13 Romances to Read if You Love a Book Boyfriend Who’s Down Bad for His Girl

When 26-year-old marine biology student Tallulah is offered a gig as a live-in nanny for professional hockey player Burgess’ tween daughter Lissa, she jumps at the opportunity. It’s too good to turn down, considering the perks that come with living in a pro athlete’s penthouse (read: free rent). But with an undeniable chemistry simmering between Tallulah and Burgess, she’s ready to back out of the arrangement—until she sees just how much help Burgess and Lissa need. While on a mission to get the duo to come into their own, Tallulah sets aside her attraction toward the hockey player in the name of what really matters—her independence—and Burgess tries equally hard to convince himself he’s a has-been who has nothing to offer a woman like Tallulah. Lines blur and things come to an explosive head, but the self-belief Tallulah instilled in Burgess has him ready to fight for their happily ever after.

Since Jess and her half-sister Tegan were abandoned by their mom a decade ago, Jess has had a sole focus in life: Raise Tegan while keeping the horrible secret of their mother’s disappearance from coming out. After their mom left with a boyfriend she’d only known a few months, Jess realized he’s the notorious con artist who’s the subject of an incredibly popular true crime podcast, The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore. Jess didn’t think Tegan would make the connection, but when the host of the podcast, Salem, and her assistant, Adam, show up on their doorstep to go on a road trip with Tegan to find where their mom and Lynton disappeared to, Jess’ worst fears are realized. As they make their way across the country, an unexpected connection with Adam has Jess slowly letting down her carefully constructed walls for a trip full of discoveries.

The third installment in Abby Jimenez’s latest series, Just for the Summer, follows Emma and Justin, two strangers on the internet who discover they share an impossible commonality: every person they date goes on to find their soulmate once they break up. The pair jokes that they could break the “curse” by dating each other, but that would require Emma to set the next location of her travel nurse job as Minnesota—a destination that is not on her list of places to go next. But the more she talks to Justin, the more curious she becomes about what their chemistry would be like in real life—and if it’s actually possible to cancel out their curses. Emma decides that, just for the summer, they’ll date each other and then break up. But when the circumstances of their respective family dynamics blow up, the pair is suddenly navigating a lot more than they bargained for—including big feelings for one another.

When Bee lands her dream job as the lead on a neuroengineering project at NASA, the last thing she expects is for her grad school nemesis, Levi, to be working within the department. But, like any woman in STEM, Bee decides to ignore Levi’s tall, dark, and broody man energy as best as she can. Well, until she ends up in his arms on the first day of the job. Since Levi is still acting like her archenemy, Bee resolves to show him she’s just as brilliant as she was in grad school. But when her equipment goes missing, her team begins avoiding her, and the job generally isn’t going as smoothly as she hoped, she discovers Levi’s standoffish demeanor may not be an accurate portrayal of his feelings—and she may not have been his enemy all along.

After a harrowing event that took place at a high school party, Avery flees her suffocating hometown for a college across the country. She wants nothing more than to be blissfully anonymous in a sea of students—but after a run-in with popular, charismatic Cameron, Avery frequently finds herself caught in his path. His banter, charm, and calming presence make her feel things she never thought herself capable of, but when a stalker starts bombarding her with messages and calls about the night that haunts her, she’s forced to decide if she wants to face her past and reveal the truth to Cam.

Lennix Moon Hunter, a Yavapai-Apache activist whose mother is one of the many Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, is delivering a passionate speech at a pipeline protest against Cade Energy when she meets Maxim—the heir to the oil pipeline she abhors. There to rebel against his father, Lennix and Maxim’s chemistry is immediate and off-the-charts—but their age gap fizzles any possibility of a romance before it can begin. Years later, the two are unexpectedly brought back together during a whirlwind trip only for Lennix to discover Maxim’s fraught-yet-still-existent relation to the Cade empire. As fate reunites them again, they must decide if their inescapable connection is worth fighting for.

Rowan is a ruthless businessman and an heir to his grandfather’s amusement park empire. Left with a task to complete in order to access his inheritance and his company shares, Rowan has no time for life outside of work—but when he meets Zahra, a brilliant woman with a wealth of ideas for improving the theme park, he finds his rigid discipline and ruthless demeanor slipping from his control. While most fear him, Zahra doesn’t shy away from letting him know exactly what she thinks, despite his position of power. While she initially thought him to be a cutthroat suit without a soul, their reluctant work relationship develops into something softer.

In the second installment of Tessa Bailey’s “Bellinger Sisters” series, King crab fisherman Fox, the town flirt, can’t get Hannah out of his head. When she swept into the sleepy seaside village with her sister Piper, Fox couldn’t believe the way Hannah resisted his charm and genuinely wanted to be friends… period. While Piper stayed to make a life with her fiancé Brendan, Hannah returned to LA—but when work suddenly brings her back to Westport, Fox finds himself offering Hannah a place to stay: his spare bedroom. Hannah’s been nursing a crush on a co-worker who will be in town too, and Fox, practicing his newfound friend skills, offers to help Hannah in her mission to snag his attention. Except the more time Fox and Hannah spend together, the more the line between friends and flirtation blurs.

Winter is nearly free from her toxic marriage, and she’s swearing off men entirely. Even Theo, a bull-riding flirt who’s determined to melt her icy exterior. Persistent as Theo may be, Winter knows a man like him comes with nothing but heartache. But the more the bull rider breaks down her defenses, the less she’s able to refuse him—and the tension comes to a head during a drink at a small-town bar, where she reveals her deepest, darkest secrets and gives Theo the long-awaited “yes” he’s been chasing. Still determined to keep her life simple, Winter tells Theo to forget about the one-night stand—but a massive surprise guarantees that there’s nothing simple between Winter and Theo, and their relationship has much more than a single night in store.

Breaker and Lia have been best friends since they were kids, so when she asks him to be her “man-in-waiting” for her wedding, Breaker dutifully embraces the role. As Lia navigates wedding planning with her dismissive fiancé and his controlling mother, Breaker doesn’t stray from her side. He’s more present than Lia’s work-focused fiancé, attending meetings, tastings, and even her dress fitting to ensure she feels his support since she isn’t feeling it from her future husband. But when Breaker sees Lia in her wedding gown, the reason he’s never had a serious romantic relationship hits him square in the face: He’s been comparing every other girl to Lia, whom he’s in love with. While Lia tries not to crumple under the pressure and stress of her engagement, Breaker pivots from proving himself as her man-in-waiting to the man she’s meant to be with.

Christian is a billionaire businessman with enough power and information to be a deadly, fearsome force. He has no morals and no time for frivolous emotions like love, but when lifestyle influencer and aspiring fashion designer Stella enters his life, Christian can’t help but feel like she’s the exception to all of his rules. She’s the one puzzle he can’t solve, and when he gets the opportunity to get closer to her, he doesn’t hesitate. Shy and introverted Stella thought she shook her stalker, but when he resurfaces and her apartment in Christian’s building is broken into, Christian insists she move in with him in his highly-secured penthouse. Despite his cold nature and her lack of interest in a relationship, Stella feels protected and desired in Christian’s presence, and she seems to be the only one who can soften his steely exterior. But when Christian’s darkest secret surfaces, his twisted lies taint what Stella thought was true.

Matt met Grace while moving into their NYU dorm, and quickly after learning they shared a wall, they began sharing everything. From fast friends to best friends, the pair slowly became more—but it all fell apart the summer after graduation. Fifteen years later, Matt sees Grace on the subway as the door to her train is closing. Haunted by the way they lost touch and unable to stop thinking about seeing her again, he shares a post on Craiglist’s “missed connections” board hoping fate would finally bring Grace back into his life. While revisiting memories and trying to rekindle a relationship with her in the present, Matt discovers exactly why he never heard from Grace after everything imploded.

When Ada shares a supercharged kiss with a handsome cowboy at a dive bar, she almost feels regretful that she’ll never see him again—except she soon does, at her new job. And he’s her boss. While Wes is thrilled that the mysterious woman is the interior designer hired to oversee a dream project on his family’s ranch, Ada is determined to keep their relationship within the confines of work. She fought tooth and nail to get this job after dropping out of her design program and leaving a nightmare relationship, and she’s not letting a man derail her life again. While Ada is sure her feelings for Wes will go away if she ignores them, Wes can’t—and doesn’t want to—stop thinking about her. Ada is busy tearing down the walls of his property as Wes sets out on his own demolition mission to tear down the walls around Ada’s bruised heart.