Vale’s cute debut is right at home in the current wave of cozy, Dungeons and Dragons-esque romantasy. Itinerant elven jeweller and metalsmith Elikki uses metalworking magic to help create her popular designs. When a minor noble attempts to assault her, the magic goes haywire defending her and the result is that Elikki needs to get out of town fast. Luckily, half-giant Barra and his enormous magical horse witness the whole thing, and though he and Elikki are total strangers, he immediately offers his help. On the run from the lord’s bounty hunters, they have plenty of time to get to know each other—and to decide if they want to act on their instant mutual attraction. Despite being very physically compatible, they find that Barra’s disastrous romantic history and Elikki’s difficult childhood serve as emotional roadblocks. Still, as they journey onward, they begin to see themselves differently through each other’s eyes. If they can stay out of trouble, they just might have a whole new life ahead of them. Vale offers plenty of excitement and a surprisingly high level of heat, coupled with a welcoming queer-normative fantasy setting that feels familiar and comfortable. Readers should grab a cup of tea and sink right in. Agent: Brent Taylor, Triada US. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Vaughan brings the fun in her second Belize Dreams contemporary (after Romancing Miss Stone). It’s been 10 years since Julia Stone last saw Carson Miller, the boy who relentlessly picked on her in high school. To her chagrin, they’re thrown back together at their parents’ engagement party. Carson is now helming one of L.A.’s hottest event planning firms, while Julia’s searching for a job after graduating with a master’s degree in hospitality from Cornell. So when their parents decide on a destination wedding in Belize, Carson and Julia are charged with making it happen—whether they make their peace with the past or not. As both try to get along and deliver the wedding of their parents’ dreams, barriers begin to fall. Carson’s penitence over his past treatment of Julia rings true, as does Julia’s rapidly building attraction to him despite their rocky past. Vaughan injects the forced-proximity and enemies-to-lovers tropes with plenty of humor and charm, and series fans will be pleased to check in on the central couple from book one. This is a delight. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Zanetti serves up a smoldering second Grimm Bargains paranormal dark romance (after One Cursed Rose). Lawyer Rosalie Mooncrest is assigned to represent mobster and tech scion Alexei Sokolov, who has been in prison for seven years, after his former attorney dies in a car accident. Alexei alleges that he was set up by a corrupt judge for a murder he didn’t commit, and, after Rosalie secures his release, he’s out to exact revenge. Upon their very first meeting, Alexei claims Rosalie as his own—and woe to anyone who tries to harm her. There are elements of instalove and, more troublingly, dubious consent at the start of their relationship that won’t be for all readers, but their connection evolves into red-hot chemistry, even as both dodge death threats from Alexei’s enemies. The body count rises quickly, and the squeamish may cringe at some of the bloodier murders. While Alexei is ruthless, he’s tender when it comes to Rosalie, making him exactly the kind of hero mafia romance fans swoon over. Twisty, steamy, and fast-paced, this will hit the spot for Zanetti’s fans. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this thorny, series-launching romantasy, Soto (Forget Me Not) introduces a war-torn world split in half by magic forces. Princess Briony Rosewood, twin sister to the heir of Evermore, Rory Rosewood, is a master of mind magic. The people of neighboring Bomard, meanwhile, practice heart magic and the country has outlawed all mind magic following the ascension of Veronika Mallow to the Seat of Bomard. Veronika declares war on Evermore, which falls to her dark forces, leaving Briony captured and vulnerable. Along with other Evermore hostages, she is sold at auction to serve as someone’s heartspring, a living source of magic more powerful than an animal familiar. To Briony’s shock, her new owner is her former classmate Toven Hearst, heir to the sadistic Bomardi family. Briony won’t surrender her dignity without a fight—but Toven is not what he seems, and Briony’s time with him soon leads her to the heart of a brewing revolution. While allusions to sexual assault and on-page human trafficking place this firmly in the dark romance subgenre, Soto handles these difficult topics with delicacy and respect. The worldbuilding is robust, with Soto not shying away from the realities of war, and the political intrigue and enemies-to-lovers romantic drama keep the pages turning. Readers will be eager for more. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Lee (That Prince Is Mine) unsuccessfully riffs on Jane Austen’s Persuasion in this overwrought celebrity romance. After 10 years away, famed K-Drama actor Anne Lee returns home to Los Angeles, feeling disconnected from and resentful of her narcissistic family, whom she saved from financial ruin. Her biggest regret in leaving L.A. was breaking the heart of Frederick Nam, who offered to come with her to Korea but whom Anne suspected would have been miserable there and so she broke up with him for his own good. Frederick, now a fire captain, has never forgiven her and wrestles with lingering anger and hurt—especially when the pair are forced together as part of the wedding party for the marriage of Anne’s cousin and Frederick’s dear friend. Determined to be cordial and leave the past behind them, Frederick and Anne decide to be friends, despite their lingering passion. But when Anne plans a co-ed bachelor’s and bachelorette’s weekend, their feelings boil over. Complicating their reunion are copious communication issues and Anne’s fear that her favorite cousin, Bethany, might have feelings for Frederick. The mutual pining between the leads will please those who like their romances on the angsty side, but the drawn-out miscommunication between them grows frustrating, and Anne’s jealousy of Bethany feels out of left field. Only die-hard Lee fans need apply. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this sparkling rom-com, Painter (Happily Never After) pairs a maid and a millionaire. Abi Mariano needs a place to sleep while her apartment is being fumigated. Declan Powell, the wealthy owner of one of the apartments she cleans, is out of town for a week, so she thinks she can crash at his place without anyone ever knowing. Then his parents show up at his penthouse, see Abi walking out of the bedroom, and assume she’s Declan’s girlfriend, Abby, whom they’ve never met—for good reason: Declan made her up to get them to stop bugging him about his love life. Abi plays along before making a quick exit, but when Declan realizes what happened, he tracks her down and offers her $40,000 to continue the ruse during a weekend of work events. Faking romance (and staging some swoony PDA) leads to real feelings, but Declan and Abi both fear revealing that their emotions have deepened. With falsehoods, miscommunications, and socioeconomic disparity complicating their way forward, the path to happily ever after is rocky. Painter injects a familiar trope with both levity and genuine emotion. Readers will especially be drawn to Abi, whose smarts and sass make her the perfect match for the more staid but driven Declan. This is a treat. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hammett makes an effervescent debut with this enemies-to-lovers sports romance. Lucas, a cox for the Cambridge crew team, has always had issues with George, the club president, an underwear model from Wisconsin. After losing a big race against their rival, Oxford, the teammates hate each other more than ever. But these frenemies soon make a deal: “sex god” George will help the inexperienced Lucas woo his crush, Amir, and smarty-pants Lucas will help George pass his exams, a requirement for staying on the team. The arrangement starts off promisingly, but George surprises himself by becoming jealous as Lucas starts dating Amir; he realizes he’s “full on longing” for Lucas and wants him to be his boyfriend. On the water, things are also shaky due to the duo’s demoralizing demotion to second boat. Hammett keeps both the romantic and athletic plots gliding along smoothly on the way to a suitably dramatic finish at the big race. With amusing banter between the leads and sexual tension aplenty, including an awkward but heavily charged moment of the guys pressed close against each other in a closet, this diverting contemporary is a triumph. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rapier’s passable debut romantasy checks many familiar boxes: a timid maiden with as-yet-unrealized powers, a hunky swashbuckling love interest, and a quest for both of their freedom that comes with a strict time limit, all wrapped in Celtic-inflected mythology. The maiden is painfully naive Saoirse, 22, whose powers her parents work hard to suppress, leaving her traumatized; the hunk is flirty pirate Faolan, also known as the Wolf of the Wild, whose adventures at sea are legendary even at his young age of 26. Saoirse flees her parents and their chosen husband for her to set sail with Faolan in search of the Isle of Lost Souls, whose legendary wonders have enticed many adventurers, though none have yet found it. The result is a fast-paced adventure combined with a steamy love story, but the central couple feels somewhat underdeveloped. Though Rapier occasionally attempts to subvert expectations in the relationship between the meek, virginal heroine and her worldly savior, the novel mostly plays the trope straight. (Faolan teaches Saoirse about sex when she asks him what it means for a man to “worship a woman on [his] knees,” a phrase she overheard from the sailors.) Readers who don’t mind an old-school romantic dynamic will like this just fine. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

The fast-paced second entry in Lawson’s Trisha and Grayson romantic suspense series (after Above the Fold) returns to 1980s New York City. Freelance crime reporter Trisha Connell and FBI agent–turned–security specialist Edmund Grayson are an unconventional couple, but despite their 14-year age gap and extremely different backgrounds, both are smitten. Unfortunately, Trisha’s mysterious past is catching up with her. As an infant, she was abandoned at a church and taken in by a kindly priest. She’s also hiding a dark secret from Grayson: after a group of boys gang-raped her at age 14, she killed her assailants and then spent time in juvie. When a stalker starts sending her threatening notes filled with Bible verses and people with ties to her past turn up dead, she and Grayson must fight to stay alive—and together. Lawson continually ratchets up the tension, keeping readers in suspense as she unspools why Trisha is being targeted and by whom. Those who like their romantic mysteries on the gritty side will be on the edges of their seats. (July)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this sumptuous and steamy dark fantasy, bestseller St. Clair (A Touch of Chaos) reimagines Eden as an intensely patriarchal, über-religious society where men reign over women despite the fact that only women can use magic. Lilith, daughter of one of Eden’s five ruling families, flees her father’s district for Ninevah, the seedy entertainment district under the rule of Zahariev Zareth. Determined to make her own way, she relies on her power over men’s desire to steal the things she needs—but, for some reason, gorgeous Zahariev is constantly in her path and swooping in to clean up her messes. Her exploits also draw dangerous attention from the Archbishop, who rules all of Eden with a corrupt fist. After Lilith steals a beautiful and mysterious dagger and people around her start dying, she begins to tune into the rumblings about church corruption and whispered stories of the old gods, all while finally facing her extreme childhood trauma at the hands of the church. A somewhat convoluted ending leaves many questions open for future books and the intense pain in Lilith’s backstory makes this not for the faint of heart, but St. Clair’s many fans will relish the introspective exploration of healing after sexual assault, living in life’s gray areas, and women reclaiming both power and rage. It’s a promising series launch. (July)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink