I was overwhelmed with the stellar selection of new romance books this month, and lucky enough to have many of my most anticipated books as ARCs. The combination made for a particularly great reading month, with an unprecedented number of 5-star reads for me. There were some disappointments as well, but I’d have to call this an incredible release month overall. I’m still working my way through all of the April releases, and am excited to see what comes next month.
If you missed my May Release Calendar, you can find it here!
If you missed any of this month’s reviews, I’ve got the blurb and rating for each below. There’s also a link to all of this month’s recommendation lists.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Adored it
Sparks fly when a lovelorn romance novelist and a divorce lawyer who has sworn off relationships agree to cohost a podcast series offering dating advice to viewers, in Truly, Madly, Deeply, the next steamy queer rom-com from Lambda Literary Award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur.
As a bestselling romance novelist, everyone thinks Truly Livingston is an expert on happily-ever-afters. She’s even signed on to record a podcast sharing relationship advice. Little do they know she feels like an imposter—her parents just announced they’re separating, she caught her fiancé cheating, and her entire view on love has been shaken to the core. Truly hopes the podcast will distract her… until she meets her cohost.
Her first impression of Colin McCory is…hot. But then he opens his extremely kissable mouth. Colin’s view on love just pisses Truly off, even if he does have an annoyingly attractive face. Bickering with a cynical divorce lawyer is the last thing she needs—so she walks out, with no plans to return.
A few days later, Truly is surprised when Colin tracks her down, asking for a fresh start. Truly can’t deny the little thrill she gets from Colin begging, so she reluctantly agrees. As they go from enemies to friends to something else entirely, Truly discovers they have more in common than she ever imagined, including their shared queerness. He’s a genuinely good guy—charming, sweet, and equally as unlucky in love as herself—and there’s something about Colin that drives Truly a little wild. When their attraction reaches a fever pitch, Truly is happy for the first time in years. Yet she can’t help but wonder… is Colin truly, madly, deeply in love with her? Or is it all too good to be true?
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4b2Te5n
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great concept
A clever con woman must convince a skeptical, sexy farmer of his property’s resident real-life ghost if she’s to save them all from a fate worse than death, in this delightful new novel from the author of Mrs. Nash’s Ashes.
Fake spirit medium Gretchen Acorn is happy to help when her best (read: wealthiest) client hires her to investigate the unexplained phenomena preventing the sale of her bridge partner’s struggling goat farm. Gretchen may be a fraud, but she’d like to think she’s a beneficentone. So if “cleansing” the property will help a nice old man finally retire and put some much-needed cash in her pockets at the same time, who’s she to say no?
Of course, it turns out said bridge partner isn’t the kindly AARP member Gretchen imagined—Charlie Waybill is young, hot as hell, and extremely unconvinced that Gretchen can communicate with the dead. (Which, fair.) Except, to her surprise, Gretchen finds herself face-to-face with Everett: the very real, very chatty ghost that’s been wreaking havoc during every open house. And he wants her to help ensure Charlie avoids the same family curse that’s had Everett haunting Gilded Creek since the 1920s.
Now, Gretchen has one month to convince Charlie he can’t sell the property. Unfortunately, hard work and honesty seem to be the way to win over the stubborn farmer—not exactly Gretchen’s strengths. But trust isn’t the only thing growing between them, and the risk of losing Charlie to the spirit realm looms over Gretchen almost as annoyingly as Everett himself. To save the goat farm, its friendly phantom, and the man she’s beginning to love, Gretchen will need to pull off the greatest con of her life: being fully, genuinely herself.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/439UeRN
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it 🎧
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3UdgIx4
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Won me over
College exes break all the rules when they reunite years later in this enemies to lovers, second-chance romance, the highly anticipated companion novel to the TikTok sensation The Cheat Sheet—from the New York Times bestselling author of Practice Makes Perfect.
“A really fun, chemistry-filled sports romance you don’t want to miss!”—Hannah Grace, author of Icebreaker
Nora Mackenzie’s entire career lies in the hands of famous NFL tight end Derek Pender, who also happens to be her extremely hot college ex-boyfriend. Nora didn’t end things as gracefully as she could have back then, and now it has come back to haunt her. Derek is her first client as an official full-time sports agent and he’s holding a grudge.
Derek has set his sights on a little friendly revenge. If Nora Mackenzie, the first girl to ever break his heart, wants to be his agent, oh, he’ll let her be his agent. The plan is simple: make Nora’s life absolutely miserable. But if Derek knows anything about the woman he once loved—she won’t quit easily.
Instead of giving in, Nora starts a scheme of her own. But then a wild night in Vegas leads to Nora and Derek in bed the next morning married. With their rule book out the window, could this new relationship save their careers or spark the romance of a lifetime?
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/48PW4Zc
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Satisfying conclusion
It’s a room-mance for the books in this tender, steamy story about unexpectedly finding love and being brave enough to let it revise life’s narrative in the final book in the beloved Bergman Brothers series.
Viggo Bergman, hopeless romantic, is thoroughly weary of waiting for his happily ever after. But between opening a romance bookstore, running a romance book club, coaching kids’ soccer, and adopting a household of pets—just maybe, he’s overcommitted himself?—Viggo’s chaotic life has made finding his forever love seem downright improbable.
Enter Tallulah Clarke, chilly cynic with a massive case of writer’s block. Tallulah needs help with her thriller’s romantic subplot. Viggo needs another pair of hands to keep his store afloat. So they agree to swap skills and cohabitate for convenience—his romance expertise to revive her book, her organizational prowess to salvage his store. They hardly get along, and they couldn’t be more different, but who says roommate-coworkers need to be friends?
As they share a home and life, Tallulah and Viggo discover a connection that challenges everything they believe about love, and reveals the plot twist they never saw coming: happily ever after is here already, right under their roof.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3veCXtY
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it 🎧
A sharp and scintillating summer novel that will make readers laugh out loud and cry happy tears from the New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly.
Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.
Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.
It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4aekxbO
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it
Rosie Belmont has been driving me wild for years. The good kind of wild. The bad kind of wild. But mostly the kind of wild that comes with wanting your best friend’s little sister and knowing you can’t have her.
After living in the city, she comes blasting back into Rose Hill like a storm. Beautiful, messy, and chaotic.
And one wide-eyed desperate plea for a job is all it takes for me to hire her.
Forbes labeled me the World’s Hottest Billionaire but all I care about is opening my new recording studio. Something that comes to a screeching halt when I end up face-to-face with a young girl who claims I’m her biological father.
Now I spend my days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old all while trying desperately to keep my hands the hell off my best friend’s little sister.
I vow to keep Rosie at arm’s length. I try to stick to scowls and grumpy one-liners. But with her verbal sparring is merely foreplay—friction that turns to blistering heat.
I know damn well I shouldn’t cross that line.
But shouldn’t and can’t are two very different things.
And the only thing I truly can’t do is resist her.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/471i2HT
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Powerful 🎧
A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang.
Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.
Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except…
Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.
Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.
When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/48VjZqf
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Light and easy 🎧
There are a million reasons why I shouldn’t date Fletcher Huxley.
He’s a growly-faced, stubborn-streaked, international rugby legend trying to revive his flailing career in the US after being canned by his team overseas.
While he might have the good kind of thunder thighs, intriguing tattoos, and a booty of steel, he also holds the top position on my very short nemesis list thanks to what happened the first time we met.
Plus, his mustache is as terrible as the reason he’s picked me to be the woman he wants to date.
But he has one big checkmark in the why this date is a good idea column: he’s my brother’s new teammate.
They already hate each other.
And my brother has made an unfortunate habit of interfering with my love life recently.
So a revenge date with Fletcher to make my brother mad? While letting Fletcher think this date is merely for the good of the team?
Yep.
I’m in.
I’m moving to London for work in a month. And it’s just one date. What could possibly go wrong?
Until It Was Love is a banter-tastic romcom featuring an overgrown snack of a man with a soft spot for his purse dog, a normally optimistic life coach trying to live her best life, a mustache catastrophe, and one little tiny fainting spell. It stands alone and comes complete with a swoony happily ever after that will leave your heart in a happy puddle of joy.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TDTxvE
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Spicy fun
The hot baseball player I’m forced to stay with for my best friend’s wedding is off limits.
Remy Winfield has more muscles than manners, and he’s on a mission to get me into bed by way of the filthiest mouth I’ve ever wanted to kiss. He doesn’t care about my long time crush or my certainty that we’re finally about to happen.
Remy’s sure I’ll break first and kiss him, and he’ll tease me to the limit to make sure I do. I might be a Lady, but I can still play his dirty little game. It’s perfectly safe, totally harmless.
Until I fall for him.
Suddenly, Mr. Long-Time Crush doesn’t matter at all.
And my best friend can never know.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/49NJ7PS
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mostly good
All she has to do is stick to the plan—and stay out of the sexy bartender’s arms.
He quit believing in love a long time ago. She won’t quit until she finds The One… and he’s everything she’s NOT looking for.
Holly Greene is on a mission to find her happily ever after. And her journey to love does not include a detour to Bad Boy Bartenderville, population Jax Grainger.
Jax may be witty, smart-mouthed, and handsome, but he’s the kind of guy who views love as a four-letter word… and the last thing Holly needs is to waste any more time.
She’s in her seeking Prince Charming era, not her playboy villain era.
But after he saves her from the world’s worst date, Holly sees an opportunity: Jax may not check any of the boxes on her list, but he’s the perfect person to help her find a man who does.
Easy peasy lemon sque… Oops.
Get ready for tons of chemistry, tension, and laugh-out-loud moments in this hilarious new dating coach rom com. The Quit List is a closed door romance that includes mild language, innuendo, and tons of sizzle without the spice.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/49ZfYCw
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sneak peek review
A professional baseball player and his heckler prove that true love is worth going to bat for in the next swoony romance by USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.
Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize . . . but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message.
Chris doesn’t usually respond to random fans on social media, but he’s grieving and fragile after an emotionally turbulent few months. When a DM from “Duckie” catches his eye, he impulsively messages back. Duckie is sweet, funny, and seems to understand him in a way no one else does.
Daphne isn’t sure how much longer she can keep lying to Chris, especially as she starts working with the team in real life and their feelings for each other deepen. When he finds out the truth, will it be three strikes, she’s out?
Releases in June, preorder today!
Read the sneak peek review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TcN7mR
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mostly liked
Fake Date. Real Feels.
Mira Harlow has finally lost it. Between running her bakery, parenting her 14-year-old son, and taking care of her mom, she’s a stretched-thin mess. But kissing a total—and totally gorgeous—stranger before begging him to be her date to the biggest wedding her small town has ever seen so her ex won’t think she doesn’t have one? That’s a whole new level of chaos, even for her.
The last thing Cole Sanderson expects when he drives into the ski town of Red Falls, Montana is to score a date to his best friend’s wedding. But since his ex-rocker life in Seattle is stagnating, when the gorgeous, green-eyed bakery owner propositions him to play the role of her long-distance boyfriend, stirring his punk-shenanigans roots to their core, he doesn’t hesitate to say, “Hell yes!”
Mira hopes for a fun night with her fake date, but when their wedding weekend turns into a genuine connection, when Cole returns to Seattle and she tries to go back to her normal life, she wonders if she missed out on something real. But Cole isn’t done with her yet, and when he finds his way back to Red Falls, she’ll have to decide what’s more important: clinging to the neat and tidy life she’s struggled to maintain, or taking a risk, embracing the chaos, and maybe even falling in love.
Lips Like Sugar is book 2 in the Bluebird Basin Romance series but can absolutely be read as a standalone. This story features two main characters in their fifties, lots of laughs, plenty of open-door steam, and so many butterflies.
Content notes: Living with and caring for a parent with mild cognitive impairment, addiction, relapse, an unhealthy ex, grown men deeply in their feels, strong friendships, conversations about love languages, and an absurd amount of Say Anything references.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3I4ubl9
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Disappointing
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞.
I’m Never Harbor’s neighborhood best friend. Along with being the middle child in a loud family of seven, I’m accustomed to being everything to everyone. But after moving into my new townhouse by the sea, my world has suddenly grown too quiet.
But then she moves back to town.
Marina Starkey is my landlord’s daughter with nowhere to go. She needs a place to stay for the summer, and thankfully I’m just the kind of guy to offer.
Hello there, new roommate.
She’s gorgeous and cheeky with a stubbornness that matches my own. (Don’t get me started on the shared bed situation.) Summer days pass in soft touches and afternoon swims, and my heart sinks deeper with every stroke.
I’m not a temporary fling kind of guy, and Marina has no intention of staying past the summer.
She doesn’t want to fall in love with her hometown, and I’m basically Mr. Never Harbor himself.
But my home is quickly becoming wherever I’m with her.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/42FKj62
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Just okay
The grumpiest billionaire accidentally scores a sunshiny fake fiancee and pure chaos in this hilarious, sweet, and deliriously steamy romance by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Nicole Snow.
I can still pinpoint the exact second when my life became two truths and a lie.
You don’t forget delivering a mountain of fresh-baked sweets to a man like Dexter Rory.
I never wanted to see his scowling, bossy, brutally godlike face again, no matter how well he tipped.
If you told me I’d wind up wearing his ring, I would’ve died laughing.
But here I am, trying to cling to my sanity while I confront the undeniable.
Truth #1: I’m spiritually allergic to this man.
He’s as grumpy as a storm, twice as unpredictable, and he thinks my life’s work is the devil.
Truth #2: I need his money—it’s the only Hail Mary I have to keep my family bakery alive.
That’s why we’re living a ginormous lie that can’t last.
I mean, who would believe we’re engaged when we can barely share the same oxygen?
But Dexter can be wickedly convincing when he needs a win.
And the way he kisses me dizzy right in front of my adoring grandmother…
Hello, butterflies.
What happens when the truth matters less by the day?
What happens when you start falling in love with a lie?
This standalone read brings heat, heart, and mammoth feels all the way to the happily ever after. Witness two opposites attract, collide, and go down fighting the beautiful truth called love.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vxlL2Y
Mini audiobook review 🎧
My friends have convinced me. No more hockey players.
With a dad who is the Head Coach for the Minnesota Sleet, it seemed like an easy decision. My friends have also convinced me that the best way to boost my fragile self-esteem is through a one-night stand.
A dating app. A hotel bar. A sexy-as-hell man… who’s sweet, and funny, and – did I mention? sexy-as-hell… I fortified my courage and invited myself up to his room.
Assumptions. There’s a rule about them.
I assumed he was passing through town. I assumed he was a businessman, or maybe an investor, or accountant, or literally anything other than a professional hockey player. I assumed I’d never see him again.
I assumed wrong.
Read the mini audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/48SPCk8
Mini review
Something tells me that nothing I do can stop myself from falling for my roommate.
I’ve always wanted to be a chef.
But the same day two pink lines showed up on the test, was the day I gave up chasing my own dreams to put my daughter first.
I didn’t expect that to lead to a life of being scrutinized by my parents for every single move I made.
After years of it, I was done.
I caught the first flight to New York. I was already filled with nerves before we even took off until a stranger with an infectious smile, heartbreaker blue eyes and a personality that can light up anyone’s life, took the seat next to me.
Months later, the same man shows up at my bar in a small town in the mountains. This time he’s eager to learn more about me.
I thought telling him I have a daughter would make him run back home, except now I find myself as his new roommate in the city.
I told myself I wasn’t going to get involved with him.
I told myself that I’m here to live out my dream of being a chef.
But somewhere along the way, he stole my heart.
And if I had to take a guess… It was back when we took that first flight.
** That First Flight is a steamy, single mom romance that is sure to make you swoon and blush at the same time. This book is intended for mature readers only. This is a stand-alone and can be read on it’s own. For a list of potential triggers, please visit Jenn’s website: http://www.jennmcmahon.com
Read the mini review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3v5lPa9
Movie review
Ana (Camila Mendes) is an ambitious intern dreaming of a career in the art world while trying to impress her demanding boss Claire (Marisa Tomei). When she’s upgraded to first class on a work trip, she meets handsome Will (Archie Renaux), who mistakes Ana for her boss– a white lie that sets off a glamorous chain of events, romance and opportunity, until her fib threatens to surface.
Read the movie review here
It’s an Amazon Original, so you can stream for free with Amazon Prime at: https://amzn.to/443Iv7z
THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATION LISTS
15 Awesome Indie Romance Books
15 Soft and Tender Romance Books
15 Low/No Heat Treat Romance Books
THROWBACK RECS: Sexual Tension-Filled Rom Coms
Check out this week’s new releases here.
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Jeeves Reads Romance 
Looks like a great month, i read a few of those and love it, and other are my tbr
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It was a great month! Hope you enjoy the others as well.
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Looks like it was a great month. I’ve read a few of the same ones that I also liked. And I’ve also had more than expected 5 star reads so far this year. It’s been awesome.
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That’s always a great feeling!
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