out predictably. Along the way, she takes the time to delve into serious themes including grief and regret. The result is a sexy, funny, and ultimately feel-good romp. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Moronova’s gloriously twisted Dark Forces duology launch, focused on the same top-secret military operation that was featured in her standalone Leave Me Behind, places two deeply flawed and complex characters in an untenable situation. Shades of The Hunger Games, “Beauty and the Beast,” and the toxic relationship between Batman’s the Joker and Harley Quinn inflect the plot, which brings together tiny, pink-haired serial murderess Emery and berserker Dark Forces agent Cameron, code-named Mori. Emery is pulled from prison into the Under Trials, a Dark Forces boot camp in which only the strong survive. She’s paired with Mori, the squad’s longest-running “lab rat” who’s undergone many experimental procedures to become the perfect soldier. Unfortunately, side effects include nosebleeds, insomnia, and a tendency to kill his partners in combat. The ensuing dark romance burns hot and wild as both characters wrestle with external threats and inner demons. This foray into dark military romance will certainly appeal to fans of the genre. With its careful plotting, off-the-charts spice, and witty dialog, it will create a legion of newly converted readers as well. Agent: Brent Taylor, Triada US. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Cousens (Is She Really Going Out with Him) questions what makes the perfect man in this entertaining sci-fi-tinged rom-com. Chloe Fairway dreads her Oxford college reunion. Her fellow classmates are extremely successful, especially her former best friend turned Hollywood screenwriter, Sean Adler, while Chloe, who had great hopes of becoming a writer herself, is stuck working as a PA for a film producer and living with her parents in London. Not wanting to show up without at least a date, she signs up for secretive new dating service Perfect Partners, which promises to match her with her ideal guy. Rob Dempsey, the man she’s paired with, is exactly her type in both looks and personality and he’s demonstratively smitten with her. Chloe is thrilled—until she learns that Rob is a robot programmed to her exact specifications. Still, she takes him as her date to the reunion—where she reunites with both Sean and another friend, John Elton; reexamines their shared past; learns she can’t trust the glossy facades she sees on social media; and feels unexpected sparks with a perfectly imperfect man. Some serious suspension of disbelief is required, but Cousens has a lot of fun with her premise, and it’s easy to root for Chloe to find true love. Readers will be charmed. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Marriage comes with extremely high stakes for the sapphic heroines of this riotously entertaining Regency, the adult debut from bestselling YA author Lee (A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue). For Emily Sergeant, whose reputation has been tarnished by scandal in her small hometown, finding a wealthy match in London is her best hope of avoiding an arranged marriage to a despicable and much older neighbor. Meanwhile, Harriet “Harry” Lockhart, the libertine daughter of a prostitute, is shocked when the Prince Regent reveals himself as her father and offers her an inheritance on the condition that she settle down with a respectable husband. Loathe as she is to change her ways, Harry needs the money and imagines that marriage might be bearable with her friend and occasional lover Alexander Bolton, Duke of Rochester. Unfortunately for her, Emily has also set her sights on the duke. Emily initially sees Harry as a “sneering amazon,” while Harry calls Emily an “infernal pixie,” but after Emily naively asks for Harry’s help winning Alexander’s attention, sparks soon fly between the two women. Lee injects this sprightly enemies-to-lovers tale with equal parts humor and sensuality, and it’s especially gratifying to see Emily come into her own. The result should win Lee a legion of new fans. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Black (The Art of Scandal) wows with this showstopping contemporary romance that doubles as both a love letter to and a critique of the country music scene. Small-town waitress August Lane’s semi-estranged mother, Jojo, is about to become the first Black woman inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and invites August’s high school sweetheart Luke Randall, the only other semi-famous musician from Arcadia, Ark., to open for her at a celebratory concert in their shared hometown. A washed-up and only recently dried out one-hit wonder at 31, Luke harbors a big secret: he didn’t write the love song that made him famous—August did. Their emotional and impressively nuanced second-chance romance plays out over dual timelines, chronicling their messy reunion in 2023 and flashing back to show how their shared love of music brought them together in 2009 before a series of painful events tore them apart. Both leads feel achingly real, with painful backstories involving familial abuse and adolescent bullying that are refreshingly unsensationalized, and it’s as satisfying to see them renegotiate their creative collaboration as reignite their romance. The incisive indictment of the country music industry’s treatment of Black artists is carried off just as skillfully. Full of heart and unafraid of wading into thorny territory, this is a tour de force. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 08/29/2025 | Details & Permalink

This tantalizing Regency from bestseller Roux (Much Ado About Margaret) sends budding watercolor artist Violet Arden from London to the British countryside to ride out a scandal after her affair with her French art teacher is exposed. While staying at her cousin’s home, she becomes reacquainted with art collector Alasdair Kerr, who was a childhood friend despite the long-standing feud between their families. It’s not a happy reunion: before leaving the city, Violet overheard Alasdair dissing her paintings at an art opening. Though she’s determined to stay mad at Alasdair, she slowly warms to him, especially when he helps her save a cat caught in a fire at a local theater. Their joint search for the arsonist responsible leads to a tentative courtship, even as Alasdair’s mother schemes to keep them apart. Roux steeps this arresting romance in references to art and artists, and uses her passionate and plucky heroine to highlight the unique position of female artists in Regency society. Fans will not be disappointed. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/29/2025 | Details & Permalink

La Rosa (The Backtrack) again leverages time travel to bring two people together in this endearing Groundhog Day–style rom-com. Carly Hart heads to Julian, Calif., for her somewhat estranged father’s funeral only for the entire town to wind up trapped in a one-day time loop, doomed to endlessly relive April 22, the day of the memorial service. The only person Carly knows in the small, quirky town is funeral director Adam, who’s also having a bad day repeatedly. On the first day of the loop, his wife revealed that she cheated on him with his best friend, and now, no matter what he does, they’re forced to start each day together. As the town devolves into humorous hedonistic anarchy, Adam busies himself with studying the solar eclipse that happens every afternoon, hoping to determine whether it might be the cause of the time loop, and Carly offers to help. Together, they test escape theories, growing closer all the while, especially as they bond about what they want out of life after the loop ends. La Rosa hand-waves the mechanics behind the time loop, instead focusing on the wacky antics of the supporting cast and the significant chemistry between her leads. Readers who like their romances to come with a bit of magic will be pleased. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/29/2025 | Details & Permalink