Falling in love again

Books to break a reading slump

Well, in just a few months Love Scene will be out in the world (have you pre-ordered it? You really should. You can do it here) so I am bracing myself for the onset on the pre-publication horrors. Oh, who am I trying to kid? They’re already here! Anyway, over the last month, to distract myself from the constant terror, I have been soothing my frazzled nerves by watching first The Lowdown (SO GOOD. Watch it and also watch Sterlin Harjo’s hilarious, beautiful other series Reservation Dogs) and then Starstruck (I watched the entire first series in a single day this week and loved every minute and I am trying not to binge the rest because I don’t want it to end). I also read a bunch of excellent romance novels in a row. Last year I wrote about some fictional love stories I love, and now I’m back with some fresh recommendations. I didn’t finish quite a few romances in the second half of 2025 - I started a lot that began very well and then lost my interest around the 50% point - but the slump has now definitely been broken. And these are the books that did it.

The Love Library by Sarra Manning (out in June)

I am a longtime fan of Sarra’s writing and this delightful book might be her most fun yet. Journalist Tess is stuck writing advertorials when she’s invited to visit The Love Library, which will give her the opportunity to go on a date with the fictional characters of her dreams. Tess assumes it’s a joke - until she she turns up at Sharma’s Private Academic Library and Book Depository. Cue real life dates with, among others, Heathcliff (particularly amusing), Rochester (gets off to a good start and goes wildly downhill) and of course Fitzwilliam Darcy. Oh, and one utterly delightful platonic meet up that I will not spoil because it was such a fun surprise.

But grumpy librarian Gabe Sharma - a philosophy professor who shares the job of Head Librarian with his twin sister Ella - believes the library should be for serious scholars and doesn’t approve of Ella’s attempts to widen its appeal. At least, that’s the only reason he’s so annoyed by Tess going on all these dates… isn’t it? Funny and hot and full of heart, this book is an absolute treat. It’s out in June but you should pre-order it now.

An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister (out now)

This tale of two Australian academics, rivals since their undergraduate days, who enter a marriage of convenience in order for both of them to get permanent jobs (anyone who works in or, like me, has friends who work in academia knows how precious proper staff jobs are and in the context of the book it all makes perfect sense) is my favourite romance published in 2025. It’s funny (the footnotes!😍), unsentimental, snappily written, the characters are sympathetic and feel utterly real, the obstacles are convincing and the love story and happy ending feel earned. All of this is exactly what I want from a romance novel.

Also I don’t think I’ve ever read an Australian romance before, but I adored this book’s distinctively Australian vibe. I really love lots of contemporary American romances but I often respond more strongly to British and Irish and now, it turns out, Australian ones. There’s a certain, I dunno, sense of the absurd and piss-taking that is inherent to our shared sensibilities.

Oh! And there’s also character in An Academic Affair who really loves romance novels but gets very angry if they get things wrong or don’t feel convincing and this is basically me. In this character’s case, she’s a lawyer and she can’t read books about weird bequests (“you must be married to claim this inheritance!”) etc because they would never hold up in court.

I am not a lawyer (I wish I had such a practical qualification, at least I’d have something useful to fall back on, which is not the case with a BA in German and Art History and an MA in Journalism) but this mindset is why I can’t read novels about e.g. musicians, even though in theory they should be catnip to me. I can always tell when they’ve been written by someone who has never been in a band or written a song or even spent much time with people who have done these things (which is a lot of them), and then I get incredibly irritated when they get things wrong.

In fact, I get easily irritated by a lot of things in books and it is a curse that stops me enjoying things! I want to love everything and then I can’t and it makes me angry! I am a tremendous enthusiast about things I love but the flipside is that I am also a tremendous hater. Anyway I loved encountering a fictional character who is also is stricken by this curse and I look forward to her getting her own book (I have been assured she will).

Ask Me Anything by Bethany Rutter (out now)

I was primed to love this book because, like me back in the mid-90s, the heroine of Bethany Rutter’s incredibly charming latest novel is an art history student who writes for a college magazine. But while I was just writing arts and music features for Trinity News and Alternate (RIP), the stylish, cheerful Mary Elizabeth has a problem page called Ask Me Anything, in which she dispenses wise advice to her fellow students (BTW how lovely to have a confident, non-angsty heroine!).

Mary Elizabeth’s determined to have a fling with smooth magazine editor Felix, but she’s distracted by grumpy Laurie who writes for the more serious college paper, and who Mary Elizabeth is convinced is the anonymous writer behind the paper’s new problem page, giving bad advice to the same people who write to Ask Me Anything. But when things with Felix start to go sour (this is depicted brilliantly and very realistically, with real sensitivity and care), she starts to wonder if Laurie really is the enemy. This is a very fun book with real depth and I loved it. Also, I am a big fan of good descriptions of clothes in books and there are some EXCELLENT outfits in this one.

Annie Knows Everything by Rachel Wood (out in May)

I was also primed to like this book, having just written a book about an Annie and indeed being a sort-of-Annie myself (I didn’t think this through when I named Laura’s grumpy little sister Annie in Our Song, who then became the heroine of Love Scene. In my defence, I genuinely think of Anna and Annie as totally different names, even though my mother sometimes calls me Annie. ANYWAY). The Annie who knows everything in Rachel Wood’s debut novel is a Canadian woman who is made redundant from her job at a tech company in New York and manages to blag her way into another, more technical job at the same company by wildly exaggerating her computer-related skills. Which is relatable. Who among us has not pretended to understand how Excel works? I know I have.

Anyway, Annie’s new boss Connor is funny and charming and their chemistry is immediate and feels real - their banter is not only funny but feels like the way real people tease and joke with each other. Annie is also dealing with her sister Shannon, who hasn’t talked to her for two years, ever since Annie told everyone at Shannon’s engagement party that her fiancé Dan cheated on her, only for Shannon and Dan to subsequently reconcile. They are now planning their wedding and Annie is determined to stop it. But does she really know everything about life and work and love and how things should be?

This is definitely the sweetest, lightest book on this list (look at its adorable cover!) BUT THAT IS NOT A BAD THING! In fact, it’s the opposite. A good fun book that’s cute without being sickly (and my tolerance for overly-cutesy is VERY low, like, in-a-subterranean-cave low) is very difficult to write. And a book that brings genuine joy is a rare and wonderful thing - there were moments when I was reading Annie Knows Everything and realised I literally had a goofy smile on my face. It’s a total charmer, and that is high praise.

Also, the sex scenes are great - hot but realistic, the holy grail - and that is also VERY hard to do and also rare so that’s another point in its favour.

How to Write a Love Story by Catherine Walsh (out in March)

The premise of How to Write a Love Story is great, and the book itself didn’t disappoint. Ciara Sheridan is the daughter of a hugely successful fantasy author who died without completing his epic fantasy series. Ciara, whose own writing career stalled years earlier after she was outed as Frank Sheridan’s daughter, takes up the challenge of finishing it, but is struck with a hideous case of writer’s block. Which is why her new editor Sam Avery turns up at her ramshackle house in the west of Ireland during an uncharacteristically sweltering summer heatwave. Over the course of the summer… okay, it’s not a spoiler to say they fall in love (this is a romance novel), but Ciara also starts to process her grief for her dad and rediscovers not just her own creativity but, well, how to write a love story. This is a properly funny and properly romantic romcom and I enjoyed it a lot.

Also fellow Irish people, do NOT be put off by the fact that the blurb of this book compares it to Leap Year¹. It is not like Leap Year at all, a preposterous (and, unforgiveably, boring) film full of stupid stereotypes in which at one point two people pretend to be married to share a room in a rural Irish B&B because according to this film, B&B owners in Ireland in the 21st century would not give rooms to unmarried couples (they would all be out of business if this were even vaguely true). The west of Ireland seaside town in HTWALS is very much a quirky Irish small town as written by an Irish person, and although it has its share of amusing characters, they feel authentic and the town feels like a real place, not the ridiculous version of Ireland we’ve seen so often in international media.

BTW my husband grew up in a small Irish town and a few months ago, having read an American smalltown romance, I asked him what he thought would happen if I ever tried to write a smalltown Irish one, and he laughed out loud for quite some time and then just said “you really shouldn’t”. I already knew this but it was good to have it confirmed lest I ever got tempted. I know my own limitations. I can’t help it if the Tolka flows in my veins! As Tadhg says to Laura in Our Song, northside for life.

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Speaking of north Dublin, that’s where Love Scene is set! What a surprise. If you’ve ever wanted to read a romantic comedy in which the hottest scene kicks off on Richmond Road in Drumcondra, well, you’re in luck (if you are familiar with Richmond Road you’ll know just how unlikely that is AND YET… well, you’ll see).

It’ll be out in - oh God - three and a half months, something that I think about every time I wake up at four in the morning. The thing I love about writing books is actually writing and the incredibly rewarding moments when someone says they like the finished product. The thing I find stressful is pretty much everything else. I’m currently in the “everything else” stage re: Love Scene so all I can do is concentrate on writing the first draft of the next book - and read more romance novels, of course. If you have any recommendations - and the books above should give you an idea of the sort of books I like - please let me know. The horrors must always be staved off. If you currently have any horrors of your own, I hope the books listed above help.

1. The director of Leap Year says it was based on the 1945 Powell & Pressburger film I Know Where I’m Going which means LY is not only a terrible movie, it is SACRILEGE because I Know Where I’m Going is a sexy, funny, wild work of genius.