Our Summer Romance Bingo is back!
Beginning on the Summer Solstice, which falls on June 21st in the US and ending on September 21st, right before the Autumnal Equinox, we invite you to play our 2026 Summer Romance Bingo.
Please save the image to use on your own! You can also click on the image or here for a larger version to look at. If you’d like to share on social media, please use the hashtag #SBTBingo so we can see how your card is coming along! Participants who complete at least one bingo are eligible for prizes, including stickers, swag, and a big ol’ box o’ books for one lucky winner or two.
The middle space is a free space, meaning any book will qualify there. Also, please use one book per space. No double dipping!
A couple things – Con Tempo Rary is Contemporary Romance. I just couldn’t fit in the space.
Wrong Sibling: Character thinks they’re marrying, talking to, one sibling, but it’s actually the other. An example is a historical romance where the hero thinks he’s marrying one sister, but the twin shows up in her place.
If you need any more clarifications, just leave your questions in the comments. Most of these categories came from the community, so big thank you to everyone who made suggestions!
To submit your card, please fill out this form. Maximum of five entries per person!
Standard disclaimers apply: Void where prohibited. Must be over 18 and ready to read some excellent books. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law.
The entry form will close September 22.
If you need clarification on any of the categories or want to crowdsource reading recommendations, feel free to ask or brainstorm in the comments section! Remember that bingo doesn’t kick off until June 21st, so don’t start reading qualifying books until then.Â
Looks like a fun board. I can’t wait to hear how people are filling it out. đ
I’ve been looking forward to this. Plan to be more strategic this summer:)
WRONG SIBLING!!! It’s my absolutely favorite trope!
I was having some trouble opening this post; if I clicked on the title or the bingo card it kept telling me it was “blocked for malicious activity”. I had to click on the “Read more” on the bottom to get in. You may want to check this. (I have Firefox if that’s any help.)
I read many comments from readers having a good time with 2025 Bingo and I regretted not participating. This year I’m in!
Umm…horizontal, vertical, or diagonal rows?
@LML: Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal are all acceptable when completing a bingo.
Thank you EC! I’m on it.
For those who put the cover image of the book they read on the square, how do you do that? (I’m using my phone and don’t have Canva)
I’m gonna need some recs for Oops, still married.
@Jill, Christina Lauren’s The Paradise Problem was the first one that I thought of for oops still married. It also works for vacation destination.
https://christinalaurenbooks.com/books/the-paradise-problem/
Hey @Stasi, what’s your favorite Wrong Sibling book?
@C So hard to choose just one!
For Historical there’s the every popular The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn, but I also loved The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren and In Bed with a Stranger by Mary Wine. There’s also quite a few that are close cousins that switch places and such.
For more contemporary readers some favorites are Truth or Beard by Penny Reid, Kissing My Brother’s Bride by Molly McLain and Meant to Be by Terri Osburn (this one is pretty angsty). Mafia wise there’s also Brutal Vows by JT Geissinger.
For the challenge I’m targeting to finally pick up Wild Child by Mary Jo Putney or The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth O’Roark.
Hopefully those are some options that help! đ
@Jill
re: Oops, still married
One Night for Love / Balogh
Regency romance
Hero is at altar awaiting his genteel betrothed, when his lost battlefield bride shows up
Last year I challenged myself to get a blackout (and I did) but it took over my reading life, haha! This year I’ll stick to just a row or two.
Here’s a couple of Old Skool books for Oops, still married:
Edith Layton – The Wedding (historical)
Judith McNaught – Paradise (it was contemporary when it was written)
How are we interpreting “from a rec”?
@C: This one is pretty loosey goosey. Just a book you got from a recommendation – could be from the site in some way, a friend, social media, etc.
Awesome, thanks!
Thanks for all of the Oops, Still Married suggestions! I can also add Eloisa James’ The Ugly Duchess to the list. The FMC believes she’s been widowed, but he pops up again.
Dear Author reviewed a book this morning ~ The Solicitorâs Wife by Iris Lim ~ that could work for Wrong Sibling, Mistaken Identity, or Newly Published.
@Kareni, I was all set to read it tonight, then remembered that the Bingo starting bell hasn’t rung. But I like this idea of lining up books ahead of time.
What does âoops still marriedâ mean? Is it like an arranged marriage trope?
@Mynah: Typically these plots involve a couple who thinks they’re divorced, but due to some filing error, they’re still married. Or perhaps their spouse has gone missing and presumed dead, only for them to show up. It’s a situation where one or both people believe their marriage is dissolved, only to find out it’s not.
Requesting community recommendations for Wrong Sibling and Oops, Still Married. I think D. E. Stevenson’s Fair Miss Fortune qualifies for Wrong Sibling? And I’m assuming there are mid-century books written in/about the interwar years about a husband presumed to have died in the war later showing up alive, but nothing comes to mind.
Great card! Currently working through a stack of romance ARCs, so I suspect several squares will fill themselves in whether I plan for it or not. Excited to see which trope bingo gets me first.
Librariancat put the categories on Storygraph (thank you). Lots of recommendations.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/e498bbd5-2ef2-45eb-a444-8399cfb2a8bd
Canât wait to hear about examples of unusual shifters: sloths? Orangutans? Octopi?
@Msb: Laura Greenwood has interesting Regency shifters – swans, otters, hedgehogs, stoats, peacocks!
There’s always Shelly Laurenston/GA Aiken’s shifters too, especially the Honey Badgers!
For wrong sibling, there’s always False Colours by Heyer, which would also check mistaken or secret identity. A couple of her books would satisfy that, and if you stretch Pirates to include smugglers, there’s my personal favorite – The Talisman Ring. And Celia Lake has a hedgehog shifter in one of her books which would also satisfy non-Regency historical. It would be an interesting challenge to see if you could get a bingo from just one author.
@Msb: Elva Birch has written some unusual shifters (armadillos, pandas, squirrels etc.)
@Sandra, I’ve been thinking about how to get single author bingos this morning. Current thoughts:
Shelley Laurenston/GA Aiken — 5 row
From a Rec — The Undoing has an A grade from SB Sarah, but there’s also a “Which One First” post from 2020
Fave Author — (pick one)
Unusual Shifter — (pick one of the Honey Badger Chronicles or GA Aiken’s Dragon Kin series)
Heist/Con — Hot and Badgered
Artist/Performer — Bite Me
Nora Roberts/JD Robb — I column
Name in Title — The Return of Rafe MacKade
Vacation Place — Jewels of the Sun
Scot — Rebellion
Futuristic — Naked In Death
Fave Author — (pick one)
Lisa Kleypas — B column
Non-Regency Historical — (The Ravenels are Victorian)
Secret Identity — Love in the Afternoon
Animal on the Cover — Then Came You
One Night Stand — Brown-Eyed Girl
Rec — Dreaming of You (A grade review)
I had hopes for Julie Garwood for the 2 row (Ransom has a mistaken identity element, vacation spot is sufficiently open to interpretation, several contemporaries to choose from, The Gift has pirates), but I can’t remember a wrong sibling story. But the backslash diagonal might work:
Non-Regency Historical — The Bride
Vacation Destination — Hotshot
Free Space — (pick one)
Latest in Series — Castles
Artist/Performer — Grace Under Fire
I think you could also pull off the backslash diagonal with Julia Quinn (The Rokesbys are Georgian, I’d vacation at The Viscount Who Loved Me’s Regency house party, several series to pick the last one from, and the Smythe-Smith Quartet has several characters who participate in the family’s annual musicale).
For the record, I haven’t read most of these books (or haven’t read them recently), so I can’t say if attempting bingo this way would be a good idea. But it is definitely possible. đ
Something that could work for “Oops, still married” is Taylor Jenkins Reid’s One True Loves.
What about ARCs and the âpublished in the last 3 monthsâ square? I just read one thatâll release in August, but I wonder what to do about those thatâll be out laterâŠ
@Trix: ARCs wouldn’t count unless you read it after the release date because it’s not technically published yet.
The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George would work for oops, wrong sibling. (The fiery, determined elder sister American heiress vs the quiet, demure younger sister his mother approves of.)
Addy du Lac writes Victorian historicals. And of course Cat Sebastianâs mid 20th century.
Anyone have a rec for dystopian or futuristic romance that isnât too much of a romantic suspense? Kathryn Moonâs Good Deeds is a good example of what tone Iâm going for plot-wise.
A couple of futuristic romances I can recommend are The 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger (this has humor and some sadness and includes a mystery) as well as the Claimings series by Lyn Gala. Both of these have a human and an alien as the leads. I’ve reread these both a number of times.