The Globe and Mail
If you’re looking for a sign that the romance reading boom is here to stay, consider the glorious variety of love stories waiting to be swept off today’s bookstore shelves and into your arms.
No longer are your escapist yearnings limited to, say, a blonde damsel clinching a brooding Fabio type in a vaguely Highland landscape. (Although there’s plenty of that around if that is your speed.) There’s now a romance read for every mood or geography and set in almost every kind of professional and personal niche.
Books we're reading and loving this week: Globe staffers and readers share their book picks
With an abundance to choose from, we’ve curated a collection of this summer’s new romance releases. It’s organized to prove that you really can choose your own adventure when it comes to love stories in 2024.
If you’d like your love stories with more bird-call identification ... Birding with Benefits, Sarah T. Dubb (Gallery Books) Celeste didn’t plan on entering a birdwatching competition. Nor did she intend to pose as her partner in the annual Bird Binge’s fake girlfriend. And, newly divorced and determined to chart her own course in her 40s, she definitely didn’t plan on catching feelings for that shy, sweet twitcher. But there she is, wandering the mountains outside Tucson, Ariz., pretending they’re a couple to fool his ex, and, with each bird they spot, getting a little closer to finding the love she’s always dreamed of.
If you can’t get enough of Taylor Swift’s romance with football player Travis Kelce … The Au Pair Affair, Tessa Bailey (HarperCollins) After setting her last book in the world of professional golf, this juggernaut of the genre continues her sojourn in the world of sport. (And in a world where Taylor’s Swift’s romance with Travis Kelce, the No. 1 tight end, is playing out like a real-life rom-com, athletes have never been more attractive.) This time, Tessa Bailey’s story is set in the NHL. Or more specifically, the off-ice child-care arrangements that lead to an entanglement between the player and the woman he’s hired to nanny his tween daughter while he’s off hitting pucks for the big bucks.
If you think spooky is sexy … The Third Wife of Faraday House, B.R. Myers (HarperCollins) Continuing in the fine gothic tradition of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, B.R. Myers’s latest is one for folks who like their heroines proactive and their swoon-to-suspense ratio 30/70. In this case, her heroine is set on solving the mystery of what strangeness is afoot at her would-be fiancé’s ghoulish mansion outside Halifax, circa 1816. Come for the creepy delight of cracking this case and stay for our heroine’s blossoming romance with an enigmatic clergyman.
Thirty-four books to read this summer
If you’re hankering for the open range … Off to the Races, Elsie Silver (Sourcebooks) There’s a thriving niche for ranch-based romance at the moment, and Canadian author Elsie Silver is one of the quickest guns in the Western trend. The first in her Gold Rush Ranch series introduces us to the little town of Ruby Creek and a rancher named Vaughn Harding. He’s determined to turn the family’s scandal-plagued fortunes around, which is why he’s brought in Billie Black, a horse trainer who’s the best in the game – and seemingly in possession of a unique ability to pierce this cowboy’s tough exterior. Giddy up.
If you’re looking for a vicarious Euro trip this summer … The Summer Pact, Emily Giffin (DoubleDay Canada) This isn’t an entirely straightforward romance. For starters, it’s about three friends keeping a pact they made after the suicide of their college best friend – but you do get a few love stories in the end, all the more satisfying because they’re complicated and nuanced. (This is an Emily Giffin, queen of the difficult love story, book after all.) To say more would be a spoiler on several counts, but we can reveal that the locations this story takes you to – most notably, Capri, in all its glamorous summertime glory – are uncomplicatedly swoon-worthy.
If you’re looking to leave this dimension of reality entirely … Gild, Raven Kennedy (Sourcebooks) You can’t talk about romance in 2024 without at least one romantasy title. Assuming you’ve already worked your way through genre heavyweights Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout, Raven Kennedy is the next big name to add to your list. The fourth instalment of her Plated Prisoner series, out this summer, is based on the myth of King Midas, a.k.a. the guy who turned everything he touched into gold. In this dark fantasy, however, the story belongs to Auren, kept in a literal gilded cage until Midas makes her the prize in a game of kings.
If you believe in fifth chances … The Fiancé Dilemma, Elena Armas (Atria Books) Josie Moore has already been engaged four times, so safe to say she doesn’t enter into a fifth one lightly. But when your bad luck in love is a PR issue for your famous family and a handsome man just happens to be on hand when you need to conjure up a stable relationship ASAP? You can’t blame her for entering into a fake engagement with Mathew Flanagan, who’s happy to play along as he figures out his own disappointing life trajectory. Fizzy, fun and set in a small North Carolina town, this one’s precisely the sort of adventure you’ll be after when the dog days hit.