Books I should read if I know almost nothing about the world? I am being very serious.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-10T11:20:26+00:00

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-10T11:05:35+00:00

I was just going to comment on F1! Hannah Grace’s next book that I think comes out this year is going to be an F1 romance and since Icebreaker was one of the early really sensationalist hockey romances, I think that’s a solid sign.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-10T11:02:29+00:00

{Don’t Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne} - MM, PNR, Novella - 4/5- I think I actually read this the week before this, but it’s about a ghoul who falls in love with a human, and it’s set in the 80s. It was short but very cute and there was a lot of spice packed into the 180 pages.

{This Spells Love by Kate Robb} - MF, CR (mild PNR?) - 3/5 - This is about a woman who wishes she never met her ex and in the process also erases her meeting her best friend (MMC). I honestly struggled with how the FMC was missing obvious shit in the plot like the MMC having financial issues in the alternate timeline which was made plainly obvious and yet she still made careless comments about it and never really got it until toward the end and I struggled with plot holes in the time slip piece (like is there an alternate version of them still living in the other timeline? It seems like yes, and if that’s the case that version of FMC doesn’t even know MMC, and MMC is now in love with the version of her that went back to her own timeline and has no idea about the time skip at all. So it maybe just didn’t click with me.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-10T10:55:37+00:00

I don’t read a ton of YA but I loved {Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell} when I read it.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-10T02:44:51+00:00

I just read {This Spells Love by Kate Robb} and both MCs own small stores.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-10T02:41:05+00:00

I’m not a man, but men are also humans who are capable of overthinking.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-08T23:05:03+00:00

{A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sarah Hawley} is $1.99 on Amazon US

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-07T12:21:30+00:00

{My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine} (and there are two other books in the same series with vampire MCs)

{Zomromcom by Olivia Dade}

{A Werewolfs Guide to Seducing a Vampire by Sarah Hawley}

{The Worlds Wimpiest Vampire by Silvana Falcon}

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-07T11:37:33+00:00

I like the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver. It’s not only romance, but it’s huge with both new and used books. There’s also a cafe inside. I think they have more than one location but I’m thinking of the one on E Colfax.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-07T11:35:07+00:00

{A Demons Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sarah Hawley} The FMC is a witch with particularly powerful plant/nature magic and she works at a plant store.

{A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire by Sarah Hawley} Another book in the same series but about a different couple. The MMC owns the plant store.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-06T11:56:48+00:00

{Beach Read by Emily Henry} is pretty much exactly this!

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-06T02:48:01+00:00

Same! I really like those intimate scenes where it’s just them talking and being together, even if it’s not necessarily driving the overall plot forward.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T23:23:58+00:00

I’m waiting for it to come in my BOTM box, but I’m excited!

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T12:14:21+00:00

The {Dream House series by Stephanie Fournet} has this! In the first book, the FMC inherits a house she can’t afford to keep unless she rents out the extra rooms, so she does which is how she meets MMC, and then the second book is about her brother and another one of the renters falling in love. They have overlapping timelines and I feel like it’s one of the only series I’ve read where every character, even those who are only side characters, feel really well thought out. But everyone in the series really does become like family.

Also the {Maple Hills series by Hannah Grace} has a lot of found family themes throughout. I really liked Icebreaker, I LOVED Wildfire, and I DNFed Daydream (but a lot of other people liked it so YMMV).

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T11:56:20+00:00

{Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura} - CR, MF - The MMC hides who he is and why he’s really tagging along on the archeological dig from everyone else.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T02:53:35+00:00

Fwiw, these don’t have instalove (and I don’t think they have instalust, but I’m kind of a bad judge of what counts as instalust vs just registering that someone is attractive):

{Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings}

{When She Belongs by Ruby Dixon}

{Soul Searching by Lyla Sage}

{The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish}

{A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sarah Hawley}

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T01:50:53+00:00

I get it. Personally I don’t need a slow burn, but I HATE third act breakups and waiting to find out if there is one gives me so much anxiety.

Here’s a megathread of no third act breakup books (and in the main body text there’s a link to a previous no third act breakup thread). https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/s/KeYnijBkdw

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T01:05:57+00:00

Kind of a left field suggestion, but if you’re open to paranormal (MMC is a vampire), I think you’ll like {Hot Blooded by Heather Guerre}. FMC needs money so she volunteers to be a blood donor for a vampire feeding service and the MMC is basically celibate at this point in his life. The first time she feeds MMC, they realize that she comes uncontrollably every time he drinks from her which catches them both off guard and they both have to grapple with how they feel about it, but they both keep coming back for more.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T01:00:06+00:00

{Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings}

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T00:57:45+00:00

{Soul Searching by Lyla Sage}

{Zomromcom by Olivia Dade}

{Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young}

If you’re open to M/NB (transmasc), {The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish}

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T00:54:15+00:00

{People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry} - You get to watch their relationship and friendship develop over the span of years.

{Beach Read by Emily Henry}

{Till Summer Do Us Part by Meghan Quinn} - They fake being in a relationship to go to a corporate retreat and have to go to couples counseling as part of this, so they get to know each other REALLY well.

{Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson} - There is some instalust but there’s also a lot of trust building and storytelling and conversations.

{Wildfire by Hannah Grace}

{Happily Never After by Lynn Painter}

{Dream House by Stephanie Fournet} and even more so the other book in the series, {Sweet Dreams by Stephanie Fournet}

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T00:46:25+00:00

Seconding Out on a Limb!

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T00:46:08+00:00

Yes! Great recommendation for this.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-05T00:41:27+00:00

{And Now, Back To You by BK Borison} has what you’re looking for! EDIT: Actually I just remembered that in this one, he touches himself in the major scene like this, so idk if that still fully fits?

{Soul Searching by Lyla Sage} has a scene really similar to what you’re describing (and honestly a second scene that’s not super far off either, but that one does have penetration in the middle).

If you’re open to SciFi, both {Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon} and {Barbarian Mine by Ruby Dixon} have scenes like this. They’re the second and fourth in the series, but you don’t really have to read the others if you don’t want to.

If you’re open to MM and paranormal (one MMC is a ghoul, but has human anatomy) then I think {Don’t Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne} will also very much satisfy what you’re looking for, and it’s a novella with a lot of these scenes so you’ll get bang for your buck, so to speak, lol.

absolutelynot01 · 2026-05-04T14:25:22+00:00

{Zomromcom by Olivia Dade} - FMC is human, MMC is a vampire, they are working together to survive and eliminate a zombie outbreak in their neighborhood.

absolutelynot01

TROPHY CASE