May 2026 Romance Book Releases
Must-Read New Romance Books This Month
Looking for the best May 2026 romance book releases? This month is packed with highly anticipated new romance books across every subgenre, including contemporary romance, small-town love stories, romantasy, dark romance, and romantic suspense.
Whether you are planning your summer reading list or searching for your next five-star romance read, this guide covers the most anticipated romance novels releasing in May 2026.
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May 5
Our Perfect Storm
By Carley Fortune
Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong—they’ve always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It’s the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, and she doesn’t know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.
Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie’s life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.
Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family’s home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie’s broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino.
Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.
Our Secret Summer
By R. S. Grey
I’ve spent years stuck behind a desk, always doing the practical, predictable thing. But when my sister’s untimely death leaves me with her unfinished bucket list, I have no choice but to throw caution to the wind and hop on a flight to sunny Ibiza. Attempting to carpe my diem on the shores of the Spanish Mediterranean, I waste no time making new friends and finding work at a popular nightclub.
Living out my sister’s dream summer shouldn’t be hard with her bucket list as my guide:
Go surfing? Done.
Get a tattoo? If the list says so…
Fall in love?…Sorry, sis. No luck on that front.
That is, until I meet my surprisingly sexy boss Cristiano Moreno Winthrop. He’s completely off limits, but we can’t seem to stay away from each other. And between late-night talks, glittering parties on his yacht, and steamy stolen moments, I’m starting to think that I just might have found a way to finish that bucket list after all. But summer won’t last forever. Is what Cristiano and I have just a fling, or will it last beyond the season?
Rules for the Summer
By Meghan Quinn
Renley Gossage has one shot to prove she's more than Cape Meril's favorite cautionary tale: restore her favorite candy shop before the town writes her off like they did her father. No help, no shortcuts, and definitely no rich men wielding engagement rings and making things messy.
Theo Williams never planned on ending up in Cape Meril. A drunken game of truth or dare turned into a botched online engagement, and now he's across the ocean, escaping his father's control with nothing but designer shoes, misplaced confidence, and a rental next door to Renley.
She's practical, stubborn, and covered in paint. He's posh, persistent, and willing to use a sander if it means earning her trust.
Between collapsing drywall, gossiping neighbors, and the chaotic schemes of Renley's aunt, their forced proximity turns into something dangerously close to real.
But Renley's future depends on standing on her own two feet, and Theo's past isn't done with him yet. By the time the candy shop doors open, they'll have to decide if this is just a summer fling―or the happily ever after neither of them saw coming.
Death’s Daughter
By S. A. Barnes
After a lifetime of chaos, Jocasta has finally found her home with good friends, great classes, even a messy situationship with her former TA―a normal life.
Well, as normal a life as the only child of Death can have.
She’s always refused to embrace her father’s legacy. Instead of taking lives, she feeds on her classmates’ disappointments, failures, and rejections. Finals week has her feasting, and all is good.
Until Death ruins her life. Again.
Without warning, Death names Jocasta as his sole successor, making her a powerful ally… and a massive target. Devon, a descendant of Lust, claims to want to help her―for a price.
Jo will do anything to protect the people she loves and the life she’s worked so hard for.
Even if it means becoming a monster.
The Heart You Kept
By TL Swan
He was never meant to be anything more than a memory.
But now he’s back… and more magnetic than ever.
Three years after a secret weekend in the Swiss Alps, Alora Sorenson thought she’d completely moved on from the mysterious man who turned her world upside down. That is until Edward Prescott walks back into her life: richer, more powerful, and even harder to resist.
As the billionaire owner of the world’s largest casino empire, Edward is the definition of untouchable. He’s a dark, commanding force in a world of high society, luxury yachts, and ruthless enemies.
Alora prefers a serene and simple life, surrounded by antiques and vintage fashion.
She doesn’t belong in his world, and yet… she’s never stopped wanting him.
But behind his intoxicating charm lie hidden dangers, and in the shadows of the Riviera, will the past reemerge and destroy everything?
Secrets brought them together. But will they also tear them apart?
The Undergrads: Student Union
By Julie Murphy
CLOVER ROWAN WALSH knows The Plan™.
1. Get a full ride to her dream school, Wexley University.
2. Conquer the school of business.
3. Say goodbye to the paycheck-to-paycheck life she and her mom have known for years.
There’s just one hiccup. With the first semester rapidly approaching, Clover learns her housing grant has fallen through. But a loophole presents itself: Married couples can live in the dorms for the price of one student. Clover is willing to sacrifice the sanctity of marriage . . . even if it means proposing to the one person she swore she’d never speak to again.
Bennett Andrew Graves is the only heir to the Graves Coffee empire. After spending his first year at Wexley, squeaking by in classes and becoming personally acquainted with the female student body, he is looking forward to living off campus. Until the girl he grew up with (and whom he completely devastated years ago) walks back into his life with the most absurd question: Will you marry me?
Bennett can’t refuse Clover. He owes her this, but that doesn’t change the fact that these two can barely carry on a conversation without getting at each other’s throats. Forget about sharing a dorm―much less one bed.
But as Clover and Bennett hide the true nature of their marriage, they find that playing house isn’t all that bad―especially with certain marital benefits in the mix. In fact, Clover and Bennett are soon forgetting the most important part of their fake marriage of convenience . . . that it’s supposed to be fake.
The Love Variations
By Victoria Lee
Goldie Gensler has always wanted to be a concert musician like her parents, who were both principal musicians in the New York Philharmonic, but after a devastating multiple sclerosis diagnosis, that dream feels more urgent than ever. The world’s most prestigious international piano competition is coming up in two months in Stockholm. It’s the perfect chance for Goldie to make her dream come true. But it won’t be easy, because Jamie Larson, with his perfect technique and gorgeous ocean blue eyes, is competing too.
After his brother’s death three years ago, Jamie just doesn’t love music like he used to, and he has always resented Goldie for her easy road to professional musicianship, paved by her wealthy and talented parents. He’s spent hours and hours studying to make it from small-town Iowa to the best music school in New York City. Yet his technical precision is no match for Goldie’s imperfect but emotionally resonant performances that make audiences swoon. Nevertheless, Jamie is determined to prove that skill and dedication are what make a virtuoso musician.
Goldie and Jamie each have their own reasons to win, but when unexpected events force them to practice—and live—together in Goldie’s apartment over the holidays, they discover a passion for far more than music.
May 6
Rein Me In
By Camilla Isley
Faye came to Blue Crescent Harbor for a fresh start. A place to disappear, teach first grade, and keep her secrets buried. She didn’t expect the hottest single dad in school and small-town royalty to march into her classroom to share his stubborn opinions. Tall, rugged, and fiercely devoted to his son, he’s a walking complication in flannel and cowboy boots.
Ryder has no patience for anyone telling him how to raise his kid. Especially not a sharp-tongued teacher with city polish and eyes promising trouble. Their mutual dislike is second only to their explosive chemistry!
Too bad she can’t avoid him. At parent meetings. On the dancefloor at the local dive bar. In her dreams, wearing that backward baseball cap and a grin that makes her forget she’s sworn off men. But he’s off-limits. She’s his son’s teacher, and this town loves to gossip. Yet Ryder’s flirty banter, his son’s adoration, and his dedication to his family’s ranch make sticking to the rules difficult. Staying invisible was the plan, but he makes her want to be seen. What if the real risk is not running, but wanting to stay?
May 7
In a Desert Daze
By Theresa Christine
One chance to save her hotel. One chance to save his career. One last chance at each other.
Daisy Johnson is hell-bent on keeping her late mother's hotel in the California desert alive, despite costly renovations and vacation rentals sucking business dry. She can handle everything on her own just fine, thank you, but she falters when her childhood best friend returns home. He's the boy she encouraged to chase his dreams eight years ago, even though those dreams took him away from her.
After a scandal crushes Max Weber's art curator career, he has no choice but to return to Harlow, California, and plan his comeback. Once eager to escape his hometown and disapproving parents, he always found refuge in Daisy-so he's surprised to see her so guarded now. Even with oceans and years apart, he could never forget her. Surely, their back-and-forth voicemails were proof of that...
Max and Daisy team up to salvage her hotel and his career, and while the project only goes until the end of the summer-he'll leave, and she'll stay-they can't get each other out of their systems. As they reignite a spark they've both long ignored, the two must face what broke them apart and what's still holding them together.
Down With the Ship
By Chloe Jory
Act civil? That ship has sailed.
Stella Olsen doesn’t hate rich people. She swears. But the idea of spending two weeks trapped at sea with her snooty, judgmental in-laws sounds about as appealing as walking the plank. Even worse, she’s just been suspended from the PhD program she’s built her entire life around, and for reasons unknown, the family’s ultra-pretentious yacht captain seems intent on reminding her just how much she doesn’t belong.
Captain Caleb is everything Stella hates about the elite— arrogant, stuck-up, and, worst of all, infuriatingly gorgeous. But if she wants to fit in with her sister’s shiny new family, she’ll have to learn to play nice. After all, she doesn’t have to like him to be civil. Which she absolutely, definitely, does not.
Because falling for a crew member— one who sees right through her guarded façade— is a distraction she can’t afford. Especially when it could ruin her sister’s happily-ever-after— and Stella’s carefully laid plans to get her life back on track
May 12
Broken Dove
By Dani Francis
LINES WILL BE CROSSED.
After blowing her cover as a double agent within Silver Elite and fleeing the Prime-controlled capital, Wren Darlington is finally safe behind allied lines. As her lover and former commander Cross Redden works to disrupt the Primes from inside their ranks, Wren turns her focus toward assisting the Uprising in overthrowing their rule once and for all.
LOYALTIES WILL BE TESTED.
Though she’s back among her own people, trust is hard-won and hidden agendas abound on the Mod base. And beyond those walls, Wren can’t help but worry that Cross is keeping secrets of his own . . . secrets that could jeopardize everything. Complicating matters even further is her shocking reunion with hotshot fighter pilot and undercover operative Grayson Blake. Once her closest friend in Silver Elite, Gray seems to understand Wren on a level she never thought possible.
AND THE FIGHT FOR THE CONTINENT IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING.
With the war between Mods and Primes growing more brutal by the day, and with her own role in the conflict becoming more essential than ever, Wren must confront some gut-wrenching questions. Who is she fighting for . . . and who is she willing to lose?
Operation Boyfriend
By Zarah Detand
Dean Hollis has a plan to survive his sister's tropical destination wedding: invent a boyfriend so his mom will stop worrying about his perpetually single status. The only problem? Now he needs an actual date.
Enter Taylan Carter―charming, gorgeous, and in need of a vacation he can't afford. When Dean offers him a deal―pretend to be Dean's boyfriend for a week on a private tropical island in exchange for an all-expenses-paid luxury getaway―how can Tay refuse?
But between sunset swims, probing family questions, and a rival trying to steal his fake boyfriend, Tay's finding it harder and harder to remember this is all just pretend. And as for Dean, the workaholic American surgeon with walls higher than the hospital where they both work? He's discovering that keeping things professional with Tay might be the one operation he can't successfully complete…
One desperate lie. One luxury resort. One very real attraction. Operation Boyfriend is a delicious fake-dating romance that whisks you away to a tropical resort where stolen kisses feel a little too real. If you're looking for the perfect beach read, this book is for you.
The Trouble With Love and Exposure
By Harriet Ashford
Margo Thatcher is supposed to be at work, not Feather Festival. So, she does what any red-blooded American birder would do—plays hooky. Unfortunately, her excuse doesn’t hold when a photographer from the magazine, Exposure, snaps her picture, landing her on the cover.
As a nature photographer, Trevor Hansen knew getting attacked by wildlife was a possibility. However, his greatest threat currently stems from a birder who is ready to bludgeon him with her binoculars. She might have a motive, considering his photograph did get her in trouble.
As a peace offering, Trevor offers her a job as his birding guide. Margo reluctantly accepts, and their journey travels over the wilds of a remote island and under crystal chandeliers at a lavish gala. As their animosity towards each other turns to shared secrets and overheard conspiracies, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Nothing ruins quite as thoroughly as love and exposure.
Love Beyond Reasonable Doubt
By Swati Hegde
Naina Shetty is a proud workaholic, and she is gunning for a promotion at her law firm. No distractions will get in her way this time, not even the bad breakup that happened over a year ago. She brushed off her pain with a long vacation and a no-strings-attached fling with a handsome stranger, but now Naina is back to business.
Unlucky-in-love Tejas Rajput hasn’t stopped thinking about the brown-eyed beauty he met on the beaches of Goa two summers ago. He’d been looking for a rebound to get over his ex—which is why he’d agreed to keep things strictly casual, use fake last names, and respond to all personal questions with “wrong answers only.” But he didn’t think he’d fall for her, hard, only for her to get on a plane and leave.
When they cross paths again—this time working at the same law firm—Naina is adamant that her no-relationships policy won’t change, especially not for Tejas, whose disarming smile and easygoing charm could spell trouble. Her career will always come first.
But as they team up for a case that could make or break their firm’s reputation, they discover that there’s something more than just sparks between them—and it might turn out to be true love.
All the Truth In My Lies
By Elisabet Benavent
Six best friends on a bachelorette road trip. One RV packed with secrets.
Blanca's September wedding is the perfect excuse for one last adventure, so Coco, Loren, and Aroa rent a camper and plot a week of sun splashed beaches, campsite dinners, and dancing till closing time. Marín and Gus jump onboard at the last minute. It should be idyllic―if only the truth weren't riding shotgun.
Coco and Marín are the kind of roommates who make life look easy. Too bad Coco is in love with him. To keep it hidden, she pretends she's still hung up on her ex, Gus… who seems to be writing love poems to someone he won't name. Marín and Aroa's breakup? Messier than anyone admits. Blanca should be glowing for her fiancé, yet she's miles away. And Loren―poor Loren―knows more than he should and can't tell a soul.
What starts as a carefree farewell becomes a pressure cooker of almost confessions and half truths. As the miles roll by, the stories they've told about themselves start to crack, and each of them has to choose what to protect: the friend group they've always been―or the person they might finally be brave enough to become.
With Benavent's trademark mix of sparkle, tenderness, and razor sharp honesty, All the Truth in My Lies is a friends to lovers slow burn, a found family drama, and a summer road trip you'll feel in your bones―about how telling the truth can break a heart…and how it just might be the only way to mend one.
Out of Her League
By Ava Rani
Dr. Isabelle Mercado is this close to having it all. Top of her class at the country’s most competitive orthopedic surgery residency, a dream career within reach, and a golden ticket to the wedding of the year in Paris.
There’s just one problem: her ex—the one who got away—is going to be there… with his perfect new fiancée.
Desperate to save face (and maybe spark a little jealousy), Isa enlists soccer legend and global heartthrob Austin Cade to be her fake date. It’s the perfect match: after an injury and some unfortunate encounters with the press, he needs good PR and the kind of elite connections this wedding will attract. Plus, her ex just so happens to be his #1 fan. Win-win.
But between champagne toasts, macaron baking classes, and stolen glances under the Parisian stars, pretending starts to feel a lot like the real thing. Isa’s always been all-in on her career—love was never the goal.
But maybe, just maybe… this time, the heart has its own agenda.
Reality Bites
By Amy Mass
A wickedly funny debut romcom in which a young scientist reluctantly becomes a contestant on a reality TV dating show to save her lab—and realizes her secrets are threatened when romance unexpectedly finds her behind the scenes.
Grace Lambert’s entire family are all influencers. Her mom runs an HGTV-like Instagram, her dad operates a Yoga for Men Youtube channel, and her brothers are famous on Tiktok and Twitch. Grace, however, is a scientist devoted to saving the Southern Mountain yellow-legged frogs from extinction, who has never had social media.
When her mom signs her up for a dating show with a cult-like following, Grace hangs up on their lawyer, Andrew, immediately. She has no interest in reality TV—until her lab loses its funding, and her coworkers learn about not only the show’s worldwide viewership . . . but the cash prize.
Arriving on set, Grace immediately feels like a frog out of water. She doesn’t know how to mug for the cameras, make effortless small talk with the contestants, or watch her tongue in an interview—making her a constant thorn in Andrew’s side.
The more time Grace spends competing in challenges, unexpectedly flirting with contestants, and making Andrew’s life a living hell, the more she realizes that being there for the wrong reason and keeping it secret might be trickier than she thought—not to mention just how much trouble an illicit, off-screen romance can bring.
The Cupid Dilema
By April Asher
A lover of love and a champion for happily ever after. Those are two of many things people expect from Aphrodite’s daughter. To Adalyn Whitlock, ‘love’ pays the bills, and currently, not well. Business is dropping at Happily Ever Forever, with her latest wedding planning catastrophe ending in a negative social media storm and her sister Maxi’s matchmaking ability on the fritz. To top it off, there’s an ex-boyfriend calling her ‘the Anti-Aphrodite’ and paparazzi pics linking Addie to her new client’s older brother.
Phoenix "Nix" Cross―songwriter and drummer for the hot new band, The Stone Talons―is no saint, but he's far from the womanizer the band’s image rep bestowed on him. If anything, Nix is a romantic, hopeful he'll find a love like the one his parents share. With the band’s star quickly rising and the record label pressuring him to deliver their next hit, Nix’s writer’s block couldn’t have come at a worse time. But when he opens his door to his irate new next-door neighbor, Nix feels the brief flash of inspiration for the first time in ages. And it just so happens that his new Muse is none other than his little sister’s new wedding planner.
With Addie needing an end to her public-relations nightmare and the record label breathing down Nix’s neck, the pair agree to a fauxmance. But what happens when the emotions turned on for the cameras don't turn off?
Royal Summer
By Kass Morgan
Aspiring writer Hannah has scored the opportunity of a lifetime—escaping her sleepy Midwestern town for the summer to intern in Scotland for her favorite author. But her plan to spend the next few months being the best assistant ever is derailed when her idol suddenly decides to abscond to Japan with her boyfriend.
So it almost seems too good to be true when a mysterious stranger—a tall, obnoxiously cute stranger—she meets at the pub one night gets her job at the royal family’s castle in Inveresk. It’s only when she shows up to her first day of work that she realizes the stranger is Finnian, the prince of England.
Finn is confined at Inveresk as punishment for his party boy antics, and clearly just wants Hannah around for his own amusement. But the more she gets to know him, the more she wonders if this is just a fling or if she’s found herself in a star-crossed summer romance that she never could have imagined…
First and Forever
By Lynn Painter
This deluxe, first-edition trade paperback of First and Forever will feature gorgeous stenciled edges.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lynn Painter comes an utterly irresistible romantic comedy about a football star and his team’s die-hard fan who find themselves entangled in a PR stunt that only one of them knows is fake.
Duffy Distefano loves three things: her dad, the family cat, and Minneapolis Coyote football. So after she gets booed out of a game and becomes the internet’s villain following an awful encounter with the team’s beloved mascot, she is disgruntled, to put it mildly. Eager to clear the air, Duffy agrees to an interview on a hit morning show. She doesn’t expect a co-guest to join her—especially not the Coyotes’ star tight end.
When MVP Connor Cunningham gets tasked with damage control to help his team out of a PR nightmare, he finds himself in a highly amusing verbal sparring match with a recently wronged fan on live TV. The interview instantly goes viral, and the public is obsessed with them. Despite his distaste for PR stunts, a strong push from the Coyotes’ PR team to ride the wave results in Connor asking Duffy out. But he quickly discovers being with Duffy is much easier than he anticipated, and somehow it doesn’t feel fake to him. This secret can only blow up, but all he knows is that if he messes things up with Duffy, it’ll be the greatest fumble of his life.
Oozing with chemistry that feels like fireworks and banter that makes you swoon, Lynn Painter delivers her signature blend of heart and humor in this love story that you won’t soon forget.
The Last Lady B
By Eloisa James
Lady B may have married Bluebeard; she may have fallen in love with a gorgeous, grumpy solicitor; she may have met a ghost and survived to tell the tale! New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Eloisa James delights with witty historical romance with a gothic twist.
In the depths of winter, Lady Genevieve Hughes, her pet piglet, and her septuagenarian husband travel to a haunted abbey in the Scottish Highlands. Evie is excited to meet a ghost (perhaps one of her husband’s three previous wives), but didn’t expect the funny, quirky guests to become the friends she’s never had. And she certainly didn’t imagine meeting Sir Godric Everly, a sardonic, witty solicitor who loathes her husband.
Yet as secrets and lies turn Evie’s world upside down, Sir Godric becomes the one person whom she can trust.
When ghosts, multiple wills, and a shocking marriage certificate bring Lord Burnsby’s past crashing into his present, Burnsby promptly dies, leaving Evie free to remarry…though as a virgin wife, now a virgin widow, she is more unnerved by the marriage bed than a spectral visit.
More importantly, she has to figure out whose identity is false, whose vows are dishonorable, whose truths could destroy her reputation—and where her heart belongs.
Burnout Summer
By Jenna Ramirez
Four years after graduation, life isn’t going the way Camille Luna expected. Her corporate career is soul-sucking, she's in debt from student loans, and her breakup with her ex has created a serious rift between her college best friends. When her spiraling lands her in jail for the night, it's Danny Brennan ―the lovable burnout from their college clique― who bails her out and offers the perfect solution to her quarter-life crisis: a summer by the beach.
Cam is whisked away to Elswick, Rhode Island, where former slacker Danny has taken over his uncle’s restaurant and turned it into a seaside hotspot. But while Danny has grown into a devoted boss and dog dad, his carpe diem life philosophy is still as fiery as ever. The hazy summer days start to blur between shifts at the restaurant, dips in the ocean, and a reignited passion for writing, all alongside Danny who makes her laugh like nobody else. Cam can't help but wonder ―is it the salty waves that have her feeling so renewed, or is it the carefree friend she always overlooked? But summer can't last forever, and Cam's looming student debt reminds her at every turn that the frigid air of corporate office life is waiting.
As September approaches, Cam must decide between snuffing out the flames with Danny in order to keep her beloved friend group together and returning to the corporate grind―or falling into his forbidden arms and setting her old life ablaze.
May 14
Illusive
By Sylvia Day
Bayou born and raised, Ronan Boudreaux’s childhood was a fight for survival. The choices he made to save his siblings and himself set him on a spiral of self-destruction...until fate put him in the path of the father he’d never known. An old betrayal haunts three generations of his family. To destroy its malignant shadow, Ronan hides his feral nature beneath a civilized veneer and redirects his ruthlessness toward Chris Vidal, Sr. ― the man whose past treachery demands the ultimate vengeance. Arriving in New York to witness Vidal’s orchestrated downfall, he’s planned for every possible intervention...except for Ireland Vidal, his enemy’s captivating daughter. Ireland is a fierce beauty whose wild spirit ignites a hunger in Ronan that won’t be denied. Faced with a choice between balancing the scales of justice or pursuing a once-in-a-lifetime woman, he must also contend with Gideon Cross, Ireland’s formidable and protective older brother. But Ronan isn’t the only one whose sights are set on Ireland and her family. And when mortal danger threatens the life of the woman he’s grown to care for, he must fight for a future he’d never dreamed could be his.
May 19
Fever Dream
By Elsie Silver
Professional bull rider, Emmett Bush, is not looking for love. He’s looking for a paycheck to save his family’s farm from bankruptcy. So when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he’s already decided it’s all one big performance.
Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, she’s the last woman who should pique his interest.
Julia has been warned about Emmett. She knows better than to fall for his cocky swagger, broad shoulders, and smoldering good looks. Plus, she’s sworn off relationships.
But as Julia and Emmett work together, mutual distaste grows into an unexpected connection and then… something more.
Soon, they find themselves searching for excuses to spend time together and out of reach of the cameras.
Knowing glances. Stolen kisses. Secret rendezvous.
Still, Emmett signed up to play the role of an eligible bachelor searching for the one. His family’s land and legacy depend on him completing the show.
The problem is, he’s already fallen in love.
Just not with a contestant.
Score
By Kennedy Ryan
You never forget your first love. Isn't that what they say? Verity Hill knows this truth intimately. She didn't simply miss Wright "Monk" Bellamy when they parted ways in college. She's haunted by his touch. Every kiss, any lover since—it's a shadow of what they had.
Time heals all wounds. Isn't that what they say? Monk doesn't believe that for a second. He wasn't simply betrayed when he and Verity split. He was devastated, with parts of him left behind in the ruins of all that was destroyed.
More than a decade after their disastrous breakup, Verity and Monk must work together on the set of an epic Harlem Renaissance biopic. With Monk, now a world-class musician, creating the score, and Verity, an award-winning screenwriter, penning the script, there's Oscar buzz before shooting even begins. This once-in-a-lifetime project could catapult them both to new heights, but can they can put the past behind them for the sake of the film … for the sake of something more?
Spies, Lies & Alibis
By Natalie Walters
Cybil Langford has spent years hiding behind her polished, professional facade as the executive assistant to a powerful real estate mogul, where she's perfectly positioned to collect intel on her boss's criminal network. But when her mission leads her into the path of Lorenzo Ramirez--a ruthless crime boss with deadly plans--she'll need every ounce of cunning and charm to stay one step ahead.
Then he walks back into her life.
Ben Bradley is deep undercover for the FBI, living under an alias, as a financial advisor with a reputation for helping the wealthy and corrupt launder their money. His target? Lorenzo Ramirez, a dangerous crime boss with his hands in everything from smuggling to murder. But when a familiar face from his past suddenly reappears, things get . . . complicated.
The last time Cybil saw Ben, he was an annoying prankster--and her first crush. The last time Ben saw Cybil, she stole a piece of his heart. Neither expected to run into each other at a high-stakes fundraising gala where crime, corruption, and undercover agendas collide.
Forced to work dangerously close, neither knows the other's true agenda. Cybil sees the boy who once broke her heart, now a man whose motives are deeply suspect. Ben sees the woman he never got over but can't determine if she's an innocent caught in the crossfire or a willing accomplice. As they navigate a world of spies, lies, and fragile alibis, they must dismantle the walls around their hearts.
The intel is classified. The trust is fragile. And their covers are one lie away from blowing wide open.
My Brilliant AI Boyfriend
By Stella Hayward
As a top scientist in her field, Ava Green doesn’t spend much time outside of the lab. But when her best friend Rani suggests she present her innovative work in AI at a big competition to win a funding prize, Ava finds herself attending a ceremony in a ridiculously fancy castle—wearing an equally ridiculous dress—as one of the four finalists chosen.
For the next three weeks, Ava will live at the castle (which is totally haunted, by the way) with the other contestants for the prize. Even though all Ava wants is to continue working on her AI program, FreeThought, in peace, she’ll have to do things like attend dinners and actually interact with people. To make matters worse, one of the other contestants is the surly and aloof poet, Forrest Faulkner, who’s had a huge chip on his shoulder since the moment they met. What’s so great about poems that don’t even rhyme, anyway?
When a handsome stranger—who literally looks like he’s stepped out of one of Ava’s pre-pubescent dreams—arrives at the competition, suddenly socializing doesn’t sound so bad anymore. He seems too good to be real... and maybe that’s not so far from the truth. As the competition progresses, Ava is suddenly confronted with a monster problem of her own creation, causing her to reconsider her life and work in a new light. She might also need to rethink some bad first impressions she’s been holding on to as well. Maybe Ava’s idea of perfection isn’t what’s perfect for her, after all?
The Shippers
By Katherine Center
After a lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton vows to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. Armed with pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest). Determined to woo him for closure, she ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, as her wingman. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but showed up anyway. Cooper: who moved to London without a word four years ago. Cooper: who broke her heart.
Shipboard antics abound in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance, as JoJo and Cooper team up, fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, get jealous, answer long-held questions, and finally, at last, discover truths about each other that will change everything.
I’m Gonna Get You Back
By Eva Des Lauriers
Reid Rousseau has always been a winner. Now, he's a former state champion runner with an injury no one can know about and a college scholarship on the line. When he’s invited as the guest of honor for Legacy Weekend, a competitive tradition that welcomes high school alumni back to their small mountain town, Reid would rather run away than face his crumbling future―and the girl who broke his heart.
Clara Suarez’s legacy can’t be failure. A year out of high school and aimless, she has one last shot at getting into her dream film school: creating a Legacy Weekend video interviewing her former classmates―including Reid, her ex―about their explosive senior year and the scandal that capped it off. But any time people return to the mountain, drama follows . . . especially when an anonymous social media account starts airing everyone's dirty laundry.
Reid isn’t the only one hiding something, and Clara isn’t the only one with regrets. Their spark is still strong enough to set off a wildfire, but their secrets might just tear them apart for good.
May 23
Every Time We Touch
By Lucy Mitchell
Love is not about how it ends. It's about choosing how to live...
Bookseller Nelly Blake has a secret. When she touches someone, she sees exactly how their love story will end. The cheating, the ghosting, the awkward letdowns in coffee shops - it's all laid bare in vivid, unwanted visions. She's seen every kind of romantic disaster and has concluded the safest option is to stay single forever. No touching. No dating. No love.
But after a brutal rent hike and her beloved Aunt Polly's cancer diagnosis, Nelly is forced to take on a flatmate to make ends meet. Enter Oliver James - bestselling romance author and recently heartbroken man hiding more than just his actual name.
Then Nelly accidentally touches him... and sees nothing. No ending. No heartbreak. No clue. And that terrifies her more than anything.
As Oliver begins to believe in love again, Nelly must decide whether to keep hiding behind endings - or risk everything for a story she can't predict.
May 26
Wings of Life
By Meghan Le Fay
They cast me off to Rihtlond as a bride.
They don’t care if I come back alive.
Too sharp-tongued and too curious, I am my mother’s greatest lament and my father’s constant frustration. Unwilling to bow to their will, I’ve become expendable, worth sending on a mission doomed to fail.
Armed with nothing but a coded journal, a quill, and my wits, I’m thrust into the kingdom of our oldest enemy—a land of storms and warriors—to wed their high dane’s son. Trapped on their ruthless continent, I am no blushing bride. I’m a spy sent to unlock Rihtlond’s weaknesses… a cuckoo in the robin’s nest.
But my heart still bleeds red when the weaponmaster of these strange people steals it away. Through him, I learn to unlock their secrets. What I uncover is more dangerous than I ever imagined: magic thrumming in the roots of Rihtlond, a dragon hidden in plain sight, and a love I was never meant to feel. Holding this knowledge, I am meant to return home and bind myself to a future I was given long ago.
Now, as war rises and alliances crumble, I must choose between duty and desire, between the family who cast me aside and the bond that awakens who I truly am. To protect what I’ve found—and who I become—I must risk everything. Even if it brands me a traitor. Even if it costs me my life.
The Player’s Promise
By Tierney Page
Anna’s not looking for love. Fresh from a divorce, she needs an escape. One reckless night of fun—and the gorgeous Irishman who buys her a drink at the bar promises exactly that. No last names, no strings, just fireworks.
Liam’s used to hiding behind a game face. But after a brutal betrayal and an even messier punch-up, he’s lost everything: his soccer career, his team, his reputation—and worst of all, his son’s trust. A one-night stand with a stranger? Just the distraction he needs. He never expected to see Anna again … until she turns out to be his son’s new teacher.
Anna knows she shouldn’t get involved with a student’s father—especially not him. But Liam’s not the man the tabloids say he is. He’s so much worse.
How to Train Your Billionaire
By Kendall Ryan
Accountant Frankie Anderson seems down for the count. Laid off, single, and desperate for a fresh start, she takes an unlikely job as travel companion to billionaire Charles Winthrop—a grandfatherly eccentric with a private jet and a soft spot for strays. The perks? Staying in luxury estates, sun-soaked days in Hawaii, and glamorous nights on the French Riviera. The catch? His nephew.
Hayes Winters is grumpy, guarded, and annoyingly good-looking. Their first encounter—a spat erupting from her all-out battle with a broken vending machine—convinces him he doesn’t want Frankie anywhere near him or his family. He doesn’t trust her motives, and she doesn’t care what he thinks. But somewhere between late-night omelets and lavender fields, their banter turns into something neither of them expected.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly what old Charles had in mind. Because sometimes the best journeys aren’t the ones you plan—they’re the ones that lead you home.
The Summer Share
By Jenn McKinlay
Free-spirited travel influencer Hannah Spencer has spent five years touring the country in her vintage van, alone save for her hulking Great Dane, Dude. Until an unexpected inheritance from her pops has Hannah thinking about putting down roots in Cape Split, North Carolina, where she’s the new owner of a worse-for-wear seaside beach house. Or, rather, fifty percent of one. Turns out Simon O’Malley inherited the other half from his gramps.
As Simon and Hannah spend the summer tag-teaming repairs on the crumbling cottage, they discover it was once home to a timeless love story. As their own relationship shifts from enemies to friends to lovers, they begin to wonder if the house’s romantic past might be a good omen for their future together. But there’s one problem—Simon is set on selling the property at the end of the summer.
For Hannah, the Split isn’t like anyplace she’s ever been, and Simon isn’t like any man she’s ever known—she doesn’t want to let this new life go. She just needs Simon to see their budding relationship and this newfound community in the same way, or their first summer share might also be their last.
Bad Boy Era
By Amy Daws
Everly is the matchmaking mastermind of her family, but her own love life is a bit of a flop.
Back from four years in Dublin, she’s ready for a quiet summer on Fletcher Mountain helping launch her aunt’s animal rescue center—until Conri “Wolf” Reilly shows up.
Wolf is her college roommate’s infuriating twin brother. He’s brooding, Irish, and college rugby’s resident bad boy with thighs that could crack a watermelon.
His red card reputation has trashed his rugby prospects…until a training camp in Denver comes calling. As a favor, Everly reluctantly gets Wolf a place to stay if he volunteers at the rescue center.
Now Everly finds herself working and living next door to the Irish tattooed grump who treats her like a nuisance—but looks at her like he could press her up against a hay bale until they forget their own names.
Wolf swore he came to America to fix his image, not fall for his sister’s best friend, but the more time he spends with Everly, the harder it is to keep his distance.
Perhaps Everly’s in her bad boy era…or maybe Fletcher Mountain might has its own matchmaking plans.
Dolly All The Time
By Annabel Monaghan
If they start 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 kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself—can she really start now?
Evening the Score
By Lexi LaFleur Brown
Don't get mad—get even.
A grudge hates to see Olivia Hinckley coming. Years ago, a dirty hit ended her late father’s NHL career with the Minnesota Freeze. It was never fair that Erik Parker walked away with little more than a penalty, but it’s worse that her father's rival is now up for Hall of Fame induction. On top of that, Erik's son—hockey’s golden boy, Brody—just signed on to play for the Freeze. Determined to dismantle the Parker legacy, Olivia enacts a revenge plot that has her donning the Freeze’s mascot costume to gain intel on the Parkers. And she can’t help but mess with Brody’s gameplay—and his heart for good measure. After all, what’s a little fake dating between enemies?
Brody Parker only ever wanted to play hockey for fun, but the pressure of being part of hockey’s “First Family” has him dodging nepotism allegations along with high sticks. Erik might act like Father of the Year when the cameras are on, but behind closed doors, Brody struggles with his father’s impossible expectations. Preserving Erik’s image is a full-time job, but lucky for Brody, his new connection with Olivia is a welcome (spicy) distraction.
When Brody finally opens up to Olivia, she never expected she’d pity a Parker for anything. Suddenly, she wants to protect her once-enemy. The romantic feelings she faked are now unexpectedly real, but after leading Brody on for so long, can she keep the lies and the truth straight before she accidentally blows up his whole life?
Love on the Shelf
By Sheila Roberts
The battle lines are drawn—between a romance-loving bookseller and the shock jock determined to tear happily-ever-afters apart.
Alice Willoughby and her mom run HEA Books, a cozy shop devoted to love stories and the people who crave them. Alice is great at matching customers with their perfect happily-ever-after…she just can’t seem to find her own.
Enter Parker Black, a disillusioned radio host who’s reinvented himself as a romance-bashing shock jock. Bitter from his breakup with a romance author who turned love into a four-letter word, Parker takes aim at the entire genre—and his on-air rants start stirring up trouble for Alice’s loyal customers and their partners. He’s arrogant, aggravating, and absolutely not book-boyfriend material.
Parker’s crusade leads to spirited debates and bookstore protests, but when unexpected sparks fly between the two of them Alice begins to wonder if her favorite trope—enemies to lovers—might actually be playing out in real life. Parker may claim romance is a lie…but is he protesting a little too much?
With sharp wit and plenty of charm, USA Today bestselling author Sheila Roberts delivers a modern battle of the sexes where the biggest question is simple:
Are romance novels ruining love—or rewriting it?
Final Thoughts: Best May 2026 Romance Books to Add to Your TBR
If you are searching for the best new romance books in May 2026, this month delivers across every category. From summer beach reads and fake dating romances to fantasy romance and emotional second chance love stories, there is something here for every reader.
This list is perfect for:
Building your summer 2026 reading list
Finding your next BookTok-worthy romance
Discovering new romance authors and trending releases
Make sure to bookmark this post and check back as you start working through your May TBR.
If you pick up any of these titles, I would love to hear which ones you are most excited about or which end up being your favorites.
