WBUR contributor Maddie Browning recommends 10 romances to read this summer. (Courtesy the publishers)
I am a year-round romance reader, but summer is the ideal time to dive into the genre. It’s the season of beach reads when it’s socially acceptable to tear through bodice rippers in public. However, my favorites are contemporary romances, so here are 10 book recommendations, some recent and others well-loved, to spice up your summer. A hat-tip to owner Rachel Kanter and bookseller Caitlyn Davis of Lovestruck Books in Cambridge for some of the titles on this list.
Author Katie Sturino’s debut novel is a body acceptance tale meets “Sex and the City” page-turner. Recent divorcée Sunny Greene is a successful fashion PR firm owner living in New York City. She loves high-end designers, but they don’t often make clothing for plus-sized bodies like hers. After an emotionally wrecking experience trying on a swimsuit at Bergdorf Goodman, she decides to take matters into her own hands and start a chic size-inclusive swimsuit brand. Her two fellow divorcée besties are there to support her. Amid her professional journey, she also finds herself torn between two men — a goofy mailman from Queens and a sexy businessman always found in a well-tailored, quiet luxury suit. And Sunny’s ex-husband reenters the picture at the most inconvenient time. Sturino is a body-acceptance advocate and the founder of body care company Megababe. She is also an influencer with over 800,000 followers on Instagram.
Casey McQuiston’s sapphic romance bridges contemporary and sci-fi with a fated meet-cute on a New York City subway train. August is a 23-year-old transplant who doesn’t believe in collecting physical memories or people. Her goal is to finish school and earn enough money to make rent. But then she meets Jane, a badass, confident, leather jacket-wearing girl that everyone can’t help but fall in love with. For August, Jane seems like the dream girl — except for the fact that she’s supposed to be in the 1970s, but got stuck here. August takes on the seemingly impossible task of helping her return to her timeline. McQuiston is known for their popular queer book-turned-film “Red, White & Royal Blue.” A sequel to the film is currently in the works. The author was raised in Louisiana and currently lives in New York City.
Samantha Gale first meets Bennett Reynolds on the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. While dodging a frat boy who is throwing up, she knocks Bennett’s book into the water. She’s on her way to her family’s cottage with her half-brother Tyler for the summer during a frustrating break in her culinary career. Tyler is preparing for a robotics competition at the local library, and of course, Bennett is the interim director. Samantha has dyslexia and hates libraries and reading in general. Bennett is working on the island to find his father, who he doesn’t even know the name of. The duo decides to work together: Bennett helps Samantha create a cookbook, and Samantha assists in locating Bennett’s father. And sparks just might fly, too.
Jenn McKinlay begins the book with a note to readers about dyslexia-friendly changes to the formatting, like margin adjustments and bold words in place of italics. Since the heroine has dyslexia, it was important to her that readers with dyslexia feel the book is more accessible to them. Based in Arizona, McKinlay writes mystery and romance novels, and she has won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for romantic comedy and the Fresh Fiction award for best cozy mystery.
In Annabel Monaghan’s enemies-to-lovers novel, Jane Jackson is a childhood sitcom star turned Hollywood studio executive. She worries she can’t escape her past as the brunt of the joke in “Poor Janey Jakes,” but she is determined to make a name for herself in this new role. Jane claims she can secure a song by Jack Quinlan, a popstar who happens to be her first kiss, for her debut film. The only problem is that she hasn’t talked to him in two decades. In order to try to convince Jack to agree, she turns to Dan Finnegan, an arrogant cinematographer and someone she previously found attractive. Jack is playing a music festival in Dan’s hometown, so Jane has to spend a week with him to secure her first project. The pair’s fiery tension might turn into something else.
Monaghan is a New York Times bestselling and Library Reads Hall of Fame author based in Connecticut and Florida. She writes adult and young adult novels and hosts the author lecture series “Friends with Words.”
Laniah Thompson and Isaac Jordan have been best friends since childhood. Laniah is an introverted small business owner, while Isaac is an internet personality with an international brand. Isaac returns home to Providence to find Laniah’s natural hair store in financial turmoil. She declines his money, so he tells the world that they’re a couple, which immediately boosts her business. They agree to fake date through the summer until Laniah can obtain an investor. But there’s always been a spark between them, and this situation softens the line between friends and something more. Riss M. Neilson graduated from Rhode Island College, and she lives in Providence. “A Love Like the Sun” is her adult fiction debut and a USA Today bestseller.
If you love the cozy Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz rom-com “The Holiday,” Amy Poeppel’s “Far and Away” is a great pick for your TBR list. Lucy resides in Dallas and Greta lives in Berlin. Greta’s husband takes a job in Texas without consulting her and Lucy’s son makes a horrible mistake that causes the two strangers to agree to a house swap. Their new lives quickly unravel into chaos as Greta’s career-defining art auction win is disputed and Lucy’s ex re-enters her life. As for their partners, Greta’s husband is having a fantastic time, and Lucy’s husband is mysteriously out of the picture. The women have to navigate their tumultuous lives and decide if returning home is the right answer.
Poeppel grew up in Texas and attended Wellesley College. She also worked as an actor in Boston and received her master’s in teaching from Simmons College. Poeppel splits her time between Connecticut, New York City and Germany.
Win lives her life determined not to let her limb difference stop her. One night at a costume party, she meets Bo and one thing leads to another. Suddenly, she’s pregnant, and she decides to have the baby. Bo is excited and ready to be a parent. The pair agrees to learn more about each other as friends while preparing for the baby, but things change as they become closer. Originally from Canada, Hannah Bonam-Young is a USA Today bestselling author who lives near Niagara Falls. Her next novel “People Watching,” about a small-town woman spreading her wings, is out this September.
“‘Out on a Limb’ is a joy of a book where two strangers form a bond through something unexpected.” — Caitlyn Davis, Lovestruck Books bookseller
A group of college friends travels to Maine for their yearly trip, a place they have been visiting for the past 10 years. But now, longtime couple Harriet and Wyn are broken up. They have been separated for six months, but haven’t told their best friends, so the exes pretend to still be together. As the week goes on, they start to realize that maybe their real feelings for each other haven’t quite gone away. Emily Henry is a New York Times bestselling author based in Cincinnati. Her latest novel, “Great Big Beautiful Life,” was published in April.
Ramona Riley used to dream of becoming a big-time costume designer, but that was before her dad’s car accident. She returned to Clover Lake, New Hampshire, to take care of her younger sister 12 years ago, and she’s still there, working at a local coffee shop. As fate would have it, a romantic comedy comes to town to film, and Ramona thinks maybe now she has a shot at her career. However, Dylan Monroe, her first kiss and a wild nepo-baby, is the star of the movie. Dylan wants to prove that she’s more than the amazing cards she’s been dealt, so she takes on the lead role and shadows Ramona at the coffee shop to gain perspective on the small-town experience. She also enlists Ramona to take her on activities to do “normal people things” and a romance grows between them. The pair has to decide if they can pursue their own dreams and each other at the same time.
Ashley Herring Blake has written middle grade, young adult and adult novels. She is also the co-editor of the YA romance anthology “Fools in Love” and lives in Georgia.
Sarah MacLean’s novel is more dramatic than the previous picks on this list. The Storm family is wealthy, powerful and toxic. Alice didn’t want to be a part of the chaos and dysfunction, so she left to create her own life. After her father passes away, she returns to her family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast for his funeral. Instead of a traditional will, her father left a twisted game for his wife and children to play to earn their inheritance. The family is required to stay on the island for a week and fulfill tasks designed to humiliate and hurt them. The game will unravel secrets of the past and present. And then there’s Jack — Alice’s one-night stand and the man in charge of making sure she stays on the island for the full week.
MacLean grew up in Rhode Island and is a former columnist for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bustle. She is also the co-host of the romance podcast “Fated Mates,” and now lives in New York City. [Read WBUR book critic Carol Iaciofano Aucoin’s review of “These Summer Storms” here.]
“‘Knives Out’ meets ‘Succession’ plus more spice, more lovable characters and Jack Spade punches someone on page 23 – perfection.” — Rachel Kanter, owner of Lovestruck Books