Six Bossy Favorite Romance Reads from the Past Year

The Bossy Bookworm
7 hours ago
8 min read

Six Bossy Romance Favorites

I've got a few more lists up my sleeve as I continue taking stock of my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. If you've missed my prior lists, take a look on the blog!

Some of the books in this post are written by the usual romance-standout suspects--and many of these authors have new romance titles out now or coming out soon, just in time for summer reading. Please keep an eye out for my upcoming reviews of those!

If you want to check out past favorites, check out the books on these Greedy Reading Lists:

You can also explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from the past year.

If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think!

What are some of your favorite romance reads, whether from the past year or beyond?

01 One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

The main male protagonist was off-putting to me in his arrogance at first, but Carley Fortune is the best at developing a lakeside romance story with characters I root for and steamy, poignant, friendship-based relationships I love. This is a great summer read.

Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. Shy Alice watched more than she participated in lake life--and she took a photo of three smiling teenagers on a yellow boat, and it seemed to set everything else in motion. Now she's feeling disillusioned with the airbrushing and false scenes she's forced to create in her job rather than capturing something real.

So when Nan falls and breaks her hip and needs a pick-me-up, Alice arranges for them to return to the cabin where she spent that pivotal summer.

But handsome, mischievous Charlie Florek, one of the subjects of that long-ago photo, seems to be everywhere she turns--and she can't hide behind her lens anymore.

Fortune drops some breadcrumbs regarding the Issue Sure to Keep Them Apart, which follows The Desire to Not Ruin the Friendship (a concern that seems heartbreakingly valid).

The steamy scenes didn't invite involuntary squealing or cringing on my part--they couple is really drawn to each other, and there's a tantalizing teasing aspect to their slowing down the physical progression of the friends-with-benefits arrangement.

I loved the eventual relationship between Charlie and Alice, and I loved their love.

For my full review of this book please see One Golden Summer. Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake and Every Summer After as well as This Summer Will Be Different.

02 The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Katherine Center's sweet rom-com about a video producer and her reluctant hero of a subject is set against the colorful backdrop of Key West. The appealingly playful love story incorporates issues of body image, job insecurity, and past tragedy in a lighthearted and charming novel.

Katie Vaughn has been single for a year, since her former fiancé, an up-and-coming musician, hit it big and then very publicly cheated on her with a pop star.

She's a mid-level video producer on the verge of a layoff--unless she accepts a job in which she documents the life of Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hutch Hutcheson, an everyday hero who rose to fame when he happened to save Jennifer Aniston's golden retriever. And he's not interested in being filmed.

The banter made me laugh at times, and I bought the attraction between Katie and Hutch, as well as the "reasons" (all solvable, folks!) that they must not be together. Katie's evolution in considering and coping with body image issues felt valuable and compelling. Supporting characters are great, colorful, and add nice layers of interconnectedness to the story.

The crisis that forms toward the end felt over the top and drawn out, with a rom-com-easy resolution, but by that point I was ready for anything Center was throwing my way.

This is not a racy book, and the attraction and relationship are focused on emotions and wanting to be together without being swoony or angsty.

Please check out my full review of The Love Haters.

Katherine Center is also the author of The Rom-Commers, Hello Stranger, What You Wish For, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, and other books.

03 Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me #2) by Abby Jimenez

Abby Jimenez layers tough situations and messy complications into her rom-coms, and here, her main protagonists must face and overcome past and present difficulties in order to banter their way through the story and build a sweet life together.

Samantha creates zippy social media posts for a local mustard company (I kept feeling surprise, but also joy, that this job seemed to provide a sustainable salary)--and she doesn't take any attitude from anyone.

Xavier is a young veterinarian who feels grumpy, exhausted, and as though he may be losing faith in humanity--but he loves the animals he cares for.

After one disastrous encounter involving a rescued kitten with a serious congenital disorder, then one magical, extended date, the two are falling for each other. But Xavier's painful past and Samantha's challenging present might make a future for the two impossible.

Jimenez never shies away from including heavy themes and tough situations in her rom-coms. Here, childhood abuse, animal abuse, and dementia are all part of Xavier and Samantha's past and present stories, so nothing is too easy on their path to togetherness.

Jimenez writes irresistible characters, and I loved the weight of the difficulties behind this sweet story of love.

I received a prepublication audiobook edition of Say You'll Remember Me courtesy of Hachette Audio and Libro.fm.

For my full review of Say You'll Remember Me, please check out this link.

Jimenez is also the author of Just for the Summer (one of my Favorite Rom-Coms of the Year last year), Part of Your World, Yours Truly, The Friend Zone, and The Happy-Ever-After Playlist.

04 Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

In Kristy Boyce's young-adult charmer, high schoolers Riley and Nathan, coworkers who have nothing in common, end up in a fake-dating drama as they try to win over their love interests.

High schooler Riley has a grand plan to become a Broadway director. But the always-epic school musical has been canceled because the school thinks there isn't enough support for it. So first she wants to get the spring musical set, then she'll mastermind her future.

But when she borrows her mom's car without permission (to go see Waitress out of town with her best friend, so: worth it) and gets grounded, she suddenly has to spend afternoons working at her father's game store instead.

Determined not to give up on the musical, Riley sneaks and works on a master plan for a performance--and talks her unfriendly teen coworker, Nathan, into making his gamer crush jealous by doing some convincing flirting with him. Meanwhile, she agrees to take part in some nerdy game play.

But role-playing in Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game turns out to be...fun. And liking Nathan is starting to feel like less of an act than simply a reality.

I love a fake-dating premise, and the Nathan-Riley setup is irresistible. I was hooked on their ups and downs--and the reasons for their "downs" are plausible enough that I loved rolling with them. The supporting characters and their side plots are funny and oddball and cute. This was a sweet world that I loved spending time in, and the fact that absolutely everything works out is immensely satisfying.

For my full review of Dungeons and Drama, please check out this link.

05 My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

My Oxford Year takes a light, romantic tone and within it, explores weighty issues like serious illness, loss, grief, vulnerability, and offers a suitably complicated ending that doesn't wrap up life's messy loose ends in an unrealistically neat bow.

American Ella Durran has had a plan for her education and career sine she was 13: to study at Oxford.

Now she's 24, she's just as driven, and she's finally at Oxford.

In addition to branching out into studying literature across the pond, Ella has agreed to be an education policy consultant for a potential presidential candidate back home, which means she's on call at all hours. Her phone is always at hand, and if her bosses call, she drops everything to pick up and be a sounding board or a problem-solver.

Her propensity for remaining emotionally closed off free up a lot of time. She's never been in a serious relationship and has no interest in one--she doesn't have time for frivolity when she's chasing so many goals.

The eventual happy ending that the tone of the novel seems to be assuring readers of at the beginning morphs into a far more complex version of a resolved story by the end, with significant pain and yet glimmers of hope that transcend the immediate situation.

I loved the facing of mortality in the story--as well as the focus on literature and its power.

Click here for my full review of My Oxford Year.

06 Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Henry's story-within-a-story adds a historical fiction element to her signature big-hearted, banter-driven, steamy, intriguingly complicated interpersonal dynamic exploration in Great Big Beautiful Life. This is an excellent rom-com with enough weighty themes to offer appealing depth.

Alice Scott is a celebrity feature writer for The Scratch in LA. She's got a sunny disposition, wears bright, cheery colors, and is hoping for her first big writing break. Hayden Anderson, from New York, has won a Pulitzer Prize and is humorless, highly scheduled, and work-obsessed.

They're both currently on Georgia's tiny Little Crescent Island, vying to become the memoir author for the reclusive former tabloid darling Margaret Ives, whose whereabouts have long been unknown to the general public.

Their strict NDAs mean Alice and Hayden can't talk about their work, and they're developing more questions than answers. Why is Margaret willing to share her personal tale now? What is she hiding? And what on earth is her purpose in stringing along Hayden and Alice for a month--if she even intends to follow through with this project, which they're each beginning to doubt?

But the writers can't deny that opposites are attracting in inconvenient fashion in their case. They're drawn to each other and discover unexpected joy, emotional intimacy, steaminess, and maybe even a promise of something real together.

Henry brings her signature warmth, great banter, and sultry romance to this story within a story. I loved the historical fiction aspect of Margaret's recounting of her history. This is an excellent rom-com with weighty themes that make it all feel anchored in something real. I got a little teary during some of the characters' vulnerability at the end, and I laughed out loud at times too.

For my full review please check out Great Big Beautiful Life.

Henry's Beach Read was one of my favorite books the year I read it, and it also made it onto the Greedy Reading List Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism. People We Meet on Vacation was another great Henry story; you can check out my review here, and you might like to check it out on the Greedy Reading List Six More Great Light Fiction Stories. Emily Henry is also the author of Funny Story (one of my Favorite Reads of the Year), Happy Place, and Book Lovers.