July 2022 Romance Book Releases

July 2022 Romance Book Releases

Here’s my list of my most anticipated new romance books being released in July 2022. I hope you’re all doing great and enjoying your summer. Don’t spend all of your time on Tiktok. I’ve got a list of almost 40 new romance books being published this month. From debut authors and Ali Hazlewood, Melanie Harlow, Jodie Slaughter, Rachel Van Dyken, Penny Reid, Devney Perry and many more. If I’ve missed a book, please let me know. Be sure to bookmark this page so you can refer to it when you need to.

July 1

It’s time everyone knew the truth, and what better way to announce you’re getting married (and gay) than on your family WhatsApp group?

Amar can’t wait to tell everyone his wonderful news: he’s found The One, and he’s getting married. But it turns out announcing his engagement on a group chat might not have been the best way to let his strict Muslim Bangladeshi family know that his happy-ever-after partner is a man—and a white man at that.

Amar expected a reaction from his four siblings, but his bombshell sends shockwaves throughout the community and begins to fracture their family unit, already fragile from the death of their mother. Suddenly Amar is questioning everything he once believed in: his faith, his culture, his family, his mother’s love—and even his relationship with Joshua. Amar was sure he knew what love meant, but was he just plain wrong?

He’s never thought of his relationship with Joshua as a love story—they just fit together, like two halves of a whole. But if they can reconcile their differences with Amar’s culture, could there be hope for his relationship with his family too? And could this whole disaster turn into a love story after all?

David Windell enjoys his orderly and uncomplicated life… but hates his next door neighbor. Between her plants crossing his fence, and her cat coming over uninvited, all he wants is for her to move.

July 5

It will take the frosty terrain of the Arctic to show these rival scientists that their chemistry burns hot.

Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they can all agree on this universal truth: when it comes to love and science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn…

Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station—but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival.

Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm?

To read Mara and Sadie’s stories look for the novellas Under One Roof and Stuck with You available now from Berkley!

She has the perfect life…and it’s a perfect lie.

Behind the careful façade, she’s struggling:

To feel like she fits in. To find her true voice.

Now, finally, she’s ready to start living her own story.

Eliza Catalano has the perfect life. So what if it actually looks nothing like the story she tells online? As a therapist, it’s part of her job to look like she has all the answers, right? But when Eliza ends up as a viral “Worst Date Ever” meme, everything in her Instagram-filtered world begins to crumble.

Enter the most obnoxiously attractive man she’s ever met, and a bet she can’t resist: if she swears off social media for six months, Beck Carter’ll teach her the wonders of surviving the “real world.” No technology, no dating apps, no pretty filters, no BS.

It seems like the perfect deal—she can lay low until her sudden infamy passes, meet some interesting new people, and maybe even curate this experience into a how I quit the online dating racket book along the way. But something about Beck’s raw honesty speaks to Eliza in ways she never expected. She knows he’s supposed to be completely hands-off…but as complex feelings grow and walls come tumbling down, rough-around-the-edges Beck may be exactly what Eliza needs to finally, truly face herself—and decide who she really wants to be.

What would you do if your dream man turned out to be real?

When law student Cass Walker wakes up after surviving a car accident, she is flooded with memories of her boyfriend, Devin. The only problem? Devin doesn’t exist. But everything she remembers about him feels so real, like the precise shade of his coffee-brown eyes; the texture of his favorite hand-me-down scarf; even the slightly crooked angle of his pinkie, broken after falling off a trampoline in third grade. She knows he’s a figment of her imagination—friends, family, and doctors confirm it—but she still can’t seem to get him out of her head.

So when she runs into the real Devin a year later in a Cleveland flower shop, she’s completely shocked. Even more surprising is that Devin actually believes her story, and soon they embark on a real-life romance. With her dream man by her side and an upcoming summer job at a prestigious law firm, Cass’s future seems perfect. But fate might have other plans…

Breakout author Bolu Babalola pens her vibrant debut novel, full of passion, humor, and heart, that centers on a young Black British woman who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake relationship with the man she warned her girls about.

Sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. An expert in relationship-evasion and the host of the popular student radio show, Brown Sugar, she’s made it her mission to make sure the women of the Afro-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of “situationships”, players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as “The Wastemen of Whitewell” in front of every Blackwellian on campus, she finds her show and her reputation on the brink.

They’re soon embroiled in a fake relationship to try and salvage their reputations and save their futures. Kiki has never surrendered her heart before and a player like Malakai, no matter how charming he is or how incredible their connection is, won’t be the one to change that.

After surprisingly entertaining study sessions and intimate late-night talks at old-fashioned diners force Kiki to look beyond her own presumptions, is she ready to open herself up to something deeper?

A side-splittingly funny and sparkling debut novel, Honey and Spice is full of delicious tension and romantic intrigue that will make you weak at the knees.

July 11

I didn’t mean to say I was engaged to a hot billionaire–it just slipped out.

In my defense, I’d had a really bad haircut, a really strong drink, and I was trying to save face in front of the Mean Girl at my high school reunion.

Lucky for me, I happen to know a hot billionaire. Hutton French and I have been friends forever, and even though big social gatherings are not his thing, I called him from the coat closet and begged him for a favor–show up and play my fake fiancé for the night.

Except that word of our engagement spreads like wildfire. Our families are ecstatic. We’re front page news. My little food blog is launched into the stratosphere.

Of course, I offer to set the record straight right away, but Hutton wants to give it a little time–the phony engagement is keeping his matrimony-mad mother and every matchmaking granny in town off his back.

He even suggests I move in with him to make the ruse more real.

And we don’t stop there.

We practice kissing. Undressing each other. Saying things–and doing things–we’d never dare if we weren’t pretending. Because it’s all for show, right? We’re just role-playing. Hutton doesn’t want a real relationship, and I don’t want to get hurt. But the more time we spend faking it, the more I start to wonder.

Could Hutton French and I actually be right for each other, or is it all just one big tease?

July 12

Julie Tieu, an exciting new and diverse voice in contemporary romance, returns with a hilarious and sexy new novel about colleagues who decide to take their relationship outside the office.

Cadence Lim has transformed from behind-the-scenes number cruncher to an integral part of the sales team at Prism Realty. But despite moving up the corporate ladder, her complicated relationship with her estranged elderly father weighs heavily and she can’t seem to shake the desire for a new beginning.

At least Cadence can always lean on her favorite co-worker and co-conspirator, Matt Escanilla. A top broker with an unsuccessful love life, the forever single Matt is constantly being nagged by his loving Filipino family to settle down.

Their relationship takes a turn when a business trip lands them both in their hometown and Matt enlists Cadence as a pretend girlfriend for a family gathering. The new after-hours setting forces the two friends to see each other in a new light, and their previously buried feelings rise quickly to the surface. When competing promotions threaten to separate Cadence and Matt, these office besties must work together to round up their ambitions and families to pursue their overdue romance.

Pretty Woman meets the Bridgertons in this witty, vivacious historical take on 90s romcoms by USA Today bestselling author Amalie Howard:

“Refreshing, steamy, and stocked with characters you don’t normally get to see in the genre—Her books are a must-read for me” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Lord Lysander Blackstone, the stern Duke of Montcroix, has only one interest: increasing his considerable fortune. After a series of betrayals, he keeps his emotions buried deep. Money, after all, can’t break a man’s heart—or make promises it can’t keep. But when his reputation for being heartless jeopardizes a new business deal, he finds himself seeking a most unusual—and alluring—solution…

Once an up-and-coming ballerina, Miss Geneviève Valery is now hopelessly out of work. After refusing to become a wealthy patron’s mistress, Nève was promptly shown the door to the streets. When she accidentally saves the life of a handsome duke, she doubts the encounter will go any better than her last brush with nobility. But instead of propositioning her, Montcroix makes Nève an offer she would be a fool to refuse: act as his fake fiancée in exchange for fortune enough to start over.

Only neither is prepared when very real feelings begin to grow between them. They both stand to win… but only if they’re willing to risk their hearts.

Xavier and Clara kissing in a tree…

When your best friend growing up is a girl, that’s the song your classmates taunt you with over and over again. But it was never like that… until now.

It’s always been Clara and me. She’s the only one who truly knows me. After I was drafted into the NFL and ended up the starting quarterback for the San Francisco Kingsmen, I begged her to come with me. But she had her own life and responsibilities back in our small Alaskan town, so I didn’t fault her for staying.

We remained the best of friends despite the distance. I’d hang with her in Alaska during the off season, and she’d visit me in California while I was playing. Then, one night the lines blurred for the briefest of moments and set in motion a series of events that changed everything.

I’m not proud of the decisions I made after that fateful night, and I plan on making amends, because I need Clara back in my life. But not as my best friend—as my everything. 

From USA Today bestselling author Pippa Grant comes a fabulously sharp-witted romantic comedy about a socialite’s fall from elitist grace to backcountry purgatory—and her accidental tumble into love.

If the Upper East Side had an evil twin, it would be Tickled Pink, Wisconsin. This run-down, backwoods town isn’t worthy of the footprint of my Louboutins, never mind all of me.

But when my grandmother has a near-death experience and realizes we Lightlys can’t buy our way into heaven, she relocates the family to Tickled Pink to work on improving our souls. And that’s how I trade my heiress existence for gigantic bugs, dishwater coffee, and a cranky single dad named Teague Miller.

Teague spends his days fishing, raising his spunky teenager, and after an unfortunate incident involving cheese curds, living rent-free in my head. The one thing he and I can agree on is that I don’t belong here. He’s willing to help me escape—until the unexpected happens.

I kind of like him. I might even more than like him.

But am I ready to give up the life I adored for a man I love to hate? 

The first time Aja Owens encounters the man of her dreams, she’s having a panic attack in the frozen foods section of the Piggly Wiggly. The second time, he’s being introduced to her as her favorite bingo buddy’s semi-estranged grandson. From there, all it takes is one game for her to realize that he’s definitely going to be a problem. And if there’s anything she already has a surplus of, it’s problems.

In Walker Abbott’s mind, there are only two worthwhile things in Greenbelt, South Carolina. The peach cobbler at his old favorite diner and his ailing grandmother. Dragging himself back after more than a decade away, he’s counting down the days until Gram heals and he can get back to his real life. Far away from the trauma inside of those city limits. Just when he thinks his plan is solid, enter Aja to shake everything up.

A hastily made bingo-based sex pact is supposed to keep this…thing between them from getting out of hand. Especially when submitting to their feelings means disrupting their carefully balanced lives. But emotions are just like bingo callers—they refuse to be ignored.

Jodie Slaughter’s Bet on It is a heart-stoppingly fun, emotional romance that will have readers falling in love until long after the last page is turned. 

A fiery restaurant owner falls for her enigmatic head chef in this charming, emotional romance

Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak.

Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane…

Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.

Sophie just wants to cook. She doesn’t want to constantly post on social media for her dead-in-the-water reality TV career, she doesn’t want to deal with Amy’s take-charge personality and she doesn’t want to think about what her attraction to her boss might mean…

Then, an opportunity: a new foodie TV show might provide the exposure they need. An uneasy truce is fine for starters, but making their dreams come true means making some personal and painful sacrifices and soon, there’s more than just the restaurant at stake.

Carina Adores is home to romantic love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

July 14

A feel-good, opposites-attract, slow burn romantic comedy

Somebody stole my painting! The one I need for the career-defining Vertex Exhibit. The Vertex Exhibit is my chance to finally be recognized as an artist—after ten years of waitressing and being asked if I still have that “lovely painting hobby.”

I have mere weeks to find my painting or lose my artist dream forever–but it’s going to mean working with William.

William Haruki Matsumura. Good-looking if you like the Secret Service type. You know, law-abiding, protector of women and children. That’s all fine, but I never know what he’s thinking. Which drives me crazy.

He insists on coming along to do “damage control.” As if “accidentally” wandering into certain areas is “breaking and entering.” I may be an emotional artist, but William shouldn’t dismiss my investigative skills yet.

William is definitely my opposite, and, if there’s one takeaway from my parents’ divorce, it’s that opposites might attract, but it doesn’t last. But detecting with William is kind of fun–and fluttery. I definitely can’t trust these feelings, or can I? However this caper ends, I think this may be more than a crush.

July 17

Subject: You up?
This is definitely a feeling cute, might want to delete later situation. But isn’t every message sent at two in the morning a precursor to regret?
By the way, I hope you read that subject line as the pun it was intended to be.
Okay, cutting to the chase—neither of us has an interest in cultivating an emotional connection with each other, right? You have your reasons, and I have mine. But none of that keeps us from nearly crossing the line from professional to personal every freaking day.
I mean, what was that almost kiss in the hallway this afternoon?
Something has to give. So this is me, giving in.
I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but what if you and I had … a fling?
Just a short-lived non-romance. No pretending it will ever be more. We’ll avoid flowers and flirting and get to the f—you know what I mean.
That’s all either of us wants anyway.
Think about it. Let me know.
I’ll see you in the office in the morning.
Oh! One more thing—If you’re not into this, don’t ever mention you saw this email. I’ll pretend I never saw it either.
Okay. Bye.

July 19

Two best friends have one week to return a lost love letter found in a candy store—and to work up the courage to confess to the deep feelings between them—in this romance novella from the acclaimed author of How To Fail at Flirting.

Teagan’s job in an airport candy store pays the bills but she dreams of traveling the world. With one week until she boards a plane for an international adventure, she finds an abandoned love letter in the store and talks her BFF into helping her figure out who it belongs to.

Silas solves problems for a living as an airline customer service representative. One problem he can’t solve is how to reveal a big secret to his best friend that would risk changing their entire relationship. When she proposes they work together to get the love letter back to its owner, he jumps at the chance.

Teagan and Silas stumble on romantic clues, old stories, and more than a few dead ends along the way while trying to play Cupid, all of which bring them closer together. With only a few days before Teagan’s transatlantic move, the two of them must decide if the sweet temptation of falling for their best friend is worth the potential heartbreak or if either can stand to keep their feelings wrapped up.

She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindgerten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka “bodyguard”), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

A chronic yes-woman finally admits to what—and who—she really wants in this unforgettable and heartfelt romantic comedy, by the author of The Layover.

Liv Bakersfield is used to living her life in “shoulds.” Be fit. Be financially responsible. Be your best self. An overworked graphic designer, she’s stretched so thin that she’s about to miss yet another vacation with her beloved group of college friends. But when Liv finally decides to start saying no, it feels good…good enough to leap straight into quitting her job and hopping on a plane to join them in South Africa.

Amid the exotic landscape and unforgettable sights, Liv expects sun and safari animals and an easy time with her best friends. But such close proximity makes everything more complicated, especially with the emotionally unavailable Lucas Deiss. Their friendship is the only thing in her life that’s still solid, and she vows to do anything she can to keep the group together. But once they get back to L.A., Liv discovers that her leap of faith has become a freefall, sending her crashing into Deiss’s arms. With the trust of the people she loves most on the line, Liv must decide between doing what she should … and risking everything for what she shouldn’t want.

“Hard pass on that guy, right?”

Mackenzie “Mac” Austin just wants what any modern, commitment-phobic woman in New York City wants: a no-strings-attached hookup steamy enough to brag about over brunch mimosas the next morning. Not on Mac’s list of wants is the bland, preppy, corporate dude currently her dating app is trying to match her with. Mac rejects the guy without a second thought, not realizing that the very same man is currently seated beside her. Whoops. And not only does Thomas Decker witness Mac’s rejection of him first hand—he calls her out on it.

But while Mac has every intention of putting the uncomfortable encounter behind her, fate has other ideas. First, Thomas pops back into her life again as her new boss. And then again as the brother of the groom at Mac’s best friend’s wedding.

With every encounter, she becomes more convinced that boring, uptight Thomas is the last man that a blue-haired, free-spirit like Mac should want. Only, the more time she spends with him, the more Mac realizes that the very man she can’t away from has become the same one she wants to keep close…

Life’s Too Short meets The Unhoneymooners in this sparkling, steamy, and swoon-worthy novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken, in which two sworn enemies must share house, home—and maybe their hearts—when they become co-parents after a sudden loss.

Colby’s living her best life: as a popular food blogger, she gets to fulfill her dreams of exploring the globe. But her world comes crashing down when a tragic accident leaves her co-guardian of her best friend’s two adorable children. Not only does she need to put down roots—fast—but she’ll be sharing custody with the one man she can’t stand sharing a continent with, let alone a house.  

Accountant-extraordinaire Rip values rules and plans. But when he loses his sister and his best friend and becomes an insta-guardian all in one night, Rip sees his organized life imploding. What he really doesn’t need is his sister’s irresponsible, flighty—albeit kind and gorgeous—best friend making it worse.

Rip doesn’t trust Colby to take their new responsibilities seriously, while Colby can’t believe Rip thinks children will thrive under his rigid control. Yet soon Rip and Colby discover they need each other more than they hate each other. Could it be possible that following their hearts is just what their new little family needs?

Rival photographers are forced to collaborate on a body-positive lingerie campaign, but they might have to readjust their focus when sparks fly.

Photographer Cassie Harris loves her job—her company Buxom Boudoir makes people look beautiful and feel empowered with her modern twist on classic pinup photography. Cassie’s best friend, Dana, is about to launch her own dangerously dreamy lingerie line and wants Cassie to shoot and direct the career-changing national campaign. But company politics and Dana’s complicated pregnancy interfere, and Cassie finds herself—a proud plus size Black woman—not behind the camera but in front of it.

Though she’s never modeled herself, Cassie’s pretty sure she can handle the sheer underwear and caution tape bralettes. She’s not sure she can work so intimately with the chosen photographer, her long-time competitor in the Chicago photography scene, Reid Montgomery. Their chemistry is undeniable on set, however, and feelings can develop faster than film…

July 21

Postponed!

He needs to get her out of his system. Just once…

Hank Weller doesn’t help people. He leaves that do-gooder nonsense to his best friend, Beau Winston. Hank does what he wants, when he wants, with whomever he wants—and Hank does not want to hire Charlotte Mitchell to be an exotic dancer at his club, The Pink Pony. Sure, he can’t help noticing the dips and curves of her, how shrewd, smart, and funny she is, the fire in her hazel eyes. He’s always noticed. She’d probably draw a crowd and entice the regulars. But after Charlotte’s messy, public divorce made Hank’s club out to be the culprit—and made her the single mother of four kids—he doesn’t need or want any additional bad press courtesy of Charlotte Mitchell. Or the distraction. Unfortunately for him, the town’s prettiest charity case doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the words nope, no, and never.

Charlotte Mitchell doesn’t much like Hank Weller. Once upon a time, she used to. Years ago, she liked him a whole heckofalot despite other folks in town labeling him as “eccentric” and “nonconformist,” which were polite southern alternatives to “filthy rich” and “self-centered douchebag.” Her opinion of him changed dramatically after he volunteered to be her date to junior prom and then promptly stood her up. They haven’t so much as acknowledged each other in over a decade. But a sudden family emergency means Charlotte needs access to Hank’s club ASAP. Unfortunately for her, the narcissistic fancy-pants doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the words help, generosity, and compassion.

But he’s about to find himself schooled. Charlotte is going to teach Hank a lesson once and for all about basic human decency, whether he likes it or not.

Spoiler alert. . . he likes it. 😉

I should stay away.

Emilia Anderson is the team’s social media manager, and there are strict rules about not fraternizing with the staff. It doesn’t matter that we already accidentally broke them—we can’t let it happen again.

Besides, my time in the NHL is winding down, and this is my last shot at winning the Cup. I need to focus on the game, not some girl I have no business chasing.

She’s ten years younger than me.
She’s the assistant coach’s niece.
And she works for the team.

She’s off-limits…and too hard to resist.

I know better than to play this game…

But it looks like I’m heading to the sin bin.

You know that girl from your past that you can’t quite stop thinking about? The one that you pushed away because you had a goal that seemed so much bigger, so much more important than any crush you might have had?

That’s Adaline Wilder for me.

Nothing came before football. Not in college, and not in my five years in the pros. All I wanted was to win games, win a championship, carve my own path out of the illustrious Ward family football legacy. And I’ve done all that. But something is missing.

I’ve never been wrong about what I want. Except with her.

She moved on to someone else, but that baseball playing moron just broke her heart. I don’t blame her for not trusting me, but even Adaline can’t deny the heat when we’re together.

I have one shot at winning her over. And I intend to take it.

July 25

Eric’s not Boyfriend Material. Or is he?

A new, swoon-worthy standalone college hockey romance set at Hawthorne University! Coming July 2022!

#1 Amazon Bestseller Ilsa Madden-Mills delivers a fast-paced tale of passion and heartbreak between a college hockey player and the girl who swears she hates him.

Filled with thrilling hockey action and unforgettable characters, this steamy romance is perfect for fans of enemies-to-lovers and second chances… 

July 26

Guapo pobrecito her grandmother calls him. The “poor handsome man.”

Professor Jeremiah Post, the poor handsome man, is in fact standing in the way of Alejandra “Alex” Torres turning Loretta’s, her grandmother’s bar, into a viable business. The hot brainiac who sleeps in one of the upstairs tenant rooms already has all of her Mexican American family’s admiration; she won’t let him have the bar and building she needs to resurrect her career, too.

Alex blowing into town has rocked Jeremiah to his mild-mannered core, but the large, boisterous Torres clan is everything he never had. He doesn’t believe Alex has the best interest of her family, their community or the bar’s legacy in mind. To protect all three, he’ll stand up to the tough and tattooed bartender with whom he now shares a bedroom wall—and resist the insta-lust they both feel.

But when an old enemy threatens Loretta’s and the surrounding neighborhood, Alex and Jeremiah must combine forces. It will take her might and his mind to save the home they both desperately need.

Jayci Lee’s romcom Booked on a Feeling features an overachieving lawyer. A failing bookstore. A childhood friend. And the chance of a lifetime…

Lizzy “Overachiever” Chung, Esq. has her life mapped out neatly:
* Become a lawyer. Check.
* Join a prestigious law firm. Check.
* Make partner. In progress.

If all goes to plan, she will check off that last box in a couple years, make her parents proud, and live a successful, fulfilled life in L.A. What was not in her plans was passing out from a panic attack during a pivotal moment in her career. A few deep breaths and a four hour drive later, Lizzy is in Weldon for three weeks to shed the burnout and figure out what went wrong. And what better place to recharge than the small California town where she spent her childhood summers with her best friend, Jack Park.

Jack Park didn’t expect to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but now he’s got three weeks to spend with the girl of his dreams. Except she doesn’t know of his decades-long crush on her–and he intends to keep it that way. She’s a high-powered attorney who lives in L.A. and he’s a bookkeeper at his family’s brewery who never left his hometown. He can’t risk their friendship on a long shot. Can he? When Lizzy decides that the local bookstore needs a little revamp, of course, Jack is going to help her bring it back to life. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore there might be more than just friendship among the dusty shelves and books…

Sometimes the path to the rest of your life has been in front of you all along.

All he needs is a second chance

All she wants is no strings attached

The biggest mistake of Jaye Colfax’s life was letting Velvet Spencer leave. For three years, they were together exclusively and it was great—at least for Jaye. But Velvet wanted more. Jaye wouldn’t commit to anything because he just didn’t believe in love or marriage. Tired of waiting, Velvet left him without so much as a goodbye. Only then did Jaye realize he’d been too proud to admit he loved her. But it was too late—his stubbornness had cost him the love of his life. 

It took Jaye two years to find where Velvet had gone. Now, he’s come to Catalina Cove to prove his love and win back her heart. He’ll do whatever it takes, even buy the local bank and move in next door. But will Velvet have him?

From the author of Digging Up Love comes a heartfelt story about two rivals whose passion for food and their communities brings them together in ways they never expected.

After doing her time in corporate Chicago, Simone Blake returns to small-town Illinois to tackle a new venture: her grandfather’s barbecue restaurant. The secret, as they say, is in the sauce. Simone’s plan is to sell Honey and Hickory’s signature sauce to put her hometown on the map.

But she’s not the only one with a recipe and a plan: chef Finn Rimes from nearby Springfield has a similar vision. To jump-start his dream of opening a culinary school, he shows up at the local farmers’ market with his own barbecue sauce.

When Simone’s plan to outsell Finn falls flat, she auditions for a reality show to pitch her brand. But she’s horrified to discover Finn’s had the same idea. As Simone and Finn wage barbecue war on television, their feud turns into an undeniable attraction.

With their livelihoods on the line, it may not be so much about making the best sauce—but finding their way to each other.

Talia Eden loved Foster Madden for one year, two months and eleven days. It was on day 438 that her love died. The day he chose to marry her best friend. The day she vowed never to think of Foster again.

Until years later when he has the audacity to show up in her small hometown of Quincy, begging for her help.

The ink on his divorce papers is barely dry, yet he comes armed with apologies and promises. She knows it’s all a ploy. Foster is the king of games and secrets. But he’s got delusions the size of Montana if he thinks she’ll help him train for a world championship fight.

Except Talia has forgotten exactly what made Foster famous. The man has dedicated his life to victory. He’s steadfast. He’s determined. And he won’t stop fighting until he’s won her heart.

They go together like water and oil…

All chef Nina Lyon wants is to make a name for herself in the culinary world and inspire young women everywhere to do the same. For too long, she’s been held back and underestimated by the male-dominated sphere of professional kitchens, and she’s had enough. Now, as co-host of the competitive reality TV series The Next Cooking Champ!, she finally has a real shot at being top tier in the foodie scene.
Too bad her co-host happens to be Hollywood’s smarmiest jerk.

Restaurateur Leo O’Donnell never means to get under Nina’s skin. It just seems to happen, especially when the cameras are rolling. It’s part of the anxiety and stress he has come to know all too well in this line of work. So nothing prepares him for the fallout after he takes one joke a smidge too far and Nina up and quits—on live TV.

To make matters worse, the two are caught in what looks like a compromising situation by the paparazzi…and fans of the show go absolutely nuts. Turns out, a “secret romance” between Nina and Leo may just be what their careers need most.

Now all they have to do is play along, without killing each other…and without catching feelings. Easy as artisanal shepherd’s pie. Right?

July 26

Sometimes local fireman Lucas Strong feels like he can only find any peace and quiet at the local laundromat, where every day is rinse and repeat — until a fateful run-in with his high school crush.

Hoping to attract more customers to his family’s knitting shop, Lucas Strong participated in an FDNY charity calendar and accidentally became a local celebrity. The only place he can find solace is Scrubs—a 24/7 laundromat where he can disappear for a couple of hours. But Lucas’s soapy sanctuary is shaken by an inquisitive little girl with a late-night interest in knitting whose mother is his old school crush.

Sidney Harris-Hughes knows that Harlem is like any other small town, and everyone is probably whispering about how she left such a good man—and a good life—behind to wash and fold laundry by the pound. If only they knew the truth. But Sidney will always put her daughter’s happiness first, even if that means moving back to Harlem and facing her past.

What Sidney never expected was to see Lucas Strong again. A long-forgotten attraction kicks into high gear as Lucas and Sidney start to spend time together at the laundromat, and they must decide if this is true love or just an infatuation, thin and as fragile as a soap bubble.

“There are two kinds of men,” Mom said. “Rich bastards and poor bastards. Neither will give a crap about your brains or personality, so go for the one with the money.”

Beautiful PhD student Clara Zapata has never subscribed to the theory that men only care about looks, but after getting dumped by her fiancé for gaining weight, she’s starting to think her gold-digging mother is on to something. If men are going to treat her like a trophy, why shouldn’t she treat them like a credit card?

“There are two kinds of women,” Dad said. “Pretty bitches and ugly bitches. They’ll both be more interested in the divorce settlement than the marriage, so go for the hottie.”

All heir-in-waiting Ian Dunning has ever wanted was the love of a good woman. But after being seduced and abandoned by yet another gold digger, he’s beginning to lose hope of ever finding real love. If the only thing women will ever want him for is his money, why shouldn’t he just chase after the ones with the biggest boobs and the fewest brain cells?

What happens when this cynical son of a billionaire gets stuck on a disastrous road trip with the jaded daughter of a gold digger? Will Ian and Clara follow in their parents’ footsteps, or will they find true love?

A fun and feminist Regency romp from a master of the genre hailed as “a delight” by Bridgerton author Julia Quinn.

Nothing happens in London without Graham Wynchester knowing. His massive collection of intelligence is invaluable to his family’s mission of aiding those most in need. So when he deciphers a series of coded messages in the scandal sheets, Graham’s convinced he must come to a royal’s rescue. But his quarry turns out not to be a princess at all… The captivating Kunigunde de Heusch is anything but a damsel in distress, and the last thing she wants is Graham’s help.

All her life, Kuni trained alongside the fiercest Royal Guardsmen in her family, secretly planning to become her country’s first Royal Guardswoman. This mission in London is a chance to prove herself worthy without help from a man, not even one as devilishly handsome as Graham. To her surprise, Graham believes in her dream as much as she does, which makes it harder to resist kissing him…and falling in love. But how can she risk her heart if her future lies an ocean away?

July 27

Wealthy.
Entitled.
Monarch.
Dr. Astor Potter was everything I despised in a man.
It didn’t matter that he was my sister’s one-night stand or her closest colleague.
I wasn’t charmed by his philanthropy or the way he made babies laugh using those ridiculous voices.
Dr. Potter was cold, detached, and reeked of disdain.
Nothing mattered to him.
Not the messages I left.
Or the tears I shed.
Nothing brought him to life.
Until my sister died.
And I placed my newborn niece in his arms.
Her father’s arms.
He didn’t know about the baby.
Neither did I.
They say love can’t be born from hate and grief.
I’m inclined to agree.
But then he asked me to stay…

July 28

Lowell Hemming is stuck.
Grounded from his job as a photographer, this globe-trotting werewolf is pulling his hair out being back in his small hometown, with no end to the current situation in sight. The first Hemming to leave Cambric Creek in several generations, he’s feeling the pressure from his mother to move back home permanently, is chafed by his inescapable family name, and hasn’t gotten laid in months. When he picks up an intriguingly-worded flyer, he hopes that his boredom is about to come to an end.

For the first time in her life, Moriah has an open door of possibility before her. Recently divorced, she owns her own home, her interior design business is thriving, and she’s free to do what she’s always wanted — travel the world. There’s only one thing holding her back — the desire to have a child. After trying for years, to the erosion of her marriage, she’s ready to put her dreams of travel aside and take drastic measures to get the one thing her heart desires above all else.

Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic offers a unique service — trigger a heat, and breed with a werewolf in a controlled setting, right before the full moon. Their success rates are higher than multi-species IVF, cheaper than adoption, and more enjoyable than most trips to a clinic.

When Moriah picks a handsome, dark-haired werewolf out of a catalog, it seems as easy as buying a pair of shoes. She doesn’t count on liking him. He’s funny, he’s sexy, and once she takes his knot, Moriah isn’t sure if she’ll ever be able to see their relationship as a transaction.

When Lowell gets the call that he’s been chosen by a clinic patient, all he’s looking forward to is scratching a physical itch and possibly unlocking a new medical kink. Catching feelings is not part of the contract. But when he meets the gorgeous little redhead who’s picked him, walking away from her after he’s fulfilled his end of the contract is harder than he thought.
Hard to think of leaving . . . and it’s not the only thing she makes hard.

Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic human/monster romance novel, featuring high heat with a lot of heart, and a guaranteed HEA. It is the third book in the Cambric Creek Monster Romance series and can be read as a standalone. CWs will be available on the author’s website.

Are you looking forward to the follow up to The Potter or Morning Glory Milking Farm? There’s so much to read this month!

For my fav five star read of June, click here. For my June new romance book list, click here.