Heather Miller Cover

The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez (Forever, LJ starred review) is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book. The night they met, Larissa needed a ride home, and Chris had been dragged to a concert by his worried friends. That night he wanted to be the one to take Larissa home, but instead she rode with his best friend, Mike.

Thompson’s unexpected, engaging, horror-romance mash-up will keep readers on the edge of their seats, desperately hoping that their favorite protagonist isn’t the killer. ★Thompson, Shailee. How To Kill a Guy in Ten Dates. Gallery. Feb. 2026. ISBN 9781668206713. pbk. 368p. $18. ROMANTIC SUSPENSE DEBUT Roommates and best friends Jamie and Laurie have decided they need to meet other people and be social at least once a month, instead of just hanging out with each other.

A thriving genre ranges from intense to cozy and modern to historical, with books set everywhere from small towns to fantasy kingdoms. With specialized bookstores devoted to romance novels, voracious readers building endless TBR piles, and deluxe-edition reprints driving even more demand, the romance genre is thriving. It is in this context that LJ’s 2025 genre preview considers newly developing trends, reviews subgenres still holding sway, and gathers the biggest books of the next six months.