The best books on amazing homecoming (of sorts) romances

Who knew hot farmers with a dirty mouth were my kind of thing? Not me... at least not until I read this delight of a book and met Noah Barden, that is.

Whoo boy... The gist of the story is that Shay Zucconi’s step-grandmother ran a tulip farm in the place she always viewed as her hometown. It’s where she went to high school... and where she became good friends with Noah Barden. Fast forward by a decade or so and Shay gets left at the altar by her truly subhuman fiancée.

While drowning her sorrows on a friend’s couch, she learns her step-grandmother has passed away and left her the tulip farm. With a catch – she’s got to live there for a year and get married in that same year. Guess who’s only too willing to help her out with that pesky little clause?

I love this book because of the way it evokes a sense of place. You feel Shay’s hesitancy to return to her hometown because of what it represents to her. You feel the way Noah is at once at home and still an outsider in their shared hometown. The place itself is a real character in the book, which I love.

It provides a sense of community, good and bad, for each of the main characters. You also get that nostalgic sense of highs school memories overlaid with who Shay and Noah are as adults, which I think Canterbary uses brilliantly to help show the growth of the characters as well as their own ingrained stumbling blocks leftover from childhood. 

Fair warning, though, if you’re trying to cut down on your carbs do not read this book! Noah is not only a smoking hot farmer, he also makes his own breads and jams, so... be prepared for cravings of all kinds, lol!

I know Things We Never Got Over, or TWNGO for those of us “in the know”, has gotten all the love, followed by Things We Hide From the Light, but . . . as good as Lucy’s latest releases are, Rock Bottom Girl is still my absolute go-to book by Lucy Score.

While I don’t normally love it when the heroine comes home practically destitute, Lucy makes our main FMC Marley such a loveable screw up that it doesn’t bother me. Essentially, Marley has come home to live with her parents in an effort to kickstart her life. She’s lost her job, her man and essentially all hope.

Even worse is that her blonde, bouffanted (is that a word) high school nemesis now lives next door and seems to have a perfect life. Add to that she’s forced to take a teaching job (and girls soccer coach position) at her old high school, where Jake Weston – former high school bad boy – is also a teacher/coach.

Seems bleak, doesn’t it? But that’s where Lucy’s true talent lies – in making our down-on-her-luck heroine take stock of the mess she’s made of her life up to that point. Not just take stock of it, but actually own the choices she’s made, while also coming to grips with what she really wants in life.

Including something more than a fake relationship with Jake. Marley truly grows as a person during her time back in her hometown. And so does her relationship with Jake, which goes from fake dating to real love over the course of the book.

All of this is done with the right dose of humor and heart that makes Rock Bottom Girl a perfect hometown romance.

This is a bit of a twist on the hometown romance, because our heroine – Nora Stephens – is not a small-town girl, nor does she have any interest in being a small-town girl.

She is NYC through and through and loves her job as a literary agent there. Except when she’s forced to deal with that tight-ass editor Charlie Lastra. God, does she loathe the man.

Her sister, Libby, however doesn’t love Nora’s commitment to her job and city, which is why she insists on a girls’ trip to Sunshine Falls, NC, so Nora can focus less on work and more on putting a little romance into her life. Imagine Nora’s surprise stumbling across Charlie of all people in this sleepy little town.

Turns out, Sunshine Falls is Charlie’s hometown and he’s come back to help with his parents’ bookstore. While Nora might not be coming home to Sunshine Falls, she comes back to herself over the course of the month they spend in Charlie’s sleepy little hometown and discovers that despite her protests, she just might be the ideal heroine... for the right hero, of course. 

As with anything Emily Henry writes, the characters pop off the page in full, snapping detail, and none more so than Nora in all her cutthroat corporate glory. Nora is an amazing character because of the way she fully embraces her independence and does not apologize in the least for her success.

She is a powerful woman, and she wears it as elegantly as she does her couture. Charlie is excellent book boyfriend material, because he loves her drive as much as anything else about her. He sees her for who she is and what she wants and encourages her to go for more.

Plus, the man loves books! What more could you possibly want! These two are an amazing romance couple and it’s no wonder this book has been picked up by Tango to be made into a feature film.

Any and all of Jenny Bayliss’s books can be read at Christmas and leave you feeling just as good as a hot toddy with the perfectly sized slice of spice cake.

Each of her books is a delectable treat and an immersion in the holiday spirit, but Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is my absolute favorite. Probably because I adore the heroine – Elinor Noel, or Nory for short. She owns her own vintage bookshop in London, but grew up in the English countryside.

Her parents’ home was near a posh private school, which Nory received a scholarship to attend. Throughout the years, she’s remained close with her old school chums and now two of them are set to be married just before Christmas in the old castle on the school grounds. 

Isaac has taken over as head gardener for the castle estate. He tormented Nory when they were children, but he’s no longer a kid and neither is she. Their relationship takes a decidedly adult turn during the wedding reunion week, starting with her tumbling into a wheelbarrow of manure. Their love story is sweet and there are certain class/race angles that are handled well throughout the book.

The tension Nory feels with her brother, who didn’t get the same education and has a chip on his shoulder about her “fancy” school friends is well-done and relatable, given how strained some family holidays can become. Equally well executed is the genuine sense of love and affection you get from Nory’s family. They may not understand her choice to live in London instead of her hometown, but they’re all proud of her for doing it. 

The friendship dynamics in the group are great and give you that high school reunion vibe that rings completely true. The spice level on this one is pretty low, but the relationships between all the characters are fully developed and make you want to be a part of this friend group through its ups and downs.

Content warning: There is discussion of suicide, although the act itself happens off the page.

This is a homecoming book that skews hard in the revenge lane.

The Marquess of Borne had his lands, money, basically everything but his title and a few shillings taken from him by a jackass older aristocrat in a card game when he was a very young man. So, what else is he to do but devote the remainder of his life to revenge against the old coot and get everything back? Which is precisely what he does.

His plan requires a marriage to Lady Penelope Marbury, his childhood friend before he was banished by the shame of losing everything. And now that Bourne is back, only she can see glimpses of the boy that was her friend. The boy that answered the letters she wrote him while he was at boarding school, and she was left behind.

That boy is still beneath the hard shell of the handsome, but cold man before her. And she’s determined to draw him out. 

The homecoming aspect of this story is, as I said, revenge and retribution on those who wronged Bourne as a younger man. However, the real “homecoming” is when he realizes even if he gets all of that back – the land, the money, the esteem – none of it will mean anything without her.

Penelope has become his home, not the things he thought he had to have his entire life. She’s his way back to the boy he was and the man he wants to be. A man who can’t be without her.