New Romance To Read in 2025

What would you do if you thought your coworker was getting away with murder — literally? A morbidly funny and emotionally resonant novel about the ways life — and love — can sneak up on us (no matter how much pepper spray we carry).

Stella Baldwin thought her life couldn’t get worse. Being left at the altar was bad enough, but having to show up at her cousin’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas barely two weeks later feels like a cruel joke. Thomas Maxwell-Brown is just looking for a good time. With his career as a Formula 1 driver threatened by fresh talent, he needs a break to clear his head. And what better way to decompress than with a stag party in Vegas? Stella isn’t the woman Thomas expects to meet that night. And Thomas isn’t the man Stella expects to wake up next to in the morning … with a ring on her finger.

Dani Dorfman has somehow made it to her 30s without knowing what she wants to do with her life. So when an office romance ends poorly and gets her fired, she applies for a job in Amsterdam, idly dreaming of escaping the mess she’s created, but never imagining she’ll actually get it. Except she does. By the end of her first week in Amsterdam, she’s never felt more adrift or alone. Then she crashes her bike into her high school ex-boyfriend — and suddenly life is blooming with new opportunities.

She’s the one that got away. He’s the one that never let her go. From the bestselling author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance in which past lovers get a second chance to rediscover what they lost.

When Miri leads an expedition to the Amazon’s Lost City of the Moon, she hopes to prove herself to her colleagues and herself. Journalist Rafael Monfils joins to chronicle the journey but secretly aims to prevent them from reaching the sacred city and protect his mother’s legacy. As other crews hunt for the city, the untamed jungle — and their hearts — become the least of their worries.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. Swim captain, world champion, and all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

When Andie lands her dream job as a senior book publicist, she discovers that her biggest author is Jack Carlson — the same Jack who ruined her life at university. For a month, Andie will have to travel across Europe with the man whom, if she were being totally honest, she’d like to hit with her car. Deep breath. She can do this.

The only place small-town outcast Alex Lawson fits in is the online fan forum she built for The Arcane Files, a long-running werewolf detective show. Ever since his show went off the air, Devin and his career have spiraled, but waking up naked in the woods outside his LA home with no memory of the night before is a new low. Desperate for answers, Devin finds Alex. If only he could convince her to stop hating his guts long enough to help.

Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her — except her own personal disaster, that is: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves. In this swoony historical fantasy rom-com, geography professors in a failed marriage of convenience inconveniently reconnect for an emergency mission.

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Brianna Rogers has been told a time (or six) she needs to stop jumping into things head first. But when the principal rescinds his approval for a library upgrade, deciding to spend the money on a football field instead, she sees red. Literally. Brianna throws her hat in the ring and joins a team of teachers who will spend their summer in a Mars simulation. As the sister of an astronaut, this should be easy, right? What she didn’t count on was the last-minute addition to the team — Roman Major: science teacher, son of the principal, and too handsome for his own good…

Iris Greene used to be a woman with a plan. But all of that changed after she became a young widow and a single mother all in a little over two years. Now, after years of hustling, Iris is the director of partnerships at a beauty company and raising sweet six-year-old Calla by herself. Despite her busy life, she still can’t help but feel lonely. She just needs to catch her breath — and one night, at her sister’s wedding, when she steps outside to do just that, she sees a certain singer who takes her breath away …

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he’s fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, Lucie, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight. Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending.

It’s been nearly ten years since Gabe’s been gone when Lucy finds a tiny piece of paper in a box of his old photos. An address in Rome. Why did Gabe keep it, and what was he doing in Italy? The long-awaited follow-up to The Light We Lost and thrilling love story about the roles fate and choice play in shaping a life.

Campbell Andrews despises exactly three things in life: incompetence, tardiness, and love stories. That is, until she wakes up in Heart Springs — her own personal hell. The good news? She’s not dead. She’s been magically transported to a small town straight out of the Hallmark channel. Cam can’t stand it, but in order to make it back to her real life, she has to fulfill three tasks … foremost among them, experience true love. It seems impossible. But anything’s possible with a change of heart.

As the daughter of a con artist, Phoebe Graves only knew a life of swindling the rich until her best friend and fellow grifter, Hailey Tinrock, proposed an idea to start a new, honest life in a wealthy college town in Connecticut. While Phoebe is fake-dating Jake Waterford, the third-born son to an uber-wealthy and influential family, she’s actually dating and falling deeper in love with Brayden “Rocky” Tinrock — Hailey’s older brother. To keep her love, her friends, and her newfound happiness, Phoebe will have to return to her old games … and win.

After her father’s car accident, Ramona Riley had to quit and return to her small New Hampshire town, Clover Lake. Twelve years later, Ramona is still working at the town’s café, all but given up on her dream. But when a big-budget romantic comedy comes to Clover Lake to film, she wonders if this could be her chance. There’s only one problem — Dylan Monroe, her first kiss and Hollywood’s favorite wild child — is the star. A small-town waitress and a Hollywood star’s worlds collide in this new romance by Ashley Herring Blake.

Harsha Godbole has never felt love from her family, but she’s always been surrounded by their Bollywood business mogul wealth. Now back in Bangalore after studying in America, Harsha is ready to start her adult life without their money. But that becomes impossible when everything she’s worked so hard for comes crumbling down. Fearful of showing up to her cousin’s upcoming wedding as a failure — and worse, a single failure — Harsha hires a barista to act as her boyfriend.

Tatum Ward and Eleanor Chapman lead totally opposite lives. Tatum’s never left her Midwestern hometown. She resides in a quaint guest cottage on her parents’ property while working part-time as a waitress. Eleanor dedicates every waking hour to her high-profile press career, sacrificing personal relationships for professional success. When both women’s lives unexpectedly blow up at the exact same time, they each need an escape, and fast.

A groundbreaking trans Regency romance that’s both delightfully witty and refreshingly iconoclastic. With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced portrait of trans identity, A Gentleman’s Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.

How do you find yourself after you lose the one you loved the most? Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance.

A compassionate and hopeful romantic comedy, Passion Project is a reminder that love is waiting for us to let it in. With emotional resonance and sparkling banter, Passion Project is a fun, flirty, thoughtful story of finding a spark — and igniting happiness.

The Ibrahim family is facing a crucial moment: Their patriarch just lost his fortune as the result of a Ponzi scheme, and the family is picking up the pieces. At the family’s core is Asma — a successful doctor and the long-suffering middle daughter who stepped into the family center after the death of her beloved mother years ago. In walks Farooq Waheed, Asma’s college sweetheart whose proposal was cruelly rejected by Asma’s aunt and father. As he enters Asma’s social orbit, she finds herself navigating a tricky landscape on her path to reconciling the past and winning Farooq back in the present.

Three days to fall in love. Six years to try to forget. One Day meets a contemporary Bridgerton in this high-drama, escapist wonder of a love story, Paige Toon’s best yet.

Ella Simone’s popstar life is what dreams are made of. Her eight year marriage to renowned music producer, Elliot Majors, has helped garner the hits, awards, and adoring fans to prove it. But when Ella tires of Elliot’s many infidelities, she decides to fight for her independence despite the ironclad prenup that threatens her career. But this plan is thrown a curveball after an awards show wardrobe snafu and quick rescue by Miles Westbrook, MLB’s most eligible player, sends the tabloids into a frenzy. Amid tricky divorce proceedings, Ella’s magnetic connection with the charismatic pitcher might just be her downfall.

A captivating and sizzling new queer romance by bestselling author Jasmine Guillory. “A will-they-won’t-they cat-and-mouse romp about challenging yourself to become the fullest — and most fulfilled — possible version of you. Add in a sun-baked setting, lovable sidekicks, and smoldering tension … a perfect addition to the Guillory-verse” (Julia Whelan, author of Thank You for Listening).

Elias Westbrook, a newly drafted hockey player for the Toronto Thunder, is facing the challenges of fame and media scrutiny. Enter from stage left Sage Beaumont, an aspiring ballerina with dreams of joining the Aurora Ballet Theatre, but her lack of popularity online leaves her at a major disadvantage for securing the lead role. When Sage finds herself with the perfect opportunity to make her dreams come true by fake dating Elias, she takes her shot.

A fast-paced, witty, and delightful new mystery about a marriage proposal planner whose biggest job yet is threatened by a dead body (or two).

A society matchmaker realizes she’s in danger when her clients’ weddings are sabotaged in increasingly disturbing ways — an utterly original mystery from the New York Times bestselling author Aisha Saeed.

In this latest installment of The Perfect Passion Company series, our favorite matchmaker, Katie Donald, continues her unwavering endeavor to help the lonely hearts of Edinburgh find love.

A podcast producer agrees to host a new series about modern dating — but will the show jeopardize her chance at finding real love?

Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is … complicated. So when her real dad — a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago — suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach you: About love, and what it actually means to be family.

When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both — sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible.

A delectable comedy of manners about cooking, ambition, and friendship set in the food world as a young and socially awkward writer takes a job ghostwriting a cookbook for a famous (and famously chaotic) Hollywood starlet.