Romance
October 2025
Recent Releases
Pitcher Perfect
by Tessa Bailey

When Boston University softball pitcher Skylar Paige catches the eye of rookie Boston Bearcats hockey player (and notorious playboy) Robbie Corrigan, she wants nothing to do with him -- until he devises a fake-dating scheme to make her crush jealous. This 4th banter-filled entry in bestselling author Tessa Bailey's Big Shots sports romance series will be a home run for fans of Elle Kennedy's Campus Diaries novels. 
 
eBook Only, Available through Boundless
The Battle of the Bookshops
by Poppy Alexander

In this feel-good contemporary retelling of Romeo and Juliet, publishing assistant Jules Capelthorne returns home to quaint seaside village Portneath, England, to help her great-aunt Flo with her family's foundering bookstore. The only problem? Her childhood crush, wealthy Roman Montbeau, is also in town -- and he's just opened a rival bookstore across the street. For fans of: You've Got Mail; Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady.
 
eBook Only, Available through Boundless
August Lane by Regina Black
August Lane
by Regina Black

Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again. Going back means facing a painful past of abuse and neglect. It also means facing JoJo’s daughter, August Lane—the woman who wrote the lyrics he’s always claimed as his own.

August also hates that song. But she hates Luke Randall even more. When he shows up ten years too late to apologize for his betrayal, she isn’t interested in making amends. Instead, she threatens to expose his lies unless he co-writes a new song with her and performs it at the concert, something she hopes will launch her out of her mother’s shadow and into a songwriting career of her own. Desperate to keep his secret, Luke agrees to put on the rogue performance, despite the risk of losing his shot at a new record deal.

When Luke’s guitar reunites with August’s soulful alto, neither can deny that the passionate bond they formed as teenagers is still there. As the concert nears, August will have to choose between an overdue public reckoning with the boy who betrayed her, or trusting the man he’s become to write a different love song.
 
Also available through Boundless
All the Men I've Loved Again by Christine Pride
All the Men I've Loved Again
by Christine Pride

It’s 1999, TLC’s “No Scrubs” is topping the charts, y2k is looming on everyone’s mind, and Cora Belle has arrived at college ready to change her life. She’s determined to grow out of the shy, sheltered girl who attended an all-white prep in her all-white suburb. Cora is ready to conquer her fears and find her people, her place in the world, and herself.

What she’s totally unprepared for is Lincoln, with his dark skin, charming southern drawl, and that smile. Because how can you ever prepare yourself for the rollercoaster of first love with all its glorious, bewildering contradictions? Just when Cora thinks she’s got things figured out, a series of surprises and secrets threaten to upend everything she thought she understood about love and loyalty.

In the wake of these developments and a shocking tragedy, a new man enters Cora’s life—Aaron—further complicating everything. He’s the only one who seems to get her, and the letters she writes to him when the two are separated reveal the truth of their inescapable connection. There’s only one problem—how can she fall in love with one man when her heart belongs to another?

Twenty years later, and Cora is all grown up, or mostly, and has cloaked herself in loneliness like a warm blanket. It’s the safest choice. But then an unexpected reconnection and a chance encounter puts her right back where she started. The same two men, the same agonizing decision. Finding herself in this position—again—will test everything Cora thought she knew about fate, love, and most importantly, herself. 
 
Also available through Boundless, Sound Recording, and LARGE PRINT. 
Focus on: Paranormal Romances
A forbidden alchemy by Stacey McEwan
A Forbidden Alchemy
by Stacey McEwan

Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson are twelve years old when they are whisked away from the shadows of their disenfranchised mining towns to dazzling Belavere City to discover their magical potential. Those who pass Belavere’s test will become Artisans, wielders of powerful elemental magic destined to fulfill the city’s grand ambitions. For Nina, the Artisan School symbolizes a dream and an escape from her harsh reality, while Patrick yearns to return to his Craftsman family, whose extraordinary physical strength serves the idium mines keeping the city alive.

And then they uncover a devastating truth: Artisans aren’t born, they’re chosen. They part ways on very different paths, leaving them to carry the burden of this secret alone.

In the years that follow, a Craftsman revolution ignites, thrusting Nina and Patrick into opposing factions of a brewing war. Now an elite Artisan with the very rare talent for charming earth, Nina has turned her back on the fight, haunted by the loss of her found family. But fate intervenes when she is captured by Patrick’s rebel group. Despite the years and conflict that separates them, Patrick hasn’t forgotten Nina. He desperately seeks her help for a mission that could shift the tides against Belavere City. Reluctantly, she agrees, battling the sparks flying between them. But when Nina’s first love reappears, asking her to betray Patrick for the sake of the Artisans, Nina faces an impossible choice that could alter the fate of their world.
Heat of the everflame by Penn Cole
Heat of the Everflame
by Penn Cole

After her disastrous coronation, Diem finds herself at the center of the conflict between the Descended and the Guardians. With her newfound friends and the man she's falling for on one side, and the mortals she has vowed to protect on the other, Diem must walk a careful line to save the people she loves... even from one another. When the mystery of her unusual heritage begins to unravel, it sends Diem and Luther on an unexpected journey across the realms. The answers they seek may hold the key to winning the war, but finding them will require Diem to face painful truths about her mother, her bloodline, and her fate. Meanwhile, the Crowns have set Diem in their sights. Some could be her greatest allies--while others want her dead. To end their oppressive reign, Diem must sort friend from foe and risk it all to build an army of her own. But a powerful figure in the north has plans that could change everything.
The irresistible urge to fall for your enemy / :  Book 1 of the Dearly Beloathed Duology by Brigitte Knightley
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy: Book 1 of the Dearly Beloathed Duology
by Brigitte Knightley

Loyalties are tested in this enemies-to-lovers romantasy following a healer and assassin from enemy sides who are forced to work together and find the source of two deadly diseases, all while resisting the urge to kill each other-and, just maybe, fall in love. When Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order, a society of assassins, finds himself sick with a degenerative disease, he needs the expertise of a very specific healer. As fate would have it, that healer is a member of his enemy Order, the Haelan. Aurienne Fairhrim's Haelan Order is besieged by the need to care for thousands of sick and dying children suffering from Platt's Pox, an almost forgotten disease that has suddenly reemerged with extreme virulence. Unable to get the funding needed to immunize the sick children, her Order is desperate. So desperate that when Osric Mordaunt breaks into her office to offer her a bribe that would completely fund their Order's immunization efforts, in exchange for her healing services, the Head of the Haelan commands Aurienne to accept. Despite being enemies, as Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness but the mysterious reoccurrence of the Pox, they find themselves ardently denying an attraction that seems only to fuel the tension between them.
Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling
Wrath of the Dragons
by Olivia Rose Darling

In this propulsive and high-stakes sequel to the bestselling enemies-to-lovers romantasy Fear the Flames, Elowen Atarah, heir to the throne of Imirath, and Cayden Veles, Demon Commander of Vareveth, navigate shifting allegiances and their own complicated feelings for each other as they fight to defend their kingdoms from war. Try this next: Jennifer Estep's Gargoyle Queen series; Realm of Thieves by Karina Halle.
The enchanted greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
The Enchanted Greenhouse
by Sarah Beth Durst

After being punished for creating a magical spider plant, Terlu Perna awakens on a mysterious island of enchanted greenhouses, where she teams up with a grumpy gardener and a sentient rose to uncover a fading magic, defying old laws and rediscovering purpose in the process.
 
Also available through Sound Recording. 
Arcana Academy by Elise Kova
Arcana Academy
by Elise Kova

Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job gone awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards-a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy.

Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy's enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape-for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.

In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.

Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world-and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?
Never the Roses by Jennifer K. Lambert
Never the Roses
by Jennifer K. Lambert

UNSTOPPABLE WAR. UNSPEAKABLE SINS. IMPOSSIBLE LOVE.

The Dread Sorceress Oneira has retired. She’s exhausted from fighting the endless wars of kings and queens, and has long accepted that her death is near. Alone at last but for a few uninvited companions―a near-mythical wolf, a goddess’s avatar, and a feline that embodies magic itself―Oneira realizes that she’s bored. On a whim, or perhaps at the behest of fate, she makes an unlikely trip to the most extensive library in existence: the home of her most powerful rival, the sorcerer Stearanos.

By recklessly stealing a book from him, Oneira inadvertently initiates a forbidden correspondence. Taunting notes and clever retorts reveal a connection neither has found―nor could ever find―in any other.

But Oneira soon learns that Stearanos, bound to a vile king, is tasked with waging war on the queen she once served. A relationship with him is far too dangerous to pursue despite their mutual desire―and yet, Oneira can’t seem to stay away. A bond with Stearanos could alight the long-extinct flame of life within her… or it could destroy her entirely.
 
Only Available in Playaway.  
Silvercloak by Laura Steven
Silvercloak
by Laura Steven

In this addictive new fantasy series set in a world where magic is fueled by pleasure and pain, an obsessive detective infiltrates a brutal gang of dark mages—knowing that one wrong move will get her killed. . . .

Two decades ago, the Bloodmoons ruthlessly murdered Saffron Killoran’s parents, destroying her idyllic childhood. Hell-bent on revenge, she lies her way into Silvercloak Academy—the training ground for her city’s elite order of detectives—with a single goal: to bring the Bloodmoons to justice.

But when Saff’s deception is exposed, rather than being cast out, she’s given a rare opportunity: to go undercover and tear the Bloodmoons down from the inside.

Descending into a world where pleasure and pain are the most powerful currencies, Saff must commit some truly heinous deeds to keep her cover—and her life. Not only are there rival gangs and sinister smuggling rings to contend with, but there’s also her growing feelings for the kingpin’s tortured son, with his vicious pet fallowwolf, his dark past, and the curious prophecy foretelling his death at Saffron’s hand.

With each day testing her loyalties further, Saff finds her web of lies becoming harder to spin. And when one false step could destroy everything and everyone she’s ever loved . . . the detective who’s dedicated her life to vengeance just might die for it.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Michigan City Public Library
100 E. 4th Street
Michigan City, Indiana 46360
219-873-3044
mclib.org/