In Buck’s lovely debut, romance takes a back seat to revisiting ghosts of the past. North Carolina college writing instructor Gwen Gilmore returns to coastal Port Anna, Maine, after losing her job, her boyfriend, and her confidence. She hasn’t been back for 23 years, ever since the death of her sister. Now, with only (literal) ghosts for company, she moves back into her family’s Periwinkle Cottage, which is watched over by some benevolent spirits. As Gwen settles back into the small town, she reconnects with old friends, though the dynamics between them feel off as they navigate resentments old and new. Port Anna itself doesn’t feel the same, either, with developers building vacation homes and the case of a missing teenager not getting the attention it needs before the short summer ends and the long cold winter begins. Buck skillfully weaves an immersive narrative, along the way introducing several potential romantic partners for Gwen but giving her time and space to rebuild life before jumping into love. Readers looking for a sweet, summery outing that walks the line between romance and general fiction will want to check this out. (July)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

YA author Deaver (The Ghosts We Keep) makes his adult debut with a cute queer rom-com built around a classic fake dating setup. Eli Francis, a trans executive assistant at a Buzzfeed-esque online magazine, goes on a disastrous blind date with awkward coder Peter Park. After hearing about the evening, Eli’s boss suggests Eli give Peter dating lessons and write the experience up in a lighthearted, if somewhat mean-spirited, piece. Eli accepts the assignment and Peter agrees, though Eli tells him he would rather write an article about Peter’s experiences growing up queer in the South and coming out later in life. As the men go on a series of cute fake dates, Eli works on both articles, hoping he’ll be able to convince his boss to run his more considered piece over the clickbait. Along the way, Eli inevitably falls for Peter, but the threat of the mean article looms so large over the plot that it can be hard to sink into and fully enjoy the sweet love story. Still, after the requisite third act drama, Deaver sticks the landing. This should earn Deaver a whole new set of fans. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Nava (The Truth According to Ember) pairs a disgraced Native American pop star with a hardworking ranchhand in her appealing sophomore rom-com. Muscogee rising star Avery Fox has been acting and singing since she was a baby, urged on by her mother and manager, Harriett. Now she’s hit it big, albeit with a song she feels no connection to. After an ill-advised Rolling Stone cover featuring her in a war bonnet and little else, the internet turns on her, going so far as to accuse her of faking her Native heritage and even sending credible death threats. As damage control, Harriett ships Avery off to her own childhood home of Broken Arrow, Okla., to stay with the estranged grandmother Avery has never known. There, Avery meets and falls for gorgeous Lucas Iron Eyes, who works on her grandmother’s ranch. The chemistry between them crackles—and only intensifies after an awkward dinner with Lucas’s protective parents reveals that they share similar familial struggles. But once the internet firestorm dies down, Avery has a celebrity life to get back to, while Lucas’s home is on the ranch. Nava approaches her protagonists’ differing relationships to their shared culture with empathy and skill and has a talent for making even the prickliest characters, like Avery’s mother, redeemable. The result is a nuanced and entertaining rom-com with plenty of heart. (July)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 |

This heartfelt tale from Sweeney (Take Me Home) kicks off with a meet-ugly in the middle of a hurricane in Houston, Tex. When the storm hits, Tansy Perkins, a single mom and county library interim manager, risks her life to save the library’s pet parakeets—which earns her a condescending chewing out from handsome stranger Jack Reid, the new director of the nearby botanic garden who’s taken his boat out to rescue townsfolk. He’s so rude, in fact, that Tansy almost refuses his help. When the library must later move from its flooded space into a small shed adjacent to Jack’s gardens, the pair continue to butt heads—until they decide to join forces to organize an upcoming family festival to promote their respective programs and hopefully get some funding. Working together, their unexpected mutual attraction leads to a tentative romance, complicated by Tansy’s resolution to be self-reliant and Jack’s postdivorce fear of commitment. Sweeney paces the relationship development perfectly, exposing her leads’ complicated pasts with an authenticity that will resonate with readers. It’s a sweet treat. (July)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Nava (The Truth According to Ember) pairs a disgraced Native American pop star with a hardworking ranchhand in her appealing sophomore rom-com. Muscogee rising star Avery Fox has been acting and singing since she was a baby, urged on by her mother and manager, Harriett. Now she’s hit it big, albeit with a song she feels no connection to. After an ill-advised Rolling Stone cover featuring her in a war bonnet and little else, the internet turns on her, going so far as to accuse her of faking her Native heritage and even sending credible death threats. As damage control, Harriett ships Avery off to her own childhood home of Broken Arrow, Okla., to stay with the estranged grandmother Avery has never known. There, Avery meets and falls for gorgeous Lucas Iron Eyes, who works on her grandmother’s ranch. The chemistry between them crackles—and only intensifies after an awkward dinner with Lucas’s protective parents reveals that they share similar familial struggles. But once the internet firestorm dies down, Avery has a celebrity life to get back to, while Lucas’s home is on the ranch. Nava approaches her protagonists’ differing relationships to their shared culture with empathy and skill and has a talent for making even the prickliest characters, like Avery’s mother, redeemable. The result is a nuanced and entertaining rom-com with plenty of heart. (July)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Harding’s witty debut stars prickly NYU law student Beatrice Nilsson, who’s devastated to learn that her close college friends Jillian and Josh are acrimoniously divorcing. Her fury lands especially hard on Josh’s high-powered divorce lawyer, Nathan Asher, who seems determined to leave Jillian penniless. After Bea storms into Nate’s office and tells him exactly what she thinks of him, he starts to turn up everywhere—at networking events, teaching as an adjunct at NYU, and even just in passing on the street. Surprising herself, Bea finds herself liking Nate on a personal level, even more so when she learns about his dedication to caring for a sick family member. Still, her six-times-married mother and Jillian and Josh’s breakup have made Bea gun-shy when it comes to romance. Can she suspend her cynicism and take a chance on forever with Nate? Harding convincingly illustrates Bea’s fear of commitment while crafting wonderfully nuanced characters. The zippy plot and endearing love story will leave readers wanting more. (July)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Shalvis’s emotional eighth standalone Sunrise Cove contemporary (after Better Than Friends) expertly tugs at the heartstrings. After art appraiser Lexi Clark’s boss turned boyfriend dumps and fires her in one fell swoop, her stepsister, Ashley, compels her to return to the Lake Tahoe hamlet of Sunrise Cove to carry out their late mother’s last wishes: delivering handwritten apologies to the people affected by her gambling addiction. It’s a difficult task, as Lexi’s complicated feelings about her mother, Daisy, remain unresolved, and she resents carefree younger Ashley for having evaded the brunt of the childhood trauma Lexi endured. Also back in town is Heath Bowman, Lexi’s childhood friend, who is equally damaged by a rough upbringing. Their chemistry sparks as Heath helps the sisters deliver the letters, but both are determined not to form romantic ties. Through the nuanced sisterly dynamic at the novel’s heart, Shalvis incisively explores the fraught aftereffects of being raised by a parent with addiction. The romance is equally well executed, with Heath and Lexi’s efforts to deny their attraction doomed to fail from the start. This poignant tale is one to throw in the beach bag. (June)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Wives Karelia and Fay Stetz-Waters (who previously collaborated on Second Night Stand) underwhelm in this busy contemporary. Six years after graduation, culinary school rivals Kia and Sullivan are thrust back into each other’s lives at a neighborhood association meeting. Sullivan now runs a highbrow restaurant on her family’s land in a communal green space called the Bois. Meanwhile, foodie influencer Kia is looking to settle down after years traveling with her food truck. Her plan is to buy the Bois and create a food truck pod where trucks can set up for longer periods of time. Sullivan wants to stop her and has the right to buy the land as a legacy owner, but can’t come up with the money. Meanwhile, the attention Kia has brought to her project attracts fast food giant Mega Eats, who are happy to outbid her. To stop them from taking over the Bois, Kia and Sullivan hatch a scheme to get married so that Kia can use Sullivan’s legacy status to buy the land. The authors put a lot of legwork into setting up this marriage of convenience plot, and all the legal drama distracts from the romance itself, leaving the emotions somewhat underdeveloped. Readers will be frustrated. (July)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink

This sultry standalone from Gonzalez (the Miami Famous series) finds 30-year-old attorney Lily Lyon on a business retreat at a swanky Miami hotel when she sees pictures on Instagram of her college ex’s wedding and realizes her job is holding her back from living her life. So she quits, takes a room in a gorgeous art deco building for the summer, and decides to finally make her way through her long to-be-read pile, posting updates to social media as she goes. Though attracted to her new neighbor, Ben Romero, Lily initially resists his allure. Then she learns that Ben is a PEN Award–winning author of literary fiction, and he’s eager to join her in her summer reading. The pair bond poolside over romance novels, and the honest joint reviews they post online land them their own podcast to talk about books. As the pair cross the line from friends to lovers, Lily befriends other residents of the building while falling completely for Ben and fearing summer’s end. Gonzalez makes clear the instant attraction and physical chemistry between Ben and Lily while taking her time to explore the complexity of their emotional relationship. The tropical Miami backdrop lends an escapist feel to this wining love letter to the romance genre. Agent: Jessica Alvarez, BookEnds Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink

Lau (Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie) offers up a fun contemporary rom-com with a Groundhog Day twist. Workaholic mechanical engineer Noelle Tom has been in survival mode for most of her life, believing she can find a straightforward solution to every problem if she keeps her head down and works hard. However, after eating some magical dumplings that make her endlessly repeat the day she ate them, Noelle abruptly discovers the flaws in her worldview. Now no matter what she does–leaving her time zone, quitting her job, or trying to find other magic dumplings to reverse the spell–she can’t escape June 20. There are some unexpected benefits to this mystical problem: she finds a friend in Avery, who is also stuck in the loop after eating the same dumplings, and she gets myriad, consequence-free chances at redoing her first meeting with handsome brewery manager Cam Huang, who, strangely enough, seems to subconsciously remember Noelle through hundreds of meet-cutes. Despite the repetition, Lau keeps the pace moving at a brisk clip, thanks in large part to Noelle’s attempts to apply the scientific method to her predicament. The author’s fans will be very pleased with this breezy treat. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink