14 Books to Read If You’re Desperate to Bring Back Yearning

Retelling the story of the Trojan War, The Song of Achilles follows hero Achilles and his childhood friend Patroclus. As they grow up and train together, their bond only strengthens. They’re thrust into a life of battles, wars, and suffering, but with no signs of peace ahead, they’re forced to consider what they’re willing to sacrifice to end the war, and save each other.

Anne Elliot was once persuaded to break off her engagement to the man she deeply loved, Captain Frederick Wentworth, due to his lack of wealth and status. Now, eight years later, Anne remains unmarried and quietly endures life with her snobbish family. When Captain Wentworth returns, wealthy and successful, their paths cross again. Amidst the intricate social dynamics of Regency England, Anne must navigate her lingering feelings for him while grappling with the pressures of family, society, and her own sense of self-worth.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win.

Grey Flynn has dedicated her life to her mage, Kier. She will be his blade on the battlefield, his healer and protector. They are bound together by blood and magic, but there is one truth Grey dare not reveal. When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into a dangerous mission, Grey will need to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to protect her secret. For Grey is no ordinary magical well, and if she dies, all magic dies with her.

Aiden Valentine has fallen out of love with love. As the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls the station for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden into the limelight. Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life, she begins to question if she’s as happy as she believed.

Scarlett just wants to concentrate on getting into med school and on recover from the diving injury that almost ended her career. Swim captain, world champion, aquatics golden boy, Lukas, thrives on discipline. On the surface, they have nothing in common. Until a secret slips out, and they start an arrangement. It was supposed to be just a mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water.

To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight. The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can’t put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom—and the world.

When Philippe stumbles upon a young man outside a hotel who bears a striking resemblance to his first love, he looks back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Thomas is the son of a farmer; Philippe the son of a school principal. At school, they don’t acknowledge each other. But they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair. Years have passed, but Philippe has never lets go of the relationship that shaped him.

Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard and find someone decent to love. That plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it. Then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact.

Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies. Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life—begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened lord of the river who had long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the 13 years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels. Grant knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up. But the key to making peace with their past might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer. Shane Hall is a reclusive, award-winning novelist. When the two meet at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that when they were teenager, Eva and Shane spent one crazy week madly in love. They can pretend they’ve never met, but they can’t deny their chemistry—or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books through the years.

In the near future, a recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible. A civil servant is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with and monitoring the expat known as Commander Graham Gore. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.

The Abbey has controlled the minds of its patrons for a millennium through memory magic, stolen from exiled saints. Jude was exiled from the Abbey to the countryside to maintain their control over his magic. Almost a decade later, he wants to live a life free from the Abbey’s gaze. When they send Maeve, a devout iconographer, to paint an updated icon of him, Jude discovers she holds the same tainted magic of the saints as he does, and that the icons she paints may be the key to destroying the Abbey’s power.