Somehow, 2026 is here, and that means SO MANY BOOKS to look forward to! Honestly, how am I going to read them all? Here are my top ten highly anticipated 2026 romance book releases. I was lucky enough to get advance copies of some of them, so those have my own reviews!
Plus, check out other reviews here.
January 27, 2026
My Review:
In Last First Kiss, Jordan’s just trying to figure his life out. He has an event planning job he loves, a competitive streak, a big heart, a meddling family, and confusing feelings about love and relationships. When he lands a huge wedding planning gig, he’s thrilled until he sees that the best man is the childhood friend he once kissed and never got over (and who rejected him not too long ago)…
Jordan and Jamie have my heart! They’re both going through some stuff, and in some ways they lean on each other and support each other, but then feelings and family relationships create some roadblocks too. I just loved the journey in this book, with Jordan confronting his feelings and really getting to know who he is, without resorting to labels and easy answers. So moving. I do wish there had been more from Jamie’s perspective (it’s third-person, but really focuses on Jordan rather than Jamie) and we could see into his head more, but I really can’t complain. They shared some beautiful moments, and the chemistry plus genuine affection really did me in!
The writing and banter—perfection! I love Julian Winters’ writing style and his characters’ personalities. I wish I could be friends with all of them! He weaves in the family members’ lives masterfully, really enriching the story and making you feel like you know all these people, and adding even more fun and wit.
Last First Kiss is a sequel to I Think They Love You. You can enjoy it as a standalone, but the first book is amazing too, and it’s so worth reading it first.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
If you’re looking for LGBTQ+ reps, second chances, great writing, and fun in your 2026 romance book releases, this is for you!
Maybe This Once by Sophie Sullivan
February 10, 2026
My Review:
✈️When Charlie’s evil soon-to-be stepsisters totally screw her over in a viral video, she’s all about escaping the limelight of Hollywood and her famous family. She finds a job teaching at a midwestern university, close to the lake cabin where her great-uncle Bernie lives. She’s never properly gotten to know him and is grateful for the chance to slow down, lie low, and connect with him. But she doesn’t expect Grayson….
🌲The only good thing to come from Grayson’s divorce was the remote Get Lost Lodge property, reachable only by boat. Even though financially it’s tough, it’s growing and thriving and bringing his whole family closer together. Life is good, and he’ll never fall for the trap of love again. He wasn’t counting on Charlie though!
💜 I LOVED this book, how these two opposites tried to push each other away but couldn’t, how they supported and opened up to one another, tried to figure out their lives, and all the love in the Keller families. The family/found family element was easily the most touching part for me—I always fall hard for a loving group of people who have each other’s backs no matter what and who care so much about each other, especially when there’s a cute kid and memorable side characters!
💙And the characters from the other books in the series play a legit role here too. You don’t have to read the first two to love this one, but they’re definitely worth it! Charlie’s secret-keeping did get a bit frustrating, but overall this was a sweet, closed door/fade to black, slow burn that’s pretty shill and low-angst. Highly recommend!
Thank you to @stmartinspress for my advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
Maybe This Once is one of my top 2026 romance book releases for a fade-to-black, beautiful opposites attract story!
Honey Bee Mine by Sarah T. Dubb
February 10, 2026
My Review:
Farm owner, beekeeper, hard worker, and all-around lovely person Penny Becker is stressing—her farm is on the verge of foreclosure thanks to her last loser of a boyfriend. Penny can’t bear to tell her mom or grandma, so she turns her desperation to the upcoming honey festival.
Single dad and former bad boy Zander spent miserable teenage summers in the same small town with his harsh grandfather, and hoped never to return. But his ex-wife Mallory (who he’s actually friends with) wants to come back for the summer to help Mallory’s mom and introduce their son Winter to the town.
Penny and Zander pretty much hated each other from afar as teens and plan to stay away from each other now, but Winter immediately clicks with Penny and the bees. And then Zander and Penny are thrown together for the festival….
I loved this book so much! Sarah T. Dubb writes the most charming characters, settings, feelings, everything. I could feel the tension between Penny and Zander when they start as enemies(ish), and it turns into more fun tension as they open up and get to know each other. I LOVE how they communicate—it’s not perfect but it’s so human and feels so real, and there are no annoying miscommunications. They are so easy to root for!
This book is also a beautiful reminder that our perceptions about people may not always be accurate, we never know what someone else is going through, and we should take the time to find out.
Other fun tidbits: perfect set-downs of bullies, legit info about bees, amazing side characters (can RJ get a book, pretty please?), LGBTQ+ reps.
Thank you to @gallerybooks and NetGalley for my advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
I couldn’t be more excited to put Honey Bee Mine on my list of top 2026 romance book releases. Also consider checking out the author’s debut novel. Birding With Benefits!
And Now Back to You by B.K. Borison
February 24, 2026
My Review:
Has there EVER been a B.K. Borison MMC I haven’t loved? Nope. Charlie, Aiden, and now Jackson are way up there on my list of Best Book Boyfriends. Not that I don’t adore her FMCs too, and Delilah is no exception….so it’s no surprise that I’m obsessed with And Now Back to You and had to include it in the top 2026 romance book releases.
Beloved TV weather reporter (and all things Baltimore reporter) Delilah gives off all the fun, free-spirited vibes, but she also has a lot going on, caring for her grandfather who has Alzheimer’s and dealing with a terrible boss.
Straight-laced radio weather guy Jackson looks like the epitome of no fun, but he’s got a lot on his plate and residual effects of a horrible mother who basically abandoned him and his two younger sisters. Now he’s their guardian and all he wants is to make sure they have stability and love.
Jackson and Delilah have always been at each other’s throats (see the post-it notes left on cars), but their respective bosses send them off to cover a record-breaking winter storm and it’s time to play nice. Once they dive into their work, they start to see through the walls and find the best in each other. But what does that mean? Friendship, a fling, a relationship? Neither knows how to balance their feelings, but their conversations and actions are so heartfelt and authentic.
So many beautiful moments jump off the page, and you feel the emotions without it going overboard. B.K. Borison has SUCH a gift for writing these moments and developing characters I fall more and more in love with throughout the story.
Read if you love opposites attract, forced proximity, only one bed, heartfelt conversations, no third-act breakup, slow burn, breaking down walls, character growth, and ALL the love.
A huge thank you to @berkleypub for my advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
March 3, 2026
Publisher’s Blurb:
Can love draw them together… again?
After a traumatic accident threatens the foundations of their happy marriage, a young couple tries to rebuild and find their way back to each other, and themselves, in this tender, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not and Promise Me Sunshine.
Roz and Vin can’t look each other in the eyes anymore, let alone share a bed. It’s been a year since they survived a traumatic car accident and their marriage hasn’t been the same. But Roz has held out hope they can fix things…until she discovers Vin signed a new lease. So she does what any soon-to-be-divorced-Brooklynite would sign up for figure drawing class.
Between her determined attempts to improve her skills in class every Friday and adventures with her best friend Raffi, she can almost ignore Vin’s impending move out date and his footsteps in their previously unoccupied guest room. But it would all be a lot easier if Vin wasn’t Raffi’s older brother, and she didn’t still find him incredibly, debilitatingly attractive and kind.
So kind, in fact, that he offers to let Roz draw him. What is she supposed to say? It’s probably better than her original plan of finding some random male model online, and she needs all the practice she can get. Plus, that’s sure to make a separation easier right? Focus on every detail of your estranged spouse’s body while drawing them in the nude. But after the year they have spent avoiding each other and their struggles in the aftermath of the accident, it feels good to see and be seen by one another again.
As Roz works to better herself as an artist and capture the wholeness of the person she fell in love with, will they both be able to draw upon the feelings they buried deep inside to finally heal together?
Another of the 2026 romance book releases I can’t wait to relax with!
The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn
April 7, 2026
My Review:
Oh my goodness The Paris Match absolutely blew me away! Here I was expecting a cute, fun, maybe at times serious, romance. I got an incredibly written, emotional, beautiful, nuanced, raw, yet still-fun masterpiece to add to my list of all-time favorites. It’s getting my first ever “Beyond Obsessed” rating.
People-pleaser doctor Layla is getting though the pain of her allegedly amicable divorce only for her ex-sister-in-law, Emily, to invite her to her wedding in Paris, a city that brings back all the memories and emotions from her ill-fated marriage. She’d always played the part of Emily’s big sister, so off she goes to lend her support and find a way to deal with her ex and his new GF. But a few flippant words (maybe) give Emily some doubts.
Grumpy Griff (with legit reasons for his grumpiness), is the best man and is NOT going to let this wedding fail. In no uncertain terms, he demands Layla fix whatever she broke….but holy moly it quickly goes beyond that.
Layla and Griff find themselves together a LOT as they try to figure out how to salvage the wedding, but this isn’t some fluffy proximity where they charm each other into love. They see each other so deeply, but also have so many obstacles to confront.
Griff sees the real Layla, with her history, pain, emotions, intelligence, strength, rather than the light and easy version of herself she shows others. And boy does Layla start to really GET Griff and understand him, even if she doesn’t know his whole story. Things he does that draw scorn from others, she sees as his way of protecting her and trying to manage his pain.
Slowly, poignantly, and sometimes messily, they pull each other up and inspire each other to be brave. I could go on forever here, but really, you need to just read it!
The Paris Match is ALL about the characters—if you love character-driven romances that are not just the formula, intimate emotional experiences, self-discovery and character growth, this book is so for you. Just a stunningly beautiful story that I can’t get enough of.
I got an ARC of the e-book—but guess who’s ordering the physical copy the second it’s available? And guess who’s reading the e-book again, maybe right this minute?
A HUGE thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for my advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
April 14, 2026
Publisher’s Blurb:
From USA TODAY bestselling author Chloe Liese, a clever and heartwarming rom-com that is perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Annabel Monaghan about two best friends who must fake a relationship for their exes.
Thea and Alex have three things in common—they love food, they hate where they live, and they’re both divorced. Otherwise, they couldn’t be more different.
Thea’s never cooked a day in her life. Alex is a world-class chef. Alex resents feeling stuck in his hometown. Thea resents the town for not feeling more like home. Thea and her ex are in a contentious custody battle for their dog. Alex and his ex amicably coparent their daughter. Beyond a few friends in common, a couple small-world connections (welcome to life in a mid-size city), their lives look nothing alike. Fast forward two years, and they’re truly the best of friends. No one would ever know their friendship began as a lie…
Two years ago, their exes got together immediately following their divorces, and somehow, Thea and Alex found themselves spinning a spite-fueled story about being old friends and first loves. Two years later, what began as a ruse has grown into real friendship—just friendship, despite what friends and family seem to think. But when their exes invite them on a two-week, “two family” beach vacation—daughter and dog included—Alex and Thea start to wonder if this story they’ve spun might have gotten away from them, and if it’s led them to the last place they ever thought it could: a happy ending.
More 2026 romance book releases coming!!!
May 26, 2026
Publisher’s Blurb:
From The New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script , a romance about a single mother who’s offered a Pretty Woman -type deal that’s too good to refuse.
If they begin by pretending, can they end with something real?
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.
So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and swinging on the porch, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?
June 18, 2026
Publisher’s Blurb:
Love is a long game…
Down-and-out after retiring from cycling to ‘get a real job’, Leesa Kubicka just wants to forget about her years on the elite team, the races she mostly lost. Just her luck, her first real assignment at the sports marketing agency where she’s building a career takes her right back to everything she wanted to leave cycling, the Tour de France and Colin Gallagher, the immature joker who’d enjoyed riling her up with stupid pranks – the guy she’d nearly kissed back in September.
Much to her mortification, her job is now to make content with him before and during the Tour de France. His pranks and flirting – and distractingly deep voice – don’t make her job any easier, but she’s determined to impress her boss and earn the contract extension her bank account desperately needs.
Leesa has always been Colin’s Achilles beautiful, funny and completely immune to his rough charm. But now she’s here to witness the moment that will make or break his young career and all he wants to do is act out with her.
It’s his last chance to prove he’s not just the idiot she thinks he is before she’s gone from his life forever. It’s time for Colin Gallagher to finally grow up and prove he’s worth the support of his team and sponsors – and maybe even Leesa’s heart.
More highly anticipated 2026 romance book releases coming soon!
July 28, 2026
Publisher’s Blurb:
The hunt for fossils—and love—is on in this steamy, STEMinist romance about two paleontologists who join forces to prevent a fraudulent dinosaur discovery, but accidentally dig up feelings for each other along the way.
Renegade paleontologist Ripley Adams is this close to digging up a fossil treasure and vindication. She’s spent the last three years in academic exile after her ex-boyfriend stole her work, betrayed her trust, and broke her heart in one fell swoop. If she can unearth a complete specimen of her newest discovery—a never-before-seen missing link between dinosaurs and birds—it will put her back on the map and finally restore her ruined reputation.
But when unfairly hot Oxford professor James Smithson crashes Ripley’s dig site, she realizes she’s not the only one searching for redemption in the Montana dirt. James is convinced a splashy new fossil is a fraud, and he needs Ripley’s help to prove it. She’d tell the buttoned-up Brit where to stick his suspicions, but the fake fossil is eerily similar to hers . . . and the fraudster is her ex.
The race is on to reveal a T-rex-sized discovery. Polar opposites Ripley and James will have to find common ground if they’re going to take down a hoax that could ruin them both. And as they dig deeper into their unlikely attraction, Ripley’s excavation boots won’t be the only things getting a little dirty. . . .
You can find more romance book releases on my Instagram Page.
