Summer Romance Bingo 2025

I had a blast attending Midwest Bookfest at the beginning of the summer, the perfect bookish retreat for my tired brain. It was so much fun attending a ball, a tea party and interesting panels. But my favorite part was the vendors room where I could roam about browsing books and chatting with authors. A cool feature about this con was having a diversity of genres represented, although romance was the most heavily represented. So I  used this summer bingo challenge as a map for a large percentage of the books I accumulated from Midwest Bookfest as well as the lighter section of my TBR.

Before I began this challenge, I listened to Abby Jimenez's Say You'll Remember Me

and found myself wanting to read a bunch of her books over the summer. I've met her at another event a few years ago and she owns Nadia Cakes, the bakery that catered my wedding, making for another great connection with an author for the romance bingo. I had a lot of troubles with the first book I read by her and was very pleasantly surprised when I gave her another chance and found that I love her style.

There is a really cute used bookstore across the street from my day job where I found Julie Garwoods Clayborn Brides for the pick before 2005. I wasn't sure how a pre #MeToo romance would hold up for me so I was with the fiesty women depicted in the western romance novels.

Really, I had only two books that I rated less than 3 stars on Goodreads, indicating that I chose the perfect books for my reading tastes. But these are the ones I can't stop thinking about:

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

Between the Pines by Amber Palmer

How to Sell a Romance by 

Charming Devil by Rebecca Kenney

Ruthless Devotion by Rebecca Kenney

Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

A notable feature of the romance genre is that even though all paths lead to a happily ever after or happy for now in the end, its the journey the characters take that makes it compelling and makes me wanting to come back for more. I want to read more books by almost all of the authors I read!