Take the Reading(s) challenge!
Ten books. Ten months. Ten prompts to challenge your reading in 2026.
Pick up a free challenge card at your local Readings or see all ten prompts and download a printable version here.
It's February, the official start of the Reading(s) challenge! This month's prompt is a touch of romance, so here's a collection of books to inspire you and get you reading! (Plus some that could also work for prompts later in the year … )
A funny book
The Wedding Forecast
Nina Kenwood
Get ready to laugh-out-loud with this delightful romcom from local Melbourne author, Nina Kenwood! There's forced proximity, a trip to New York and lots of cringy moments! You're going to love it.
Anna was never going to have an easy time at her best friend's wedding. She's the bridesmaid; her ex, Joel, is a groomsman. But she's determined to get through the festivities with a smile on her face. Anna has all her feelings completely under control – right up until the moment Joel drops a bombshell that rocks her to her core.
She needs a distraction, and Patrick, the wedding photographer, just might be the solution. Everyone has decided he is perfect for her. He is perfect for her. But the arrival of Mac, a not-quite-famous actor who has flown in from New York, complicates everything …
A debut author
Side Character Energy
Olivia Tolich
We love to support emerging writers at Readings, and we reckon you're going to love this sharp, wise and utterly hilarious Aussie debut!
Gertrude is Bee's best friend since forever (and also her flatmate, workmate and Insta content videographer). She's happy for Bee – just as she's been sad for Bee during those romantic missteps, and supportive of Bee in everything else. Actually, now she thinks about it, Gertrude isn't sure there even is a Gertrude that isn't determined by what Bee wants or thinks or feels.
Panicked to realise she's not the main character in her own life, she turns to William's best friend, Arthur. He isn't the obvious choice for life coaching – apart from anything else, Gertrude doesn't really like him – but everyone else is...Well, there is no everyone else. Just Bee.
Arthur's mission is to find out whether there's more to Gertrude than she thinks, and if so, what it is. The problem is, that might throw up some hard questions – about her life, her choices and above all, her friendship with Bee.
Side Character Energy is a sharp, wise, hilarious novel about love-romantic, platonic and toxic – from a brilliant new voice in Australian fiction.
A crime novel
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates
Shailee Thompson
Do you enjoy your romantic fiction with a sprinkle of murder? Then this is the book for you!
When cinephile Jamie Prescott attends a speed-dating event, she expects to meet some mediocre men and have a laugh – she doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at her table during a blackout. When the lights come back on, there are more bodies on the floor and the doors are locked.
Armed with makeshift weapons and her extensive knowledge of what not to do in a slasher, Jamie must figure out how to make it out of the building alive. But as the night progresses, she begins to suspect the killer is committing the slayings to woo one of the daters. And why can’t Jamie stay focused on the important thing here, which is obviously not getting murdered, instead of being distracted by a few hot guys? And what if one of those hot guys happens to be the bad guy? Oops …
A First Nations author
Red Dust Running
Anita Heiss
A romance with a 'real-life cowboy' … need I say more?
After a disastrous relationship effectively torched her personal and professional life in Sydney, Annabelle is back in Brisbane. She's about to start her dream job launching and curating a First Nations gallery in the city, and this time, nothing is getting in the way of her important work. Certainly not romance, even if her new neighbour is really cute.
Everything is going to plan until a birthday trip to the rodeo with her tiddas brings Annabelle up close and (very) personal with Dusty Davies, bona fide cowboy. Opposites may attract, but Annabelle's not built for the rodeo life. Anyway, Dusty doesn't take art and activism seriously like Annabelle does. It's just a country fling …
Can a real-life cowboy convince Annabelle to compromise for love, or will he be just another man left in the dust?
A poetry collection
Love Poems
Rupi Kaur
'love will come and when love comes love will hold you love will call your name' ... Chills! Read all of Rupi Kaur's love poems in one, beautifully-bound place!
Rupi Kaur's poetry is a source of comfort, empowerment, and emotional truth for millions around the world. Now, for the first time ever, her most cherished reflections on love are together in one place!
Love Poems is a curated collection of poems from Kaur's acclaimed body of work, including milk and honey, the sun and her flowers and home body, along with an all-new introduction and shareable Valentine's (and Galentine's!) Day postcards.
A nonfiction book
All About Love: New Visions
bell hooks
What is Love? Get ready for everything you think you know about love to change with his profound collection of essays!
'The word love is most often defined as a noun, yet … we would all love better if we used it as a verb', writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provacative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist skewers our view of love as romance. In its place she offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness.
As bell hooks uses her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen to explode the question 'What is love?', her answers strike at both the mind and heart. In thirteen concise chapters, hooks examines her own search for emotional connection and society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.
A green cover
After the Siren
Darcy Green
Heated Rivalry, but make it Australian! This queer romantic comedy, set in the world of AFL, will have you saying Shane and Ilya who?
Theo Bestavros did everything right. He worked hard, got his game-winning moment and – failed. He's determined to make the most of a second chance at the Brunswick Falcons.
Jake Cunningham has it all. He's a Falcons fan-favourite, a constant headline, and has no intention of being the first AFL player to come out.
Jake thinks Theo is hot. Theo thinks Jake is a colossal pain. When they're forced into extra training together, they don't expect to find friendship, let alone something that looks a lot like dating. But Jake doesn't want to come out, and Theo can't jeopardise his shot at redemption.
After the Siren is a romantic comedy about inconvenient attraction, second chances and the joys of AFL.
A romantasy
Immortal Dark
Tigest Girma
Vampires like you've never read before! This is the first book in a dark academia trilogy, full of dangerous romance, forced proximity and enemies to lovers. You'll devour it!
Orphan Kidan Adane is the heiress to a fallen House of humans bound to vampiric creatures known as draniacs. As a human, it is her responsibility to study and nurture the relationships between draniacs and humans at Uxlay University. But when her sister is kidnapped and Kidan suspects that her own house draniac, the enigmatic Susenyos, is to blame, she heads down a violent path towards vengeance, willing to hurt anyone who stands in her way.
Love it? Find book two here!
A cosy read
The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
Laurie Gilmore
It may still be summer here in Australia, but it's never the wrong time to cuddle up on the couch with a cup of tea and a cosy romance – you may just need to turn the aircon on! This rec is a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA (happy ever after) guaranteed!
When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Cafe in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.
Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs, so when Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine, he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl. Except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her …
Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes?
