Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in June 2021
Time for our regular look at the new releases we think are most likely to tempt us – and you – and it seems that June is a bumper month for new romances. Contemporaries, historicals, mystery and suspense; cowboys, hockey players, spies and lords, hopefully we’ve found something for everyone! Which of these are you most looking forward to reading in the coming weeks? And what titles have we missed? Drop by and tell us in the comments.
Releasing week of 1st June
Releasing week of 7th June
Releasing week of 14th June
Releasing week of 21st June
Releasing week of 29th June
I’ve just seen that Jay Hogan has You Are Cordially Invited – Auckland Med #5 – releasing on 21st June. It looks like it is about Cam and Reuben’s (from Crossing the Touchline) wedding.
Sorry, 17th June!
Yep – it’s the wedding. I hadn’t realised it was out so soon!
Just pre-ordered it – thank you!
I am excited to see that some authors I’ve really enjoyed will be releasing new books this month. Like others, I am looking forward to the Mary Balogh and KJ Charles entries so much because they continue series I already love, and I am invested in the characters. The Westcotts and Will Darling— very different, yet both series are compelling because of the gifts of the writers.
In addition, the Casey McQuiston looks intriguing. Red, White and Royal Blue was really fun, but One Last Stop looks quite different, so I may wait for the reviews. I just read Kennedy Ryan’s Queen Move, and that was great. I hope Reel is just as good.
Thanks for putting this list together every month! It’s great to have a heads up on new reads, and I am going to pre-order some of these so I can enjoy them as soon as they come out.
As well as the Cat Sebastian, KJ Charles, and Olivia Waite, I am looking forward to a new Jackie Lau in June. My new must read author
I’ve got three of these on preorder:
I’ve enjoyed everything of Cat Sebastian’s except for her Regency Imposters series, so I’m hoping The Queer Principles of Kit Webb is one that I will like.
I’ve read all of Mary Balogh’s Westcott series and enjoyed most of them. I’m hoping that Harry gets a good story – he deserves one – and think that Someone to Cherish may be the last in the series?
I’m very pleased that Gregory Ashe’s Redirection comes so soon after the awesome oof of last week’s Misdirection! I can’t remember if this is a 3 or 4 book series, so I’m not sure if this is the final episode of this stage of North and Shaw’s life……… Whatever, I’m in for the long haul!
I’ll also be getting KJ Charles’ Subtle Blood but it isn’t available for preorder yet. I hope that it will definitely be released in June.
Eloisa James, writing in her real name of Mary Bly, releases Lizzie and Dante on 1st June. She calls it a (joyous) ‘love story’ but I’m not sure if it is a romance or women’s fiction.
Lily Morton always seems to release books at short notice, so I’m hopeful that there might be one from her in June! Her next one is to be about a barrister in his 50s and an artist in his 40s, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what she does with these older characters!
This Borealis series is 4 books; hopefully time to put things back together after the carnage of Misdirection! Subtle Blood is available for pre-order; if it hadn’t been I wouldn’t have been able to include it in this list. It’s out on 23rd June. I’m really looking forward to the new Lily Morton as well – I’m hoping for June or early July.
I’ve found Subtle Blood now, thanks – couldn’t find it earlier this morning!
Yes, 4 books is probably a good thing for Borealis!
SOMEONE TO CHERISH was a lovely addition to the Westcott series. There is one that comes after it, SOMEONE PERFECT (due out in November) which I didn’t love as much. Not a bad book, but one that didn’t quite gel in terms of the hero/heroine.
Gosh, I didn’t think there were any family members left!
Wendy, I think you will enjoy this blog post from Mary Balogh where she talks about the continuation of the Westcott series. Someone Perfect is Estelle’s story.
https://marybalogh.com/the-energizer-bunny-or-the-ongoing-westcott-family-saga/
However, in her most recent blog post, she reports she is starting a new series so I’m not sure when the other Westcott books will come out. Regarding the new series, she says:
“And now I have started a new series about the Ware family of Ravenswood Hall, headed by Caleb Ware, Earl of Stratton. He has six sons and daughters: Devlin (the heir), Nicholas, Philippa, Owen, and Stephanie—and Ben Ellis, his eldest son from a pre-marital liaison.”
Hah, looks like the Westcotts could go on forever then!
Like it hasn’t already? :P (j/k, I generally like MB!)
I’m really looking forward to Mary Balogh’s Someone to Cherish. I have loved this series.
Jackie Lau has the 3rd book in her Cider Bar Sisters series coming out on June 8th. It’s called The Professor Next Door.
June 29th is also the release date for the first two books in the Speakeasy series in Sarina Bowen’s World of True North. They are called Touchstone and Heartwood.
I love when AAR posted about upcoming books!
But.. . I think I wrote this last month: is there any way you can design this monthly notice so that the covers of the books are bigger or maybe just posting, at the end, all the books and the authors. I defy anyone to tell me the authors of all of these books. I can’t be the only reader here is can’t read some of the authors.
Sorry–we’re limited by both space and programming.
Have you tried making the screen larger?
Hope that helps.
I’m on my phone and can zoom in. Also if you tap the covers it takes you to amazon.
Thanks for the suggestions from both of you. That helps a lot.
Yikes! Is June bearing down on us already? Here’s my updated and heavily truncated TBR list for the coming month:
1) My librarian kindly ordered a paperback copy of A Marriage of Equals by Elizabeth Rolls, so hopefully it will be ready for me to read early this summer. *Fingers crossed*
2) Waiting for The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian is becoming painful. I *love* Cat Sebastian’s HR, and this one has been on my TBR list since I learned of its existence.
3) I enjoyed The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite so much, I just have to read her upcoming The Hellion’s Waltz.
In the meantime, I am chipping away at some of my other TBR reads, most of which are old releases. Last week, I finally gained an appreciation for Harlequin Romantic Suspense by reading Her Rocky Mountain Defender by Jennifer D. Bokal and Witness on the Run by Susan Cliff (the latter was an AAR rec, so thank you!). Of course, Her Rocky Mountain Defender is #2 of a trilogy, so now I have a hold on the sequel, Rocky Mountain Valor, which will hopefully arrive via ILL in the coming weeks.
Cat Sebastian has a new one? Thanks for the alert! :-)
You’re welcome! Its thumbnail appears under the “Releasing week of June 7th” subheading. It’s a cartoon cover. This 1750s HR concerns a former highwayman helping another guy pull off a heist, I believe.
I’ve got the Sebastian on my TBR. She can be a bit hit and miss for me – unlike KJC, who pretty much nails it every time!
If you are reading Harlequin Romantic Suspense, you might try Rachel Lee’s Conard County books. Some are excellent, some just good (I would say they bottom out around a B minus), and the titles can be read independently.
Would you believe I read Undercover in Conard County by Rachel Lee recently? It’s the one where the hero and heroine are teamed up to stop a ring of big game poachers. I picked it up specifically because of the unusual plotline and equally unusual profession for a romance heroine (game warden). It was good. Looking back on my personal reading list, I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 star rating. I might have to read some of the others now that you’ve brought it up.
I like Rachel Lee’s books but her newer ones are a bit of a mixed bag. I think the old Conard County series had more depth. Some of the new releases are quite good so I order them all even if I’m sometimes disappointed.
Good to know. Thanks.
Looking for a romantic-suspense with a heroine who has an unusual occupation involving animals? I’d recommend two books by Jill Sorenson: SET THE DARK ON FIRE (heroine is a specialist on mountain lions) and WILD (heroine is a zookeeper). Sorenson excelled at heroines with unexpected occupations—everything from strippers to EMTs—I understand she now publishes as Susan Cliff, but the couple of Cliff books I’ve read just don’t have the old Sorenson pizazz.
Jill Sorenson’s Stranded with Her Ex has been on my TBR watchlist for a long time. The heroine in that one is a conservation biologist. But you do realize my TBR list is groaning under its own weight, right? ;-)
Join the club!
Thanks for the upcoming books alert!
Yikes—it seems a bit early to start looking at June releases when I have at least five books on my May releases list! But here’s what I have so far for June:
The first of the month is when Harlequin releases ebooks, so while the following two books will be technically be available the last week of May, I won’t get them until June 1:
Caitlin Crews’s (presumably) last release for Dare: JUST ONE MORE NIGHT, the second of her Summer Seductions duet. The free-spirited heroine is the sister of the heroine of Crews’s earlier THE PLEASURE CONTRACT. I’m sorry to see the Dare line come to an end, even though it never really did live up to its potential.
Also available June 1, Kelly Hunter’s long-awaited HP, PREGNANT IN THE KING’S PALACE, this is the fourth and final book in her Claimed By A King series of royal romances—and, since the previous book was published in 2019, thus one truly is long-awaited. Imho, Kelly Hunter is one of the best writers of category romances (THE MAN SHE LIVES TO HATE is a keeper shelf favorite) and I can’t wait to see how she finishes up this series.
One of my favorite dark romance writers, Skye Warren, releases FINALE in June 1. Thus is part of her North Security series but involves two secondary characters in an arranged marriage: an exiled Spanish Duke hero and a string-willed classical pianist heroine. Let the clash of the titans begin!
J. Kenner’s MEMORIES OF YOU drops on June 8. This is part of Kenner’s Stark Security series and features the bodyguard-client trope—one of my many catnips.
June 15 brings MAFIA KING by CD Reiss, the second of her DiLustro Arrangement trilogy. The first book, MAFIA BRIDE, ended on quite the cliffhanger so I’m eager to see what happens next.
You know you’ve been reading a series for a looong time when the children of earlier MCs now show up as MCs in new books. So it is with Lexi Blake’s TREASURED (releasing June 22), where the hero is the step-son of the hero from one of Blake’s earliest Masters & Mercenaries series of BDSM-crossed-with-espionage (yes, that’s a thing!) books. This one features the bodyguard-client trope—but this time, it’s the bodyguard who’s female. Yes please!
One of my favorite (and, in my opinion, most underrated) romance writers, Julie Kriss, releases COLD DARK HEART on June 23. This is the fifth book in Kriss’s Filthy Rich series—all of which feature heroes who grew up rough on the wrong side of the tracks and earned unexpected wealth later in life. The heroine is a divorced mom who owns a bar; the hero shows up to protect her from some bad guys. Can’t wait!
And, as of right now, my favorite Kati Wilde has EVIL TWIN scheduled for June 30. On her website, Kati says she hopes to release it earlier (Kati freely admits her release dates are often more like suggestions than actualities), but Amazon is still showing June 30. This is a fantasy novel with a hero who impersonates his identical twin brother (the king) to claim the king’s bride. But the innocent bride has some ideas of her own! A new book from Kati is always cause for the happy dance in my house—I’m really looking forward to this one.
“I’m sorry to see the Dare line come to an end, even though it never really did live up to its potential.”
Definitely agree. While I confess I haven’t actually read a Dare book yet on account of my TBR list being infinitely long already- plus a lot of the premises haven’t grabbed me- I think Harlequin could benefit from having a super steamy contemporary line that doesn’t try to awkwardly straddle the line between wholesome and kinky. I know you really want Blaze to come back, and I have heard the same from others. (Speaking of which, I should definitely check out some of the old titles from my library.) Thus far, just poking around Harlequin’s blogs and submission guidelines, I haven’t seen any hint of a replacement line for Dare. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Since I posted my June tbr two long days ago, I’ve discovered that Skye Warren’s STRICT CONFIDENCE (the second of her Rochester Trilogy, a modern retelling of JANE EYRE) has been moved from May to June 15. Which means Warren has two books coming in June—if the books are indeed released on the scheduled dates: I love Warren’s work, but she gives Kati Wilde a run for her money in the “don’t get too attached to this release date” sweepstakes!
I’ve also learned that Pam Godwin has a new book arriving on June 22: LESSON IN SIN, which features one of my transgressive catnips: a Catholic priest who is driven by passion to break his vow of celibacy. (He’s also the headmaster of a Catholic boarding school and the heroine is a pupil at the school—so even more transgressive, although I’m hoping/assuming that the heroine is at least 18 before anything of a sexual nature takes place.) Based on the heroine’s name—Tinsley Constantine—I think the book may be part of the Midnight Dynasty series which is being written by different authors and features the rival Morelli and Constantine crime families. Tinsley Constantine was the name of the character whose 16th birthday party/ball was the central conceit of last year’s DARK FAIRY TALES anthology—so this is either a continuation of her story or an odd coincidence in Godwin’s choice of the heroine’s name.
And, although it’s arriving tomorrow and not in June, I also just found out that Serena Bell has a new book: MAKE ME WILDER (this is what I get for not following any authors on social media). It appears to be starting a new series (so it’s not part of her Tierney Bay series; I guess we’ll be waiting a little longer for SO GOOD) about an outdoor adventure company transitioning into a destination wedding location. MAKE ME WILDER features opposites-attract, city-girl/country-guy, and possibly antagonists-to-lovers (which Bell does so well). Book budget? What book budget?
Also coming out is Pack Up The Moon, the latest women’s fiction effort by Kristan Higgins. I’ve read it and will be so curious to see what others think of it.