The Exes
Series: None
Author: Anam Iqbal
May 2nd 2024 by Puffin
Can opposites ever really attract?
When star-crossed lovers Karim and Zara's worlds collide, they have to work out just how far they’re willing to go to give their love a chance.
When Karim and Zara meet, sparks shouldn’t fly.
They’ve got nothing in common: Karim - with his on-and offline clique, The Exes - is a globally renowned influencer. Zara is just a normal teen, trying to get into uni, and not bring shame to the family by getting distracted by silly boys.
Sparks do fly though.
With Zara, Karim can finally let his guard down, while his glamorous world offers Zara an escape from her parent’s control.
But someone has their eye on them – a secret gossip who’s been spilling truths about The Exes for years.
While Karim and Zara’s dates get swoonier, the blogger’s posts get more personal – and more threatening.
Can Karim and Zara unmask their tormentor in time to get their happily ever after? Or does fate have other plans in store for them?
Goodreads
Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie
Series: None
Author: Jackie Lau
May 7th 2024 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Jackie Lau, author of the “full of heart” (Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author) The Stand-Up Groomsman, returns with a charming rom-com about a young woman’s desperate attempts to fend off her meddling mother…only to find that maybe mother does know best.
Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.
Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.
But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.
Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed and maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…
Goodreads
Mistakes We Never Made
Series: None
Author: Hannah Brown
May 7th 2024 by Forever
An epic coastal road-trip gives two lifelong rivals a second chance at love in this debut novel from The Bachelorette star and New York Times bestselling author Hannah Brown.
Two former debate team champions who almost fell in love years ago are now stuck together on one wild wedding weekend. When bridesmaid Emma first sees groomsman Finn, she's reminded of all the mistakes she almost made with him—the date, the party, the kiss, that one night on the rooftop in New York. Each ended in heartbreak, and she would have been happy never to see Finn again.
But when the bride runs away, and both Emma and Finn are tasked with bringing her home in time to walk down the aisle, they end up on a whirlwind road trip down memory lane... and might just fall in love along the way.
Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, MISTAKES WE NEVER MADE reminds us it’s never too late to risk falling in love, because being true to your heart is never a mistake.
Goodreads
Love at First Knight
Series: None
Author: Megan Clawson
May 7th 2024 by Avon
She’s no damsel in distress, and he’s certainly not wearing shining armour. But one knight can change everything…
Daisy Hastings has always thought she was born in the wrong era. So when she bags a summer job at the Tower of London helping to run their Knight school, it feels like a step in the right direction.
Theodore ‘Teddy’ Fairfax is a loose cannon. A disgraced distant relative of the royal family, he’s tall, dark and now (begrudgingly) helping with the Tower of London’s summer programme – and there’s nowhere he’d like to be less.
When Teddy’s oath to be an obstruction almost gets Daisy fired, she declares war. But as the two cross swords, they start to discover they both need a little rescuing…
And that maybe, just maybe, love can bloom, even on a battlefield…
Goodreads
The Pick Up
Series: None
Author: Hannah Doyle
May 9th 2024 by HQ Digital
Committing to a fake romance is easy. It’s keeping it fake that’s the problem…
Sophie Rogers finds it easy to focus on the important things in life. Like her daughter, her job and her family.
So when Joe, another single parent at school suggests they fake a romance to help them both out of a fix, she throws herself in.
But then Sophie starts to look forward to seeing Joe. In fact, she’s thinking about his floppy hair, Irish accent and the way his lips felt when they grazed hers (her commitment to this is exceptional) more than their synced calendars and staged socials. And there is a reason the yummy mummies called him Hot Single Dad.
Sophie Rogers isn't silly enough to fall in love with her fake boyfriend.
Is she?
Goodreads
Loyally, Luke
Series: Skymar #3
Author: Pepper Basham
May 14th 2024 by Thomas Nelson
Sometimes love means embracing the good, the bad . . . and even the impossible.
Dear Reader,
My name is Luke Edgewood, and there are few things in life that I require. Mainly black coffee. And flannel. And lots of solitude. And my dogs, Chewy and Indie. What I don’t need is romance, so I have no plans to change my thirty-year-old bachelor status anytime soon.
But my youngest sister thinks that by accepting a short-term construction job in the small European country of Skymar, I’m going to follow along in her footsteps and discover my own romantic adventure. Nope. Bah humbug. The End. This time, her rom-com-movie senses are totally wrong.
Or maybe not. Because I’ve met a Grace Kelly look-alike who is annoying . . . until she isn’t. But she is impossible. As in, nothing can happen between us because she is a literal princess. Even though that’s easy to forget when we’re working together to restore a castle-like orphanage in a secluded mountain town and “forced proximity” includes a small closet, a secret one-hundred-year-old journal, and the tactile memory of an off-limits royal in my arms.
Basically, the whole situation has turned into an ooey gooey magical snow globe of romantic tropes complete with cute kids and an actual ball. Now, even my sentences are starting to sound like mush. Ugh. Send high levels of testosterone my way—I’m going to need it.
Loyally,
Luke
Goodreads
10 Things I Hate About Prom
Series: None
Author: Elle Gonzalez Rose
May 14th 2024 by Joy Revolution
A fun, fresh contemporary rom-com that covers all the ways in which prom is overrated, and the biggest ways to sabotage your lovable best friend’s promposals to the school’s most popular girl.
The best things in life come in pairs. Peanut butter has jelly, Taylor has Selena, and Ivelisse Santos has Joaquin Romero. They are not only next-door neighbors; they’re platonic soulmates. Ive gets Quin like no one else.
At least, she thought she did before Joaquin shocks her by revealing that he wants to ask Tessa Gordon to prom. Tessa freaking Gordon. The same Tessa Gordon who spread the rumor that Ivelisse started the infamous Second Grade Lice Outbreak. Why her ?
Tessa and Joaquin are a match made in popular kid heaven. The head cheerleader and the star of the baseball team going to prom together makes more sense than Joaquin and Ivelisse—a member of tech crew—would. But just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it should happen.
To make matters worse, Joaquin wants Ivelisse’s assistance planning the grandest, most elaborate promposal Cordero High has ever seen. To win the queen bee over, he’ll have to go bigger than any of their peers have ever gone. Ivelisse would rather wrestle a bear than wingwoman Joaquin.
But with senior year coming to an end and their paths diverging, she'll take all the quality time with Joaquin she can get. So, she swallows her pride. At first.
Goodreads
The Dixon Rule
Series: Campus Diaries #2
Author: Elle Kennedy
May 14th 2024 by Bloom Books
Diana Dixon has a lot going on this summer. She’s rehearsing for a ballroom dance competition, juggling two jobs, and dealing with an ex-boyfriend who can’t take the hint it’s over. Yet despite all that, she still has plenty of time and energy to tell Shane Lindley to screw off.
Shane just moved into her apartment building and seems dedicated to sleeping his way through her entire cheerleading squad. Sure, he’s a tall, gorgeous hockey player, but he’s messing with her turf. This calls for some ground rules: no parties in her apartment, leave her teammates alone, and—most importantly—leave her alone.
What Diana doesn’t realize is that Shane’s sick of hookups and tired of being on the rebound after his long-term girlfriend called it quits. He wants a relationship. And when his ex comes back into the picture, he pretends he has one to make her jealous…and who better to play the girlfriend role than his sassy new neighbor?
Despite Diana’s reluctance to break her rule, a fake relationship is the perfect solution for her own ex issues, and soon she can’t deny something is sizzling between her and Shane. Something hot and completely unexpected.
And it might just be getting a little too real.
Goodreads
Love at First Book
Series: None
Author: Jenn McKinlay
May 14th 2024 by Berkley
When a librarian moves to a quaint Irish village where her favorite novelist lives, the last thing she expects is to fall for the author’s prickly son… until their story becomes one for the books, from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading.
Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha’s Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan’s novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.
Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series—after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer’s block—is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn’t have to deal with Siobhan’s son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan’s bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn’t want Em around.
When Siobhan’s health takes a bad turn, she’s more determined than ever to finish her novel, while Kieran tries every trick in the book to get his mother to rest. Thrown into the role of peacemaker, Emily begins to see that Kieran's heart is in the right place. Torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her own growing feelings for the mercurial Irishman, Emily will have to decide if she’s truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter.
Goodreads
Love Game
Series: None
Author: Emma Rae
May 16th 2024 by Hera
Can a player on the court be a keeper at home?
Elle's love language is food. But finding the right kind of work in her industry is difficult. After multiple different stints and temporary work, she lands her dream a personal chef to huge tennis star, Nicky Salco. It's just a bonus that he's handsome and athletic...but totally off limits.
The pressure is on, and not just in the kitchen. As Nicky trains for hours on the court for Wimbledon, Elle treads carefully around his brutally judgemental fiancée, while also trying to ignore her own boyfriend's cheating habits.
But the temperature rises when Nicky's training leads him to get hungry late at night and Elle is the one tasked with keeping his belly full. Despite being worlds apart, their late night rendezvous seem to lead to more than what they intended.
Should they risk the lives they have already built, for the lives they truly want?
A sizzling, forced-proximity sporting romance that fans of Hannah Grace and Ali Hazelwood will fall head over heels for.
Goodreads
A Wedding in the Sun
Series: None
Author: Leonie Mack
May 17th 2024 by Boldwood Books
Four exes and a wedding. And a road trip no one expected… Jo Watters would rather do anything than go to her ex-husband Ben’s wedding to perfect Monica, and if it wasn't for her beloved children she would already be far, far away. But having promised to be civilised for the sake of their soon-to-be-blended family she is headed to Spain with a fixed smile and hoping for a very fixed drink!
But when Jo realises that she’s on the same plane as Monica's ex-husband, the devastatingly handsome but equally cantankerous Adrián, she thinks her trip can’t get any worse... she’s wrong. When bad weather forces the plane to land the wrong side of the Pyrenees, and the hotel they’re sent to only has one double room available Jo begins to wish she was anywhere - anywhere - but here...
Determined to get to the wedding however they can, Jo and Adrián make an unlikely team, but as their disastrous trip continues, Jo starts to wonder if fate has other ideas for her and Adrián, especially when he seems to be getting more handsome by the day…maybe this trip won't be so terrible after all?
Goodreads
Wild About You
Series: None
Author: Kaitlyn Hill
May 21st 2024 by Delacorte Romance
Two total opposites. One race through the Great Outdoors. In this grumpy-sunshine teen romance from the author of Love from Scratch and Not Here to Stay Friends , the trail to true love doesn't always come with a map.
Natalie Hart has always been loud, unfiltered, and unapologetically herself. But then comes her freshman year of college, when she loses her merit scholarship and gains one pesky little anxiety diagnosis.
Hesitant to take out more student loans, Natalie decides to shoot her shot and applies to Wild Adventures , a popular outdoorsy reality show. Sure, Natalie prefers her twelve-step skincare routine to roughing it on the Appalachian Trail while competing in challenges against other college kids, but that scholarship prize money is calling her name. High risk, high reward, right?
Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned, capital- O Outdoorsy teammate whose growl could rival a black bear. These partners have more friction than a pair of new hiking boots. Or is it flirtation? Turns out falling in love might be the wildest adventure of all...
Goodreads
I Wish You Would
Series: None
Author: Eva Des Lauriers
May 21st 2024 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
In this drama-filled love story, private confessions are scattered on the beach during a senior class overnight and explosive secrets threaten to tear everyone apart, including best friends (or maybe more?), Natalia and Ethan.
It’s Senior Sunrise, the epic overnight at the beach that kicks off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan, it’s the first time seeing each other after what happened at junior prom―when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. After ghosting each other all summer, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn’t care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake.
When the senior class carries out their tradition of writing private letters to themselves―what they wish they would do this year if they were braver―Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan. So does everyone in their entire class. But in Natalia’s panicked attempt to retrieve her heartfelt confession, the wind scatters seven of the notes across the beach. Now, Ethan and Natalia are forced to work together to find the lost letters before any secrets are revealed―especially their own.
Seven private confessions. Seven time bombs loose for anyone to find. And one last chance before the sun rises for these two to fall in love.
Goodreads
Savor It
Series: None
Author: Tarah Dewitt
May 21st 2024 by St. Martin's Griffin
Summer won't last forever.
Sage Byrd has lived in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon (not to be confused with Forks, Washington) her entire life. She's learned to love her small world, with the misfit animals on her hobby farm, and her friendships with the town’s inhabitants. But when her 5-year relationship ends and her ex, town-golden-boy Ian, suddenly gets engaged, Sage needs a win―something that will convince everyone to stop pitying her all the time, and to put Ian in his place. The Festival of Spunes, the town’s annual summer competition, would be the perfect opportunity. She just needs a partner.
Fisher Lange was a hotshot chef in New York City until the loss of his sister left him numb, grieving, and responsible for his teenage niece Indy. When Fisher loses his Michelin star along with his love of cooking, his boss sends him and Indy to Spunes on a much-needed summer sabbatical to consult on a restaurant opening. But when clashes with the townspeople threaten his last chance to redeem himself and a kiss with his new neighbor Sage leads to dating rumors, a strategic alliance might just be the best way to turn things around.
A deal is struck. Sage will improve Fisher’s image in the eyes of the town and remove the roadblocks he is facing with the restaurant, and Fisher will be Sage’s partner for the competition. But as their pact quickly turns into steamy rendezvous, emotional wounds begin to heal, and the pair tries to savor every moment, they start to realize that summer is racing by much faster than they would like...
Filled with spicy summer fun, small-town charm, and Big Feelings, this highly anticipated romcom is Tarah DeWitt’s best yet.
Goodreads
Pointe of Pride
Series: None
Author: Chloe Angyal
May 21st 2024 by Amberjack Publishing
Carly Montgomery has only one goal as she arrives in Sydney Australia: Be the world's best maid of honor. And then, when she gets back to New York City, she's going to figure out how to get promoted so she doesn't spend the rest of her ballet career in the corps de ballet playing Peasant Maiden #4.
But the second she steps off the plane, she runs into trouble—and into Nick Jacobs, the most uptight, judgmental, inconveniently attractive man she's ever met. And to their mutual horror, Nick is also in Sydney for a wedding. The same wedding. In which he is the best man.
Carly will do anything for her best friend, including running all over Sydney with Nick—Nick who has his life together, Nick who's made the transition out of ballet into photography so perfectly, Nick who has the most irritatingly sharp cheekbones and stormy blue eyes. And when the director of New York Ballet announces that she'll be making her decision about promotions ahead of schedule, Carly chooses to stay in Sydney, even if it means shelving her pride to ask Nick for help.
Nick Jacobs is coming back to Sydney with a secret . His life in Paris, where he recently retired from ballet, has fallen apart. With no girlfriend and no new career to speak of, Nick can't bear to tell his friends at home the humiliating truth. And after fifteen years dancing overseas, what does home even mean anymore?
Nick doesn't want to team up with Carly Montgomery, a human hurricane who creates chaos every time she walks in the room, but sparring with her makes him feel the most alive he's felt in months. When she asks him for help securing her promotion, he sees an opportunity to kickstart his own flagging career. Looking at Carly through his lens all day starts to change how Nick sees her, and soon, he can't stop staring. Carly's a human hand grenade, but suddenly Nick wouldn't mind pulling the pin.
When she finds out the truth about him, though, the explosion might destroy them both.
Goodreads
The Heiress's Daughter
Series: The Brides of Bellaire Gardens #3
Author: Anne Gracie
May 21st 2024 by Berkley
A dashing rake must prove he has changed his scandalous ways to win his one true love from the arms of another, in a witty new Regency romance from the national bestselling author of The Rake's Daughter.
Heiress Clarissa Studley yearns to be loved for more than her fortune. Warmhearted, but plain and shy, she wishes to marry, but has two firm rules: no rakes and no fortune-hunters — her father was both, and she’ll never forget the misery he caused.
So, when Race, Lord Randall, starts to pay Clarissa attention, she knows she must keep him at a distance. Attractive and charming he might be, Race’s reputation precedes him and she’s observed first hand his flirtatious ways with London society beauties. But Race sees a beauty in Clarissa that others cannot, and for the first time in his life, he is truly in love. And when a rival for Clarissa's affections appears — a handsome, wounded war hero, heir to his great-aunt’s fortune — Race becomes desperate as Clarissa seems tempted to make a safer, tamer choice.
Can Race convince Clarissa that his love is true and that she can trust him with her heart? And can Clarissa put aside her unhappy past, and follow her heart, despite the risk of loving a rake?
Goodreads
A Match to Remember
Series: None
Author: Helen Hawkins
May 23rd 2024 by Allison & Busby
For amateur footballer Lizzie Morris, it's the first day of her teacher training at Cranswell Primary School. Horrifyingly, she immediately comes face to face with her first love from back in her own school days. Instantly, their competitive relationship reignites and to make matters worse, the Head Teacher asks them to organise Sports Day together. Their friendly rivalry of old threatens to derail all of her plans.
Will she overcome their bickering to pass her teacher training, win the football tournament and survive this brush with her past?
Goodreads
All's Fair in Love and War
Series: Miss Prentice's Protegees #1
Author: Virginia Heath
May 28th 2024 by St. Martin's Griffin
A new Regency romp of a series, about governess who believes in cultivating joy in her charges, clashes with the children's uncle who hired her, only to find herself falling in love.
When the flighty older sister of former naval captain, Henry Kincaid, decides on a whim to accompany her explorer husband on an expedition to Egypt, he finds himself unwittingly left in the lurch with her three unruly children and her giant, mad dog. With no clue how to manage the little rascals, a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all of his attention, and no idea when his sister is coming back, Harry has to hire an emergency governess to ensure that everything in his ordered house continues to run shipshape. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice’s School for Girls prepared to pay whatever it takes to get a governess quick sharp to bring order to the chaos.
Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgina Rowe does not subscribe to the ethos that children should be seen and not heard. She believes childhood should be everything that hers wasn’t, filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional educational ethos. Their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, however, is another matter entirely…
Goodreads
The Ride of Her Life
Series: None
Author: Jennifer Dugan
May 28th 2024 by Avon
Molly McDaniel’s life is falling apart. Between her day job as a barista, her night job at a call center, and her crushing student loans, she’s barely getting by. And that dream she has of starting a wedding event planning business? The dream that led to all those student loan in the first place? She can feel it slipping farther and farther out of reach every day. So the absolute last thing she needs is to discover she’s inherited a run-down, struggling horse barn out of the blue, courtesy of her estranged late aunt.
Molly is so ill-equipped to run the barn, it’s laughable. She certainly doesn’t have the money, time or knowledge needed to save it, no matter how much faith everyone who loved her aunt has that she will. But the more Molly gets involved, the more she starts to wonder: maybe the barn is a blessing in disguise. If she can sell the land, the profits could be the small-business seed money miracle she’s been waiting for. So what if she’s starting to love everyone in the mismatched family she’s found here?
Well, everyone except Shani, the resident farrier and family friend who took care of Molly’s aunt in her last days. Judgmental, grouchy Shani, who refuses to give up on the barn; who walks around like she so much better than Molly; who’s actually really good with the horses…and kind of thoughtful. And obnoxiously hot. And unfailingly loyal.
And suddenly, Shani has become an entirely different kind of problem, one Molly can’t possibly solve, not without risking her whole future, no matter how much her heart wishes she could.
Goodreads
He's A 10
Series: None
Author: Jessica Yale
May 30th 2024 by Penguin
Genie Edwards, head of player care at Covenly FC, loves her job. Even if she does have to work with the club doctor who happens to be her ex-husband . . .
When Covenly qualify for the Champions League, they're determined to stay there and smash their record transfer fee to bring in renowned 'Number 10' Tony Garrett, who urgently needs a career boost after recently being snapped falling out of nightclubs during a very public break up. When Tony is late to his first ever press conference, it looks like some things never change . . .
But soon Genie begins to suspect there may be more to this rough diamond than meets the eye - will she put her career on the line and take a second chance at love?
Or was everyone right about Tony all along?
Goodreads

What has caught your eye for May? Have you read any of these? Let me know :)