Babymoon or Bust by Ava Hunter
Adult Romance
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: June 1, 2023

One bump. Two strangers. Three days to fall in love.

Tessie Truelove has spent her entire life avoiding. . .well, true love. And why wouldn’t she? Her dog ran off, her father left to go get cigarettes and never came back, and her mother passed away years ago. Instead, Tessie, a celebrity interior designer, clings to her to-do lists and her Pantone colors and her toxic job to avoid more heartbreak.

But after too much whiskey and a wild night with a rugged stranger has her seeing two little pink lines, she vows to do motherhood all by herself. After all, it might be her one shot at true love.

Nothing will interrupt her plans. Not even Solomon Wilder-her muscled, bearded, brooding baby daddy-who stomps his way into her perfectly planned babymoon after learning about her pregnancy.

Stuck together in paradise, the two strike a spend three days together to figure out how to raise their son.

Complete opposites, they have nothing in common except the bump between them. Tessie has her glamorous career in LA, and Solomon has his wild life in Alaska. Yet as the babymoon takes a turn for the steamy and Solomon breaks through the emotional walls Tessie’s spent years guarding, she starts to wonder if she and this gruff, flannel-wearing mountain man might be meant to do more than just share a baby-they might be meant to share a heart.

Unfortunately Yours (A Vine Mess #2) by Tessa Bailey
Adult Romance
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: June 6, 2023

A down-on-her-luck Napa heiress suggests a mutually beneficial marriage of convenience to a man she can’t stand… only to discover there’s a fine line between love and hate.

After losing her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop, Natalie Vos returned home to lick her wounds. A few months later, she’s sufficiently drowned her sorrows in cabernet and she’s ready to get back on her feet. She just needs her trust fund to finance her new business venture. Unfortunately, the terms require she marry before she can have the money. And well, dumped, remember? But Natalie is desperate enough to propose to a man who makes her want to kill him–and kiss him, in equal measure.

August Cates may own a vineyard, but he doesn’t know jack about making wine. He’s determined to do his late best friend proud, no matter what it takes. Except his tasting room is empty, his wine is disgusting (seriously, he once saw someone gag), and his buddy’s legacy is circling the drain. No bank will give him the loan he needs to turn the business around… and then the gorgeous, feisty heiress knocks on his door. Natalie has haunted his dreams since the moment they met, but their sizzling chemistry immediately morphed into simmering insults.

Now, a quickie marriage could help them both. A sham wedding, a few weeks living under the same roof, and then they can go their separate ways–assuming they make it out alive. How hard could it be? There’s just one thing they didn’t account for: their unfortunate, unbearable, undeniable attraction.

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall
Adult LGBT Historical Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Del Ray
Release Date: June 6, 2023

It is the year 1814 and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers.

Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape.

However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore must seek out aid, even if it means mixing with undesirable company. And there are few less desirable than Lady Georgianna Landrake—a brooding, alluring young woman sardonically nicknamed “the Duke of Annadale”—who may or may not have murdered her own father and brothers to inherit their fortune. If one is to believe the gossip, she might be some kind of malign enchantress. Then again, a malign enchantress might be exactly what Miss Mitchelmore needs.

With the Duke’s help, Miss Mitchelmore delves into a world of angry gods and vindictive magic, keen to unmask the perpetrator of these otherworldly attacks. But Miss Mitchelmore’s reputation is not the only thing at risk in spending time with her new ally. For the rumoured witch has her own secrets that may prove dangerous to Miss Mitchelmore’s heart—not to mention her life.

Royally in Trouble (Royal #2) by Meghan Quinn
Adult Romance
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: June 6, 2023

Why am I holding a box of stolen memorabilia formerly owned by my ex-boyfriend’s boss in my arms? It’s called . . . revenge.

After failing my last semester for my masters degree, I decided to come back to my hometown of Almond Bay and wallow in self pity while my boyfriend told me everything was going to be okay. To my dismay, instead of open arms, he greeted me with a box to move my things.

Now I’m not a petty person, but when he told me he broke up with me because I was boring, there’s only so much of the higher road I can take. Hence the box of memorabilia I took from him.

The plan? To give it back to his boss, who happens to be my brother’s nemesis, and get the ex fired. But plans never go the way you want them, because instead of dropping off the box with a note, I’m pinned with the crime by Hayes Farrow himself.

And because my life is so pathetic, he gives me two turn me into the police and press full charges or . . . work it off. How could I possibly work for someone I can’t stand? Easy, I don’t look good in orange.

But working for Hayes isn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. The hate I had for him begins to turn into something else – something deeper, something I never thought I’d feel.

Unfortunately there are still old grudges and family drama to deal with. And what happens when my brother finds out that I’m working for the guy he hates more than anyone else in the world? Will I be able to follow my heart or will the way I hate him blind me from the love I feel?

Almost Home (Love in Wildes #3) by Anna P.
Adult Romance
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: June 12, 2023

Everleigh Cooper wants her happily ever after, but she’s not one to kiss a million frogs, go on countless dates or indulge in one night stands. She needs more. After leaving home with her best friend at 14, she’s worked hard to find a place she belongs. With her friends finding love around her, Everleigh hopes ‘the one’ is waiting for her, too.

After a childhood of shuttling around foster homes, Lachlan James struggles to see his worth. Relationships are hard when you battle depression and can’t trust people to stick around. Outside of his best friends, finding someone who makes him feel loved—and who stays—has always been the hard part.

When she’s displaced because of a fire in her building, and thanks to the help of their mutual friends, Everleigh moves in with Lachlan. For a while, their opposing schedules keep them apart until one failed cooking experiment and an accidental kiss bring them crashing together.

They bond over tattoos and romance novels, fall in love through scribbled notes and doodles, and find safety in each other’s arms. But when Lachlan’s depression spirals, everything they’ve been building teeters on the edge.

Can Everleigh and Lachlan work through their struggles and find a home in each other?

Love ad Lib by Evie Alexander
Adult Romance
Publisher: Emlin Press
Release Date: June 13, 2023

Shy and reserved Lord Henry Foxbrooke is the reluctant heir to his eccentric father’s estate. His outrageous family want him back in Somerset and settling down, but he wants a stress-free life in London. Facing a weekend of celebrations for his thirtieth birthday, he needs a fake girlfriend to get them all off his back.

Free-spirited ray of sunshine Libby Fletcher is down on her luck. Teaching improv workshops isn’t cutting it when she loses her home and savings… and her pregnant business partner’s about to pop. When Henry offers her the acting gig of a lifetime, she leaps.

But when they arrive in Somerset, neither is prepared for what his family have planned. As their worlds collide, friendship blurs and faking it starts to feel real. When disaster sends their house of cards tumbling down, Henry and Libby are forced to face some home truths. They may be lying to the Foxbrookes, but are they also lying to themselves?

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Adult Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: June 13, 2023

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

Their Freefall At Last (Honeywood #4) by Julie Olivia
Adult Romance
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: June 22, 2023

I am currently in love with, have always been in love with, and will continue to be in love with, my best friend, Bennett Walker Shaw.

In five minutes, my best friend’s bride will greet him in a gorgeous white gown with forever on her lips. Except that bride won’t be me.

Moments like these force you to look at your life a little closer.

At twelve-years-old, he and I promised to always be there for each other. But in our childlike optimism we didn’t understand the frail, tattered string of time. How people change. How families fall apart.

How sometimes we fall apart too.

I could try to pinpoint where our mess started, but I’m not sure where I’d land in our patchwork timeline.

Maybe it’s best to go back to the beginning. Back to when the meaning of love was simply defined by a small town theme park and that beautiful, messy-haired boy.

Pictures in Blue by Kelsey Schulz
Adult Romance
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: June 27, 2023

Avery Reid is at a standstill in her life. Being a newspaper reporter isn’t the fulfilling career she expected it to be, especially when she dreams of pursuing photography. It’s not until her best-friend books a three-week trip to Blue Grove, Oregon on her behalf that she starts to seriously consider leaving a career she’s worked toward most of her life. Between her strained relationship with her mother and her stagnant job, the absolute last thing she needs is a man in red flannel coming in and wrecking everything. Or maybe it’s exactly what she needs.

Hudson Waters lives a quiet life in his home town, Blue Grove, where he is still grieving the loss of his sister three years later. Dubbed “the town grump,” there are very few people he speaks to outside of his family and his dogs. All he wants to do is spend time with the people he loves and work on his wood carvings. The less he socializes, the better. Until she comes to town and all he wants to do is talk to her. He knows he needs to stay away, because everyone leaves in the end and she won’t be any different.

Checking Out (City Boys Never Sleep #1) by Jay Leigh
Adult LGBT Romance
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: June 29, 2023

My review

Shiloh Corbel is just a simple boy from a small town.

When he and his twin brother are thrown headfirst into the deep end, their status quo is turned upside down. They never even knew their father’s name, but a knock on their door early one morning finds them suddenly inheriting a luxury hotel empire. Clueless about how to handle this change of circumstances, they have to figure out how to navigate the fast-paced city lifestyle and the burden of maintaining a successful business. All while struggling to come to terms with the upheaval of learning about their sordid, secret history.

Trey Guillebeaux has been with Talbot & Co Properties for almost a decade.

He’s worked his way up from bellhop to executive assistant with the grit and determination needed to succeed in this fast-paced industry. But when tragedy strikes, his world is turned upside down. Now he is faced with the uncertainty of working alongside the Corbel twins and his late boss’ grieving wife as they try to keep the dream alive. The weight of it all threatens to crush him, especially as he tries in vain to deal with his own addictions and demons. Alone.

Forced to learn how to work together, Shiloh and Trey find themselves slowly drawn into the orbit of one another, even as they desperately try to deny the magnetic quality of their attraction. The task becomes even harder when the secrets and nightmares lurking in the alleys of their pasts step into the light. As the layers are peeled back, they are left raw and vulnerable, fighting against their demons for a chance to find something real together.