The Nerd Daily may obtain commissions for qualifying purchases from the links included in this article, but it’s so important to remember to shop local and indie!
Prepare your romance-loving heart as there are some stellar romance books releasing in the first half of 2025! Between the months of January and June, you’ll see new releases from Emily Henry, Charlotte Stein, TJ Alexander, Jasmine Guillory, Ali Hazelwood, Meryl Wilsner, Abby Jimenez, Sarah Hogle, Katherine Center, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Ashley Poston, and many more, along with so many debuts too!
You’ll be sure to find quite a few exciting new reads within this list and be sure to check out our other 2025 round-ups too, including our Most Anticipated list.
JANUARY 2025
Zoe Brennan, First Crush by Laura Piper Lee
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A struggling vineyard owner gets a second taste of her first crush in this romantic comedy that sparkles with humor and heat.
Work In Progress by Kat Mackenzie
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A warm, sexy, laugh-out-loud rom-com about a woman who, desperate for a fresh start, books a literary bus tour across the UK that consists of a lively group of elderly ladies plus one infuriatingly handsome Scottish driver.
Unromance by Erin Connor
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A recently dumped TV heartthrob enlists a jaded romance novelist to ruin romance for him—one rom-com trope at a time—so he never gets swept off his feet again . . .
Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Archaeologist Miriam and journalist Rafael are destined to be rivals and must journey together to find the Lost City of the Moon. As they navigate treacherous paths and rival crews, their hearts become entangled in a thrilling adventure where love and duty collide in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Vasti returns with another hot, hilarious Regency romp about a reclusive earl and the wallflower-turned-radical-pamphleteer who turns his life upside down.
Yin Yang Love Song By Lauren Kung Jessen
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
In this charming rom-com filled with Chinese traditions and a family curse, an herbalist fake dates a star musician–perfect for fans of Helen Hoang and Jasmine Guillory.
The Lodge by Kayla Olson
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the author of The Reunion, a cozy rom-com about a writer who decamps to a Vermont lodge for work but finds herself distracted by the charming ski instructor next door.
Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Two feuding second-grade teachers (and neighbors) find themselves teaming up in this new rivals-to-lovers romance set in Rome, Kentucky—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rule Book and Practice Makes Perfect.
I Think They Love You by Julian Winters
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
With his funny, big-hearted adult rom com debut, bestselling, award-winning YA author Julian Winters shows sometimes fake dating your ex can turn into a second chance.
For One Night Only by Jessica James
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
When two former bandmates—and bedmates—are thrust back into each other’s lives in a fake dating scheme for publicity, they’ll be forced to face the music.
Let’s Call A Truce by Amy Buchanan
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Let’s Call A Truce is a sexy contemporary romance about second chances at life and love, bursting with humor and a touch of angst from debut author, Amy Buchanan.
Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Chloe Liese
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Star-crossed lovers learn that practicing romance leads to the perfect happy ending in this steamy reimagining of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
FEBRUARY 2025
A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Aurora Montalban, an ambitious doctor breaking societal norms to help women in 19th century Paris, and Apollo Sinclair Robles, the reluctant Duke willing to risk everything for her.
Get Lost With You by Sophie Sullivan
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A second chance at love, small-town romance that’s all sweet with just a hint of heat from the “queen of sweet romance” (Falon Ballard) Sophie Sullivan.
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle–inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.
I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped In A Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A hilarious and sexy romance about a woman who gets dropped on a strange planet only to fall for not one, but two, aliens, from the author of I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf.
Never Planned On You by Lindsay Hameroff
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A glittering, laugh-out-loud second chance romance that reminds us true love is sometimes the one thing you never planned on.
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A steamy chance encounter between a professional hockey player and the manic pixie dream girl he just can’t seem to forget takes a turn when the pair realize that their parents are engaged—in an all-new rom-com by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.
You Between the Lines by Katie Naymon
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
In this “brilliant, poignant love story perfect for fans of Emily Henry,” a former sorority girl starts a prestigious poetry MFA program only to discover that one of her classmates is her high school crush-turned-nemesis—and he can’t stop writing about her.
Change of Heart by Falon Ballard
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the beloved author of Right on Cue and Lease on Love comes a whimsical new rom-com about a workaholic forced to aim for a goal she never thought she’d love.
Love and Other Hollywood Endings by Susannah Erwin
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
An upbeat production exec is tasked with reining in the cynical director who was her forbidden college heartbreak in this sparkling, sexy contemporary romance.
The Launch Date by Annabelle Slator
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
In this witty and fun rom-com debut from Annabelle Slator, rival coworkers become reluctant daters after they’re forced to work together on a brand-new dating app in hopes of winning a promotion—perfect for fans of Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game.
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
The Love Lyric by Kristina Forest
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
An R&B singer and a corporate executive find love that hits the right notes in this romance by Kristina Forest, USA Today bestselling author of The Partner Plot.
MARCH 2025
Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
It’s enemies to lovers in this sexy and delightful holiday mash up that pairs the spare prince of Christmas with the crown prince of St. Patrick’s Day!
Code Word Romance by Carlie Walker
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
One fake prime minister, one ridiculously hot handler, and one Italian summer collide in this thrilling adventure rom-com.
The Love We Found by Jill Santopolo
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
The long-awaited follow-up to the Reese’s Book Club pick and New York Times bestselling global phenomenon The Light We Lost: a thrilling love story about the roles fate and choice play in shaping a life.
Something Cheeky by Thien-Kim Lam
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A steamy new rom-com from the popular author of Happy Endings and Full Exposure, where two friends get the opportunity to work together on their dream project—a Cinderella rock musical with an all-Asian cast—and discover that falling in love was the easy part…
My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Perfect for fans of Ted Lasso, this delicious slow burn romance turns a pretend marriage into real love.
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
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 by the author of Ready or Not.
Fan Service by Rosie Danan
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
The truth is stranger than fan fiction in the next sexy paranormal rom-com from the beloved author of The Roommate.
Cover Story by Celia Laskey
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A hilarious, emotional love story about an extremely anxious publicist who’s tasked with keeping an extremely gay starlet in the closet—but who ends up falling for her instead.
The Lady Sparks a Flame by Elizabeth Everett
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A Lady with a past. A man with ambition. A romance far from London society that might bridge their divides.
Just Our Luck by Denise Williams
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A lottery ticket + donuts = love in this steamy new fake dating romance from beloved author Denise Williams.
A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the acclaimed author of Chef’s Kiss, a groundbreaking trans Regency romance that’s both delightfully witty and refreshingly iconoclastic.
Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
One of the greatest love stories in history gets derailed when a struggling poet at Cambridge runs into a time-traveler who agrees to help him find his muse—a thoughtful and uplifting romantic comedy for fans of About Time and The Midnight Library.
APRIL 2025
Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.
The Geographer’s Map to Romance by India Holton
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Geography professors in a failed marriage of convenience inconveniently reconnect for an emergency mission in this swoony historical-fantasy rom-com.
Anywhere You Go by Bridget Morrissey
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A small-town waitress and a big-city Broadway press agent swap homes to escape the messiness of their personal lives, only to find new purpose—and new love.
My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Meryl Wilsner’s spicy romance, their first with a nonbinary lead, where two lifelong best friends go on a nonrefundable honeymoon together and discover sometimes to find a happily ever after, you just have to ask.
Swept Away by Beth O’Leary
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Two strangers find themselves stranded at sea together in this epic new love story by bestselling author Beth O’Leary.
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
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.
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer comes a new playful yet deeply emotional contemporary romance.
The Folklore of Forever by Sarah Hogle
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the acclaimed author of Old Flames and New Fortunes comes a steamy enemies-to-lovers romantasy about a paranormal skeptic who is roped into a ghost hunting romp by the charming boy next door . . . who might just show her what real fantasies are made of.
Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
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.
Serial Killer Games by Kate Posey
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
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).
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
The exciting new contemporary romance—and her first to feature a queer romance—by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory.
The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
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.
MAY 2025
A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A witch and a shifter get a second chance at love in this new paranormal romantic comedy from USA Today Bestselling author April Asher.
Flirty Dancing by Jennifer Moffatt
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Sparks fly in this summer romp for fans of Casey McQuiston when dancers at a Catskills resort try to pull off the perfect show, and find happiness and a place where they belong on the way.
Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the international bestselling author of You Had Me at Hola and A Lot Like Adiós comes a steamy love story of a divorced schoolteacher who discovers that her perfect no-strings fling is anything but…
Not So Fast by Karen Booth
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
It’s Formula One—getting revved up is all part of the fun in this sizzling, high-octane rom-com for fans of Rush and The Hating Game.
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A radiant, new escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune.
The Love Haters by Katherine Center
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ―along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A former adolescent TV punch line has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash course with her past, spending a week on Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love.
Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
An emotional, irresistible second-chance romance filled with sparkling humor, big feelings, and “melt your face off intimacy” (Jessica Joyce).
What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Falling in love with your husband is anything but convenient in this steamy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Business or Pleasure.
Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A small-town waitress and a Hollywood star’s worlds collide in this new romance by Ashley Herring Blake, USA Today bestselling author of Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date.
Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
No one betrays the Academy. But now Euphemia must decide: break the rules for her enemy, or let the rules break her heart.
And They Were Roommates by Page Powars
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A hilarious, unputdownable second-chance-romance about the most unlikely, gay roommate mishap. Perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Gwen & Art Are Not in Love.
JUNE 2025
Winging It With You by Chip Pons
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Popular bookstagrammer Chip Pons’s gay rom-com about two men who impulsively pose as a couple to compete in a reality show contest just minutes after meeting at an airport, and their run-in with the very real feelings that start to simmer between them.
The Ripple Effect by Maggie North
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A grumpy burnt out physician and a sunshine psychologist must fake an engagement to save his whitewater canoeing/ relationship therapy startup in Maggie North’s sparkling second novel about starting over.
If I Told You, I’d Have to Kiss You by Mae Marvel
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Ms. and Ms. Smith meets The Pairing in this heart-racing romance of secrets, spies, and steam.
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from Ashley Poston.
Ready to Score by Jodie Slaughter
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Cleat Cute meets Friday Night Lights in this funny, spicy, emotional new sapphic romance from Jodie Slaughter.
Finders Keepers by Sarah Adler
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Two estranged best friends find that their long-abandoned treasure hunt might be the key to a fresh start—for both their futures and their feelings, from USA Today bestselling author Sarah Adler.
Never Been Shipped by Alicia Thompson
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A band reunion may be enough to change two musicians’ tune on love in this electric romance from USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.
I’ll Pretend You’re Mine by Tashie Bhuiyan
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
In this contemporary novel from the author of Counting Down with You, singer-songwriter Summer Ali shakes things up with a PR stunt “dating” actor Jules Moradi, but the lines between real and fake begin to blur.
When Javi Dumped Mari by Mia Sosa
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
The USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man is back with a fun and flirty rom-com about a pact between friends that goes awry when one of them unexpectedly announces they’re getting married.
Writing Mr. Right by Alina Khawaja
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
In this charming, delightfully original rom-com, a struggling writer’s muse suddenly comes to life, but can they create their own happily-ever-after?
Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Mulan is reimagined as a contemporary romance about family expectations, mistaken identity, and high stakes mergers—of both business and the heart.
Total Dreamboat by Katelyn Doyle
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
From the author of Just Some Stupid Love Story, an irresistible rom-com about what happens when a cruise ship romance goes…overboard