Second Chance Romances to Read While Listening to Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You”
Posted on June 12, 2026
by Allison F
“And I remembered I loved you
Came back when it mattered, I saw you”
Well, well, well, if Ms. Taylor Alison Swift hasn’t done it AGAIN. (If this song doesn’t prove she’s a romance reader, I don’t know what will.)
2026 is the Summer of Second Chance Romance. Let’s celebrate with I Knew It, I Knew You playing on repeat, and a list of Second Chance Romances that will have you kicking your feet and giggling.
things we left behind by Lucy Score
Lucian Rollins is a lean, mean vengeance-seeking mogul. On a quest to erase his abusive father's mark on the family name, he spends every waking minute pulling strings and building his empire. The more money and power he gains, the safer he feels. Except when it comes to one feisty small-town librarian... Bonded by an old, dark secret from the past and their current mutual disdain, Sloane Walton trusts Lucian about as far as she can throw his designer-suited body. When bickering accidentally turns to foreplay, the flames are fanned, and it's impossible to put them out again. But with Sloane more than ready to start a family and Lucian refusing to even consider the idea of marriage and kids, these enemies-to-lovers are stuck at an impasse. Until Lucian learns the hard way that leaving Sloane is impossible--the very least he can do is to keep her safe
seven days in june by Tia Williams
Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer, who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning literary author who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York's Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can't deny their chemistry-or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since. Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva's not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal. But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered. . . With its keen observations of Black life and the condition of modern motherhood, as well as the consequences of motherless-ness, Seven Days in June is by turns humorous, warm and deeply sensual
left of forever by Tarah DeWitt
Wren and Ellis Byrd fell in love as kids, had their son Sam when they were only teenagers, and built a life together in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon. They were made for one another . . . until they fell apart. Now divorced and in their 30s, Wren runs the bakery in town, while Ellis works as a firefighter. They live separate lives, though they are hardly off each other's minds. When Ellis and Wren move Sam into college, Ellis convinces Wren to take an extended road trip back to Spunes to see if they can give their relationship one last chance. Amid the gorgeous California coastline and the intimacy they have missed for years, Wren starts to think it just might be possible. But can the past truly be left behind?
funny you should ask by Elissa Sussman
Then: twenty-something writer Chani Horowitz is stuck. While her former MFA classmates are nabbing high-profile book deals, all she does is churn out puff pieces. Then she’s hired to write a profile of movie star Gabe Parker: her number one celebrity crush and the latest James Bond. All Chani wants to do is keep her cool and nail the piece. But what comes next proves to be life changing in ways she never saw coming, as the interview turns into a whirlwind weekend that has the tabloids buzzing-and Chani getting closer to Gabe than she had planned. Now: Ten years later, after a brutal divorce and a healthy dose of therapy, Chani is back in Los Angeles as a successful writer with the career of her dreams. Except that no matter what new essay collection or online editorial she’s promoting, someone always asks about The Profile. It always comes back to Gabe. So when his PR team requests that they reunite for a second interview, she wants to say no. She wants to pretend that she’s forgotten about the time they spent together. But the truth is that Chani wants to know if those seventy-two hours were as memorable to Gabe as they were to her.
the summer of lost things by Chantele Sedgwick
New town, new friends, new guy . . . and an old bucket list. The past haunts the present in the newest installation in the Love, Lucas universe. After her dad is sentenced to prison time, seventeen-year-old Lucy Nelson and her mother move across the country to start over in the town-and farmhouse-where her mother grew up. Once settled, Lucy is determined to keep her mind off anything "real" and decides to pass the time by reading a stack of her mother's childhood books, which has sat in her grandmother's home for decades. When Lucy finds her mom's old summer bucket list shoved between the pages of a worn copy of Anne of Green Gables, she's eager to write her own list to escape her inevitable summer boredom. Feeling brave, she fills it with challenges she'd never normally do and also adds the one thing that her mother had never crossed off the original list: Visit Susan's grave. When Lucy befriends Mira and her handsome cousin, Jack, she begins to feel almost normal as they help check off her list. When she asks her mother about Susan, she refuses to talk about her. As Lucy falls for Jack, she yearns to tell him the truth about her dad and her old life but lies about everything instead. When her friends see through the lies and her mom reaches her breaking point over questions about Susan, Lucy must learn to trust her friends, try to bring peace to her mother, and to somehow find the courage to forgive her dad.
well, actually by Mazey Eddings
Eva Kitt never expected to be the host of Sausage Talk, interviewing B-list celebrities over lukewarm hot dogs, instead of pursuing the journalism career she dreamed of. But when Eva's impromptu public call out of her college ex goes viral, she's thrust into the spotlight. It doesn't help said ex is Rylie Cooper, a beloved social media personality that has built a platform on deconstructing toxic masculinity and teaching men how to be good partners. Forced to confront Rylie on a live episode of Sausage Talk, he offers Eva a deal: allow him to take her on a series of dates to make up for his toxic behavior, then debrief them on his channel to show he's changed. Eva refuses to play nice, but agrees to the scheme to advance her own career and continue defaming Rylie's good name. When these manufactured dates start to feel real, Eva has to wonder if the boy that broke her heart has become the man that might heal it.
it had to be him by Adib Khorram
Heartstopper meets Eat Pray Love in this swoony, spicy, second-chance romance from USA Today bestselling author Adib Khorram about two former classmates unexpectedly reuniting in Italy. Ramin Yazdani's marriage proposal has just gone bottoms up: his ex dumped him in public for being boring . Bent on proving him wrong, Ramin books a spontaneous solo trip to Italy. When he runs into his high school crush while in a gelateria, however, his resolve to reinvent himself is put to the test. Noah Bartlett's in a rut. Since his divorce, he's become a bit of a homebody. So when his ex-wife insists he join her and their son on an Italian holiday, Noah reluctantly agrees. But his reticence turns to excitement when he sees his former classmate, who's aged just like a fine wine. As a teenager, Ramin fascinated him-and since Noah now knows that fascination was code for crush -all those feelings are quick to come rushing back. Soon Ramin and Noah are tumbling headfirst into a relationship. Only Ramin fears Noah's feelings won't last without Ramin's adventurous new persona-and Noah's not sure he can be the supportive partner Ramin deserves. With the days counting down to the end of their trip, can their love last without the magic of Italy?
queen move by Kennedy Ryan
When star political consultant Kimba returns to Atlanta for some time with her family between campaigns, she runs into Ezra Stern--her childhood best friend and first love. Now running a private middle school for at-risk students, Ezra has just broken up with his long-time girlfriend and the mother of his son. Now that Kimba and Ezra have found each other again, it seems like everything stands in their way--secrets, lies, promises. But they haven't come this far only to give up now.
the pairing by Casey McQuiston
Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all. Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but-yeah. It's in the past. All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately. It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It's fine. There's nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition? But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can't have.
Did you like this blog post? Keep up to date with all of our posts by subscribing to the Library’s newsletters!
Keep your reading list updated with our book lists. Our staff love to read and they’ll give you the scoop on new tv-series inspired titles, hobbies, educational resources, pop culture, current events, and more!
Looking for more great titles? Get personalized recommendations from our librarians with this simple form.
