The New Romances I Can’t Wait To Curl Up With

I liked The Duke Undone so I’m excited to continue on in this Victorian historical romance series! This character got the side-eye from me in the first book but I’m excited to actually learn more about her!

Family disgrace has this pampered young woman being married off to the most vile Duke of England – until a case of mistaken identity at a train station gives her the way out she was looking for.

She’ll just have to pretend to be a botanist alongside a man who has been corresponding with (and hitting it off with) the woman whose identity she has stolen. A man who she seems to also be hitting it off with as she spends more time with him.

Another new workplace romcom from Rachel Lynn Solomon (definitely recommend The Ex Talk if you haven’t read it)!

This time it’s set in the news station and is about a TV meteorologist and a sports reporter working together on a scheme to get their bosses back together to hopefully improve morale at the station and get their mentors back from constantly being distracted by fighting one another.

As they spend more time together, the temperature rises between the two of them. (And if you think I wasn’t giddy to throw in a weather pun, you are WRONG!).

A new romance out in 2022 from the one and only Colleen Hoover – grab that box of tissues! If you haven’t read CoHo before, just know she tends to write very emotional romances.

This one is about a young mother trying to redeem herself and have a spot back in her daughter’s life while also finding herself in a complicated romantic entanglement once she arrives back in town. That’s all I’m saying!

Ooh a reverse My Fair Lady about a rich, pampered socialite who must teach an unpolished man from the Louisiana Bayou, who just found out about a rich grandmother he didn’t know he had and is only playing along for the money, how to fit in with the New York City elite as a favor to her grandmother’s friend.

Opposites attract when these two realize they have a lot to learn from one another outside of the snap judgments they’ve made of one another.

This book feels so meta considering the authors are married and co-write books together haha but I am here for it! Also very much excited for their adult debut (they have previously written YA romances!)

It’s about up-and-coming literary darlings who found success co-writing books together. Abruptly, on the heels of their success, they end their partnership on bad terms for reasons unknown to everyone except the pair. They never plan to speak again but, after 4 years of estrangement and less successful solo careers, they are forced to reunite and finish one last book together for their contract.

I love Elle Kennedy’s The Deal series so I can’t wait to read this one!

Mac has always been a people pleaser and a rule follower and she continues that streak by ending her gap year and enrolling in college to make her parent’s happy – even though she’d rather be working on her online business. She’s singularly focused on that task until she meets Coop – a local and resident Bad Boy in the seaside town where she goes to college.

They strike an unlikely and real friendship that turns to potentially more until she finds out the secret he’s been keeping from her all along.

Looking for a new rom-com to read? Check out this new release rom-com about a down-on-her-luck young woman who turns an innocent mix-up between a dating app and a roommate app into a new chance at love.

A queer rom-com about former childhood best friends (turned hookup 10 years ago) who might be each other’s second chance at love when they are brought together when a friend’s engagement brings Margot face to face with Olivia, now a wedding planner, again after all these years later.

Forced proximity! Second chance romance with The One That Got Away!

Looking for a dash of paranormal in your romance?

This one is about a fake relationship between a magic-less witch and a wolf shifter, the one who broke her heart as a teenager, to buy themselves some time when arcane laws force them to find a mate.

Old feelings aren’t the only thing that show up — Violet’s magic reappears as well – but secrets could just as quickly divide the newly reconciled pair for good. 

The second book in the Victorian historical romance series featuring women in science and math!

This one is about Lettie, a brilliant mathematician, who is asked to run Athena’s Retreat (a place for lady scientists & other brilliant women) while Violet, her best friend, is away – alongside a man, Viscount Greycliff, whom she cannot stand and the feeling is mutual on his end.

As they work close together, their long-standing disdain for one another turns softer and perhaps into more but things are complicated when the retreat is targeted.

The first book in a sweet new historical romance series!

This royal romance is about a young Crown Princess who is quickly sent off, due to her ill father’s impending death, to be mentored by the Queen of England to learn the royal ropes and find her a match fit to marry the future Queen of Wesloria.

Tasked with being her escort and making sure she finds a suitable match is the rakish Lord Douglas – heir to Duke of Hamilton and most definitely not husband material.

As the two scrutinize the endless parade of bachelors with one another, they also find themselves growing closer together.

Very excited for this author’s romance debut novel!

A sapphic, opposites attracts romance about a girl who ends up back in the small town she swore she’d never go back to solely for photography job with a big paycheck and ends up failing for the most unlikely person from her past – the mean girl bff her sister had in childhood– as the two spend time together during wedding activities.

This new historical romance is about a devilish rake in search of a respectable wife before he’s cut off from his inheritance after one too many scandals and an innocent debutante who wants to experience a little more colorful life from her super polished life destined to marry a boring earl soon.

She’ll help introduce him to the right ladies and he’ll show her the more scandalous side of London but as they spend more time together they risk scandal and a deeper attraction for one another when someone finds out about their nighttime adventures.

Fake engagement? Don’t mind if I do! The third installment of the Crenshaw family and this one is about Max Crenshaw. Max has been summoned back to England, which he never planned to set foot again, and his father gives him an ultimatum to secure his legacy.

To pacify his father’s ultimatum that he must find a wife by Christmas (and spare ruining his sister’s plans that his father has tied into the ultimatum), he reunites with and proposes a fake engagement with Lady Helena – a widow whose own parents are pressuring her to find a husband and who Max has always found tempting.

But, with the chemistry that has always been bubbling between the two of them, the deception turns into something that blurs the line between real and fake that leaves Max thinking maybe it could really happen and Lady Helena knowing it can’t because of a secret she is holding on to.

The second installment of the Unconventional Ladies of Mayfair series – a slow burn, friends-to-lovers new romance!

This one is about Lady Serena, a lady who likes to buck traditions and put her passion into her Wednesday Afternoon Social Club social projects, and her uber- honorable friend Charles Townshend.

The two have been friends, though there’s always been a mutual attraction to one another, but have never acted on their attraction – until now when Lady Serena decides she wants to explore the attraction further.

Charles is too much of a gentleman to have tried to pursue something more – particularly because he thinks he is below her and that a family secret of his would sully her name – and is resistant despite his long-standing feelings for her. 

A new historical romance from Sophie Jordan (book 2 in the Duke Hunt series)!

This one is about a  woman determined to reclaim her family home, after her brotherly stupidly gambled it away, from the dangerously handsome owner of London’s most popular gaming hell by infiltrating it and finding the papers to her home.

When she’s caught by the sexy owner she pretends she’s there to seduce him which leads to one steamy night and her leaving with what she came for before he wakes figuring she’ll never see him again. Refusing to be duped like that, he sets off to find her and settle their business once and for all. 

This one is the follow-up to It Happened One Summer (if you haven’t read that one, get on it!) and is about Piper’s sister Hannah! If you love friends-to-lovers romances, you gotta check this one out!

When Hannah returns to Westport for work, she ends up crashing in a room at her best friend, and renowned town player, Fox’s house! When Fox tries to help Hannah with her love life and the two spend even more time together, the lines between friendship and something more blur for the two friends.

A romcom about two dental students – one reluctantly out of family obligation and the other enthusiastic – who become friends, with a bit of insta-love bubbling under the surface,  after a (literal) run-in with one another that results in a broken dental mold.

Daniel knows immediately he wants to be more than friends but Harper can’t afford to take her focus off dental school, despite her attraction, but their “just friends’ plan proves more difficult the more time they spend together. Some exploration of anxiety and mental health, too!

A romance about a fierce woman trying to prove herself in man’s world when she makes it on the pit crew for Formula World champion Dante Annunziata. Dante, however, finds her to be a distraction and thinks she has no place on his crew.

However, when the paparazzi finds them in a compromising position, they are forced to pretend to be in a relationship to keep the drama at bay – a tall order when the two actually can’t stand one another.

Meet cute – but make it via a text from a wrong number. A “what are you wearing” text from a wrong number turns into the perfect anonymous (and steamy) distraction Olivia needs considering how everything has gone wrong for her lately – so wrong she’s now forced to live with her brother and his obnoxious best friend – who unbeknownst to her, and him initially, happens to be Mr. Wrong Number.

A fun little You’ve Got Mail-esque romcom!

I absolutely loved Float Plan last year (as well as being a fan of Trish’s YA books) and I devoured this one on a 5 hour flight! A great next installment!

Rachel is a single mom in a relationship not going anywhere but she loves her job – until she is fired for something she didn’t do.

On a whim she decides to move cross country with her daughter for a job at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie. When she gets there she realizes things at the hotel aren’t quite what she thought they would be as the owner, a quiet and moody man named Mason, has the passion for the brewery but knows nothing about running a hotel.

Taking this opportunity for a fresh start, she works alongside Mason to build the hotel from the ground up – a task that helps rebuild both of their lives as well as their hearts.

Fabulous secondary characters and such good chemistry between the two main characters!

This one straddles the line between romance and ~women’s fiction~ and features more of a closed door romance.

It’s about an advice columnist who finds her husband cheating on her and her life, as well as her advice column, go a bit off the rails. Things like her column going viral as she writes with a new brutally honest bent  or the handsome fireman she meets after she sets some belongings on fire – all the while her cheating husband is begging to get her back.

A slow burn, friends-to-lover romcom that is a loose retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma but make it with a dash of Bollywood.

Kamilla seemingly has it all (and is always balancing it all!) but hasn’t quite had time for romance. Lately she’s had a little harmless flirting with her close friend Rohan but there’s no time for a distraction – that is until her arch nemesis shows up and has her eye on Rohan and everything gets all out of whack in her life!

More of a closed door romance FYI.

P.S. Highly rec Accidentally Engaged by this author also!

One of my most anticipated new romcoms for 2022!

Set in New York, this is about a humiliating meet-cute on the subway gone viral between two complete opposites. The internet ships them but they don’t have plans to see one another again until the city (or fate) has something else in mind!

A modernization/romantic retelling of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, this one is about a potential arrangement of convenience turned real love between a love-phobic famous tv doctor in need of funding for a clinic and a love-obsessed homebody who needs to be engaged in 4 months to be gifted her family home before her father sells it.

Brought together by a viral argument the two engaged in about their massively conflicting views on love, Dr. Dil must convince Kareena (a hopeless romantic holding out for the right one) that a fake arrangement might just be the solution to their problems.

This is book 2 in Helena Hunting’s Lakeside series – this book follows Teagan (Van’s sister from the first book) and Aaron. Can totally be read as a standalone but plenty of Easter eggs if you read book 1.

It’s about Teagan’s fresh start moving to Pearl Lake and her rough start turned romance (as they get to know each other) with grumpy Aaron who works construction on all the fancy houses in the area.

It does tackle some weightier things with secrets and issues that both Teagan and Aaron are dealing with that threaten the future of their relationship. If you like your books steamy and emotional, with a sunshine/grump pairing, definitely check this one out. 

Love a good foodie-centered romance read!

It’s about an up-and-coming rising star of a chef named Sadie who is set to compete on a cooking show (think: Top Chef) after a huge setback in a career. On the plane ride to head out to film the show, she hits it off with her seatmate spurring a great night together before the two part ways.

The next day she is shocked to show up on set and discover her seatmate there and find out who he is. Will she be able to focus on her dream of winning with the tension sizzling between the two of them?

As a note, a couple of friends who have read this question the marketing of it as a romantic comedy and it’s more like ~women’s fiction~ with a solid romance element.

Love your historical romance with a dash of fantasy/magic elements and heavy dose of FUN?

This Victorian romance is about the future leader of a league of ladies who secretly practice witchcraft, for the good of society, and her mission to retrieve a powerful amulet (a family heir) before it ends up in the wrong hands as many people race to find it – like the hands of the sexy pirate who she ends up having to team up with to steal it back.

Neither of them, however, realize in this heist that their hearts would also be up for stealing in addition to the amulet.

A new Eloisa James Regency-set romance!! It’s about an heiress who doesn’t want to attract a husband, even going so far as to selecting a most unflattering dress for her introduction to society, who meets an American business man and engages him into a fun wager that ends up turning the whole wallflower plan on its head and turns the friendly competition into a friendship maybe turned more. 

Ashley Winstead is an incredible thriller writer and I am over-the-moon for her debut romcom!

This one is about a woman who has had her heart broken one too many times, plus watched her dad break her mother’s heart with infidelity, which has led to some major trust issues – as in she doesn’t trust men at all.

Things get complicated when her biggest heartbreak of heartbreaks (her doing this time) comes back into her life and she’s forced to collaborate with him for work.

Tension, sparks, their history all collide in this second chance romance (with a dash of enemies to lovers’ goodness).

I loved this author’s previous book The Worst Best Man and this looks equally as fun and I’m excited to get a glimpse of characters from that book again.

This upcoming rom-com is about a woman who, while helping her wedding planner cousin on a couple’s wedding day, ends up crashing the wedding when she finds out information that she believes will have the groom making the biggest mistake of his life if he goes through with the wedding.

When the groom, whose carefully crafted life is now disrupted, ends up asking her for a favor she agrees to make up for ruining his wedding –  a wedding he doesn’t seem all that shaken up about being canceled.

That favor, all for a work assignment he hopes will lead to a promotion, has the two entangled in a fake dating scheme for his co-workers that turns into a deeper connection. 

A new book in this Regency romance series!

A marriage of convenience between a debutante with no suitable marriage prospects  thanks to her father’s gambling debts and a Lord who owns a theater in need of a more respectable clientele to frequent it and change its reputation.

He’ll get her out from her parent’s thumb and away from the only potential marriage to the man who owns the gambling house her father frequents and she will help get the right people into his theater.

An easy enough business arrangement – until you add in meddling friends, conflicting expectations for marriage and developing feelings!

Ah I am always a sucker for a romance novel with a celeb and a non-celeb getting together! It probably dates back to all those times I’d daydream on longer car trips in the backseat (before all the tech gadgets) and just think of scenarios in which my celeb crushes and I could meet-cute and I’d be swept off my feet.

ANYWAYS, this one is about a young journalist who gets to interview her celeb crush and the two spend a life-changing weekend together and the interview catapults her career. Ten years later, and a whole lot of messy life lived in the meantime, the two are reunited after all those years for a second interview bringing back all the feelings and truth of that whirlwind weekend.

Cannot wait for this second chance romance!

This one is about a woman who is in love with her best friend and finally gets the courage to tell him but is whisked away on a vacation with his new love interest and her friend and ex. The two concoct a plan to pretend to find feelings for one another to make her friend Malcolm jealous – a plan that backfires when real feelings start to blossom between the two of them. 

Love Abby’s books so much – always such good romances but also have so much depth in them.

This one is an age-gap romance AND a social class gap romance between a city-dwelling ER doctor from a renowned medical family and the small town mayor/carpenter/jack of all trades. Their chance meeting has all the chemistry immediately and, what should have been just a fling, begs to be something more.

Things feel so right when she’s in his world but could they ever truly fit in each other’s worlds when their lives are so totally different and many things stand in between it working?

Fan of food-centric romances, check out this one! Also, if you are looking for a book with queer characters – this one has a bi lead and a non-binary lead.

It’s about a high-strung pastry chef whose job at a cookbook publisher changes when they want to rebrand a bit and start creating popular video content which thrusts her into the spotlight of these cooking videos – a move that has her feeling like she is now a failure at her job.

To make matters worse her obnoxiously cheery new test kitchen manager accidentally goes viral with some homebrewing videos and her boss decides the two need to work together on the videos.

As the two spend more time together on the videos, she softens to her co-worker. And when there’s mixed reactions to Ray coming out as non-binary at work, she’ll have decisions to make between her career and her heart.

I love Emily Henry’s romcoms so much – the perfect beach reads they have been for me every year! Excited for this enemies to lovers romcom!

A cutthroat literary agent agrees to go with her sister to a small town in North Carolina (the setting of a romance novel Nora sold and that her sister loves) for a month-long sister vacation to get away from the city for a bit and hopefully get out of the ruts they are in.

Her break from the city takes an unexpected turn when she runs into her rival – a brooding editor back in the city whom she can’t stand.

Entertaining a list of things to do that her sister came up with and unexpected situations arising, she finds herself constantly being thrown together with her rival and realizes they have more in common than the books they both love so much.

Love a good British romcom? Wedding related romcom? A slow burn romance? Keep reading then.

This perfect summer-time new romance is about a recently jilted bride who, this summer, was already booked to attend seven weddings in one summer (her own was to kick off the wedding-filled summer) and, in light of the fact she wants to do anything BUT attend a ton of weddings by herself, her friends try to distract her with a series of outrageous and fun challenges to complete at each event!

As the wedding season actually turns out with her having some fun and finding some healing with the help of her people, she finds reason to keep her heart open and accept the detour her love story has taken.

London Spark is out celebrating her newly single status with her sisters and is NOT in the mood to be hit on – not even by the hot guy who buys them drinks and slips his number to her.

Months later, in a business meeting with a multi-million dollar company that could benefit their family hotel, she’s face to face with the man who she rejected at the bar months before — and he happens to be the CEO of the company she’s meeting with.

If you are looking for a new billionaire romance, check this one out!

A rom-com between a curvy fitness influencer and her new nemesis (a firefighter!) at the gym who keeps stealing her favorite squat rack and getting on her nerves.

As tensions escalate between the two at the gym, the last place they expect to see one another is at the engagement party of their grandparents – an encounter that has the two giving each other a chance beyond their gym rivalry.

As sparks fly and the two become closer in the gym and outside of it, a viral photo of the two threatens the gains they’ve made in their relationship. 

This new romantic comedy is a small town romance about two people who, previously in their last encounter, had a one night fling together and who are desperately trying to stay in the friend zone when a house renovation brings the two in close quarters again.

Romantic/sexual tension galore! (These characters were seen in the author’s previous book How Sweet It Is but completely stands alone).

You can never go wrong with a new romance or rom-com from Christina Lauren! This one looks a little bit of a different offering from these reigning romcom queens but super fun and adventurous – albeit maybe a little over-the-top in a good way?

This second-chance romance and western adventure is about a woman who has turned her father’s treasure hunting legacy into a business opportunity operating treasure hunting retreats for groups and tourists in the wilds of Utah.

She never expected to be reunited with the man who broke her heart on her very last tour before she moves on from the business. As they set out on the adventure, everything goes ridiculously wrong.

Prepare for a little romance, adventure and mystery/suspense!

The second book in this witchy, paranormal rom-com series (the first book was Payback’s a Witch). 

This one is an enemies-to-lovers between a demon summoner who wants to leave the family’s witchy business to be a fashion designer but gets roped into an investigation, with her archenemy from a rival family, to figure out who has been sabotaging the upcoming Beltrane festival with dark magic and clear her family’s name in the matter.

Next up (and final book) in this Jane Austen-inspired romcom series is a gender-swapped, Indian-American Emma retelling!

The next sibling we get a whole book about is Vansh Raje, dubbed by Vogue has California’s hottest single, and an unexpected connection he finds with the woman who just got out of a fake relationship with Vansh’s brother (from book 3) when they are thrown together for charity work and get up to a little secret friends-with-benefits action.

Age gap romance here!

This one is about rom-com about a Puerto Rican chef and an Irish American whiskey distiller forced into a fake engagement by their scheming octogenarian grandfathers.

Both have something to gain from the arrangement – the chef gets the update she wants to her family’s restaurant and he gets to make his dying grandfather’s last wish of seeing him getting married happen.

But if they don’t go along with it? The grandfather’s will sell the building that houses both family businesses.

Katherine Delafield has been waiting for a proposal from the man her father arranged to marry to no avail.

Her betrothed, Preston Clarke, has zero intention of ever marrying her despite their fathers arranging this match many years ago. And now Katherine has decided she is DONE waiting and is going rogue to soak in all that fun that life has to offer.

When she goes to a masquerade ball with a friend, she could never imagine the man she has a wonderful night with is the very man who refuses to marry her. 

This author’s romance debut is definitely a buzzed about new romance book to read!

It’s about a woman who lost her husband five years ago and has decided to try and get back out into the dating scene. A steamy encounter at a party leads to a whirlwind summer for her with unbelievable opportunities and a wonderful new boyfriend – all of it threatened when she can’t stop feeling the spark between someone super off-limits to her in the house they are staying at.

Looking for a queer historical romance novel featuring ALL THE PINING?

This one features a transgender heroine, a veteran who took the opportunity of her presumed death after a battle to become herself fully, and her childhood best friend who was shattered upon learning about the death and becomes a shell of himself.

Years later the two reunite and she tries desperately to bring him back to himself as well as contend with old (mutual) feelings with potentially new possibilities. 

An impoverished duke in need of securing a wife to save himself and his family and a strong-willed heiress, not much of one for Polite Society and with a yearning to explore the world, who has recently been whisked away to the country-side after yet another misstep collide in this historical romance.

The duke not only sees her as his way out of his mess but he generally finds her to be the one woman he could stand to be married to — something she is not at all amenable to – until a scandal between the two has him desperately trying to convince her to love him.

Definitely one of my most anticipated new romance books!!

This steamy romance is about a Dominican heiress trying to sell her rum and expand her family business, after the passing of her father and a snag in getting her inheritance, at the 1880’s World Fair in Paris and the charming Scottish earl who seems eager to help her as the two enter into an advantageous alliance to further their own businesses.

This one is about an emerging journalist who is hoping for her big break and thinks she just might have found it in a story of a big developer looking to build some massive condos in a small town.

Heading to the small town to chase the story, she expects all the small town goodness from the likes of Hallmark movies and Gilmore Girls and is a bit taken aback by what this small town is really like when she gets there.

With her Hallmark-laced dreams for a story dashed, she will have to look harder for a story considering most of the town doesn’t actually care about the developer coming in.

And in the pursuit of her story, she meets Finn, a man working for this developing company, whom she really hits it off with and could be a part of her own happily ever after.

A talented Hollywood starlet, looking to keep her afloat after her long-standing teen soap drama ends, agrees to her publicist’s scheme to enter into a fake relationship with a reclusive A-lister who needs the PR stunt for his own reasons after personal hardships had him pull away from the industry.

Are sweet romcoms your jam? Check out this romcom about a aspiring playwright who, in her current capacity as an assistant to a renowned playwright, ends up heading to England when a theater is working on a production of one of her plays. The trip quickly goes awry for our heroine – especially when she falls for her bosses nephew.

A romance about a hard-working, house-flipping Youtube sensation who rolls her sleeves up to tackle her next challenge – a crumbling Victorian mansion in a small Idaho town – and finds her biggest obstacle in her well-crafted plan to the flirtatious, sexy landscaper she’s hired who seems to manage to knock down some of the carefully crafted emotionally walls she’s put up moving from place to place.

A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet, slow-burn romantic comedy.

Road trip! Second chance friends-to-lovers romance between two estranged friends who haven’t spoken in 10 years but are taking a road trip they once promised to take so many years before to retrieve a time capsule they buried in a yard.

An ambitious career woman, whose latest breakup has put a damper on her plan to have children and who recently had a meltdown buying baby gifts publicly, decides to take her family planning into her own hands — by signing up for a co-parenting matchmaking type website where she can find a platonic relationship with a man to procreate with.

She finds a suitable match but quickly their straightforward arrangement becomes anything but between disapproving parents, an ex-fiance and more!

A romance with some weightier themes fyi!

This one is about a med student who has it all and who has managed to juggle it all pretty seamlessly  – a promising career, a hot lawyer boyfriend and the best friends one could have.

Until, one day, she suddenly finds herself at a crossroads when she fails the most important test of her career, her boyfriend dumps her and things get rocky with her best friend.

Questioning everything about her perfect plan for life, she is taken off balance when Ricky walks into her life – a man who definitely wasn’t part of her plan.

A romance novel (not a steamy one fyi)  but also very much focuses on Angie’s life as a medical resident (all the pressure!), friendships, being a “perfect immigrant daughter” and her relationship with her Ghanaian parents & culture, and racism in medicine.

If you enjoyed the early seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, this might just be up your alley!

Oooh a Megan Markle and Prince Harry inspired romance?? A sexy rom-com about a prince (and professor) who wants to live out of the spotlight and falls for a daring American rapper named Duchess who turns his life, and the palace, upside down.