I have a little secret. I was late to the romance table. Though I grew up with a romance reading mother, my initial interests lay in the fantastical worlds of Paulo Coelho, Anne Rice, and David Gemmel. Romance seemed forbidden, and I didn’t touch the genre until my late twenties, when a nasty breakup sent my disillusioned heart looking for more. And what a revelation! Romance taught me to expect more from myself and my relationships. At the close of one creative career, it lit an unstoppable passion to become a contemporary romance author. And here I am, a decade on, writing romance and sharing my book recommendations with you!
Forbidden love in a town where danger lurks at every corner.
Fleeing a family who wants to destroy her, jewelry heiress Emilia Bonacci, finds herself in the small, charming, and picturesque town of Harlow, Minnesota—where a chance encounter throws her into the path of her forbidden first love…Blaine Callaghan had big dreams until he made the mistake of falling for Emilia. Her powerful connections exiled him to this small town, away from his family and future. Seeing her now unearths years of buried love and resentment, but this earth-shattering attraction is impossible to avoid. Maybe they could be together this time. Except, a host of dangerous secrets threaten to tear them apart.
I’m not one to read a book twice, but this is one of those rare gems I go back to every once in a while.
Personally, I loved that the hero, Ted Beaudine, is more of an antihero in his aloofness and—kinda justified—vendetta against the heroine. Now, if an author can convince me to like a dislikable hero, I will sing about their book from the rooftops. So, here I am, singing.
Without giving too much away, Phillips does a masterful job of breathing life into her small-town Texas setting, as well as humanity into some truly surprising characters.
This is one of those books to kick back with and enjoy all the tingly good feels that will inevitably come.
R.S.V.P. to the most riotous wedding of the year ...To most people, Lucy Jorik is the luckiest girl on earth. Not only is she the daughter of a former president of the United States, she's about to marry Mr. Irresistible - Ted Beaudine - the favorite son of Wynette, Texas. The offspring of living legends, Meg Koranda is definitely not most people. She knows Lucy is making the biggest mistake of her life and she's determined to save her best friend from a mess of heartache. But even though Meg knows that breaking up the wedding is the right thing…
"With all the things going on in the world, this was just what I needed. I enjoyed this book so much. It's a laugh out loud romantic romp through a small town full of quirky characters." Amazon ★★★★★
It's going to be HOT in the Highlands this Christmas!
A former special forces officer. An ex-model. And a bet that could cost one of them their lifelong dream...
Kirsty Campbell's modeling career ended after a car crash left her scarred and gave her fiancé slash manager the chance to run off with her life savings. Silver lining? She found out he…
Caveat, I’ve studied Soviet history and my husband is Ukrainian, so when I saw Kissing Tolstoy was heavily drenched in Eastern European commentary—the hero being a Russian Literature Professor—I worried the author would miss a lot of the nuance. But she didn’t!
Now, you don’t need my background to like this book, but I did laugh out loud at some of the aptly put cultural quirks. Kissing Tolstoy is a wonderful mix of inner-city edge, meets intellectual romance.
A real treat if you’re looking for something fun and with depth!
Proceeds for the month of November go to hurricane relief efforts!What do you do when you discover that your super-hot blind date from months ago is now your super-hot Russian Lit professor?You overthink everything and pray for a swift end to your misery, of course!'Kissing Tolstoy' is the first book in the Dear Professor series, is 46k words, and can be read as a standalone. A shorter version of this story (28k words) was entitled 'Nobody Looks Good in Leather Pants' and was available via Penny Reid's newsletter for free over the course of 2017.
I can’t talk about contemporary books without mentioning the genre’s Queen, Nora Roberts. She’s the first romance author I ever read, and I have to say, Dance Upon Air really touched my “90s teenager” soul. Why, you ask?
Well, there was this exceptional time when everything New Age and witchy was in, and everyone listened to Enya, and mooned over Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock in Practical Magic. Ha! Roberts’ Three Sister’s Island series is all that in book form.
Think remote island, three women in the throes of finding love and themselves, with a magical and suspense-filled witchy subplot thrown in.
When Nell Channing arrives on Three Sisters Island, she hopes she has finally found refuge from her abusive husband. But even in this peaceful place, she feels haunted by fear. Then she discovers the island is suffering under a terrible curse and that she must find the power to save herself. Pbk: ISBN 0749932775.
On the New Adult side of contemporary romance, Archer’s Voice is heartfelt escapism at its best.
The heroine seeks to find a moment of peace in the quiet Lakeside town of Pelion, Maine. Both hero and heroine hold an element of innocence that leaves you wanting them to succeed, while Mia Sheridan does an impressive job of building the character arc of silent hero, Archer Hale.
And yes, I mean he’s literally silent—whilst still being a hugely intriguing and fully developed character.
This is a book for those who like wounded characters and against-the-odds battles of will.
A Goodread's "Top Romance Novel of All Time" A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller
I wanted to lose myself in the small town of Pelion, Maine. To forget everything I had left behind. The sound of rain. The blood. The coldness of a gun against my skin. For six months, each breath has been a reminder that I survived -- and my dad didn't. I'm almost safe again. But the moment I meet Archer Hale, my entire world tilts on its axis . . . and never rights itself again.
My book recommendations reflect an abiding passion for Japanese literature, which has unquestionably influenced my own writing. My latest literary interest involves Japanese poetry—I’ve recently started a project that combines haiku and prose narration to describe my experiences as a part-time resident in a 1300-year-old Japanese hot spring town that Bashō helped make famous in The Narrow Road to the Deep North. But as a writer, my main focus remains novels. In late 2023 the second in a planned series of novels set in Ishikawa prefecture will be published. I currently live in Kanazawa, but have also been lucky to call Sapporo, Akita, Tokyo, and Fukui home at different times.
Emmitt’s plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of purchasing their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover her subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo.
In his search for a meaningful life in Japan, and after quitting his job, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa’s most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English. He becomes drawn into the mysterious death of a friend of Mirai’s parents, leading him and his father-in-law to climb the mountain where the man died. There, he learns the somber truth and discovers what the future holds for him and his wife.
Packed with subtle literary allusion and closely observed nuance, Kanazawa reflects the mood of Japanese fiction in a fresh, modern incarnation.
In Kanazawa, the first literary novel in English to be set in this storied Japanese city, Emmitt's future plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of negotiations to purchase their dream home. Disappointed, he's surprised to discover Mirai's subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo, a city he dislikes.
Harmony is further disrupted when Emmitt's search for a more meaningful life in Japan leads him to quit an unsatisfying job at a local university. In the fallout, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa's most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English.
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