Jill Shalvis is back with the fourth installment of her contemporary Wildstone series, Almost Just Friends. Just like every other book she’s written, you can count on this one to make you feel good. Shalvis has a knack for creating charming characters who are vulnerable yet strong. They’re likable, relatable and possess the ability to face any challenge head-on.

On her 30th birthday, at a celebration she neither asked for nor wanted, the reality of Piper Manning’s life rings true: She is responsible for “gathering and keeping all us misfits together and sane.” That’s her friends talking, but the same goes for her family—Piper is the glue that holds them together. She’s raised her siblings, built a career as an EMT and has started refurbishing her grandparents’ lake house. Once she sells the valuable property, she’ll finally have the money to pursue her dreams of becoming a physician’s assistant.

But change is scary. Despite the responsibilities Piper has had for over half her life and now her yearning for the next chapter, taking the first step is harder than she thought. And despite all the planning, hoping and wishing she holds close in her heart, falling in love doesn’t factor into the chaos of her life.

Then she meets Camden Reid, a secretive DEA agent and Coast Guard reservist. Camden, a man in search of an anchor but with no interest in romance or love, finds Piper to be both a conundrum and irresistible. He’s drawn to her strength and vulnerability (which we’ll call the “Shalvis specialty”), and Piper challenges him more than anything he’s ever experienced.

I know it’s only January, but Almost Just Friends is my favorite book of the year so far. It’s the message we need for this new decade: Everybody struggles with change and challenge and hardship, but if you’re brave and take a leap of faith, you can be happy.

Roni Loren brings her emotional The Ones Who Got Away series to a close with The One for You, a rollercoaster friends-to-lovers romance between two childhood best friends whose lives were forever changed by a traumatic event.

Kincaid Breslin and Ashton Isaacs were best friends until their prom night turned to tragedy when Graham, Kincaid’s boyfriend and Ashton’s friend, was killed in a school shooting. Consumed by their shared grief, Kincaid and Ash shared a single night together, a mistake that fractured their relationship for years. Over a decade later, they are unexpectedly reunited in their hometown, haunted by memories of that night.

In the years since, Ash moved away and became a successful author. Kincaid stayed in her hometown, putting on a brave face as she pursued a career in real estate. When Graham’s parents begin planning to sell their much-loved bookstore, both Kincaid and Ash find themselves fighting for the same cause with a metric ton of baggage waiting to be addressed.

Ash and Kincaid’s road to romance is fraught with tension, unaddressed feelings and PTSD. The story switches between past and present, showing readers how the attack created a fragmented before and after for the survivors. Loren ably handles every emotional, heartbreaking layer of The One for You. Ash and Kincaid have built walls upon walls around themselves to avoid addressing their trauma and the guilt they feel for sleeping together while in mourning. Kincaid is a woman who denies her own fragility in the most heartbreaking ways, a master of plastering on a smile, denying herself chances to grieve. Meanwhile, Ash adopts the persona of an affable nerd, and his world travels make it easier for him to forget the terrible events of his past. Reunited by the memory of Graham and wanting to help out his parents, they quickly hand-wave away their years of silence. But as the time they spend together becomes more frequent, simply ignoring what happened between them, as well as the death of Graham, becomes unavoidable.

There is truly something special about Loren’s writing and the way she handles the all-too-real realities of gun violence. Devoted fans of the series will find this finale bittersweet; it packs an emotional punch with a hard-won happy ending, but the realization that there are no more books for us to enjoy is a hard pill to swallow. Though Loren most likely has something fantastic on the horizon, The One for You and its predecessors aren’t romances readers will soon forget. Loren has easily created one of the most memorable contemporary romance series of the last decade.

Alexa Martin is back with the third installment of her Playbook series, Blitzed. As the real-life wife of a former NFL player, Martin brings insight and experience to a fun, enjoyable series about the fictional Denver Mustangs. Reader, she knows her football! Martin captures the reality of the sexy, exciting and volatile culture of professional sports.

So far in the series we’ve seen a Hail Mary, a second-chance romance and now we’re in for a slow burn with defensive back Maxwell Lewis and local bar owner Brynn Larson. Readers of the previous two books will know that Brynn is Max’s dream woman. But while on their first date, he gets a phone call from his brother Theo, a police officer, that changes the trajectory of their still-new relationship. And rather than opening up and telling Brynn about it, he admits to not trusting Theo and acknowledges that his brother’s “little bit of power makes it easier for him to be the worst kind of person.” Theo soon catches Brynn alone to let her know what he told Max: that the rape allegations from the Lewis brothers’ past are coming back into the spotlight. And rather than listening to Maxwell’s explanation, she sides with Theo and ends her relationship with Max.

The stakes are high in dating nowadays. And when you’re with someone who’s twice your size, and a professional athlete in a sport rife with scandal from violence and spousal abuse, it’s smart to stay skeptical. But do you trust your heart and your intuition, or gossip and hearsay? Brynn poses the question best to herself: “Either I believe the man I love or I believe a woman who had no reason to lie.”

Brynn works through her relationship frustrations with her tight circle of friends (known jovially as the Lady Mustangs), and so I would’ve enjoyed a more open glimpse into Max as he worked through his issues. He’s a fun character and I rooted for him from the start. But despite all of his great qualities, he kept a very big piece of his past a secret. When it comes to light in the worst of ways, Brynn has no depth of information from which to help draw her conclusion. Sure, Maxwell is a wonderful guy. He’s handsome and kind and caring and, Brynn thought, a marvelous boyfriend—but that’s probably what Ted Bundy’s dates thought, right?

The rape allegations that come to light are obviously very serious, so tread lightly with this book if you have triggers. But if you can look forward to truth prevailing and characters who eventually find their way to better communication with one another, Blitzed is worth it.

Andie J. Christopher’s latest contemporary romance, Not the Girl You Marry, is a gender-swapped, millennial revamp of rom-com classic How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. But in this modern era of enlightened and equitable partners, the lovers’ tactics of sabotage  stem from heavy personal baggage. Their ruse nearly gets away from them before they can get their hearts back on track.

Jack Nolan is a journalist at an internet media company who’s trying to get into harder hitting assignments, and Hannah Mayfield is an event planner at a prestigious firm who’s trying to prove she’s got the chops to move into the major leagues—weddings. Jack’s niche is How-To articles, and because he’s handsome, he has become the pretty face of the company. His boss is of the opinion that political reporters are a dime a dozen, so he encourages Jack to write a How-To article on how to get a girl—by showing readers the things that would make you lose her. But the problem is, Jack genuinely likes Hannah. And when Hannah has an opportunity to climb her corporate ladder by proving she could date someone for more than two weeks and thus understand the wedding market, she sweeps Jack along for the ride.

I enjoyed the portrayal of the struggles Hannah faces as a biracial woman, and many readers will see themselves in Christopher’s heroine. But I did find myself wishing that Jack and Hannah had struggled a little more in the beginning of their relationship rather than jumping into an instant attraction and regard for one another. Despite this flaw in believability, Christopher’s story comes full-circle and hits home when the truth is unveiled, because no healthy or lasting relationship can be built on lies.

There’s a lot of angst in this story about 20-something-year-old professionals, and if Cher had been either of their bosses she would’ve told them to just “snap out of it,” but don’t let the relative immaturity of the main couple turn you away from a promising new voice in romance.

Lyssa Kay Adams hits a home run with The Bromance Book Club, a contemporary romance about a husband and wife who learn to reconnect using the power of romance novels.

Due to an unexpected pregnancy and their subsequent marriage, Gavin and Thea Scott never had a chance to enjoy being newlyweds. After each lackluster intimate encounter between them, it becomes clear to Thea that something needs to change. At home with twin toddlers and a husband whose MLB career took off like a rocket, Thea very much feels like a single mom. When Gavin is home, he’s a man she doesn’t really recognize. When she brings up divorce, Gavin realizes he’s had his head in the sand for too long. He’s determined to save his marriage and make Thea feel loved and appreciated.

Enter the Bromance Book Club, a romance book club made up of Gavin’s fellow athletes who see romance novels as a way of understanding and improving their communication with women. The setup may seem farfetched, but it’s too charming to resist. The men think their current book club pick, Courting the Countess, may hold the secret to Gavin and Thea getting their groove back.

Readers who enjoy a heartfelt second-chance romance, especially between a married couple, should get their hands on this book immediately. There’s nothing wrong with beautiful, single and unattached twenty-somethings finding love, but the added stress of running a household with troublesome twins fully and truly embodies the romantic complacency that can happen in long term relationships. A first love is a beautiful thing, but how do we make that love last when life dishes out so many curveballs?

Adams creates a cringe-worthy look at modern romance with Gavin being too busy and Thea being too exhausted to do more than just go through the motions. It feels a little too real in the best way possible. Gavin is a likable hero whose cluelessness gets called out by not only his wife, but by his fellow book club bros too. There are some wonderful scenes of introspection as the men break down romantic scenes in romance like “the grovel” or “the big misunderstanding,” comparing where they’ve messed up in life and how romance can teach them to be better communicators. And as Thea regains control of her life and finds her voice, her arc becomes a wonderful and empowering lesson that it’s never too late to change course and make adjustments for the sake of your own happiness.

The Bromance Book Club is truly a novel for dedicated romance fans. Readers will be delighted at all of the meta winks and nudges to the genre we love so much. I can’t wait to see what the Bromance Book Club will read next and how it’ll help shape their next happily ever after.

Talia Hibbert knows how to pack a book full of fun, sexy and whip-smart characters, and Get a Life, Chloe Brown is a pitch-perfect example of her talents. The first in the Brown Sisters series, this book introduces us to Chloe Brown, a well-to-do black woman with fibromyalgia. After a close call with death, Chloe decides it’s time to get her life together and makes a list that she hopes will bring some excitement to her life. Enlisting the help of her dreamy, tattooed landlord, Redford Morgan, Chloe sets out to check all of her boxes on her list.

Hibbert’s books are a master class in inclusivity. Not only does she often include black women as the romantic lead, she also portrays mental illness with the utmost care. Her characters’ experiences with depression or bipolar disorder are believably and respectfully depicted. She works to make sure that the characters have more than a story that solely focuses on their illnesses, showing that romance and passion are for everyone.

Hibbert peppers in witty and incredibly sultry banter between her characters. Chloe and Red’s interactions are delectably sweet and will leave you smiling to yourself as they verbally spar with each other. Their conversations are effortless and believable, and flow with increasing ease as they get to know each other.

The natural development of Chloe and Red’s relationship is a testament to Hibbert’s character work and excellent plotting. She excels in the slow build of intimacy between the two as they discover that despite their differences, like Red’s tattoos and Chloe’s fondness for prim cardigans, they can’t get enough of each other. When sparks fly, readers will want to cheer out loud. Hibbert’s stunning dialogue and stupendous prose are on full display in this powerhouse of a romance.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Talia Hibbert.

Boy meets girl. Boy woos girl. Boy wins girl. Boy . . . sells girl out, and then flees the country, never to see her again—until 14 years later, when their paths cross once more.

Twice in a Blue Moon starts off simply enough: small-town California girl Tate Jones visits London with her grandmother. Vermont farm boy Sam Brandis is in London with his grandfather, and in a meet-cute lovingly borrowed from E.M. Forster and an acclaimed Merchant Ivory film adaptation, the pairs swap rooms so the ladies can have “a room with a view.” The view includes the hotel’s garden, where Tate and Sam meet nightly to stargaze and flirt, and to share their dreams and secrets.

Tate’s secret is a doozy. She’s the daughter of Ian Butler, the world’s most idolized actor. As a little girl, her red carpet images were recognized around the world. But when she was 8, her mother—heartsick about her husband’s blatant, unrelenting infidelity—took Tate and left the spotlight behind. Back in her tiny hometown, they buried their pasts, adopting the last name Jones. Only a handful of people know Tate’s true identity, and Tate shares it with Sam with all the overflowing trust of a girl in love for the very first time. But when she steps out of the hotel to find a waiting mob of paparazzi—tipped off by a well-paid “trusted confidante”—she gets her first broken heart, and resolves to be more careful about ever loving again.

Fast-forward 14 years. Tate, having used that unwanted reveal to launch an acting career, is about to start filming a role that could push her onto the A-list. The pressure has doubled, since a supporting role will be filled by her superficially doting, micro-aggressive father. Worst of all, she’s totally blindsided to show up on location and meet the screenwriter: Sam Brandis, writing under the pen name S.B. Hill. Pulling it together to give the screen performance of a lifetime will be hard enough, but when the cameras stop rolling and she has to write her own life’s dialogue, Tate grapples to find answers, inner strength and possibly forgiveness.

The best-friend writing team known as Christina Lauren never fails to delight. Twice in a Blue Moon is funny and engaging, whether Tate is bantering with her badass bestie, or navigating an awkward love scene with her adorable co-star. It also rings true on the low notes. Tate’s genuine heartbreak over her secret’s exposure comes both from being betrayed by Sam, and her personal sense of having betrayed her mother and grandmother’s trust. Her lack of faith in her own judgment—and in men, in general—requires Tate to reach deep to find the strength and conviction she thinks she lacks. It's a strikingly poignant note, and makes her journey toward trusting herself, and determining who else is worthy of her trust, all the more meaningful.

Some—including me—might quibble that Tate gives her trust back to Sam a little too quickly. (I’m the Old Testament type who thinks betraying men should get struck with lightning bolts from on high—preferably aimed at their crotches.) But it’s hard to argue with a character who has fought this hard to figure out what she wants, and who finally finds the courage to go and get it.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes a song can capture a whole era—a slice of your life recreated whenever you hear that opening riff. The movie The Breakfast Club made the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)" so indelibly iconic as the theme song for high school archetypes that when I saw the title of this book—and immediately got the song in my head—I wondered if it would be able to live up to the nostalgia it would trigger. Rest assured, it does.

Like The Breakfast Club, Mhairi McFarlane’s glorious, hilarious heartbreaker of a story begins with high school students pushed together by circumstances out of their control, vividly aware of their places in the social hierarchy, baffled and delighted by their mutual attraction. Their strictly-in-secret love story is sweet, innocent and almost breathless in its sweaty-palmed elation.

And then the film reel cuts out and the story picks up twelve years later.

Our heroine, Georgina Horspool, never left her native Sheffield. Never achieved her dream of becoming an important writer. Never quite found her niche at all, in fact, and has the rug of her unsatisfying life doubly pulled out from under her in just one night. First, she’s fired from her (miserable) waitressing job. Then she finds her (egocentric cad of a) boyfriend in bed with his assistant. Desperate for any opportunity that’ll keep her from being the object of pity (again) at the family’s weekly brunch, she jumps at the chance to tend bar for a private event at a new pub. It goes well, she’s offered a job and she’s eager to accept—but then she learns that the job means working with Lucas McCarthy who is, of course, the boy she loved a decade-plus ago and lost somewhere along the way.

So far, so expected. McFarlane’s writing is funny and charming enough to keep her readers engaged, but the beats in the first part will feel familiar as the story shifts from The Breakfast Club to Bridget Jones’s Diary. Still, as the story progresses, the madcap humor starts to mingle with deeper emotions. Georgina is self-aware in a way that Bridget never managed. Her relationships with her friends and family delve below the surface, uncovering real emotions and deep-seated issues. When she talks about discovering a beloved parent’s infidelity, there’s no punch line payoff. It feels real and visceral. When her dreadful ex tries to win her back, it’s not funny—it’s an awful ordeal that Georgina correctly identifies as manipulative and bullying. And readers should be aware that this novel contains a graphic description of sexual assault that could be triggering to some individuals. It is devastating and unflinchingly honest, but it is not gratuitous. Understanding the details of what occurred is pivotal to understanding the plot and characters.

Any romance reader will be able to peg that Lucas and Georgina are made for each other, but they have to put in some real work—on both sides—before they’re emotionally ready for happily ever after. McFarlane doesn’t skimp on sly humor or wacky characters, but no plot point has an easy fix and no character feels two-dimensional. Even the broadest personalities are loving, or loyal or cruel in tactile and vivid ways. And as the book progresses, you realize how much depth and truth there was to the characters and the story all along.

Zoey Castile is back with the third installment of her Happy Endings series, Flashed. It begins as just another sexy story about a hot male model and stripper (who’s a player on the soccer pitch and off). But it evolves into so much more. Once Patrick Halloran is disfigured from a life-altering accident, his inner beauty is able to shine through, giving this romance a hint of Beauty and the Beast with some reverse ugly duckling thrown in.

The woman who finally breaks through Pat's self-imposed isolation is Lena Martel, an aspiring artist working her way through college by keeping house. As you can imagine, it is unusual to work for a grumpy hermit of a man who has zero communication skills. Until they begin messaging each other. Sexily. Without the benefit of face-to-face interaction, Pat and Lena are forced to wade through getting to know each other with no posturing, allowing them to focus more on who they are, deep inside where the vulnerable bits are safely hidden.

For a man whose livelihood has always been his body—his strength, speed and beauty—Pat finds relying on his wits is new. But for Lena, an artist used to experiencing and touching and feeling life around her, relying on digital communication tests her, too. Patrick and Lena are incredibly likeable characters, and they defy the odds by sticking with one another. Great romances remind us that the heart wants what the heart wants, and it knows when it’s time to move forward. Even if you’re a man who wonders if his is the face the woman of his dreams can love forever.

This is a story for all the less than perfect people out there who have relied on being nice, funny and kind; who are often overlooked at first pass because they’re not shiny and sparkly and perfect. Those who know the truth about love and relationships because at the end of the day (and when it really, truly counts), substance trumps shine any day.

Toni Blake tells the perfect story for a summer afternoon in The One Who Stays. Cancer survivor Meg Sloan runs her late grandmother’s inn on small, quaint Summer Island. She’s content with her world and her relationship with Zack Sheppard, a local fisherman who casually drops in and out of her life. But while anticipating a momentous birthday, she wonders if she’s been settling instead of fully living life. The arrival of charming younger handyman Seth Darden emboldens her to consider what she really wants—perhaps something and someone different altogether? Blake’s leisurely pace provides a sense of slowed “island time” in this lovely, heartwarming romance with a little sadness to balance out the sweet.

It’s hard to feel sorry for Sadie Gold. When someone is born beautiful, raised rich and on the verge of filming what’s sure to be her breakout role in a blockbuster movie, her life might look pretty thoroughly charmed. But it’s easy to feel empathy for Sadie from the first moment we see her—fantasizing about a donut to motivate herself through a grueling session with her physical trainer. This isn’t a spoiled little rich girl who needs to be shaken out of her privileged existence. This is a girl who everyone expects to be spoiled, who has thus learned to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. We see her grit and dedication, her spirit and enthusiasm as she throws herself at her dreams with everything she has. And then we see one particular dream that fell apart, right before we learn that the stunt coordinator on her new movie is the boy who dumped her at her high school’s prom.

Bo Ibarra is a man who’s more than willing to run into a wall of fire or jump off a building—but loving Sadie scared him enough to send him running the other way, worried that he didn’t fit into her high society life and that she’d eventually come to resent him. But when they’re reunited for the first time in more than a decade, that fear is overpowered by the crackling chemistry they still share. Rekindling their physical relationship is easy and fun, but rebuilding trust will be significantly harder, especially since Sadie’s hiding a secret about their past.

Most of the story is breezy and playful, an entertaining romp between attractive, appealing characters who share an engaging backstory, an adventurous spirit and a love of movie quotes—particularly when it comes to Star Wars. It’s fun for the reader to go behind the scenes of a big budget movie, but that element of the story is touched on pretty lightly, and there are only a handful of scenes involving filming. Most of Johnson’s focus is on the characters reconnecting and rebuilding their rapport, and the challenge that connection faces when someone attempting to blackmail Sadie threatens to reveal her secret.

Highlight to reveal spoilers: The secret is that shortly after Bo ended their relationship, Sadie found out she was pregnant—and got an abortion. It wasn’t a decision she made lightly or without sorrow, but it’s a choice she looks back on without regret. The revelation of that secret provides the story’s climax as Bo struggles to come to terms with it—but Once Upon a Bad Boy is ultimately a celebration of choice and of a woman’s right to determine the direction her life takes. Sadie models that strength in how she lived her past, how she handles her present and how she builds a new future with Bo.