My June TBR: The Books I'm Taking Into Summer

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Let me be upfront about something. This TBR is not a reading challenge. I am not trying to finish all of these. June is busy and summer is chaotic and I refuse to turn reading into homework. What I am doing is building myself an excellent selection so that no matter what I am in the mood for — dark and unhinged, swoony and slow burn, full-on fantasy quest — there is a book on this list waiting for me.

Something for every mood. Every kind of reading day. I am very excited about it.

Let’s go.

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

Genre: Dark Romantasy

Series: ⚠️ Book 1 of The Evermore Trilogy — start here

Spice: 🌶️🌶️ — slow burn, the tension is the whole game

Trigger Warnings: war, captivity, slavery/servitude, power imbalance, violence

This is also my book club pick for June and I need everyone to understand why I am losing my mind about it.

The premise is everything I want in a romantasy. The war is over. The dark forces won. The hero who was supposed to save everyone is dead. Princess Briony

Rosewood has been stripped of her magic, auctioned off to the highest bidder, and sold to the one person she has complicated feelings about — Toven Hearst, scion of the family that controls magic in this world and her long-time unresolved infatuation.

Evil won. Now what?

I love when a book skips the war and starts in the aftermath. That is exactly what SenLinYu does in Alchemised and it is one of the things that makes that book so devastating and so good. Julie Soto is doing the same thing here and I am already emotional about it.

Also — and this is something I want the community to know going in — Rose in Chains is loosely inspired by Draco and Hermione fanfiction. Dramione. If you know, you know. If you do not know, just understand that the enemies-to-lovers tension between a princess and the powerful, complicated man who bought her at auction has very specific and very excellent energy. Manacled is my favorite book of all time and it is technically fanfiction. I do not care. Good is good.

Briony has to figure out how to survive inside an enemy’s household while holding onto herself — and of course, the person who bought her is not exactly what he appears to be.

The comp is fans of Rebecca Yarros and Sarah A. Parker, which tells me everything I need to know about the energy here. Slow burn. Angst. Magic. Characters making terrible decisions because of their feelings. I am fully invested before I even crack the spine.

The community has been buzzing about this one and I wanted to read it with everyone. So this is the book we are kicking off summer with together.

Tropes: enemies to lovers, captive romance, forbidden feelings, slow burn, magic system, political intrigue

Dark Romance

Harvest Season by Brynne Weaver

Genre: Dark Romance / Romantic Thriller

Series: ⚠️ Book 2 of The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy — read Tourist Season first

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: serial killer content, graphic violence, death, substance abuse, past abuse

The woman who made serial killers romantic is back and I need everyone to understand that I am not okay.

If you have not read Tourist Season yet — two serial killers, one small coastal town, a body count that keeps growing, and the most unhinged enemies-to-lovers I have ever read in my life — go do that immediately. This is not optional.

Harvest Season picks up right where Tourist Season left off. Cape Carnage is full of secrets, a true crime fan club has descended on the town looking for answers, and everything that Harper and Nolan have built together is about to be tested in ways neither of them saw coming.

The banter in Tourist Season made my face hurt from smiling. The romance had no business being as tender as it was considering what these people do. I need this book immediately.

Tropes: villain x villain, forced proximity, he falls first, touch her/him and die, grumpy/grumpy, small town romance

Truly, Madly, Deeply by L.J. Shen

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Series: Book 1 of the Forbidden Love series — can be read as a standalone

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: grief, anxiety, family dysfunction

Amber — yes, that Amber, she is at basically every livestream — has been in my ear about this book for months. She finally wore me down and it is on the list. Amber has never steered me wrong so here we are.

This is my first L.J. Shen and from everything I have been told I am not ready.

Michelin-starred chef Ambrose Casablancas has one passion: food. Women are a distraction and he does not do distractions — especially not Calla Litvin, his baby sister’s best friend and the woman he has complicated history with. Then Calla shows up at his door broke, grieving, and desperate for a job. And she is no longer the girl he remembers.

Calla is sunshine through and through — quirky, compassionate, and absolutely not in the market for falling for a man who has already made her feel terrible once before. Too bad she has always been clumsy about these things.

Grumpy/sunshine. Best friend’s brother. Second chance. Amber says the banter alone is worth the price of admission and I trust her completely. If this is what L.J. Shen does I have a feeling I am about to have a new author problem.

Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, best friend’s brother, second chance romance, enemies-to-lovers adjacent, slow burn

You First by Caroline Kepnes

Genre: Psychological Thriller / Dark Romance-adjacent

Series: ⚠️ Prequel to the You series (Book 0) — can be read as a standalone, but the You series is required reading for your life if you have not already

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: stalking, obsessive behavior, violence, age gap (17 and 24), murder

I need you to understand what this book is and why it is on my dark romance TBR.

This is the origin story of Joe Goldberg. The Joe Goldberg. The man who inspired the Netflix show that has been living rent free in everyone’s heads for years. We are going back to seventeen-year-old Joe — working at Mr. Mooney’s bookshop in New York City, falling in love with every girl he sees on the subway, desperately wondering who is going to be his person.

Then he finds a Missed Connection on Craigslist. NYC Bookstore Babe. Someone is looking for him. That someone is Vail Gunderson — a production assistant who loves rom-coms — and she is twenty-four years old and she has no idea what she is walking into.

This is Joe’s first love. First obsession. First kill.

Caroline Kepnes writes Joe’s internal monologue in a way that is genuinely one of the most distinctive voices in fiction. He sounds like a romantic. He sounds like someone who is just trying to figure out how to be loved. And underneath all of it is something deeply wrong in the best, most unputdownable way possible. I have read 300+ thrillers and the You series still gets me every time because of how WELL she makes you understand Joe’s logic even when it is completely unhinged.

The fact that we get to watch him become who he becomes? I am not okay about it in advance.

Tropes: dark obsession, missed connection, age gap, unreliable narrator, villain origin story, psychological thriller

Romantasy

Starside by Alex Aster

Genre: Romantasy

Series: Book 1 — series ongoing

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ — slow burn the ENTIRE book, payoff at the end

Trigger Warnings: graphic violence, torture, death of family members, fire/burning, body horror elements

Carson has been raving about this one in the livestreams and at this point I feel like I owe it to him to just read it already.

The premise: a world split in two. Starside is where the immortals live — magic, abundance, power. Stormside is where mortals fight for scraps. Every fifty years, the gates open and fifty challengers are allowed to cross into Starside on a deadly quest to access a pool of magic that can heal, grant wealth, or extend life. Aris is one of those challengers. But she is not there for magic.

She is there to kill the goddess who burned her village and murdered her family.

True enemies-to-lovers. An epic quest. A sword-based magic system. A king’s guard named Harlan Raker who betrayed her once and may now be the only reason she survives. And a cliffhanger ending that apparently had the entire reading community screaming into the void.

The reviews I have seen describe the slow burn as genuinely punishing in the best possible way — the whole book is tension and then the last stretch pays off. As someone who lives for a slow burn with massive payoff, this is already my speed.

This one is on Libby. Go check your library right now.

Tropes: true enemies to lovers, epic quest, morally gray love interest, revenge, slow burn, magic system, “who did this to you”

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (Crescent City, Book 2)

Genre: Urban Fantasy / Romantasy

Series: ⚠️ Book 2 of the Crescent City series — read House of Earth and Blood first

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: violence, grief, trauma, high-stakes political content

You know how I feel about Sarah J. Maas. You know what House of Earth and Blood did to me.

Book 2 picks up in the aftermath of everything that happened in Crescent City. Bryce and Hunt are navigating what it means to be them in a world that has shifted beneath their feet — and there are larger forces moving that neither of them fully understand yet. Ruhn and Lidia’s storyline starts building here and I have been told that it will ruin me in the best way.

If you have not read House of Earth and Blood — the otters who deliver mail, the cliffhanger that shattered everyone, the romance that made me a Bryce and Hunt person for life — fix that immediately. Then come back for Book 2.

Tropes: found family, fated mates, slow-burn continuation, political intrigue, urban fantasy world-building

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

Genre: Cozy Romantasy

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️🌶️ — slow burn, the tension is absolutely the whole game

Trigger Warnings: violence, betrayal, blood, mentions of explosions

Quick note before I get into it — this one is set in 1920s Montreal which technically puts it in historical territory. You know how I feel about historical fiction. But this is magical 1920s Montreal with a cat rescue and an illegal magic shop and a failed dark lord as the love interest so I am making an exception and I stand by it completely.

Agnes Aubert runs a cat rescue charity in 1920s Montreal and she runs it with an iron fist. Type A to her core. Every cat placed, every detail managed, everything exactly where it should be. Until her shop gets destroyed — the result of magicians dueling in her neighborhood, which is exactly the kind of thing she hates — and the only landlord willing to rent to a cat rescue is a mysterious, disorganized, irritating, decidedly handsome man named Havelock Renard.

Who also happens to be running an illegal magic shop out of the basement. And who also happens to be a failed dark lord. And who also happens to be the exact kind of person Agnes has devoted her entire life to avoiding.

The comps are Howl’s Moving Castle and Sorcery of Thorns and I am not going to pretend that did not get me immediately. A grumpy type-A woman. A chaotic, roguish magician. Cats absolutely everywhere. Baked goods appearing out of nowhere. Slow burn that apparently makes you want to throw the book across the room in the best possible way.

This is cozy romantasy done right and I need it in my hands immediately.

Tropes: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, cozy fantasy, found family, failed villain love interest, slow burn

Romance

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️

Trigger Warnings: grief, parental loss, anxiety

Elise — my best friend, fellow reader, and the woman whose birthday is this month — has decreed that our community is reading this book in June. And when Elise decrees something, we do it. This is Elise approved and that is all you need to know.

This book has been on my radar for three years and every single summer I say I am going to read it and I do not. Elise has officially taken the decision out of my hands and I could not be more grateful.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A decade later, Percy gets the call that sends her back to the lake town where everything happened — and directly into the orbit of Sam Florek, the man she walked away from and has never fully gotten over.

The story goes back and forth between the past summers and the present, watching how this relationship built and broke and what it costs to try again. Emily Henry called it a radiant debut that packs an emotional wallop and that tells me exactly what I am walking into.

No spice to speak of. This is not that kind of book. This is the kind of book you read on a dock with iced coffee and let your feelings do what they need to do. Happy birthday Elise. This one is for you.

Tropes: second chance romance, best friends to lovers, small town, nostalgic coming of age, dual timeline

Tropesick by Lauren Okie

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: grief, overdose death (mentioned, not on-page), addiction, parental neglect

Okay. Not going to lie. This book sounds hilarious and I am so excited about this one.

This premise is a love letter to every single one of us and I am not going to pretend I am not emotional about it.

Katie Caruso is a ghostwriter. She writes romance novels for someone else’s name. When Tyler McNally — the boy next door who disappeared from her life after a shared tragedy — walks back in, they end up spending the summer together at an isolated Hamptons estate writing a romance novel full of every trope we love.

And then the tropes start happening to them. In real life. Forced proximity. One bed. Kissing in the rain. All of it.

The tragedy underneath all of this is real and the book does not flinch from it. Katie and Tyler have not spoken since her brother — Tyler’s best friend — died of an overdose. That weight is in every scene. The tropes playing out around them are funny and meta and completely delightful and the emotional core is absolutely devastating.

A love letter to romance readers with a second chance story hiding inside it. Obviously I need this.

Tropes: second chance romance, forced proximity, brother’s best friend, slow burn, only one bed, meta romance tropes

Face Off by Chelsea Curto

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Sports Romance

Series: ⚠️ Book 1 of the D.C. Stars series — start here

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: sexist comments from side characters, reformed playboy backstory

Hockey romance. I said what I said.

Emmy Hartwell has been working her entire life to earn a spot on an NHL roster and this season she finally gets her shot with the struggling D.C. Stars. Maverick Miller is the best player in the league and has never once had a winning record. He is also a notorious playboy who absolutely does not do relationships. They are total opposites. They cannot stand each other. And then one night the tension between them reaches a tipping point and they fall into bed together.

Just once, they say. To get it out of their systems so they can actually play hockey.

Obviously that works out great for everyone.

Black cat FMC. Golden retriever MMC. He falls first. Friends with benefits that is absolutely not staying friends with benefits. Chelsea Curto is apparently known for banter that makes you cackle out loud and a level of spice that earns every single chili pepper. This is exactly my speed and I do not know why it took me this long to get here.

Tropes: hockey romance, rivals to lovers, friends with benefits, he falls first, black cat/golden retriever, teammates, found family

Rereads

Beautiful Venom and Sweet Venom by Rina Kent

⚠️ Books 1 and 2 of the Vipers series — read in order

Tempting Venom moved to July but that does not mean I am not going in prepared. I want to be fully locked in on this world before I get there so I am doing the prep work now. Both are dark hockey romance. Both are Rina Kent. I have zero complaints about any of this.

Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

⚠️ Book 1 of The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy

Harvest Season is out June 9th. That means Tourist Season is going in first as a reread so that every detail is fresh in my mind and everything that matters lands exactly the way it should. I refuse to go into Book 2 without it.

Two serial killers. One small town. The most chaotic love story of 2025. If you have not read it — go do that immediately.

That is the full June list. Something for every mood, every energy, every kind of reading day. Slow burning in a fantasy world. Unhinged in a dark coastal town. Crying on a dock. Screaming at a hockey rivalry.

I could not ask for more.

Find me on TikTok most nights this week — we are doing bookish slumber party livestreams and I would love to see you there. And if you want to read any of these alongside a community, the Fable book clubs are in the Buddy Reads tab. Rose in Chains is the June pick and there is always room for one more.

Happy reading.