Top 10
The Defender
Ana Huang. Bloom, Oct. 28 ($19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4642-2333-4)
The second installment in Huang’s bestselling Gods of the Game series pairs a pro soccer player with his totally off-limits new roommate—his coach’s daughter. 300,000-copy announced first printing.
Her Soul for a Crown
Alysha Rameera. Sourcebooks Casablanca, Aug. 12 ($18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4642-3179-7)
Rameera’s debut, a romantasy riff on Sri Lankan mythology, follows an orphaned woman in a war-torn land who, in her quest for vengeance, sells her soul to a dangerous and alluring god in exchange for power.
House of Rayne
Harley Laroux. Kensington, Sept. 30 ($32, ISBN 978-1-4967-5683-1)
Two women enter into a doomed love affair while stranded together in an isolated gothic manor on a cursed island, in this dark romance from BookTok favorite Laroux. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
It’s Me They Follow
Jeannine A. Cook. Amistad, Sept. 23 ($25, ISBN 978-0-06-343095-2)
In Cook’s magical realist debut, a bookseller with an uncanny gift for matchmaking pairs her customers via literary recommendations. 75,000- copy announced first printing.
Julia Song Is Undateable
Susan Lee. Canary Street, Oct. 28 ($30, ISBN 978-1-335-40252-3)
Über-successful but perpetually single Julia Song is thrown for a loop by her grandmother’s dying wish: to see her married. Enter dating coach Tae Kim. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Mate
Ali Hazelwood. Berkley, Oct. 7 ($30, ISBN 978-0-593-95258-0)
The sequel to Hazelwood’s Bride finds human-werewolf hybrid Serena turning to the Alpha of the Northwest pack for protection against supernatural threats. 750,000-copy announced first printing.
Pitcher Perfect
Tessa Bailey. Avon, Sept. 9 ($30, ISBN 978-0-06-338082-0)
Bestseller Bailey’s fourth Big Shots rom-com charts the enemies-to-lovers romance between a womanizing NHL rookie and the Division I softball pitcher who recruits him to play her fake boyfriend over an upcoming camping weekend.
Soul Searching
(Sweetwater Peak #1)
Lyla Sage. Dial, Sept. 30 ($18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-97777-4)
The reigning queen of cowboy romance launches a new western series with a supernatural twist about the small-town ghosts that bring two outsiders together.
Sweet Heat
Bolu Babalola. Morrow, Sept. 2 ($30, ISBN 978-0-06-330698-1)
An unlucky-in-love podcaster who has built a career doling out romantic advice is reunited with her ex-boyfriend, the best man to her maid of honor at the wedding of mutual friends. 150,000-copy announced first printing.
Tourist Season
Brynne Weaver. Slowburn, Sept. 23 ($28.95, ISBN 978-1-63893-210-9)
Two serial killers fall in love in a touristy beach town while evading the amateur investigation of a true crime documentarian, in bestseller Weaver’s Seasons of Carnage series launch. 700,000-copy announced first printing.
Longlist
831 Stories
Grape Juice by Eliza Dumais (Nov. 4, $14.99 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-89331-056-6). New Yorker Alice falls for cynical Frenchman Henri during a wine harvest in the South of France in this destination romance from debut author Dumais.
Ace
By the Horns by Ruby Dixon (Sept. 2, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-81705-6). In the sequel to Bull Moon Rising, a woman with secret necromantic powers has a one-night stand with a minotaur—who hopes for something more than a physical connection. 200,000-copy announced first printing.
Afterglow
Let’s Give ’Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabelle Popp (Aug. 26, $15.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-335-50723-5). Grumpy Sadie Fox returns to her small hometown to look after her dad’s pumpkin patch, but to win first prize at the state fair, she’ll need help from her sunshiny neighbor. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Alcove
Rivals to Lovers by Elise Wayland (Aug. 12, $29.99, ISBN 979-8-89242-275-8). Two writers compete to be the first to pen a modern adaptation of a classic work of feminist literature—and fall in love along the way.
Amistad
Nola and Baldwin: A Black Romance by Donna Hill (Jan. 27, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-06-344338-9). In Hill’s Depression-era tribute to Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nola Denny heads to New York City for a fresh start and new love. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Atria
And Then There Was the One by Martha Waters (Oct. 14, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-6680-6957-8) follows amateur detective Georgiana Radcliffe as she investigates a slew of murders in her small town in 1930s England—with some unwanted help from
a posh, impractical Londoner.
Learning Curves by Alison Cochrun (Sept. 2, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-6680-2125-5). This sapphic rom-com finds 35-year-old Sadie Wells in the midst of a sexuality crisis as she heads on a guided hike of Portugal’s 200-mile Camino de Santiago, not realizing that her tour group is made up entirely of queer women.
Avon
Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi (Nov. 4, $28, ISBN 978-0-06-345072-1) centers on Galilee, whose dynastic Black Southern family hides the secrets of her origins from her. When she meets and falls for Lucifer, she realizes her true nature and stumbles into an age-old conflict between heaven and hell.
Ballantine
Conform by Ariel Sullivan (Oct. 14, $30, ISBN 979-8-217-09099-0) launches a sci-fi romance series set in a dystopian future where humanity is governed by authoritarian technocrats. Commoner Emeline is chosen by one of these elites as a mate, but she can’t deny her budding feelings for a rebel leader.
A Ferry Merry Christmas by Debbie Macomber (Oct. 21, $25, ISBN 978-0-593-97467-4). This time out, bestseller Macomber’s annual festive romp revolves around two siblings who find unexpected Christmas love connections when their
travel arrangements go awry.
Benbella
Summer Skate by Sean Avery and Leslie Cohen (Sept. 9, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63774-731-5). A married romance novelist on a solo sabbatical in the Hamptons draws inspiration from the hockey team vacationing next door. As her connection with the team’s newest player deepens, the summer takes a scandalous turn.
Berkley
The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur (Oct. 21, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-95250-4). Recently heartbroken Samantha Cooper trades her soul to a surprisingly sexy demon in exchange for six wishes, which she plans to use to get her ex-girlfriend back. Little does she know that every wish comes with a catch.
Bloom
Wild Card by Elsie Silver (Sept. 9, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4642-2084-5). Gwen is shocked to learn, a year after the fact, that the older man she shared a steamy night with is her ex-boyfriend’s father. Now they must resist temptation while staying under the same roof. 200,000-copy announced first printing.
Bold Strokes
An Extraordinary Passion by Kit Meredith (Aug. 1, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63679-679-6) pairs queer autistic book
podcaster Hannah Carr, who’s still reeling from the dissolution of her marriage, with her new cohost, nonbinary Drew Barker.
Bramble
The Damned by Harper L. Woods (Oct. 7, $32.99, ISBN 978-1-250-36523-1). In Woods’s third Coven of Bones romantasy, Margot needs the help of Beelzebub, Lord of Gluttony, to return to Crystal Hollow from the Ninth Circle of Hell.
Huntsman by Naima Simone (Oct. 7, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-250-35294-1) launches a dark mafia romance series based on classic fairy tales with a steamy riff on Snow White.
Canary Street
Snow Kissed by Raeanne Thayne (Oct. 7, $30, ISBN 978-1-335-01317-0). Holly Moore, divorced single mother to a child with Down syndrome, braces for a tough Christmas season—until she meets new-to-town pilot Ryan Caldwell, who sweeps her off her feet. 150,000-copy announced first printing.
Carina Adores
Yours for the Season by Kate Cochrane (Oct. 28, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-335-08192-6). Openly gay Olympic skater
JT Cox returns to her hometown for Christmas, where she reunites with her best friend’s sister, who’s recently divorced and eager to date women for the first time.
City Owl
The Archivist by Ti Mikkel (Oct. 14, $32.99, ISBN 978-1-64898-487-7). When Colorado waitress Cora Moreau learns that she has a genetic mutation that enables her to time travel, she heads to a research facility in Spain where she delves deeper into her
newfound powers—and falls in love with
her bodyguard.
Delacorte
You’ve Got a Place Here, Too: An Anthology of Black Love Stories Set at HBCUs, edited by Ebony Ladelle (Aug. 12, $29, ISBN 978-0-593-87517-9), brings together 12 bite-size college romances from big name Black authors including Kiese Laymon, Kennedy Ryan, and Nicola Yoon.
Dell
Crazy Spooky Love by Josie Silver (Sept. 2, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-98300-3) launches a supernatural rom-com series with a love triangle between ghostbuster Melody Bittersweet; her ex, the host of a ghost-hunting TV show; and a nonbeliever from the local paper as all three investigate the same haunting.
Play You for It by Samantha Saldivar (Oct. 21, $18 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-217-09259-8). Sparks fly when sports journalist Caroline Beck interviews media-wary Jordan D’Amato, the first female head coach of a Division I men’s basketball team. An affair would jeopardize their careers, but their chemistry proves difficult to resist.
Del Rey
Books and Bewitchment by Isla Jewell (Oct. 28, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-72663-1). The rom-com debut of bestselling fantasist Delilah S. Dawson, writing as Jewell, follows an Alabama bookseller as she discovers she’s a witch and enters into a forbidden relationship with the scion of a rival magical family.
Dial
Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee (Sept. 9, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-73060-7). YA author Lee makes her adult debut with this sapphic Regency about two drastically different debutantes competing for the hand of the same duke—only to fall for each other instead.
Dutton
A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart by Morgan Lockhart (Sept. 23, $19 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-217-17682-3). A wayward witch who’s sworn off magic reluctantly returns to her small-town coven to help save their annual winter festival from corporate buyers. Along the way, she finds help from a handsome local.
Entangled Amara
It Happened on a Sunday by Tracy Wolff (Sept. 2, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64937-917-7). The bestselling YA fantasist returns to adult romance with this celebrity-focused contemporary that pairs a pop diva and an NFL player. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Forever
It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram (Sept. 2, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5387-3955-6). When Ramin Yazdani heads on a solo trip to Italy to prove to himself—and his ex—that he can be spontaneous, he runs into his high school crush, the recently divorced Noah Bartlett.
Red Card by Maren Moore (Aug. 12, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5387-7376-5). After British rugby player Kill Cairney is booted from his squad, he transfers to a U.S. college team. To keep his spot, he’ll have to impress both the coach and the coach’s prickly daughter.
Gallery
Hot Desk by Laura Dickerman (Sept. 2, $29, ISBN 978-1-6680-8109-9) alternates between the present, wherein two editors who share the same desk on different days of the week communicate via passive aggressive memo, and the 1980s, when best friends fight to break into the (still glamorous) publishing industry.
Graydon House
Dragon Fires Everywhere by Hazel Beck (Sept. 23, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5258-0474-8) kicks off when witch historian Georgie Pendell accidentally unleashes a dragon shape-shifter who had been trapped
in an enchanted book. As the pair work together to stop a rival coven, romance ignites. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Griffin
Game on by Ki Stephens (Sept. 9, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-250-40784-9). A college cheerleader and her school’s star quarterback agree to a no-commitment fling, worried that romance will distract from their sports careers. But keeping emotions out of their hookups turns out to be harder than expected.
Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti (Sept. 23, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-250-91098-1). In Regency England, rival gothic novelists who both intend to set their next works at the same crumbling (and possibly haunted) mansion must put aside their animosity when they find their lives in danger.
Harlequin
Season of the Witch by Sophie H. Morgan (Sept. 2, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-335-01638-6). Witch Tia Hightower fakes a relationship with her ex, Henry Pearlmatter, to secure a business deal, a task that’s made more difficult when a spell gone awry leaves Henry with amnesia.
Harlequin Special Edition
The Perfect Pass by Teri Wilson (Sept. 30, $7.99 mass market, ISBN 978-1-335-18009-4). Bestseller Wilson pairs a former NFL star turned small-town high school coach with a football-hating journalist in her Texas Forever After series launch.
Holt
Rules of the Heart by Janice Hadlow (Jan. 20, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-12946-8). In Georgian England, a married woman enters into a scandalous affair with a man 12 years her junior.
Kensington
The Wrath of the Fallen by Amber V. Nicole (Oct. 28, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4967-5812-5). War brews between realms in Nicole’s fourth Gods & Monsters romantasy. As Samkiel attempts to retake his rightful
throne, his lover, Diana, wrestles with strange, prophetic dreams.
Mira
The Dating Prohibition by Taj McCoy (Sept. 2, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-7783-6858-8). Kendra returns to her hometown hoping to open a speakeasy and gets some unexpected help from her brother’s lifelong best friend, BJ. Though chemistry crackles
between them, BJ knows that Kendra’s brother would never approve.
Montlake
Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose (Sept. 30, $16.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-6625-2020-4). A zombie apocalypse traps a woman with her high school rival as they work together to survive, in this horror romance from bestseller Rose.
Morrow
The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan (Oct. 14, $30, ISBN 978-0-06-345544-3). As Christmas approaches in the Scottish Highlands, rival antiquarian book experts Mirren and Theo race each other to find a priceless tome in the expansive library of handsome Laird Jamie’s ancestral castle.
Penguin Books
The Re-Write by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (Aug. 12, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-29905-0). An aspiring romance writer agrees to ghostwrite a celebrity’s memoir—only to discover that he’s her ex-boyfriend, now a reality star with a bad reputation.
Putnam
And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens (Nov. 18, $19 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-71892-6). Chloe Fairway dreads admitting her romantic and professional failures to her former best friend, Sean, at their 10-year college reunion, so she hires a matchmaker to find the perfect date. 150,000-copy announced first printing.
Something Wicked by Falon Ballard (Dec. 2, $32, ISBN 978-0-593-85467-9) riffs on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge! in a romantasy series launch that pairs politically ambitious Callum with magically gifted courtesan Catherine. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Quirk
Undead and Unwed by Sam Tschida (Oct. 28, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68369-472-4). Vampire Tiffenie, unhappily single at 300 years old, hopes to fend off the Christmas blues with a peaceful stay in Vermont—where she develops a serious crush on a hunky local Christmas tree farmer. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Random House
Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan (Oct. 7, $30, ISBN 979-8-217-15404-3). Tate Donovan is grieving his late sister, who claimed to have the ability to see ghosts, when he meets the mysterious Wren, who forces him to reevaluate his stance on the supernatural in this collaboration from bestseller Sparks and filmmaker Shyamalan.
Saturday Books
Overdue by Stephanie Perkins (Oct. 7, $31, ISBN 978-1-250-31346-1). The YA author’s adult debut follows a couple in their late
20s who are considering tying the knot. The problem? Neither has ever dated anyone else. So they agree to a monthlong separation during which they’ll see other people.
Simon & Schuster
The Christmas Cure by Kristine Winters (Oct. 7, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-6680-6959-2) puts a time travel twist on a quaint small-town Christmas when burned-out doctor Libby Munro is transported back to the previous year’s festivities and given the chance to change her life—with help from a handsome baker.
Slowburn
See You at the Finish Line by Zac Hammett (Sept. 2, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63893-331-1). Rivals become lovers while rowing for Oxford in Hammett’s queer romance debut. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Sourcebooks Casablanca
Endless Anger by Sav R. Miller (Aug. 19, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4642-2907-7) launches the Monsters Within series, a spin-off of Miller’s bestselling Monsters & Muses romantasies, focused on the original protagonists’ children navigating a magical university. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
W x Wattpad
Western Heat by Caroline Richardson (Jan. 20, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-998341-37-5). New Yorker Jake West unexpectedly inherits his estranged father’s Canadian ranch, where he meets his stepmother and her alluring but unwelcoming daughter, Liz, in this enemies-to-lovers cowboy romance. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Zebra
The Psychic by Nancy Bush (Sept. 30, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4201-5572-3). A woman uses her uncanny premonitions to hunt a serial killer, much to the chagrin of the nonbelieving detective assigned to the case, in Bush’s sixth River Glen romantic suspense novel.
