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WBUR contributor Maddie Browning recommends 10 romances to read this summer. (Courtesy the publishers)<\/p>\nWBUR contributor Maddie Browning recommends 10 romances to read this summer. (Courtesy the publishers)<\/p>\n
I am a year-round romance reader, but summer is the ideal time to dive into the genre. It\u2019s the season of beach reads when it\u2019s 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<\/a> in Cambridge for some of the titles on this list.<\/p>\n Author Katie Sturino\u2019s debut novel is a body acceptance tale meets \u201cSex and the City\u201d page-turner. Recent divorc\u00e9e Sunny Greene is a successful fashion PR firm owner living in New York City. She loves high-end designers, but they don\u2019t 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 divorc\u00e9e besties are there to support her. Amid her professional journey, she also finds herself torn between two men \u2014 a goofy mailman from Queens and a sexy businessman always found in a well-tailored, quiet luxury suit. And Sunny\u2019s ex-husband reenters the picture at the most inconvenient time.\u00a0Sturino<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Casey McQuiston\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019t help but fall in love with. For August, Jane seems like the dream girl \u2014 except for the fact that she\u2019s supposed to be in the 1970s, but got stuck here. August takes on the seemingly impossible task of helping her return to her timeline.\u00a0McQuiston<\/a> is known for their popular queer book-turned-film \u201cRed, White & Royal Blue.\u201d A sequel to the film is currently in the works<\/a>. The author was raised in Louisiana and currently lives in New York City.<\/p>\n Samantha Gale first meets Bennett Reynolds on the ferry to Martha\u2019s Vineyard. While dodging a frat boy who is throwing up, she knocks Bennett\u2019s book into the water. She\u2019s on her way to her family\u2019s 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\u2019t even know the name of. The duo decides to work together: Bennett helps Samantha create a cookbook, and Samantha assists in locating Bennett\u2019s father. And sparks just might fly, too.<\/p>\n Jenn McKinlay<\/a> 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\u2019 Choice Award for romantic comedy and the Fresh Fiction award for best cozy mystery.<\/p>\n In Annabel Monaghan<\/a>\u2019s enemies-to-lovers novel, Jane Jackson is a childhood sitcom star turned Hollywood studio executive. She worries she can\u2019t escape her past as the brunt of the joke in \u201cPoor Janey Jakes,\u201d 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\u2019t 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\u2019s hometown, so Jane has to spend a week with him to secure her first project. The pair\u2019s fiery tension might turn into something else.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cFriends with Words<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s natural hair store in financial turmoil. She declines his money, so he tells the world that they\u2019re a couple, which immediately boosts her business. They agree to fake date through the summer until Laniah can obtain an investor. But there\u2019s always been a spark between them, and this situation softens the line between friends and something more. Riss M. Neilson<\/a> graduated from Rhode Island College, and she lives in Providence. \u201cA Love Like the Sun\u201d is her adult fiction debut and a USA Today bestseller.<\/p>\n If you love the cozy Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz rom-com \u201cThe Holiday,\u201d Amy Poeppel\u2019s \u201cFar and Away\u201d is a great pick for your TBR list. Lucy resides in Dallas and Greta lives in Berlin. Greta\u2019s husband takes a job in Texas without consulting her and Lucy\u2019s 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\u2019s career-defining art auction win is disputed and Lucy\u2019s ex re-enters her life. As for their partners, Greta\u2019s husband is having a fantastic time, and Lucy\u2019s husband is mysteriously out of the picture. The women have to navigate their tumultuous lives and decide if returning home is the right answer.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0Originally from Canada, Hannah Bonam-Young<\/a> is a USA Today bestselling author who lives near Niagara Falls. Her next novel \u201cPeople Watching,\u201d about a small-town woman spreading her wings, is out this September.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Out on a Limb\u2019 is a joy of a book where two strangers form a bond through something unexpected.” \u2014 Caitlyn Davis, Lovestruck Books bookseller<\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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\u2019t quite gone away. Emily Henry<\/a> is a New York Times bestselling author based in Cincinnati. Her latest novel, \u201cGreat Big Beautiful Life,\u201d was published in April.<\/p>\n Ramona Riley used to dream of becoming a big-time costume designer, but that was before her dad\u2019s car accident. She returned to Clover Lake, New Hampshire, to take care of her younger sister 12 years ago, and she\u2019s 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\u2019s more than the amazing cards she\u2019s 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 \u201cnormal people things\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Ashley Herring Blake<\/a> has written middle grade, young adult and adult novels. She is also the co-editor of the YA romance anthology \u201cFools in Love\u201d and lives in Georgia.<\/p>\n Sarah MacLean\u2019s novel is more dramatic than the previous picks on this list. The Storm family is wealthy, powerful and toxic. Alice didn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s Jack \u2014 Alice\u2019s one-night stand and the man in charge of making sure she stays on the island for the full week.<\/p>\n MacLean<\/a> 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 \u201cFated Mates,\u201d and now lives in New York City. [Read WBUR book critic Carol Iaciofano Aucoin\u2019s review of \u201cThese Summer Storms\u201d here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Knives Out\u2019 meets \u2018Succession\u2019 plus more spice, more lovable characters and Jack Spade punches someone on page 23 – perfection.\u201d \u2014 Rachel Kanter, owner of Lovestruck Books<\/p>\n