Lehane (Love, Hate, & Clickbait, written as Liz Bowery) sets this shrewd and inventive paranormal romance a couple years after supernatural creatures revealed their existence to the human world. Human advice columnist Charlie Wever struggles to make ends meet when the online magazine he works for shifts him to a pay-by-click model. Giving advice on buzzy supernatural problems would make his pieces more successful, but he feels unqualified to counsel the letter writer who recently learned that her eternally 20-something vampire girlfriend voted for Ronald Reagan. Back in his rural Virginia hometown to save money, Charlie bumps into Lorenzo, a centuries-old vampire who dated one of Charlie’s friends in college and who holds a grudge against Charlie for advising said friend to dump him. Seeing an opportunity to increase his paranormal knowledge, Charlie lies that he’s writing a graduate thesis on supernatural relationships. After Charlie’s cheerful eagerness wears down the hilariously formal Lorenzo’s resistance, he convinces Lorenzo to bring him along on the odd jobs he does for Virginia’s supernatural community. Along the way, lust ignites, leading to some delicious sex scenes. Meanwhile, Charlie’s online popularity skyrockets—but what will happen when Lorenzo learns the truth? Lehane’s sprawling mythology, which also incorporates trolls and unicorns, neatly unfurls without ever distracting from the genuine and rewarding enemies-to-lovers romance. This is a delight. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

An amateur sleuth finds love in this clever homage to Golden Age detective fiction from Waters (the Regency Vows series). There have been four murders in the tiny Cotswolds village of Buncombe-upon-Woolly in 1934 alone—and Georgiana “Georgie” Radcliffe has helped local law enforcement solve them all. When another villager turns up dead, Georgie suspects more foul play, but officials write it off as a heart attack. So Georgie reaches out to a famed London detective for assistance. Though the detective declines to come to Buncombe, he sends his secretary, Sebastian Fletcher-Ford, to investigate. With his good looks and charisma, Sebastian quickly charms both the locals and the “Murder Tourists” who have flocked to town out of morbid curiosity. Georgie, however, is committed to resisting Sebastian’s allure. As they work together to crack the case, Waters capably peels back the many layers of their personalities, highlighting Georgie’s intellect and anxieties and revealing that Sebastian’s playboy persona hides expert sleuthing skills. The love that blossoms along the way is entirely believable. Striking a beautiful balance between sweet romance and cozy mystery, this memorable tale is sure to please. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Mary Poppins meets comedy of manners in this twee Victorian romantasy from Bennett (Up All Night with a Good Duke). Emmeline Chase, a penniless widow and recent graduate from the Parasol Academy for Exceptional Nannies and Governesses, which equips its students with magical powers, is desperate for work partly so that she can afford to free her clockmaker father from debtors’ prison. Her nerves get the better of her during a transportation spell to a job interview, landing her in the home of Xavier Mason, seventh Duke of St. Lawrence—more commonly known as “Lunatic St. Lawrence” due to his obsession with clocks. This chance meeting turns out to be a lucky break for them both. Xavier’s three misbehaving wards, Harry, Barry, and Gary, have scared off all their previous nannies, and there’s a sinister plot afoot to discredit the “mad” duke’s horological ambitions that Emmeline, with her clockmaking background, may help prevent. All the while, she must adhere to the Parasol Academy’s strict code of conduct by hiding both her magic and her growing feelings for Xavier. The quirky cuteness of the worldbuilding occasionally grates, but there’s enough light humor to keep the pages turning. Bennett’s fans will find plenty to enjoy. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Eve (Supernatural Academy) draws readers into a steamy if somewhat formulaic new adult romantasy set at an elite magic school. A witch’s magic blooms at 22 and only the most powerful are granted admission to Weatherstone College. New student Paisley Hallistar, whose father is a professor and whose four siblings are also enrolled at Weatherstone, worries that she’s not worthy of attending the university, particularly as she struggles to find her elemental affinity, something all witches have. Making matters worse is Logan Kingston, a spellcaster, or witch who has power over all of the elements. The Kingston and Hallistar families have a long-standing blood feud, though Paisley can’t remember what started it. Danger lurks around every corner: mythological monsters prove to be all too real, strange attacks have Paisley’s parents reconsidering her enrollment, and, despite their enmity, Paisley and Logan are undeniably drawn to each other. The worldbuilding feels familiar, with notes of Harry Potter and Fourth Wing, but Eve’s care with characterization, especially with Paisley’s friends and family, elevates the proceedings. While the romance has a slow-burning fuse, the chemistry is palpable. With a cliffhanger ending that leaves several questions unanswered, this will have romantasy fans eagerly awaiting the next installment. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

This heartwarming workplace romance from Palit (Sunshine and Spice) follows perfectionist workaholic Cynthia Kumar, heir to the Kumar Construction company. Though she and her father, Rich, were once close, they fell out during her teenage years and no matter how hard she’s tried to impress him since, he has never looked at her the same way. Cynthia dreams of being deemed worthy to lead the company—so she’s shocked and hurt when Rich hires Rohit Patel and starts grooming him to take over. Complicating matters is the fact that Cynthia and Rohit once shared a red-hot one-night stand. Rohit is thrilled both to be able to support his family financially and to be reunited with a woman he thinks could be the love of his life—until he learns that Cynthia is the boss’s daughter, and that she hates him for taking the job. Still, fierce competition between the two turns to reluctant collaboration when they’re tasked with rehabilitating the company’s public image after a scandal. As attraction and feelings deepen on both sides, it’s sweet to see Rohit help Cynthia find a balance between her professional and personal life. Palit also finds space within this light romance to explore the familial pressure and patriarchal expectations placed on Cynthia, making her a heroine readers will root for. This charms. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

A horror novelist clashes with a striking Hollywood star in this erotic but uneven paranormal romance from El-Fassi (Best Hex Ever). Rosemary Shaw has been able to see ghosts since she was 10 years old, a skill she’s drawn from in her writing. Now 29, she’s heading to the picturesque English countryside for the film adaptation of her bestselling historical horror novel, When the Devil Takes Hold, which is shooting at spooky Hallowvale Manor, rumored to be a hotbed of paranormal activity. She’s unhappy, however, with the casting of heartthrob action star Ellis Finch in the lead role, a dignified Victorian gentleman. Rosemary tries to deny her attraction to Ellis and keep her clairvoyancy secret even as the manor’s ghosts make themselves known. Meanwhile, Ellis has secrets of his own: he’s tired of meeting Hollywood’s idealized male image—and of hiding his sexual preference for domination. The premise is promising, but the supernatural and filmmaking elements get short shrift as the focus turns to the steamy BDSM relationship that develops between the leads. Readers in it for the kinky sex scenes will find plenty to enjoy, but those hoping for a meaty paranormal plot should look elsewhere. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Blakely (The Boyfriend Goal) launches her Darling Springs series with this adorable grumpy/sunshine romance. Ripley became “Ms. Fix It” after her parents’ death, taking over the family lavender farm and enabling her identical twin sister, Haven, to live the life of her dreams as a Hollywood superstar. When Haven asks to use the farm as the setting of her next movie, people pleaser Ripley reluctantly says yes, though it will mean agreeing to be tailed by a bodyguard, who’s there to protect Ripley from paparazzi that mistake her for Haven. She’s not thrilled with the arrangement—and even less so when the bodyguard turns out to be Banks, a man with whom she almost shared a steamy one-night stand before he ghosted her. Complicating things further, Banks is convinced that Ripley is Haven using a fake name. Their chemistry is intense, but mistaken identity and pressure to keep things professional keep them apart. It’s a cute, high-concept setup, and Blakely brings in a good mix of sweetness and spice. Readers will be eager to return to quaint Darling Springs. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

This solid debut from Wollett follows resort developer Samatha “Sam” Leigh, who left coastal Florida for New York City after high school and never looked back, escaping her alcoholic mother and painful memories of her late father. Seven years later, a business trip back home to quaint Rock Island may help her win a coveted promotion. The stakes of this return quickly dissipate, as Sam is almost immediately forgiven by her former best friend, Lexi, whom she ghosted, and easily warms to her surroundings. Easing her way is Lexi’s dreamy older brother, ferry boat captain Austin Marcs, who repeatedly comes to Sam’s rescue for little things like plumbing emergencies as well as bigger things, like helping her avoid the inappropriate advances of a coworker and wrangle her mother, who’s fallen off the wagon. Wollett builds believable chemistry between Austin and Sam, but it’s the side characters who steal the show, particularly Lexi’s assistant Ivy, whose intervention in a third-act conflict at Sam’s workplace ties the plot in a neat bow. The result will appeal to Hallmark movie fans who root for city girls to return to their small towns. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

Veurink debuts with a rocky take on When Harry Met Sally that begins as a straightforward modern adaptation before veering wildly in a new direction. After graduating from the same Midwestern college in 2017, strangers Marin Voss and Teddy McCarrel road trip to New York City. Though Veurink gives her protagonists new motivations—“cool girl” Marin, who’s grieving her late father, vows never to return to Iowa, while romantic Teddy dreams of settling down in his childhood hometown—she also lifts dialogue directly from the original. Most notably, she has Marin parrot Harry’s assertion that men and women can’t be friends, an already old-fashioned theory that feels especially bizarre here given that Marin is bisexual. Despite bonding—and kissing—on the road, Teddy and Marin part ways in New York. Three years later, they run into each other at a bar and Marin ditches her girlfriend for some late-night karaoke with Teddy. The next time-skip finds Teddy in a new relationship in Manhattan while now-single Marin has relocated to Copenhagen. The pair carry out a long-distance emotional affair that culminates in phone sex. It’s hard to find the infidelity endearing and almost as soon as the pair finally get together for real, an abrupt and poorly handled third act conflict tears them apart. The chaotic plotting isn’t helped by one-note characters and awkward prose. This disappoints. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

Returning to the quaint little town of St. Cyprian, Mo., the overstuffed fourth paranormal romance in Beck’s Witchlore series (after Truly Madly Magically) finds the Riverwood Coven on the cusp of ascending to the pinnacle of the witching world, overtaking the evil Joywood Coven. Their rise is due in part to the efforts of “ditzy” coven historian Georgie Pendell. She should be on top of the world—but then she walks in on her uptight professor boyfriend in hilarious flagrante with a married woman. Georgie’s righteous tears as she leaves release Azrael, a hot shape-shifting dragon-man who was magically imprisoned in a newel post. There’s immediately a sense that these two are fated to be together (Georgie’s first thought on seeing Azrael is “At last. It’s him”), and they quickly fall in love. But they don’t get to enjoy their romance for long before Joywood black magic transforms Azrael into a statue in the town’s cemetery. As Georgie works to free him, subplots explore her relationship with her overbearing mother and the town’s recent infestation of ravens. It’s a lot to wade through and newcomers will especially struggle without knowledge of lore from previous installments. Bogged down by one fairy tale glitch after another, this is for devoted series fans only. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink