WPL’s Book Club books are passkeys to other worlds. To ancient times, to foreign countries, to new knowledge, to alternate ways of thinking, and sometimes, literally, to galaxies far, far away. 

And what could be better than reading? Sharing your reactions with your fellow readers!

WPL currently hosts three book clubs: 

Librarian Olivia leads our Snacks and Suspects: True Crime Book Club, Librarian Dot leads our Best Sellers and Bites: Popular Fiction Book Club, and Librarian Melody leads our Science Fiction Book Club. 

I [Melody] interviewed Olivia and Dot about their experiences in their respective clubs, and added my own thoughts about the SF Book Club. 

Here is what we three wanted to share (lightly edited): 

Health and Fitness Resources at WPL

Whether your health and fitness goals are to move more, eat more nutrient-dense foods, or reduce stress, sugar, or alcohol, Worcester Public Library is here to help! We offer a variety of fitness and health related classes and workshops--on site and in-person--as well as online asynchronous fitness classes and online health resources available 24/7. Our Library of Things has outdoor games and health and fitness equipment for at-home use, and our circulating collections range from government publications on health topics to books, DVDS, and audiobooks on self-help topics, diseases and conditions, cookbooks to support a variety of diets, fitness resources, and sports and recreation titles.

In-Person Programs and Events

The Worcester Public Library offers a range of classes and workshops, from Zumba to probiotic pickling to aromatherapy for health and relaxation. Popular recurring programs follow; preview a complete list of health and wellness activities this summer, or visit our online calendar.

De-stress with Dogs with Tufts Paws for People! - Visit with a registered* therapy dog to bring a little rest and relaxation to your day. Therapy animals* are generally privately owned pets who are brought by their handlers to places to bring joy and smiles.

Nutrition Classes with Judy Palken, Registered Dietitian - This summer, Judy will be offering programs on diet and lifestyle changes you can make to control diabetes (and to prevent it); food choices to stabilize mood and increase feelings of well-being while  avoiding energy crashes and emotional distress; and a session on our history with alcohol and how to enjoy it responsibly. 

Zumba with Alina Khaspekov, certified Zumba instructor - Zumba  is a high energy, calorie-burning fitness class that uses pop and Latin music to create a dance-party atmosphere. Low-intensity and high-intensity moves are easy to follow for all level participants who can set their own pace.  It is an effective and fun cardio workout that melts fat, strengthens core, and improves flexibility.

Online Resources, available 24/7

Craft and Hobby's Fitness Classes
Not ready to Zumba with other people? Our Craft and Hobby database has a collection of short workout videos, from cardio to beginning ballet to yoga, all of which can be done in the privacy of your own space. Modules are short, instructors are professionals, and a variety of topics allows exploration of  contemporary dance, chair yoga, and ballroom dance. Access Craft & Hobby from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or in the library -- just keep your headphones on if you're dancing in our stacks!

Health Databases

Many health researchers start off with Dr. Google, but may not realize the first results are AI generated content or ads. How do you wade through the muck to find accurate, authoritative, vetted health information? Starting your search in a health database provides encyclopedic articles, multimedia resources, peer-reviewed research studies, and evidence-based news results--without AI, and ad-free! 

America's News Magazines has a variety of articles from selected publications - here are some health and fitness related highlights from within the database. You can read issues by date, or search across 20+ years of archives. Access from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or within the library directly.

BioPharm International integrates of science and business of biopharmaceutical development, and manufacturing. This collection provides practical, peer-reviewed technical articles to enable biopharmaceutical professionals to perform their jobs more effectively and make both sound business and technical decisions.

Children's Guide: Harvard Health provides expert, evidence-based guidance on child development, and family wellness in lay-person language for parents and caregivers.

Diagnostic Tests and Surgical Procedures: Harvard Health offers detailed explanations of common Diagnostic Tests and Medical Procedures: blood work, X-rays to advanced imaging, and biopsies, with expert advice on screenings for preventative care.

Harvard Health Newsletters provides overviews on everything from hair loss to gut health to natural remedies (palmetto for prostate health?) to cardiac care at home.

Harvard Medical School Guides provides information on all kinds of health-related topics for the general public, on all kinds of health-related topics: plant-based eating, total hip replacements, emotional intelligence, weight-loss medications, migraines.

Gale Databases are accessible in full-text from anywhere in the Commonwealth, with general interest magazines and professional academic articles.

Gale OneFile: Health & Medicine is a resource for the general public--search a full range of health-related issues, from current disease and disorder information to alternative medical practices. Browse by topic, search by keyword, or limit to a specific publication. Access from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or within the library directly.

Gale OneFile: Nursing and Allied Health is a resource for nursing students and nursing professionals working in the field with full-text academic articles to support specialized care, treatment, and patient management.  Access from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or within the library directly.

Gale OneFile: Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine is a resource with academic articles on sports medicine, physical therapy and fitness. Access from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or within the library directly.

Gale OneFile: Psychology is a resource for professionals and consumers, with academic research in all fields of psychology: abnormal, biological, cognitive, comparative, developmental, personality, quantitative, social, and all areas of applied psychology.  Access from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or within the library directly.

Consumer Reports offers product reviews on health and wellness items like insect repellent, sunscreen, athletic shoes, and adhesive bandages, medical devices like hearing aids and rollators, and quality of life improvement items like bathroom scales and air filters. There is also a Health section on the database,  as well as expert articles on topics like yoga, supplements, vaccinations, and more Access from home, work, or school with your WPL card, or within the library directly.

Library of Things

The Worcester Public Library has a variety of toys, games, equipment and kits to allow consumers to try before they buy, or borrow items to improve their quality of life, from bike locks to wifi hotspots, to musical instruments. If our metal detector gets you out and walking the beach, it's a win-win! Preview the complete collection  at mywpl.libguides.com/WPLlibraryofthings, or select from the following categories:

• Wellness tools like a blood pressure cuff, a grip strength trainer, and a light therapy lamp; 
• Outdoor recreation equipment like a hammock for relaxing, binoculars for birding, and telescopes for stargazing; 
• Outdoor games like croquet, badminton, and bocce for light physical activity in your own backyard;
• Yard and gardening tools to create a space that feels healthy and happy. 

Collections

158 - Our self-help collection offers materials on psychology, positive affirmations, increasing self-esteem, transcendental meditation, and more.

300 - underlying social, political, and policy aspects of medical issues  and health care (poverty, racism).

610-618 - traditional and alternative therapies for a variety of topics, including body systems, specific diseases and disorders, nutrition, yoga, essential oils, sleep, and more.

641 - cookbooks for a variety of diets: let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food with cookbooks featuring low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar, gluten free, paleo, and other eating plans to potentially reduce disease, lower inflammation, and control symptoms.

790 - sports and recreation, including how to play/rules of the game for sportsball, and materials on swimming, fishing, and camping.

917 - travel guides to locations in New England to walk, hike, canoe and kayak.

While the library staff cannot give medical advice, we are here to help you find resources to improve your health and well-being, with your dignity preserved, privacy prioritized, and confidentiality guaranteed. Visit during open hours, or use our Ask a Librarian service to get answers to your pressing health questions. Be well!

Business Database Update and Two Timely New Books on Finance & Economics

With the stock market trading at an all-time high, you might be looking for books to help make sense of it all. Here are two noteworthy titles to put on your reading list.

The Making of a Permabear: The Perils of Long-term Investing in a Short-Term World by Jeremy Grantham with Edward Chancellor

Grantham has been around since the first mutual funds were marketed and is well known for his investor insights shared in his long-established newsletter. Grantham is known as a contrarian investor, so his timing is relevant to the current state of the financial markets. Besides his prominent career in finance, he is an avid supporter of environmental issues.

Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life by Alex Mayyasi and the Hosts of Plant Money

These reporters share their insights from years of covering the economy on their popular podcast. The book is entertaining and thought-provoking, filled with historical data, and stories that readers can identify with in their everyday experiences that make the economy tick.

The library has a variety of business research databases. For those familiar with Guidestar and the Foundation Directory Professional database, they are now rolled into one source - Candid.

Candid (Foundation Directory Online & GuideStar): Create a customized search to identify funders for nonprofit support. Formerly known as the Foundation Center Directory database, changes have recently been made where this source and GuideStar (profiles on nonprofits) have been combined into one database now known simply as Candid. Candid is available only at the Main Library. If you’d like to learn more about Candid searching, attend our Introduction to Finding Grants class held each month.

Gale OneFile Business – Delivers full text coverage of over 4,000 leading trade publication for finance, marketing, accounting and management.

Gale OneFile Entrepreneurship – Provides strategy insights, periodicals, and case studies for small business and startup enterprises.

Gale OneFile Economics and Theory – Focuses on academic and theoretical publications covering global economics.

Reference Solutions and AtoZ Database

Both can be used to identify potential customers and competitors by zip code, city, metro area or state. Data on competitors includes income, expenses, locations, and employee data. Both sources provide a suite of databases.

Reference Solutions and AtoZ can be used to create sales contact lists for the purposes of B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customer) targeted marketing for products and services.

For help with learning how to use library research databases, or to learn about upcoming business programs, email our business resources librarian, Jackie, at jdzugan@mywpl.org.

FIFA Fever! Soccer Books To Celebrate the World Cup

With FIFA's announcement that Massachusetts is a host location for seven games for this year's FIFA World Cup 2026, football fever is taking over! Matches begin June 11. A reminder--you can't walk to Gillette, aka Boston Stadium, from Boston--or Worcester! Check for information and updates on the official website.

Whether you're a new soccer fan caught up in the hype, a die-hard "football" fanatic who has been following FIFA for years, an armchair referee, or just enjoy playing EA SPORTS FC 26, check out this list of nonfiction titles about what we call soccer, in celebration of Boston's hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2026. For those of you with friends and family who will be obsessed with soccer from mid-June through July 9, there's some suggested soccer fiction to calmly read while everyone else ise jumping up and down screaming at the television.

Nonfiction

Information, History, and Biographies

A Beautiful Shame: One Team's Fight for Survival in a New Era of College Sports by Ryan Swanson
This book follows the University of New Mexico men's soccer team as they fight for survival in a new era of college athletics, providing a firsthand perspective on the impact of changes such as the transfer portal, conference realignments, and universities scrambling to stay compliant on athletes from smaller sports and institutions.

Big Fan: Two Friends, 81,589 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski
Mike Schur and Joe Posnanski travel the world in a hilarious and heartwarming celebration of fans and the things they love: baseball, basketball, chess, darts, football, futbol, Indigenous North American stickball, pickleball, WWE, Taylor Swift, Star Wars, and more.

The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches by Stefano Bizzotto, translated by Will Schutt
An epic tale of war, revolution, economic crisis, and social transformation told through the story of twelve historic soccer games, with a gallery of unexpected heroes, thwarted tragedies, and stunning, world-changing results.

How to Watch Soccer Like a Genius: What Architects, Stuntwomen, Paleoanthropologists, and Computer Scientists Reveal about the World's Game by Nick Greene
A brilliant and entertaining deconstruction of the most popular sport in the world, just in time for the 2026 World Cup in North America, from the bestselling author of How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius.

The Long Game: U.S. Men's Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts by Leander Schaerlaeckens
The gripping account of the U.S. men's national soccer team's winding saga from obscurity to the global stage as they stand on the brink of a seminal World Cup in 2026

Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World's Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game by Grant Wahl
The forefront Sports Illustrated soccer journalist and best-selling author of The Beckham Experiment profiles master players in every key position to reveal how elite athletes and coaches strategize on and off the field and perform in high-pressure game situations.

The Messi Effect: How the Global Legend Changed the Future of American Soccer by Paul Tenorio
The soccer writer for The Atlantic draws on his numerous high-ranking sources inside Inter Miami, American soccer, and overseas to bring readers behind the scenes and chronicle the last act of Lionel Messi.

Relagated: One American's Pints-and-Pies Journey From the Top to the Bottom of English Football by Todd Smith
Looking for a change and a chance to write about something that really matters to him, Smith takes off for a multi-month, immersive expedition through the world and culture of English football. A heartwarming account featuring pints, meat pies, a rainbow of team scarves and banners, and some very colorful slang, Relegated is the story of a man looking to transform himself while discovering the true meaning of English football.

The Rise of Major League Soccer: Building a Global Giant by Rick Burton & Norm O'Reilly
experienced sports business experts Rick Burton and Norm O'Reilly dig into the slow but sure growth of Major League Soccer in North America and the advent of major European teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea, FC Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, and others attracting huge fan bases in the United States. For soccer enthusiasts, sports business professionals, and anyone curious about the future of American sports, this book is an essential read that captures MLS's journey to becoming a global powerhouse.

Soccer for Dummies by Tom Dunmore
Learn how soccer got to be the #1 most popular sport in the world. Get up to speed on the world's best leagues, teams, and players. Discover tips on playing and coaching, plus fun soccer facts and resources for learning more"

Soccer in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano
Presents observations and reflections on soccer showing both the tragedy and the triumph of the game throughout the years.

Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Usually Win--And American Men Don't (Yet) by Simon Kuper & Stefan Syzmanski
Soccernomics is a revolutionary way of looking at soccer that has helped to change how some of the world's biggest clubs are run. Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, experts Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski reveal the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer.

World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments by Simon Kuper
After attending every game since 1990, World Cup Fever is Kuper's journey to find the heart of soccer, through the nine tournaments he's experienced first-hand--from watching matches in half-empty stands during Italia 1990 (a tournament that at times felt like a village fete) to witnessing the French triumph at home in 1998; South Africa's national dream in 2010; and the troubling legacy of Qatar in 2022. Told on the pitch, in the stands, in the pubs, and on the streets, this is the story of how soccer has changed the world.

Fiction

Historical, Contemporary & Romance

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
Teaching human sexuality from a perspective that information and pleasure are top priorities, divorced mom Ruth Ramsey butts heads with the local soccer coach, a divorced former addict who became an evangelical Christian after hitting rock bottom.

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
Britt-Marie is 63 when she walks away from her loveless marriage and takes a job as a caretaker for a soon-to-be-demolished rec center in the tiny, depressing Swedish town of Borg, where among other things, she coaches a youth soccer team.

Death of the Soccer God by Dimitry Elias Léger
A global soccer star’s epic ride to the 1950 World Cup places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death.

Everything For You by Chloe Liese 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Oliver Bergman is a beloved rising soccer star, all sunshine smiles and the heart of his team's spirit. In short: he's genetically designed to get under misanthropic, miserable Gavin's aggravated skin. Sick of their hostility, Coach gives them an ultimatum: put an end to their enmity or say goodbye to being captains. Forced to finally to lower their guards, Gavin and Oliver realize that they also have chemistry off the field, and it's fueled by something much more powerful than competition--an explosive attraction.

Godwin by Joseph O'Neill
Mark Wolfe, a technical writer at a Pittsburgh cooperative, heads to England to help his struggling soccer scout half-brother locate a young African phenom known only as Godwin. Back in the states, the co-op's steady cofounder, Lakesha, deals with major work problems.

If Only You by Chloe Liese 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Ziggy Bergman is tired of being underestimated. Sure, she's the youngest player on the National Soccer team and the baby of the family, but that doesn't mean she still deserves to be treated like a kid. It's time for her angelic image to get a makeover. What better way to do that than hanging out with trouble incarnate and her brother's best friend, Sebastian Gauthier?

The Long Game by Elena Armas 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
A disgraced soccer executive reluctantly enlists the help of a retired soccer star in coaching a children's team.

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev 🌶️🌶️🌶️
In this adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, a chef partners with her celebrity soccer star--her first love--during a reality-show competition she hopes will save her restaurant.

Relationship Goals by Brittany Kelley 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Ted Lasso meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in this steamy sports romance about an infamous star soccer player who is forced to fake date a Hollywood starlet, only to develop real feelings for her-just as she learns he was pretending and vows to get even.

The Striker by Ana Huang 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
When legendary footballer Asher Donovan must be trained by former ballerina Scarlett DeBois, the sparks begin to fly.

Two Left Feet by Kallie Emblidge 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Ordinarily the star of the Camden Roses is calm, cool, and collected, keeping his club relevant with his prowess in the midfield and his mighty left foot. But this season, the threats abound: First a midseason injury sidelines him when his team needs him most. When a recruit is called up to fill in, Oliver fears he'll be replaced. Oliver immediately finds confident, eager Leonardo irritating, but eventually begins to see him as a friend--and then, to his mounting horror, as something more. As the season heats up, a lot more than football hangs in the balance.

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
The wizards of Unseen University in the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else. As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed forever.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Working with curvy, cheery, cute ghostwriter Mabel Willicker on his memoir, grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding, when their business arrangement is mistaken for a budding romance, convinces her to be in a fake relationship for the public, but their undeniable chemistry between them leads to something real.

Annotations from Novelist - find your next great read with NovelistPlus!

Note: The chili peppers denote the steaminess, or spice level, of a book's romantic/intimate elements; visit https://www.romance.io/steamrating for the key.

Northstar Digital Literacy

The Worcester Public Library has acquired a new resource to assist patrons with basic digital skills and tools. Northstar Digital Literacy is a comprehensive program that teaches basic computer and technology skills to individuals to help them succeed in work, education, and daily life. Free, online self-guided units on various topics assess the ability of individuals to perform tasks based on these skills. 

Available in English and Spanish, these basic computer literacy units are divided into three different modules:

• Essential Computer Skills
• Essential Software Skills
• Using Technology In Daily Life

You can sign up as a learner and track your progress in each unit you test by creating a Northstar account. If you do not want to create an account, you can also try Northstar without a learner account. However, assessments taken without a learner account do not track your progress.

To access this resource, go to the databases page on mywpl.org. Access is available at every Worcester Public Library location. You can access remotely from your home. Call 508-799-1655, ext. 3, to talk to a librarian or email us at reference@mywpl.libanswers.com for assistance. 

Song Sung Blue: Music-Themed Novels

June is National DJ month, so we have music on our minds! The movie Song Sung Blue (Focus Films, 2026) is a fictionalization of a 2008 documentary (same title!) about Mike and Claire Sardina, a couple who joined musical forces to provide entertainment as Neil Diamond interpreters: Mike had the voice, the costuming, and the moves, and Claire, his biggest fan, provided accompaniment, backup vocals and rhythm. When a terrible accident resulted in Claire needing to relearn how to stand, walk, and dance, it's like the music has gone out of her life... but music is the thread that helps her hold her life together, and the bond that brings them back to one another. 

Read on for music-themed novels about unrequited love, instrumentalists pitted against one another for first chair, relationships that break up bands, bands that break up relationships, couples who find a way to make beautiful music together--and a gritty story about a Neil Diamond obsession.

All The Right Notes by Dominic Lim 🌶️🌶️
In this hilarious and joyous rom com, sparks fly when a piano genius and a Hollywood heartthrob are thrown together for a charity performance of solos, heartfelt duets, and a big, showstopping finale.

August Lane by Regina Black 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again...

The Breakup Tour by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund Broka 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Asking her former college boyfriend, Max Harcourt, to go public as her songwriting muse, megastar Riley Wynn, when he joins her and her band on tour, starts to realize that, despite the sour notes in the past, their future could hold incredible things.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Reid Jenkins 🌶️🌶️
Though they had chemistry on stage, off stage the members of the band Daisy Jones & The Six clashed; their interviews years later are candid, direct, sometimes pained, and sometimes funny as they collectively form the oral narrative of the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of the hottest (fictional) rock band of the 1970s.

Diamond Dogs by Alan Watt
When seventeen-year-old Neil Garvin, a popular high-school quarterback, accidentally commits a horrifying crime, his abusive father--the Neil Diamond-obsessed local sheriff--covers up for him, until the FBI arrives and father and son become locked in a confrontation that could tear them apart or set them free.

Deep Cuts by Kyle Higgins
New Orleans, 1917: a clarinet player meets his hero. Kansas City, 1940: a young girl investigates the mystery of her father's lost love of music. Los Angeles, 1977: a band embark on a world tour that may be their last. Writers KYLE HIGGINS and JOE CLARK (RADIANT BLACK) are joined by an ALL-STAR CAST OF ARTISTS for an anthology of stories that weave tales of struggle, joy, and hope through the history of jazz!

The Farewell Tour by Stephanie Clifford
It’s 1980, and Lillian Waters is hitting the road for the very last time. Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood.

Glitter Bats series by Jessica James:
For One Night Only #1 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
When two former bandmates—and bedmates—are thrust back into each other's lives in a fake dating scheme for publicity, they'll be forced to face the music.
For Our Next Song #2 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
The decade-long friendship between two rock goddesses is thrust into the spotlight after their mutual desire strikes a perfect—and very public—chord.

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner
Sisters Cassie and Zoe were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe yearned for fame while Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows. In the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters. But after a year, the band abruptly broke up. Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

Heart Strings (Love in Galway #2) by Ivy Fairbanks 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Surviving cancer taught Lo Valdez that life is too short to spend time on someone who wronged you. But Aidan O’Toole is determined to change her mind. When Lo moved from Texas to Galway, she wasn’t looking for love, but Aidan, a gorgeous, mandolin-playing lawyer, slipped past her defenses. When Aidan was given the opportunity to record an album in Long - he took it, breaking Lo's heart. Two years later, every song he writes is still about her, and when Lo hears his voice on the radio, it’s an arrow straight to her soul. Now they’re on a collision course as maid of honor and best man at a weekend-long Irish castle wedding. Can Aidan convince Lo their song wasn’t meant to end?

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
A middle-aged art gallery owner begins a passionate fling with a member of her daughter’s favorite boy band, who is 19 years her junior, and must fend off rabid fans and insatiable media after their affair becomes a viral sensation.

Idol (VIP #1) by Kristen Callihan 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Killian, the lead singer for the biggest rock band in the world, crashes his motorcycle on the lawn and into the life of a reclusive small-town girl in this rock star meets normie romance.

If Not For My Baby by Kate Golden 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Clementine Clark isn’t looking for love. Growing up with a single mom who weeps over a new guy each week tends to have that effect on a girl. She’s even buried her musical dreams so deeply within herself that she hardly notices the hole it’s left in her life... until she's offered a life-changing opportunity: to join Irish megastar Halloran on his first US tour as a backing vocalist. Overnight, Clementine goes from serving enchiladas to belting high notes before a cheering crowd. But the whiplash of trading small-town Texas for sold-out stadiums is nothing compared to the rush of performing with the enigmatic Thomas Patrick Halloran, who strikes an unforgettable chord in Clementine.

Kakigori Summer by Emily Itami
When music idol Ai is embroiled in scandal, her sisters, ambitious Rei and single mother Kiki, pause their lives and spend the summer with Ai in their childhood home on the Japanese coast so they can rescue their baby sister.

Kiss the Girl (Meant To Be #3) by Zoraida Córdova 🌶️🌶️
In this contemporary riff on Disney's The Little Mermaid, Ariel del Mar is one of the most famous singers in the world. She and her sisters—together, known as the band Siren Seven—have been a pop culture phenomenon since they were kids. On stage, wearing her iconic red wig and sequined costumes, staring out at a sea of fans, is where she shines. Anyone would think she’s the girl who has everything. But lately, she wants more...

Last Call at the Local (Love, Lists & Fancy Ships #3) by Sarah Grunder Ruiz 🌶️🌶️🌶️
When a careless mistake in Ireland leaves her unable to perform, Rainie Hart, a free-spirited American singer-songwriter living with ADHD, starts working at a local pub where she helps her charming OCD employer, Jack Dunne, reinvent his business, discovering a love to last a lifetime along the way.

Love Is A War Song by Danica Nava 🌶️🌶️🌶️
After a scandal, Native American pop singer Avery Fox escapes to her grandmother's horse ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the rez is new to Avery, plus the man who runs the ranch despises her and wants her gone. Red Fox Ranch has been home to Lucas Iron Eyes since he was 16 years old. Lucas can't stand what Avery represents, but forced to work with her on the ranch - he can't get her out of his head. They form a tentative truce and make a deal: Avery will help raise funds to save the ranch, and in exchange, Lucas will show her what it really means to be an Indian. 

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Against her wealthy family's wishes, floral designer Ricki Wilde opens a flower shop in Harlem and befriends jazz musician Ezra "Breeze" Walker, a man who's fallen out of time.

Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Two string players fight their attraction for each other as they compete for center stage in this spicy and emotional romance. Gwen Jackson and Xander Thorne are both musical prodigies, but each has had very different paths to success. Xander was born into classical music royalty, while Gwen had a natural ear for music that was nurtured by a kind shop owner. After Gwen performs at his friend's wedding, she's mortified when she realizes Xander has no clue who she is - despite having worked together for a year at the Pops Orchestra. But she's more furious that he arrogantly critiques her performance.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld 🌶️🌶️🌶️
A sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, Sally Milz pokes fun at the phenomenon of talented but average men who've gotten romantically involved with beautiful women and how the reverse never happens until she meets a pop music sensation who flips the script on all her assumptions.

The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer
Two generations of a folk-rock dynasty collide over art, love, longing and family secrets.

Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Haunted by emptiness despite her status as a coveted songwriter, Joni Lark returns to her North Carolina hometown where her family's closing music venue sparks a mysterious telepathic connection with a guarded musician determined to complete a haunting melody.

Wreck The Halls by Tessa Bailey 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
The adult children of two former rock stars who team up to convince their estranged mothers to play a Christmas Eve concert.

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Note: The chili peppers denote the steaminess, or spice level, of a book's romantic/intimate elements; visit https://www.romance.io/steamrating for the key.