Seaside Reads
Romance novels for summer season
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In a world of chaos, books supply an escape. Now, greater than ever, we’d like novels that transport us into a terrific romance, whether or not it’s set in a fantasy world of witches and pirates, a resort on the Amalfi Coast, a rustic on the verge of revolution, within the cockpit of a airplane or in a seventeenth century French fort.
Whether or not you’re within the temper for the consolation of prompt love and fortunately ever after, romantasy with swords and sorcery, steamy historic fiction, literary takes on complicated relationships or cheeky novels that set you tingling, the summer season of 2025 affords all of that and extra.
To get you began, listed below are 16 books to learn on the seashore, within the bathtub, within the yard or in stolen moments ready within the college pickup line or in your lunch break.
MAY
Think about Your self Kissed By Jessica StanleyRiverhead: 336 pages, $30(Might 27)
Life in London is tradition shock for Coralie after rising up in Australia. When she rescues a 4-year-old woman from drowning, it turns a traumatic incident right into a meet-cute with the woman’s dad, Adam. Their burgeoning relationship leads Coralie from Oz straight to fortunately ever after. However what occurs within the “ever after” half? When their relationship stutters on the 10-year mark, can they discover their option to a brand new type of happiness? This novel invitations you to eat Tim Tams as you sip comedic tea.
Summerhouse By Yiğit KaraahmetSoho Crime: 352 pages, $29(Might 27)
A love triangle can typically put the spice again in a protracted marriage … or it may possibly encourage a riveting homicide plot. In Karaahmet’s suspenseful marriage story, Fehmi and Şener have achieved the near-impossible: the homosexual couple has been collectively for 40 years in repressive Turkey. However simmering home tensions are set to a rolling boil by Fehmi’s growing fascination with the troubled teenager subsequent door. “Summerhouse” is redolent of the Mediterranean ambiance of a Highsmith plot: sharp, spicy and humor black as night time.
JUNE 
Winging It With You By Chip PonsG.P. Putnam’s Sons: 384 pages, $19(June 10)
The hunt for fame makes unusual bedfellows and stranger actuality present contestants. On this case, it’s a mattress shared by Theo Fernandez, who simply misplaced his job as a pilot, and Asher Bennett, who simply acquired dumped by his boyfriend. When the 2 sit subsequent to one another on the airport bar, they determine to pose as a pair for “The Epic Trek,” a round-the-world travel-competition actuality TV present. What begins out as romantic roleplay turns into love that may upend their lives.
Writing Mr. Proper By Alina KhawajaMira: 304 pages, $19(June 10)
Ziya Khan resides the lifetime of most aspiring writers: She works a day job that pays the payments whereas spending her nights writing novels. Regardless of her laborious work, her manuscripts are met with fixed rejection (woman, similar) and she or he vows to surrender. Then she wakes as much as discover Aashiq, her writing muse made flesh. He has just one objective: to encourage and push Ziya to maintain writing and pursue her ardour. When the 2 fall in love, the romance threatens to distract her from her artwork.
Love, Espresso, and Revolution By Stefanie LederBlackstone: 282 pages, $29(June 10)
Dee Blum is an idealistic scholar who drops out of faculty to steer eco-tours in Costa Rica, a lot to her household’s disapproval. Dee is completely happy in her new life and when she meets two males, all the pieces sizzles. However Dee’s naive views of each romance and of doing proper are sophisticated by a harmful group presenting itself because the “good guys.” What is going to she do subsequent and can the choice smother all of that romantic fireplace?
Room on the Sea By André AcimanFarrar, Straus & Giroux: 272 pages, $28(June 24)
Aciman, whose “Call Me by Your Name” slow-burned the summer season of 2007 (and once more when tailored to the massive display in 2017), has written three romantic novellas, mixed right here right into a single quantity. “Mariana” is concerning the ardour between a nun and an aristocrat, primarily based on a seventeenth century quantity of correspondence. “The Gentleman From Peru” takes place in a resort the place a gaggle of pals are spellbound by a stranger’s story of thwarted romance. And “Room on the Sea” follows a person and a lady thrown collectively in a jury pool who’re drawn to its deeper ends. Every of the novellas are simply the right size for a single afternoon.
(Margaret Ok. McElderry Books)
A Treachery of Swans By A. B. PoranekMargaret Ok. McElderry Books: 368 pages, $20(June 24)
Poranek’s sapphic twist on “Swan Lake” can also be a homicide thriller and a fantasy. When Odile, the daughter of a sorcerer, is shipped to steal the king’s crown, she should first infiltrate his courtroom. There, she transmutes noblewoman Marie d’Odette right into a swan and assumes her identification. Odile woos the crown prince, however a homicide at courtroom forces her to hunt out help from the muted swan. She unfurls her personal wings of need for the attractive Odette.
JULY 
Sizzling Women With Balls By Benedict NguyenCatapult: 288 pages, $28(July 1)
Two Asian American trans ladies — Six and Inexperienced — compete on the boys’s professional indoor volleyball circuit. After they’re not collectively, they convey on their very public social media accounts. Demanding followers, who scrutinize each relationship spike and volley, and jealousy complicate their love, and collectively they’ll face a stunning act of betrayal. Get set for this humorous and really horny off-court romp.
A Bomb Positioned Near the HeartBy Nishant BatshaEcco: 304 pages, $28(July 1)
Love is its personal act of resistance in repressive instances. Right here romantic ardour combines with revolution in a historic fiction certain to gentle up readers’ insurgent hearts. Cora Trent, a graduate scholar in 1917 California, meets Indra Mukherjee, a revolutionary who has just lately arrived from India. When America chooses to affix World Conflict I, the federal government prosecutes dissidents and silences protests. Harsh nationwide insurance policies result in imprisonment and deportation for these caught talking out. Will the lovers survive being made fugitives on the run?
These Summer time Storms By Sarah MacLeanBallantine: 400 pages, $30(July 8)
Seems that cash and poisonous households go collectively like peeled grapes and the best Roquefort when MacLean combines them. Forged out of her household, Alice Storm returns to attend her father’s funeral. She is pressured to remain on her household’s island property because the patriarch’s will stipulates circumstances that should be performed out earlier than anybody can go away. Her father’s second-in-command, the good-looking Jack Dean, insists members of the family play honest in obeying their father’s will. Alice breaks all the principles when she checks the household recreation’s referee.
Love Is a Conflict Track By Danica NavaBerkley: 336 pages, $19(July 22)
Opposites appeal to on this story of a spoiled pop princess and a cowboy. Posing on the duvet of Rolling Stone whereas sporting nearly nothing however a feathered conflict bonnet was imagined to mark Avery’s nationwide success and rejoice her pleasure as a member of the Muscogee tribe. The backlash makes her a laughingstock and scuttles her profession. In exile at her grandmother’s Oklahoma ranch, she meets Lucas Iron Eyes, who has been working since he was 16 and has no time for stroking her bruised ego. However when somebody threatens the ranch, the 2 unite to reserve it. The romantic sparks set the entire prairie ablaze.
The Sport Plan By Kristen CallihanCanary Road: 352 pages, $18(July 29)
Sizzling intercourse and feisty romance give readers a zing within the story of an NFL athlete who falls for the woman subsequent door. Ethan Dexter appears like a mountain man hunk, however in his non-public life, he’s misplaced within the wilderness with regards to ladies. What of us don’t know is that he’s completely centered on Fiona Mackenzie, who treats him like he’s simply one other man of their social group. When Dex makes his transfer, will Fiona block or punt?
AUGUST 
As soon as Upon a Time in Dollywood By Ashley JordanBerkley: 448 pages, $19(Aug. 5)
Jordan’s debut is an exhilarating climb by means of Tennessee’s mountains and the depths of ardour. Eve’s growing success as a playwright begins to short-circuit her life, so she seeks a quiet starlight writing retreat — or everlasting exile — within the hills. Her neighbor, Jamie, needs his personal life as a single dad after the tip of a bruising custody battle. Will both of them hand over their peace to expertise the pulse-pounding thrill of plunging into love?
The Solar and the Moon By Rebekah FaubionBerkley: 368 pages, $19(Aug. 12)
Cadence has discovered a contented life as a park ranger in Maine. It’s quite a bit sunnier than the icy shadow of her celeb psychic mom. When Madame Moira reaches out to Cadence to announce her upcoming nuptials, she reluctantly agrees to attend her engagement occasion. There she meets Sydney, the pilot daughter of her stepfather-to-be. Their plot to dig holes of their dad and mom’ love backyard entangles them within the tendrils of their very own blooming emotions.
Love Is an Open Guide By Chandra BlumbergCanary Road Press: 352 pages, $19(Aug. 12)
Blumberg completely understood the project when she got down to write certainly one of romance’s favourite sorts of tales. Her story of greatest pals — Mia, a romance novelist who’s cynical about love and unable to jot down, and Gavin, who thinks he might help her get her mojo again — is a frisky delight. They create writing workouts during which they act out scenes primarily based on totally different romance novel kinds. Can the 2 inform the distinction between playacting and following their hearts?
The Sea Witch By Eva LeighCanary Road Press: 448 pages, $19(Aug. 26)
Leigh has penned a pirate romantasy with an ultra-hot relationship at its middle. Alys Tanner has been condemned as a witch in 18th century New England and escapes to captain an all-female crew of sorcerers. Taken prisoner and introduced on board the ship the Sea Witch is Ben Priestley, a British naval navigator. Beset by monsters, chased by the Navy and attacked by different pirates, Ben and Alys battle collectively in opposition to the percentages.
