10 of the Best Outdoorsy Romance Books to Warm Up With

On the Pacific Crest Trail, two solo hikers discover partnership and love as they journey through the breathtaking wilderness. Alexei Lebedev was isolated even before he came out as gay to his homophobic family and lost contact. Then he lost his job too. Now, Alexei needs to get away and complete his dream hike. Ben Caravalho is a charismatic man looking forward to a post-grad gap year before he becomes a full-time nurse. Alexei and Ben discover unlikely companionship on their journey to find themselves. Sometimes you have to take what the path gives you and not look back.

As an asexual dancer, nightclub office manager, and fashion influencer, Joy knows she would love to go home to someone. Ideally, she would love to date her ace college best friend (and current boss), Malcom. So, when he invites her to an outdoorsy weekend away at a lakeside cabin, she expects a confession, not an impromptu birthday celebration for his latest girlfriend, Summer. He even wants Joy to keep Summer’s friend Fox busy. In a final effort to catch Malcom’s eye, Summer and Fox fake a relationship that turns into something decidedly real, changing Joy’s vision of her future altogether.

Kit Griffith left the Sisterhood of women artists to become a seaside bicycle seller in Victorian England. He is excited for his fresh start, but hasn’t been able to paint since he left London, so Kit wants to refuse Muriel Pendrake’s commission to illustrate British seaweeds for her botany research. But Kit does need Muriel’s help if he wants to prove to the local all-male cycling club that women can ride bicycles too. So begins their seaside bicycle trip and an unlikely romance that might steady their passionate lives.

Being a black girl with vitiligo in a small California town may have challenged Lily-Grace Leroux, but Jesse Pleasant’s quiet protection always comforted her. Lily-Grace has been away for years, but when a man at her former tech job sexually harassed her and no one took her side, she came home. She didn’t expect to find Jesse so unsettled by the pressure of co-owning his family ranch that his angry reaction to Lily-Grace’s father and Jesse’s grandmother dating puts the older man in the hospital. Consulting therapists, his family, and an angry Lily-Grace, Jesse realizes he must change if he wants to move forward. Jessie and Lily-Grace’s relationship is anything but easy, but it is worth the effort.

When Avery Fox’s Rolling Stone cover in a feather warbonnet turns her successful Native American pop star persona into a national joke, she retreats to her estranged grandmother Lottie’s Oklahoman ranch. Working outdoors and living on the rez is new to Avery. It doesn’t help that Lucas Iron Eyes runs the ranch and hates her. Lucas does everything to preserve his culture, so he cannot stand pop star personas like Avery’s. But as they begin to work together to keep the ranch open, their truce transforms their adversarial relationship into something decidedly amorous.

When a city girl with wedding planning aspirations gets a failing horse farm from her estranged aunt’s estate, a hot farrier changes everything she thought she wanted. Molly knows starting a wedding planning company cannot happen on a barista’s salary, so when she’s gifted a run-down horse barn, she jumps at the chance to fix it up and sell the place for capital. Molly didn’t expect to meet Shani, a grumpy, hot farrier who nursed Molly’s late aunt until she passed. Shani doesn’t think a city girl like Molly can adapt to country life, but even she cannot help but be charmed by her relentless cheeriness.

Pilar can steal a ship in her sleep after being raised by pirates, so she never expected Noah to track her down after she tied him to a bed and took his ship. Noah never wanted to settle down… Until he met Pilar: the woman who stole his ship and his heart. He is more than willing to convince her that he could be the one for her. One thing’s for sure, charting a course on the high seas together will take their combined talent and commitment.

In 2005, Luca Torres knew writing a queer sex and relationship column as a recent journalism grad would be difficult. It’s why, when a major paper offers him a big payout for a feature exploring a summer-long celibacy vow, he takes the assignment. Luca knows he needs to avoid temptation if he wants to succeed, so he takes an isolated job in a national park fire watchtower. Just his luck that the only other person he meets out there is a gorgeous, flirtatious bear, Artair Osmond. Luca’s journalistic integrity is pushed to the limit as Artair offers a cozy, sexy temptation in the great outdoors.

Wyatt and Easton have been best friends their entire lives. At twelve, Wyatt realized he was in love with his straight best friend, and although Easton never cared that Wyatt was gay, he knew the rest of their small Texas ranch town would. He is resigned to staying by Easton’s side until he realizes he’s going to have to watch Easton marry someone else. Over the next decade, the two confront tragedy and find their way back to each other, but it takes years for Easton to realize he’s demisexual and absolutely in love with Wyatt. But will he be too late?

At the reading of her father’s will, Nora realizes she and her sister were her father’s secret second family. Although he only left them a dilapidated beach house in rural Maine, she figures renovating it with her sister is better than staying home and dealing with the backlash of her leaked racy viral video. But when they get there, the place needs a lot of work, and a local tour guide, Ennis “Bear” Freeman, appears to be using the property as part of his tour route. Bear figures the city girls will give up renovating his unofficial tour headquarters within a week, but when they stick around, he begins to realize his business would benefit from a partnership with Nora. If he can keep her around long-term, they might be able to build something that could last.