Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2021

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week is a new bookish category in which we get to brag about our favorite books that fit with the week’s category. You can pick your top 5, 10, 15…or so on. I tend to keep my list to ten!

Today’s category: Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2021

There are so many new releases I’m anticipating for the second half of 2021… I know it’s going to be impossible to read them all. A girl can dream…. right!? Here are all the books that made my MOST anticipated list.

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Pause – Kylie Scott
Release Date: July 13th

When Anna wakes up from a coma after a car crash, she discovers life has gone on without her. Her husband has been unfaithful—with her best friend—and she’s been long since replaced at work. While her old life is a distant memory, her new life feels like an empty shell. Then she meets the stranger who saved her life during the crash, and he changes everything.

Leif Larsen—tattooist, joker, and player—has his own scars thanks to the crash that put Anna in a coma. Helping her move on from her failed marriage, and create a new life, sounds like a perfect distraction. So when he needs a new roommate, he invites Anna to begin her new life with him.

Although their lives may have been put on pause, together they just might find a way to heal.

 

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Exposed – VIP Series, #4 – Kristen Callihan
Release Date: July 13th

Brenna
There are some people in life who know exactly how to push your buttons. For me, it’s Rye Peterson. We can’t spend more than ten minutes together before we’re at each other’s throats, which makes working together that much harder. Rye is the bassist for Kill John, the biggest rock band in the world, and I am his publicist. It doesn’t help that the man is gorgeous, funny, talented, and…never takes anything seriously. Avoidance is key. But everything changes when he overhears something he shouldn’t: a confession made in a moment of weakness. Now the man I’ve tried so hard to ignore is offering me the greatest temptation of all—him.

Rye
Brenna James is the one. The one I can’t have. The one I can’t get out of my mind. Believe me, I’ve tried; the woman loathes me. I managed well enough—until I heard her say she’s as lonely as I am. That she needed to be touched, held, satisfied. And I could no longer deny the truth: I wanted to be the one to give her what she craved. I convinced her that it would just be sex, mutual satisfaction with nothing deeper. But the moment I have her, she becomes my world. I’ve never given her a good reason to trust me before. Now, I’ve got to show Brenna that we’re so much better together than we ever were apart. Things are going to get messy. But getting messy with Brenna is what I do best.

 

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Kissing The Cowboy – Circle B Ranch Series, #5 – Kennedy Fox
Release Date: July 13th

After drinking a bottle of wine, Harper tells her business rival that she recently got engaged. Once the hangover wears off, Harper realizes she now needs a fake fiancé or to admit she lied. Wanting to avoid the backlash, she asks her childhood best friend for a favor.

She can pretend she’s not in love with him, but her traitorous body reveals otherwise.

Ethan Bishop will do anything for Harper, even if it’s crazy and means risking his heart. Pretending to be engaged to the woman he’s always loved proves to be difficult—especially when repressed feelings bubble to the surface.

He only wants to help, but everyone in his life sees through his façade.

It’s hard to know what’s real or fake when their private moments turn intimate. When they cross the line and fall between the sheets, the truth is undeniable.

Just as they feared, their friendship’s no longer the same. However, one thing’s certain—there’s no going back now.

 

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The Varsity Dad Dilemma – Lex Martin
Release Date: July 20th

What’s worse than having Rider Kingston, the star quarterback, give you the big brushoff because he doesn’t want to get serious? You’d probably think living across the street from him where you get a first-hand view of his hookups, right?

That’s what I thought. Until someone drops off a baby with a note pinned to her blanket that says one of those jocks—either Rider or one of his roommates—is the father. The problem? Baby mama doesn’t mention which of these numbskulls is the sperm donor.

I wouldn’t care about their paternity problems—not the slightest bit—except my brother lives there too. Which means that adorable squawking bundle might be my niece, and there’s no way I’m leaving her unattended with those bumbling football players.

They need my help, even if they don’t know it yet. Once we solve this dilemma and figure out who’s the daddy, I’m out.

I’ll just ignore Rider and those soul-searing looks he gives me every time I reach for the baby. He broke my heart three years ago. He won’t get a second chance.

 

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Love Next Door – Lakeside Series, #1 – Helena Hunting
Release Date: July 27th

When Dillion Stitch left her hometown, she had no intention of going back. But when her brother gets into trouble, Dillion reluctantly agrees to return home to take her place at the family business.

Being back in Pearl Lake after all these years feels familiar but also brings a few surprises. She’s quick to notice that someone new has shown up at the cottage next door. Dillion gets more than an eyeful when she goes to check out the newcomer and meets Donovan “Van” Firestone—her beloved neighbor’s grandson—in all his unclothed glory.

Having gotten off to a rocky start, it’s not long before they begin bickering with each other all over town. All that back-and-forth inevitably sparks an undeniable attraction. But Dillion’s family has issues, Van’s family resents him, and neither Dillion nor Van feels truly at ease in the small town. For these Pearl Lake exiles, home isn’t just where the heart is—it’s where things get complicated.

 

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The Wrong Heart – Jennifer Hartmann
Release Date: August 10th

When my husband died, he left my broken heart behind.
He left another heart behind, too—his.
I know it’s wrong. I shouldn’t be contacting the recipient of my husband’s heart. I don’t even expect him to reply…
But there’s a desperate, twisted part of me that hopes he will.
No names.
No personal details.
Just a conversation.
The only thing I have left of my husband is inside him.

 

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Winning The Cowboy – Circle B Ranch Series, #5 – Kennedy Fox
Release Date: August 17th

Working on the ranch and settling down is all Grayson’s ever wanted in life. When he meets the woman who could make that a reality, he learns she hates him with every fiber of her being.

He knows she’s being unreasonable since their bickering is the hottest foreplay he’s ever had.

Mackenzie Bishop’s an elementary school teacher and can tolerate a lot until it comes to Grayson. He may act like he doesn’t remember what he did, but Kenzie will never forget. Not when the memory of that night still lingers in her mind years later.

She denies her attraction, but she can’t hide it forever, especially when there’s no escaping him.

Although she refuses to give him the time of day, one drunken night changes everything–just not in the way he had hoped.

 

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The Legacy – Off-Campus Series, #5 – Elle Kennedy
Release Date: September 21st

The international bestselling Off-Campus series returns with a collection of four novellas by New York Times bestselling author Elle Kennedy! This brand-new installment provides the much-anticipated answer to the question: where are they now?

 

 

 

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Boyfriend – Moo U Series, #11 – Sarina Bowen
Release Date: October 19th

The dreamiest player on the Moo U hockey team hangs a flyer on the bulletin board, and I am spellbound:

Rent a boyfriend for the holiday. For $25, I will be your Thanksgiving date. I will talk hockey with your dad. I will bring your mother flowers. I will be polite, and wear a nicely ironed shirt…

Now everyone knows it’s a bad idea to introduce your long-time crush to your messed-up family. But I really do need a date for Thanksgiving, even if I’m not willing to say why. So I tear his phone number off of that flyer… and accidentally entangle our star defenseman in a ruse that neither of us can easily unwind.

Because Weston’s family is even nuttier than mine. He needs a date, too, for the most uncomfortable holiday engagement party ever thrown. 

There will be hors d’oeuvre. There will be faked PDA. And there will be pro-level awkwardness…

 

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Rushed – Adventures In Love Series, #1 – Aurora Rose Reynolds
Release Date: November 30th

Cybil is the queen of bad timing. First, her fiancé breaks up with her days before their wedding. Next, she’s stuck going on a couples retreat in the Montana wilderness alone. And worst of all, now she’s fighting a growing attraction to the wilderness retreat’s rugged owner, Tanner.

Tanner has built his wilderness adventure service on a few key principles: never take unnecessary risks, never put anyone’s life in danger—and never, ever sleep with a client. The arrival of a beautiful new visitor, however, might mean bending the rules.

Two people looking for anything but romance may have just bumped into their soul mates. In the Montana wilds, any misstep can spell danger. Cybil and Tanner just have to decide if they’re brave enough to face their next adventure.

 

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Dream Keeper – Dream Team Series, #4 – Kristen Ashley
Release Date: November 30th

Spinning off from the bestselling Dream Man and Rock Chick series, this is the emotional and steamy contemporary romance fans of the Dream Team series have been waiting for!

 

 

 

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Peace Love and Happy Reading,

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