Happy New Year!
It’s a short and sweet release week for books on our radar, though things do beef up as we progress through the month.
What books coming out this week are on your TBR pile? Let us know in the comments!
Only On Gameday
Author: Kristen Callihan
Released: January 6, 2026 by MIRA
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceAn ALL-NEW sports romance from New York Times bestseller Kristen Callihan with high emotional stakes and a slow-burn, steamy heat level.
A “fake” fiancée is just the trick to help a bad-boy football player clean up his image. Trouble is, there’s nothing fake about the way August feels about his “pretend” fiancée.
August Luck is on the brink of greatness: top NFL draft pick, a great team, multiple corporate sponsorships, but he keeps messing it up with bonehead moves. After his latest shenanigan goes viral, everyone is telling him to get his act together.
Penelope Morrow grew up with August. Their mothers were best friends. Unfortunately, Pen always fled the room with a look of disapproval on her pretty face whenever August was around. But Pen has a problem too: she inherited her grandparent’s house and can’t pay the estate tax.
On a whim, August decides a temporary public engagement is the solution to both their problems—he’ll pay her taxes, and she’ll help his image. Win-win.
But, when it comes to Pen, nothing is certain or safe. Because Pen isn’t so reserved anymore. This time, she’s smiling back at him. And he likes it. A lot. Will they each survive the ruse unscathed?
Game on…
Kristen Callihan has returned to sports romance!
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Author: Mary Balogh
Released: January 6, 2026 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Series: Ravenswood #5A soldier and a pacifist make the unlikeliest of pairs, but when attraction sparks, there’s nothing that can prevent their love from igniting.
Winifred Cunningham, the adopted daughter of a portrait painter, hopes that her new close friend, Owen Ware, will soon ask for her hand in marriage. But when Owen introduces Winifred to his elder brother Nicholas, the late Earl of Stratton’s second son, the slow burn of attraction between them begins.
Nicholas is a cavalry colonel—a hardened soldier whom Winifred at first despises. She finds him intimidating and cruel-looking, while he finds her strange and startlingly forthright. During a summer at Ravenswood, however, Nicholas and Winifred are unwillingly thrown together on several occasions, until they realize the passion that drives their disagreements is not due to dislike—it is because of attraction.
Winifred still awaits Owen’s proposal, and Nicholas has made his intention to marry his commanding officer’s daughter quite clear. With allegiances to other marriage prospects and brotherly bonds at risk, not to mention the age difference between them, Nicholas and Winifred know it would be wholly improper to pursue a romance…
And yet, romance is irresistible. Perhaps even inevitable.
New Mary Balogh! This is book five in the Ravenswood series.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Storm
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Released: January 6, 2026 by St. Martin's Press
Genre: Mystery/ThrillerSt. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.
When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunnit than in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.
As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting its way towards St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive—and as deadly—as any hurricane, and that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy may not be the only secret Lo is keeping…
Rachel Hawkins returns with another thriller.
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I can’t wait to read the new Mary Balogh..
New Balogh is the only one on my TBR from this!
Maybe it’s not cover snark worthy, but the combination of the Balogh heroine’s regency dress and the guy’s button-down shirt and khaki pants make it look like some kind of time-travel story.
And two main characters named August in one week?
I’m liking the Augusts, it’s a traditional male name in my family. My brother, my father, and his father all had August as part of their names. It gives you the option of two acceptable nicknames, Gus and Augie.
The Balogh blurb reminds me of an early Vanessa Kelly book, His Mistletoe Bride, that also had a soldier hero/pacifist heroine combo.
I read and loved the Callihan (the yearning! the banter!) and am looking forward to the Balogh.
@Karin, or (wincing) Augu, as a young adult in-law has always been called by his family.
Also excited about the Callihan!