Three Books I'm Reading Now, 6/30/25 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm reading Slow Burn Summer, Josie Silver's newest rom-com, in which a divorced actress is hired to play the role of a reclusive romance author for an extended book tour; I'm listening to Boy, Nicole Galland's gender-swapping historical fiction set in Elizabethan London; and I'm reading One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune's newest romance, in which main protagonist and photographer Alice returns to the cabin where her teenaged self was inspired to pursue her career.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver

In Josie Silver's newest rom-com, Charlie Francisco is a divorced, cynical, harried talent agent who desperately needs to hire an actress to play the part of a novelist--and tour in place of the extremely shy author of a new blockbuster romance.

Kate Elliott was once a soap opera actress, and now she's reeling from a divorce and thankful for a new job. She's ready to take on the persona of a romance novelist at readings and signings, but she becomes entranced by the romantic story she's pretending to have authored.

Over the course of an extended book tour, Charlie and Kate are repeatedly thrown together. Can the romantic story that brought them together help them rethink their recent heartbreak?

I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books.

Josie Silver is also the author of A Winter in New York, One Day in December, and The Two Lives of Lydia Byrd, a book that appeared on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories.

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02 Boy by Nicole Galland

In Nicole Galland's historical fiction tale Boy, Sander Cooke is a famed, sought-after "boy player" in Shakespeare's company, and his roles skillfully playing lovely women have led highbrow ladies and gentlemen alike to seduce him with favors and attention.

Joan Buckler is Sander's best friend. She's curious about everything and the smartest person Sander knows. But her female sex holds her back from being able to find the knowledge she seeks, and she dresses as a boy to gain access to medical lectures and more.

A link to philosopher Francis Bacon leads the two to deeper links to Queen Elizabeth's court, to political intrigue, and to dangerous undertakings that place them in grave danger.

I'm listening to Boy as an audiobook.

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03 One Golden Summer by One Golden Summer

Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. 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.

Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake and Every Summer After.