August is a super-sized month of rom-com reads from your favorite genre authors!
Join us as we highlight notable romance book releases each month to add to your never-ending TBR pile. These lists will include a range of adult, young adult, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC novels to put on your radar. They could be stand-alone books or new releases in a best-selling series.
Our August rom-com picks include spooky supernatural flicks for the Summerween enthusiasts, new releases from Emma Lord and Casey McQuiston, and a secret relationship between coworkers featuring Indigenous representation.
In order of release date, here are 6 rom-com novels to check out in August:
1. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston — August 6
Casy McQuiston, author of Red, White, and Royal Blue, sets their sights on a new iconic pairing. When former best friends and estranged ex-lovers Kit and Theo have the genius (but separate) idea to use their Europe travel voucher before it expires, they find themselves trapped on a tour bus together.
Touring the beauty of France, Spain, and Italy with the uglier feelings of a breakup pushes the former couple to compete in a hook-up fest across Europe. But as they see other people, their long-buried desire for each other only grows stronger.
Book Description: Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other’s lives once and for all.
Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.
It’s not until they board the tour bus that they discover they’ve both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they’re trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy.
2. The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava — August 6
Ember Lee Cardinal, a Chickasaw woman, finds herself caught up in a web of lies when she applies to a job without being forthwith about her ethnicity and falls for Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy.
When a strict no-dating policy at their workplace and a dicy hookup at a work retreat force Ember to lie her way out of a co-worker’s blackmail scheme, she will have to choose between her career and her feelings.
Book Description: Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar — well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative” listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie — a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).
Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life — and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they’re caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies.
3. A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire by Sarah Hawley — August 13
A grumpy medical vampire stuck in a witch’s crystal and the anxious werewolf who loves botany are forced to work together to save each other in this supernatural rom-com.
Silly and spooky, the third stand-alone novel in Sarah Hawley’s Glimmer Falls series is the perfect treat for fans of the Summerween aesthetic and this year’s vampire renaissance.
Book Description: Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life — one hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful but angry vampire.
Eleanora Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times. But thanks to an evil witch, she’s been stuck in a crystal since she was thirty, forced to obey orders from the possessor of the rock. Eleanora’s been dreaming of breaking the spell and severing the witch’s head for centuries.
4. The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord
If you have Emma Lord on your auto-read list, then you know the Tweet Cute author never misses when it comes to an adorable romance. Usually a dabbler in the young adult genre, Lord trades in angsty teens running amuck in New York City for June and Levi, two former high-school besties brought back together in adulthood for a fake dating scheme.
In the same vein as Funny Story, beachside tea shop owner June and walking New York cliché Levi experience humiliating breakups with their exes. The two team up for a photo-op-filled summer of fake romance to preserve each other’s pride, save June’s business, and win back Levi’s ex.
Book Description: June and Levi were best friends as teenagers — until the day they weren’t. Now June is struggling to make rent on her beachside tea shop, Levi is living a New York cliché as a disillusioned hedge fund manager and failed novelist, and they’ve barely spoken in years.
But after they both experience public, humiliating break-ups with their exes that spread like wildfire across TikTok rabbit holes and daytime talk shows alike, they accidentally make some juicy gossip of their own—a photo of them together has the internet convinced they’re a couple. With so many people rooting for them, they decide to put aside their rocky past and make a pact to fuel the fire. Pretending to date will help June’s shop get back on its feet and make Levi’s ex realize that she made a mistake. All they have to do is convince the world they’re in love, one swoon-worthy photo opp at a time.
5. Miranda in Retrograde by Lauren Layne — August 13
Miranda is not an astrology girlie. She’s practical-minded and has planned her life with precision. But when she is brushed aside for a job promotion, the physics professor must reevaluate her tidy life.
She decides to embrace the science she has long dismissed and do whatever her horoscope tells her to as Miranda looks to the stars for guidance and potential love.
Book Description:
As the youngest physics professor at her university, practical-minded Miranda Reed plans her life with minute precision. But that’s before she’s denied tenure and the promotion she thought was guaranteed. Suddenly, her tidy life is anything but constant.
Overdue for a sabbatical, Miranda takes some time to look towards the stars—only this time, she’s not looking for black holes. With her faith in science shaken, Miranda turns to a practice she’s long dismissed as astrology.
Determined to figure out why her life has suddenly gone sideways, Miranda commits to a year of letting her horoscope guide her.
Put a down payment on a home? Not while Mercury’s in retrograde. Spontaneous dinner party invitation? Sorry, horoscope says Gemini Rising best stay in tonight. And as far as the intriguingly aloof artist living next door? Never. His Aries energy is all wrong. On the other hand, the charming father of her new tutoring pupil is Sagittarian perfection. Made for her…right?
As Miranda navigates life with new a perspective, she slowly discovers neither science nor the stars have all the answers. And that, when it comes to love, you sometimes just have to trust your heart.
6. Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca — August 13
Boneyard Key is a tourist town that leans into its ghostly past to make a quick buck, a living Nick Royer has long accepted with his themed coffee shop and spirit roommate. On the other hand, Cassie Rutherford just wanted to escape the reality of her friends settling down with kids by buying a cute historic cottage to flip.
She tries desperately to ignore the paranormal activity happening around her. Still, as she delves deeper into the story of the former owners she finds herself whisked away on a nightly ghost tour with Nick as they fall in love with the town’s quirks and each other.
Book Description: Small Florida coastal towns often find themselves scrambling for the tourism dollars that the Orlando theme parks leave behind. And within the town limits of Boneyard Key, the residents decided long ago to lean into its ghostliness. Nick Royer, owner of the Hallowed Grounds coffee shop, embraces the ghost tourism that keeps the local economy afloat, as well as his spectral roommate. At least he doesn’t have to run air-conditioning.
Cassie Rutherford possibly overreacted to all her friends getting married and having kids by leaving Orlando and buying a flipped historic cottage in Boneyard Key. Though there’s something unusual with her new home (her laptop won’t charge in any outlets, and the poetry magnets on her fridge definitely didn’t read “WRONG” and “MY HOUSE” when she put them up), she’s charmed by the colorful history surrounding her. And she’s catching a certain vibe from the grumpy coffee shop owner whenever he slips her a free slice of banana bread along with her coffee order.
As Nick takes her on a ghost tour, sharing town gossip that tourists don’t get to hear, and they spend nights side-by-side looking into the former owners of her haunted cottage, their connection solidifies into something very real and enticing.
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What will you be reading in August? Share your picks in the comments below!
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Alicia Gilstorf
Alicia is a writer from Canada. She credits her passion for TV and film to superheroes, workplace comedies, cheesy holiday movies, and coming-of-age stories.
