So This Is Ever After explores the question of what happens after a fairytale’s happy ending. After he has saved the kingdom of Ere, the only prerequisite left before Arek becomes king is choosing a spouse by his 18^th birthday. Thus begins the ultimate slowburn friends-to-lovers story, aka our Arthur and Merlin MCs being so obvious yet obliviously in love with each other. With your playful and ~royal~ nature, you’ll fit right in with Arek’s rag-tag group of quest companions!

Bailey and Charlie don’t exactly have the dreamiest meet-cute (he cuts in line and calls her a hall monitor, and she makes him go to the back of the line and calls him out for his cynicism). So you can imagine Bailey’s surprise when they become coworkers at a hotel waterpark three years later and she begins to look forward to seeing confident, charismatic, and witty Charlie Sampson every day. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago were teenagers in an alternate trope-filled universe, you’ll love Betting on You.

“After all, the dead might be dangerous, but it’s the living who can betray you.” Chills. Literal chills. There is no end to Ghostsmith’s twists, turns, and intrigue—dark fantasy world, a dead mother revealed to be the Corpse Queen, running away from a tyrannical father, powerful new abilities, and a long-lost twin brother. This paranormal fantasy romance is perfect for those counting down the days until spooky season.

Hot Boy Summer reads like the group chat you share with two close friends that has a questionable name. Told almost entirely in queer slang, Jimenez’s latest novel is about four gay teens who learn to let go of toxic friends and make new ones who accept you for who you truly are. If your dream movie is a summer coming-of-age with Ariana Grande and RuPaul’s Drag Race background music on the soundtrack, Hot Boy Summer needs to be at the top of your TBR.

City of Ashes is on this list because someone on our team said Jace’s blond hair makes him look like a lion. They were on to something though, because if you’re a Leo who’s been described as independent, charming, and a natural leader, Jace might be the YA character you relate to most on a spiritual level (and the one at the top of your Book Boyfriends list). In the second installment in the Mortal Instruments series, you’ll watch him prove his strength and loyalty even as he fights off werewolves, gets poisoned by demons, and is wrongly accused of stealing the Soul-Sword.

It only took twenty-four hours, a senior class scavenger hunt, and the Seattle backdrop for longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair to fall for each other. With four years of sparring academically (read: getting to know every little thing about the other) and two months of summer vacation as an official couple, they are ready to take on a long-distance relationship during their first year of college. Watching Rowan and Neil face the magic and miseries of college life, including friend groups, writer’s block, and mental health, yet choose to fall for each other again and again will shatter and heal your heart in the best possible way.

For every stubborn and headstrong Paedyn, there is a gentle, imaginative Adena, and when Lauren Roberts announced that fan-favorite Adena was getting her own book, everyone cheered. Adena and Paedyn have grown up protecting each other in Loot, but when Paedyn is plucked from the slums to participate in the deadly Purging Trials, Adena must fend for herself. A stealing attempt puts her in Mak’s path, leading to a partnership, friendship, and romanceship. Powerful checks off all the boxes, satisfying all romantasy, grumpy x sunshine, and slow burn fans.

Cassandra Clare chooses pain with the epilogue for Clockwork Princess, and yet she has mastered the art giving her series perfect endings. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of merciless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters, and the key to completing his plan is Tessa Gray. When he succeeds in abducting her, Will and Jem, the other two points in her love triangle, will do anything to save her, but she ultimately realizes the only one who can save her is herself.

With her family splintered and her future a question mark, Beth clings to the certainty of her circle of friends, even though she sometimes feels like she doesn’t fully fit in. The group is stunned when they witness a private act of violence in Jason’s home and shaken even further when Jason makes a life-altering choice. Kelly Loy Gilbert doesn’t shy away from discussing painful topics, but you’ll also turn the last page filled with hope.

When you need a break from heartbreaking love stories, Last Violent Call is the fluffy novella collection that’ll remind you to believe in happy endings. In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette run an underground weapons ring and are making the most of their life in anonymity. When several Russian girls turn up dead in neighboring towns, they discover that the mystery is much closer to home than they ever imagined. In This Foul Murder, Benedikt and Marshall are sent on a mission by Roma to find an elusive scientist. When there is a murder on their train, they pose as investigators but find that the murder might have surprising ties to their own mission.

The best way to describe the experience of reading Forget Me Not is the “It’s So Over / We’re So Back” meme. Stevie and Nora have been counting down the days until they graduate and can leave their small, conservative town for California, where they can finally stop keeping their love for each other a secret. But during a walk in the woods, Stevie has a terrible fall and loses her memory of the last two years. Seeing Stevie struggling with the two-year gap in her memory and Nora dealing with knowing that the person she loves has forgotten about her will tug on each of your heartstrings, but watching them find their way back to each other will convince you that some people are really destined to be together.

So This is Ever After is for everyone who believes Arthur and Merlin should have ended up together. Arek has beheaded the evil king, saved the Kingdom of Ere, and fulfilled the prophecy foretelling his rescue. Now that he is stuck as king, he has to choose a spouse by his eighteenth birthday or wither away into nothing. With his mage Matt by his side, he goes on a quest to search for who will accompany him in his new life of royalty. F.T. Lukens proves that there is nothing more fun than watching two best friends pine for each other and screaming at them to confess already.

Before her twin sister Drew goes to college a year early, Devon is determined to have The Best Summer Ever together. But after messing with a Ouija board with their chaotic friend group, they soon find themselves being hunted down by a demon that acts according to the typical slasher movie kill order—meaning Devon, the blonde, is first on the hit list. The playful writing style, adorbs sapphic romance, and right-in-the-feels sister-sister relationship will keep you up reading all night until you reach the last page.

Lady Midnight is the kind of book that takes 5 days to read and 5 months to process. Emma Carstairs needs to know what killed her parents. With her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles. If you scan the reviews of Lady Midnight on any platform, you’ll find that one thing readers love the most is the depth of the characters. Geminis might reveal a different part of their personality depending on who they’re with, but they’ll find that they can be their whole, true self among the Dark Artifices characters.

Adina is the viola prodigy, and Tovah is the aspiring surgeon. There’s only one thing that could wreck their carefully planned futures: a genetic test for Huntington’s, a rare degenerative disease that slowly steals control of the body and mind. When the results come in, one twin tests negative for Huntington’s, and the other tests positive. Geminis may be known for using their heads, but Rachel Lynn Solomon’s debut will have your heart pounding, fluttering, and breaking.

Spooky vibes abound in this gothic psychological thriller. Haylee Blossom Fitzgerald and Kaylee Blossom Fitzgerald’s mother insists that they be identical. If one gets a hug, the other must, too. If one gets punished, the other must be, too. When they attend public school after being homeschooled for their whole lives, they begin to learn what independence is for the first time. 

Sunny is best represented by her name—she has perfect grades, is the kind of person to volunteer first to show a new student around, and has a permanent smile on her face. When a classmate is gruesomely murdered, Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, but it seems there’s more to the story he is letting on. As one body becomes bodies, she may have to choose: preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her deceased mother worked so hard to build.

The Lo family would fit right at home on Netflix’s Bling Empire. Having grown up on a reality show á la Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Honor is no stranger to being in the media. But when her dad moves out and her friends leak her private secrets to a gossip site, Honor pours all her energy into reuniting her family. Just when Honor feels at her lowest, a guarded yet vulnerable boy named Caden comes into her life and makes her want something beyond the tight Lo inner circle for the first time.

Seventeen-year-old conjoined twins, Clara and Hailey, have lived in the same small town their entire lives. Clara is a human spacecore Pinterest board and wants to stay close to home while Hailey dyed her hair pink before it was cool and wants to travel the world to learn from great artists. As high school graduation approaches, each twin must untangle her dreams from her sister’s, and figure out what it means to be her own person.

Speaking of foodstagrams, spoiler alert: you WILL be hungry as you read Laura Taylor Namey’s heavenly paragraphs about Cuban food. In this sweet contemporary romance, Lila’s a baker and prefers having plans as predictable as her recipes. But when her grandmother passes away, her boyfriend breaks up with her, and her best friend wants nothing to do with her anymore, her parents send her to spend the summer with family friends in Winchester, England for a mental health break. While Lila doesn’t immediately warm up to the rainy weather, the cute teashop clerk nearby helps show her how charming the English countryside can be – and that sometimes the best parts in life are the ones we never could have imagined for ourselves. If you have perfecting your chocolate raspberry cake recipe on your bucket list, then you’ll happily eat up Cuban Girl’s Guide.

We know that you or the Taurus in your life probably has preferred systems of organizing their bookshelves and their niche playlists. Love Radio is a win for all music and book lovers, and the romantic DJ x ambitious writer pairing will have you wondering “me when?” At just 17, Prince hosts a popular radio segment where he acts as a love doctor and offers advice for the lovesick even though he’s never fallen in love himself. That is, until he meets Dani, a straight-A student with little desire for romance focused on moving to NYC to become an author. She gives him three dates to win over her heart, but you’ll only need to read a few chapters before adding Spotify’s “love hopeless romantic evening” daylist to your queue.

Tauruses who love a relaxing self-care day will see themselves in Lara Jean, who is often written with a book, baked good, or crafting tool in hand. When Lara Jean has an intense crush, she releases her feelings in a love letter and keeps it in her hatbox, never to be seen again. She loves staying in her daydreams, but she’s forced to face her nightmare in real life when her letters get sent out. Just as the Netflix film series has become Gen Z’s go-to comfort romcom trilogy (there’s a reason why all the top “Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky” videos on YouTube have at least 2 million views), To All the Boys is the perfect read when you’re in the mood for a fluffy, fake dating story.

If you’re in your dark fantasy era, you’ll find yourself at home in 1900s London with Cordelia and Alastair Carstairs. When the brother and sister duo reunite with childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale, they enter the alluring world of the supernatural. Cordelia is really going through it as her father has been accused of being a criminal, her mother is eager to marry her off even though she is love with James, who's betrothed to someone else, and demon attacks sweep London. Cordelia must battle her inner and outer demons at once, but she stays tenacious and loyal to her friends through it all, just like our Taurus besties.

Joan of Arc meets her match in Artemisia, a Gray Sister nun-in-training responsible for cleansing dead bodies so their souls can pass on. During an attack by possessed soldiers, she uses a saint’s relic that allows a powerful revenant to share her body. The fight of dark magic against evil spirits takes Artemisia and the revenant to cathedrals and crypts across Loraille, pretty much making Vespertine required reading for any fans of atmospheric books. Artemesia’s game of uncertain trust with the revenant will keep you flipping each page as fast as you can and also redefine your impression of what a soulmate is.

If Katniss Everdeen was your first YA role model, you’ll love this romantasy Hunger Games readalike and root for quick-witted, stubborn Paedyn. In the wake of the Plague, the Ilyan people were split into the gifted Elites and powerless Ordinaries. As an Ordinary, Paedyn’s presence is against the law, which aims to maintain a distilled population entirely of Elites. Paedyn channels her inner Sherlock Holmes and Shawn Spencer as she poses as a Psychic to blend in, but after unknowingly saving an Ilyan prince, she is suddenly entered as a contestant of the Purging Trials, a dangerous competition branded as a celebration of powers. The banter, longing stares, and ballroom scene will have you invested in the slow-burn romance all the way until the “who did this to you” moment.

If a demon attacked you on the way to class and your first reaction would be distracting the fiend to protect your friends, get ready to join the BreeHive. Through her search to know what kind of creature ambushed her, Bree discovers the magical world of the Legendborn secret society, whose members are all descendants of King Arthur’s knights. Legendborn really has it all, from a fierce heroine with a soft side to its dark academia vibes and a rich magic system. Oh, and did we mention the golden retriever and black cat love interests?

This rec is for anyone who has memorized Elle Woods’s final court scene. Blaine has the perfect boyfriend, the perfect artsy after-school job, and the perfect friend group – until he experiences his own “You’re breaking up with me because I’m too… blonde?!” moment IRL on their one-year anniversary. When told he is too unserious, Blaine enters the senior student council president race to show that he can be the focused and driven kind of guy his ex is looking for. If you’re a fan of cozy books with vulnerable mental health conversations, cheerleader aunts, and slowburn romances, we’re sure that Blaine for the Win will earn your vote.

Is that the element of fire we see in the distance? Oh, that’s just Liz’s auburn hair. You could say that Liz wears her heart on her sleeve because her trademark locks serve as a physical manifestation of her inner Aries personality. When her childhood crush moves back to town, Liz is determined to get on his radar – so determined, that she will even fake date her annoying(ly handsome) next-door neighbor. Liz is never ashamed of her vintage style, love song playlists, and rom-com DVD collection, and watching her fall for someone who loves these things about her will have you clutching your heart even after the credits of her own rom-com roll.

Aries may be skilled at completing a bunch of errands at once, but Magnus Bane and Alex Lightwood take multitasking to another level as their romantic getaway doubles as a death-defying mission. Shadowhunter fans will get a glimpse of the dads’ new domestic life in a New York loft just before they must save the world again. Against the backdrop of sparkling Shanghai, the couple learns that the stolen Book of the White isn’t their only problem, and they have to deal with unstable powers and raging demons when all they really want is to return to their kid.

Cue the classical piano enemies-to-lovers playlists as mood music for Margaret Rogerson’s masterpiece steeped in whimsical fairy folklore. Passionate artists will see themselves in Isobel, who paints portraits for the fair folk since they cannot create art for themselves without disintegrating. Her ability to paint so realistically ends up offending Rook, the autumn prince, when she paints his sorrowful gaze, and she must defend herself in a world where love is a forbidden emotion according to the fair folk’s merciless laws.

While anyone else might hesitate to ask a stranger at a rundown bus station in the middle of nowhere to borrow their phone charger, Darcy takes on the challenge. But even as a longtime romance enthusiast, she never could have expected her love at first sight moment with kind and charming Russell. Making the most of the short time they have together, they experience the spark of meeting someone who just deeply gets you and the heartbreak of realizing that someone might not be who they say they are. Throw in some cute dogs, big family chaos, and a football field picnic, and you’ve got another classic from Queen Morgan Matson of summer romance.