Romance

Under Loch and Key

Here’s the thing about Lana Ferguson: She can take tropes and concepts that seemingly belong only in the more scandalous corners of BookTok, and somehow make them seem like the most natural thing in the world. This is the woman who made a romance between a nanny and her boss into an ode to sex positivity and emotional maturity, the genius who decided to make an omegaverse fake-dating rom-com. Ferguson turning her particular set of skills to what looks for all the world to be a Loch Ness Monster-shifter romance? The exact sort of insane perfection we’ve come to expect.

To Kill a Badger

By Shelly Laurenston

It has been three long years since one of Shelly Laurenston’s gleefully deranged, gloriously violent shifter romances graced shelves, and at long last, a new honey badger heroine awaits us. Nelle Zhao might not be as outgoing as her fellow honey badger shifters, but she’s just as chaotic and indomitable. So even though tiger shifter Keane Malone has announced that he’s going to take on a trafficking ring all by himself, Nelle’s definitely going with him, no matter what he says.

Reel

By Kennedy Ryan

Another self-published gem about to get a wide print release for the very first time, Kennedy Ryan’s Reel is an epic love story between a rising Hollywood star and the director who casts her in her big break. Having been named to several “Best of the Year” lists during its initial release, Reel will surely win Kennedy Ryan even more fans than she already has thanks to her emotional Skyland romances.

Make the Season Bright

By Ashley Herring Blake

It’s always nice to balance out holiday hijinks with a mellower, more emotional, but still seasonal love story: Enter Ashley Herring Blake. The author of the acclaimed Bright Falls series will return with her first-ever Christmas romance, which follows exes Charlotte and Brighton as they rekindle their relationship while staying at the same house and attending a bunch of adorable dating events.

Lightning in Her Hands

By Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

Lightning in Her Hands is a gorgeous friends-to-lovers romance that builds beautifully upon author Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s debut, Witch of Wild Things.

A Jingle Bell Mingle

By Sierra Simone

There is a LOT going on in Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s holiday rom-com series, A Christmas Notch, and all of it is great. Ready? The setting is the titular little town in Vermont, host to a cottage industry of both squeaky-clean and gloriously dirty holiday movies. The heroine is Sunny Palmer, Christmas Notch’s jack-of-all-trades who’s just sold her very first screenplay. The hero is Isaac Kelly, widower and former member of Ink, the once-popular boy band that the previous two male leads of the series also belonged to. While helping each other work through their respective creative dry spells, Sunny and Isaac find that they also work together in other ways (wink, wink).

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf

By Charlotte Stein

Charlotte Stein delighted us with her Roy Kent-coded rom-com, When Grumpy Met Sunshine, and her follow-up sounds just as charming, albeit with a paranormal twist. Billed as “What We Do in the Shadows with the small town feels of Gilmore Girls,” How to Help a Hungry Werewolf follows Cassie and Seth, two ex-best friends who reconnect when Seth reveals that he’s a werewolf and he needs help from Cassie and her burgeoning magical powers.

Desperate Measures

By Katee Robert

Those who have burned through Katee Robert’s viral Dark Olympus series will already know that there’s plenty more where that came from. The author has an extensive backlist of both traditionally and self-published titles, and one of her most infamous and popular self-published series is finally getting a traditional release. Taking inspiration from Disney’s iconic fairy-tale films, the Wicked Villains books are dark romances where characters such as Ursula, Captain Hook and Hades get a happy ending after all. Case in point: Desperate Measures stars Jafar . . . and a love interest clearly inspired by Princess Jasmine.

Christmas Is All Around

By Martha Waters

A curmudgeon unearths her holiday spirit during a seasonal tour around London in Martha Waters’ Christmas Is All Around.

Bull Moon Rising

By Ruby Dixon

To certain adventurous readers (you know who you are), Ruby Dixon needs no introduction. But to those of you who haven’t ventured into romance’s wilder waters, Dixon is the author of Ice Planet Barbarians, a self-published, megaviral alien romance series. As you would expect, Ice Planet Barbarians took BookTok by storm and Dixon has now made the jump to traditional publishing. Bull Moon Rising is a fantasy romance starring Aspeth, a noblewoman who wants to join the Royal Artifactual Guild and rebuild her family’s fortune by hunting for rare magical artifacts, and her new husband-of-convenience: a minotaur.