6 Romance Books on My TBR List!
Lorelei Buzzetta 
Here are 6 books I look forward to reading in 2024
1- Maybe Once, Maybe Twice
by Alison Rose Greenberg
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK! "Greenberg serves up some irresistible romantic angst in this page-turner.. This is a knockout." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Filled with the romance and angst that defines the years you come to know yourself, with a shifting timeline covering two decades and ratcheting up the tension, Maybe Once, Maybe Twice is a novel of second chances and finding your own way.
You know that old saying, “if we are still single when we’re 35, we should get married?”
Well, Maggie Vine made that vow with two different people, at two very different stages of her life. And they both showed up.
Maggie Vine’s life is going extra-medium. At 35 she’s pursuing her dreams of being a singer and being a mother—though neither is successfully panning out.
So when Garrett Scholl—stifled hedge fund manager by day but electrifying aspiring rock singer by night—comes to her 35th birthday party with the intention to kiss Maggie senseless, it feels like one piece might click into place.
Except he’s engaged to someone else, and Maggie knows she won’t fit into the cookie-cutter life he’s building for himself.
Enter Asher Reyes. Her first boyfriend from summer camp, turned into heartthrob actor, he’s lived a successful yet private life ever since he got famous.
When a career-changing opportunity is presented to Maggie after her reconnection with Asher, it feels like everything—music, love, family—will fall into place.
But her past won’t let her move on without a fight.
“Everything you want in a smart romantic comedy: deep, tear-inducing emotions; sharp, sardonic humor; steamy sex scenes played by even steamier leads; and an epic soundtrack underneath it all.” - Associated Press
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alison Rose Greenberg is a screenwriter who lives in Atlanta but is quick to say she was born in New York City.
While attending The University of Southern California, Alison took her first screenwriting class and fell head over heels.
A journey from screenwriting led to marketing jobs, before coming full circle back to her first love.
Alison speaks fluent rom-com, lives for 90’s WB dramas, cries to Taylor Swift, and is a proud single mom to her two incredible kids and one poorly trained dog. Bad Luck Bridesmaid is her first novel.
2- Love Interest by Clare Gilmore
Love Interest is Clare Gilmore's sparkling debut, a co-worker enemies-to-lovers rom-com that proves falling in love is the risk and the reward.
Casey Maitland has always preferred the reliability of numbers. Now a twenty-four-year-old finance expert working in Manhattan, she wonders if the open project manager position at her company—magazine powerhouse LC Publications—is a sign from the universe to pursue a career with a little more sparkle.
That is, until she’s passed over for the job in favor of the board chairman’s son. Alex Harrison is handsome, Harvard-educated, and enigmatic.
Everybody loves him—except for Casey. But when the two are thrown on the same project, what they discover about their company might change everything—including the dreams each of them is chasing and their mutual love interest.
“Love Interest is Nora Ephron for Gen Z.” —ASHLEY WINSTEAD, author of The Boyfriend Candidate
About the author
Clare Gilmore is a rom-com author based in Tennessee. She split her time in college studying Business (for the practicality) and English (for the romanticism of it all). When she's not writing, she's cooking excessively elaborate meals in a tiny kitchen, listening to a book on audio while she walks her dog, or planning more vacations than she'll ever be able to take.
3- The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch by Jacqueline Firkins
Jacqueline Firkins's The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch is a beautiful story of friendship, and second chances at love.
Imogen Finch has just been through her seventeenth breakup. She saw it coming, so she's not as crushed as she might be, but with all seventeen of her exes leaving her for other partners, she's come to believe a prediction her well-intentioned and possibly clairvoyant mother made over twenty years ago: that Imogen would never come first at anything or to anyone.
Is her love life failing due to a magical curse? Insufficient effort? Poor timing or personality mismatches? Everyone has opinions on the matter. Imogen's ready to give up altogether.
But when Eliot Swift, her secret high school crush, returns to their small coastal town after a decade of nomadic travels, Imogen has new motivation to try again. Eliot's full of encouragement. He suggests that her curse is not only imagined, it's easily breakable.
All they need is one win--any win--and she can believe in love, and in herself again. From trivia games to swimming races to corn-shucking contests, the pair sets out to snag Imogen her first first.
But when victory proves more elusive than Eliot anticipated, and when his deep-seeded wanderlust compels him to depart for far away places, Imogen fears she's destined to remain in second place forever.
Fortunately for them both, sometimes magic lingers in the most unexpected places. And love is far from predictable.
About the Author
Jacqueline Firkins is a writer, costume designer, and lover of beautiful things. She's on the fulltime faculty in the Department of Theatre & Film at the University of British Columbia where she also takes any writing class they'll let her into. When not obsessing about where to put the buttons or the commas, she can be found running by the ocean, eating excessive amounts of gluten, listening to earnest love songs, and pretending her dog understands every word she says. Her books include Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things and Marlowe Banks, Redesigned. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
4- Hedging Your Bets by Jayne Denker
Opposites attract in this enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy of feuding neighbors and dueling hearts from Jayne Denker, the author of The Rom-Com Agenda.
When small-town neighbors go head-to-head, better start Hedging Your Bets. Gillian has been happily divorced for several years and, after trying a few dating apps, prefers to stay that way.
Navigating her way through dates with fat shamers and lackluster men has left her with no desire to do anything other than work in her garden in her spare time.
Who needs rude comments and awkward first-date conversation when soft roses and vibrant tulips are so much better?
Noah West has just moved to Willow Cove. After a rough breakup that leaves him looking to get far away, he relocates to the same small town he spent summers in as a teen―and moves right next door to Gillian.
A big believer in minimalist design and that the best kind of plants are non-flowering, he knows as soon as he meets his neighbor that they are going to clash on just about everything.
Now if only he could keep his eyes off her too. That might be helpful. When a gardening contest brings out the competition in Gillian and Noah, dueling plant arrangements and fiery banter ensues.
But is it possible that beneath all their differences, they might just be perfect for each other?
About the author
Jayne Denker divides her time between working hard to bring the funny in her closed-door, low-spice romantic comedies, raising a son who’s way too clever for his own good, and wrangling two demented (but in a good way) felines. When she’s not hard at work on another novel, the social media addict can usually be found frittering away startling amounts of time on Facebook (Jayne Denker Author), Twitter (@JDenkerAuthor), and Instagram (@JayneDenkerAuthor). Visit her there, or at her blog, JayneDenker.com, and tell her to get back to work!
5- It Takes a Rake by Anna Bennett
The swoony, frothy finale to the Rogues to Lovers series from award-winning author Anna Bennett.
She’s about to face her biggest challenge yet… Since she was a girl, Miss Kitty Beckett has been adept at finding trouble: sneaking brandy, running away, and getting under the skin of the boy who, like her, was an apprentice to an architect.
Now Kitty’s a talented heiress who can take a dry building plan and breathe life into it with her pencils and paints. Also?
She can spot a rake at a hundred yards―and she won’t be tricked or charmed into marriage. Certainly not by a man who might interfere with her dreams. When Bellehaven Bay announces its first ever architectural design contest, she vows to win―with a little help from her childhood rival.
Turning her buttoned-up nemesis into a certified rake. Leo Lockland, a hardworking architect with a gift for numbers, has returned home after a few years in London, and he has secrets.
The biggest? He’s been in love with Kitty since they were both apprentices.
She refuses to give her heart to any man, but Leo’s determined to beat the odds―even if it means learning how to be a rake. Fortunately, Kitty’s willing to tutor him in the nuances of fashion, flirtation, and seduction in exchange for his help with the contest.
But the whole plan would fall apart if she knew how he felt, so he’ll have to be very convincing.
Let the lessons begin… Leo proves to be a surprisingly quick study in the ballroom, on the beach, and in the bedchamber.
Before long, he’s softening Kitty’s hard edges with his wicked words and kissing his way past all her defenses. Perhaps she’s a bit too skilled at teaching, because her lessons are threatening to backfire, putting her closely guarded heart in grave danger…
About the author
Anna Bennett is the award-winning author of the Debutante Diaries and Wayward Wallflowers series. Her dream of writing romance began during a semester in London, where she fell in love with the city, its history, and its pubs. Now Anna’s living happily-ever-after in Maryland with her family, who try valiantly not to roll their eyes whenever she quotes Jane Austen.
To keep up with all of Anna’s latest book news, be sure to sign up for her newsletter at AnnaBennettAuthor.com. Happy reading!
6- The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi
Sometimes, when you ask the universe for your soulmate, you wind up with your hate mate instead.
On Nami's 30th birthday, she’s reminded at every turn that her life isn’t what she planned. She’s always excelled at everything – until now.
Her fiancé blew up their engagement. Her pride and joy, the tech company she helped to found, is about to lose funding. And her sister, Sora, is getting married to the man of her dreams, Jack, and instead of being happy for her, as she knows she ought to be, she’s fighting off jealousy.
Frustrated with her life, she makes a wish on a birthday candle to find her soulmate. Instead, the universe delivers her hate mate, Nami’s old high school nemesis, Jae Lee, the most popular kid from high school, who also narrowly beat her out for valedictorian.
More than a decade later, Jae is still as effortlessly cool, charming, and stylish as ever, and, to make matters worse, is planning a hostile take-over of her start-up. Cue: sharp elbows and even sharper banter as the two go head-to-head to see who’ll win this time.
But when their rivalry ignites a different kind of passion, Nami starts to realize that it's not just her company that's in danger of being taken over, but her heart as well.
"Readers will cheer on this pair of sparring hearts." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
About the author
Cara Tanamachi lives near Chicago with her husband and five children (two by biology and three by marriage), and their 85-pound Goldendoodle, Theodore. Raised near Dallas, Texas by her Japanese-American dad and her English-Scottish American mom, she was the oldest of two children (the debate still rages whether she or her brother are currently the family favorite).
The University of Pennsylvania (Go Quakers!) grad worked as a newspaper reporter, and then published many novels under the name, Cara Lockwood. A former single mom, she spent eight years dating (hilariously and awkwardly) before finding the love of her life on Bumble (yes, Bumble!). She believes we all could use a little more happily ever after.
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Categories: : Romance book, Spotlight
