19 June Romance Reads to Ring in Summer

I have been excitedly thrumming for the release of this book for nearly a year, and I’m so excited it’s finally here! Jodie doesn’t miss when it comes to complicated romance setups, and I’m so excited to pick up this BIPOC interracial sapphic small-town sports romance. Jade and Francesca both have their eyes on the head coaching spot for their town’s high school football team, but their attraction to each other doesn’t give a damn about their professional rivalry. 

I may have already started this book, and boy, is it a little bonkers in the best way. Asher has been lightly coerced into participating in an Amazing Race-style competition with his boyfriend…who proceeds to dump him as they’re checking in for their flights to L.A. At a loss about what to do, he convinces grounded pilot Theo to join him instead. The producers are surprisingly cool with the switch-up, but still want them to pretend to be romantically involved. Fake romance on network television? What could go wrong? 

From the moment I saw the social media post announcing this book, I knew that it would be one to tout. Aricka Alexander doesn’t get enough love as an indie Black author writing Black sapphic baes, and this one is about firefighters? (Okay, one firefighter.) Yes, friends, you want to read her books, and you might as well start with this one (then go watch a WNBA game and read her basketball books).

Phee grew up with dreams of following in her fire chief grandfather’s footsteps, but after he died, she left town to deal with her grief. Now she’s back, and when the town’s only female firefighter, Angel, moves to town to take over her grandparents’ legacy, the two pursue a quiet courtship that could prove healing for them both. 

Mia Sosa is back in our hearts and eyeballs/ears after what seems like a really long time, but is actually only a few years (since her last print book, anyway—she released an Audible Original last year)! In what I’m assuming is a (hopefully less frustrating) take on My Best Friend’s Wedding, Javi and Mari have been best friends since college. They make a pact that they’ll never date someone the other doesn’t approve of, but fast forward to the future and Mari is about to marry a man Javi hardly knows. Not to mention, he’s in love with her. So he sets a course to convince her to not marry this “Pedro Pascal knockoff” (which sounds like a rough job, if he’s anything like the original), and maybe be with him instead.   

Do you need anything to put this on your list besides the title and the author? This isn’t Ann Aguirre’s first foray into alien romance (if you haven’t read Strange Love, you MUST!), but it seems to be even quirkier than the last ones. Seeker is stranded on Earth, and a little hopeless about being able to make his way off again. But he’s made a lot of friends online, and is looking forward to meeting some of them (okay, one in particular) at Space Con. Jennette has been obsessed with aliens since she was a kid, and she’s excited to share that obsession with her online crush, Seeker—who she will finally get to meet at Space Con!

We love a good romance with a hint of fabulism, and this one features a writer who dreams of publishing her work, but continues to get rejected. When she throws away her manuscript in a fit of pique, she wakes up the next morning (on her 30th birthday) to find the manifestation of her love of writing in the form of Aashiq, a living, breathing man. He helps her discover her writing joy again, but as she comes closer to actualizing it, he starts to disappear. That’s…not good. 

When you say “Ms. and Ms. Smith” and “The Pairing,” you bet my behind is going to be right there. A sapphic, spy action, relationship-in-trouble masterpiece by an author who is half Ruthie Knox? Yes, friend. Yes. KC and Yardley have both worked for “the agency” for years. They are also in a long-term, suffering relationship that is on its last legs. They are also each keeping the secret of their work from each other. So when the truth does in fact out, they have to work together to set things right—both their work issues and the ones at home. 

If you loved Nina in Curvy Girl Summer, get ready for her antics in Plus Size Player, which runs concurrently with the other book. You don’t have to read Aaliyah’s book to get into this one, but I recommend it because it’s a pretty good book (even if those two aggravated me oh my god). 

Ahem. 

Nina is a player. She has a man for all moods, but one of her regulars is starting to hit more and more of her buttons for the perfect partner. Unfortunately, he turns out to be the CEO of the company she just signed a modeling deal with, and the company has a no-fraternization rule. Whoops. 

Joanna Lowell’s A Shore Thing was one of my top reads last year, and I’m excited to pick up her newest historical, a queer Regency(? I think?) featuring an archaeologist on the quest to uncover a Viking hoard. Elfreda has found evidence of a hoard on her family’s land, but a collision with her nemesis, Georgie, leads to the loss of the artifact. So she asks Georgie to team up with her on the quest for the gold, and of course, all that time together might bring some things to light.   

Looking to produce a new kind of sound, pop singer Bardot seeks a collab with King Ash, the biggest name in the business. But Ash isn’t interested, and tells her so. When Bardot rants about it online and goes viral, though, Ash really sees her. And when they run into each other, they have a real connection that could lead to something great, if everybody and they mama weren’t saying their relationship was just PR. 

In a sea of pickleball, we have tennis! And I’m sorry, is that…soulmate AU???? Juliette and Luca are rival tennis players who snipe at each other in press conferences but have never actually played together. But when they shake hands after an intense match, names show up on wrists, and the pair has to deal with the new development. This sounds like a blast, even though I am still distracted by an Italian woman named Luca (though some Google results say it’s gender-neutral). 

When Ebony’s marriage goes up in flames, she turns the entirety of her focus towards maintaining her elite event planning business and social media platform. But the event she’s currently working on is being held up by Lincoln, the annoyingly charming architect of the building she’s trying to transform. And it doesn’t help that they share immense chemistry and possibilities. But Ebony is focused on working on herself, and adding a new man to the mix is not in her plans.

First tennis, now pro cycling? We are eating when it comes to lesser-used sports in romance this month. Lori is a champion cyclist recovering from a bad accident and gets back into training with a virtual partner on an app. When she decides to quit the app and focus on the road, Seb figures he’ll never hear her voice again. But then they run into each other as the season amps up, and their online chemistry transfers pretty well to real life. Unfortunately, their high-demand, high-impact careers might get in the way.  

The murder mystery rom-com is apparently here to stay, because this isn’t the only one out this month. In this one, Alice goes on a reality show with her fiancé, but gets broken up with just a couple of weeks in. When she and her high school rival (who is also newly single) decide to fake date to get through the rest of the show, they don’t expect they’ll also have to solve a murder mystery when a dead body is found on set. Nothing like a shared goal to bring out those feelings!

When I read Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah Heron, I thought the one thing that would improve it would be if it were queer, so I’m glad to pick up a book with a similar premise—especially written by the person who once wrote as Mary Ann Rivers! The Story Guy, amirite? (Sigh.) 

Anyway, Tressa leads a pretty unremarkable life, until a wrong number text leads to an exchange with Meryl. They decide to meet up, but Meryl never shows. Then it turns out she couldn’t have: she’s been missing for a month. Turns out they’ve been texting five months apart from each other. So Tressa and her friends, with the knowledge they have, try to help Meryl not go missing. 

Addy DuLac is one of those historical romance authors we should be talking about more, and this is as good an entry point into her work as any other. Regina Mason has been trying to get married for quite some time, but her fiancés keep dying. All she wants is to just get through this one last step to bring her family into the privileged ton. But there’s also this attractive PI who keeps popping up…who might actually be the answer to her needs. 

Rioter Susie Dumond has a new book out and it sounds exhausting in the best way! When Molly and Robin first got married, they opened the Hummingbird Inn, but personality complications and career goals split them up. Now, years later, they’re both back, and each believes they deserve possession of their now dormant inn. Their competitive natures drive each to attempt to get the other to go, even if they have to resort to pranks. But neither is leaving. So of course, they decide to renovate it so they can sell it, split the proceeds, and go about their business. But all that time together! Of course Feelings are going to happen.  

In this darker outing by Elevator Pitch author Evelyn Leigh, a private detective is hired to find dirt on his client’s business competitor, in order to blackmail her out of outbidding him in a deal. But Cèsar finds himself practically in love with Deirdre, and turns into a bit of a stalker instead. Deirdre, who grew up in and leads an arm of a crime family, is curious about her new adversary, and the weirdest courtship goes underway. 

If you want to go even darker, this companion novel to Rodriguez’s Lovesick, features a woman determined to get revenge on the man who brutalized her. But when “Cartel prince” Emiliano sees her, he’s determined to keep her safe, even if he has to go to certain lengths to do so. This story features cross-cultural Latine rep, which is always cool to see, and a whole lot of dark subjects. Check the content warnings before you get started!