Summer 2025 Recs

Hot weather, hotter tropes. Whether you’re sipping iced coffee on your porch or hiding in the AC with a book, we’ve got the perfect read for whatever your dice rolls up.

Scroll down to find our top picks for each trope—curated chaos for your emotionally unwell summer TBR.

Grumpy x Sunshine

You rolled the emotionally constipated love interest? Say less.

Try These:

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
A broody professor. A fake-dating setup. And a sunshiney STEM PhD student with a tendency to panic-ramble. A romcom full of academic tension and unexpected feelings.

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
Schitt’s Creek vibes and an emotionally unavailable sea captain. Piper’s a champagne-soaked socialite exiled to a tiny fishing town, where Brendan would rather eat bait than fall in love. Spoiler: he absolutely does.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
She needs a fake date for her sister’s wedding in Spain. He’s the grumpy coworker she swore she’d never ask. The sexual tension is high, the flight is long, and there’s only one bed. You know how it goes.

Enemies to Lovers

Sharp tongues, lingering glances, and mutual loathing? Perfect.

Try These:

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Forced to share a fake honeymoon after a disastrous wedding, sworn enemies Olive and Ethan try (and fail) to keep their hands off each other. Tropical mayhem, buffet food poisoning, and grudging sexual tension ensue.

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
She’s a bestselling author with trauma. He’s the screenwriter adapting her novel—and also tied to the tragedy she can’t forget. A slow-burn workplace romance laced with resentment, guilt, and a whole lot of heat.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
He’s literally under orders to kill her. So obviously they fall in love. Expect dragons, death threats, and a classic case of “I hate you” turning into “I’d die for you” in under 500 pages.

Friends to Lovers

Petty arguments and accidental feelings? We ship it.

Try These:

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Two best friends. One disastrous vacation. And years of pretending their feelings don’t exist. Cue the slowest burn of all time and an emotional breakdown in a hotel hallway.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
She’s been in love with her childhood best friend since forever. Unfortunately, so has everyone else. Nostalgic beach vibes, sibling drama, and a love triangle with sunscreen.

Blurred Lines by Lauren Layne
They’re best friends who swear they’d never ruin things with sex—until they do. Spoiler: feelings get caught, lines get crossed, and suddenly “just friends” isn’t cutting it.

Fake Relationship

One fake kiss away from a full-blown identity crisis? We love to see it.

Try These:

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters
A proper Regency fake fling between a sharp-tongued widow and her irritatingly handsome rival. Banter, ballroom scandals, and absolutely no feelings involved (until there are).

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
A viral video turns a grumpy security guard and a chaotic academic into the internet’s favorite fake couple. It’s supposed to be PR—until the flirting gets a little too convincing.

The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams
She’s a secretly-in-love-with-him ballet teacher. He’s an NFL quarterback who agrees to a fake relationship for PR. Spoiler: everyone but them knows they’re already soulmates.

Second Chance

Old flames, unresolved tension, and emotional damage? Don’t mind if we do.

Try These:

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Two writers with a shared, messy past reunite for a week of panels, interviews, and eye contact that could set a building on fire. Spoiler: the tension is mutual, the feelings never left, and neither did the trauma.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Childhood best friends turned first loves turned estranged adults reunite after years apart—and it’s not just the lake air that’s heavy. Regret, longing, and one hell of a slow burn make this one hit in the gut (in a good way).

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan
Divorced. Still in love. Emotionally wrecked and trying not to fall back into old habits—except the habit is kissing. A story about grief, healing, and finding your way back to the love you never really lost.

Forced Proximity

Trapped together with unresolved feelings and only one bed? Fate’s doing the most.

Try These:

Last Light by Claire Kent
A comet hits, the world ends, and only two strangers survive—one grumpy, one hot, both emotionally repressed. They have to travel together to stay alive. And yes, the tension is nuclear.

The Roommate by Rosie Danan
When a buttoned-up East Coast socialite moves in with a charming adult film star, chaos (and chemistry) ensues. Forced cohabitation has never been so flirty, awkward, or unexpectedly sweet.

Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik
An outlaw princess and a notorious criminal escape captivity handcuffed together and on the run across galaxies. Sci-fi banter, mutual distrust, and “oh no, he’s hot” energy guaranteed.