Among the many things wrong with 2017 as a year is the fact that I hardly read any romance novels during it. What happened? I do not know! Either my brain just forgot romance novels were a thing, or else I was having such an amazing reading year that I didn’t have time to pause and spend some time doing comfort reads.
Either way, NO MORE. In 2018 I am going to get back to reading my romance novels, because I love them and they are a blessing in my life. Here is a small round-up of some of the romance novels I’ve been enjoying lately.
A Princess in Theory, Alyssa Cole
HOW excited have I been for this new series from Alyssa Cole? Very, very, very, very, and that was even before I discovered that the fictional country this prince is from is basically Lesotho. I love Lesotho! It’s small but it’s plucky.
Prince Thabiso has come to America to track down the girl he was betrothed to in childhood, who disappeared long ago. Naledi Smith is just trying to get herself through grad school — but she’s very taken with the new guy who showed up at her day job (well one of them) and appears to have coincidentally sublet the apartment across from hers. (Surprise, the new guy is Thabiso using a fake name so he can get to know her.) Excellent sex, longstanding trust issues, and epidemiology ensue.
A Princess in Theory is such a charmer of a book, with a hero sweet and swoony enough to make up for the (many) lies he’s telling Naledi, and a prickly and ambitious heroine with no interest in becoming a princess. I am not one to get emotional over romance novels, and I teared up a few times reading this one: Alyssa Cole puts so much heart into all the characters and relationships, not just the romance at the center of the book. I loved spending time in this world and in Not!Lesotho. I can’t wait to read the other books in this series.
(Does Likotsi get a book? Seemed like she had some stuff going on, and I’d like to know what that stuff is, and also Likotsi is a doll and I want her to find happiness.)
I received an electronic copy of A Princess in Theory for review consideration from the publisher.
Dance with Me, Alexis Daria
Aaaaaah okay so Dance with Me is the second in a series about dancers on a Dancing with the Stars analogue reality show. This one is about professional dancer Natasha Diaz, who suddenly experiences a wave of misfortune: Her apartment floods, and her super tells her that she has to move out while the apartment deals with a bug problem. Reluctantly, she moves in with her friend-with-benefits, show judge Dimitri Kovalenko, just as their show cracks down on intra-cast relationships. Natasha vows that she will keep things platonic between them, but it is a romance novel sooooooooo.
In a lot of ways, Dance with Me is right up my alley. I love the details about a dancer’s life, and the different ways Natasha and Dimitri plan for the inevitable end of their work as active dancers. It’s also one of those romances where the two principals each believe that they are more into the other than the other is into them, which leads to plenty of that good angst. They’re each well integrated into a network of support, a thing I love in romance novels, and not just because it means that there are more stories to tell in this world.
My big gripe is that Natasha vows not to have sex with Dimitri, immediately has oral sex with him, and then is like “Wow I almost broke my vow.” This is one of my hugest pet peeves. Penetrative sex is not the only or even the main kind of sex that exists in this world, and it frustrates me no end to see characters talking as if it is.
The Wedding Date, Jasmine Guillory
Having seen The Wedding Date garner praise from Roxane Gay as well as the Fug Girls, I had every confidence it would charm me, and it absolutely did. After getting stuck in an elevator with Drew Nichols, Alexa Monroe agrees to be his date (and pretend girlfriend) for the wedding of his ex to his best friend. I won’t tell you if Alexa and Drew end up real-dating but — well, of course they end up real-dating. Come on.
The Wedding Date reminded me of the things I love about contemporary romance novels, even though I sometimes forget and only read historicals for a bit. It’s fun and rom-commy, and parts of it feel exactly like a falling-in-love-montage in a movie, and I love those montages. I don’t care that they are cheesy, I love them. There’s a degree to which the problems between Alexa and Drew could have been solved with an honest conversation, but I didn’t tremendously mind. I just enjoyed watching them go to parties and make jokes and care about each other. The Wedding Date was exactly the confection I wanted.
Also: I am starting a new thing called IS THIS ROMANCE WRITER ALSO A LAWYER, because for some reason, oodles and oodles of romance writers seem to be lawyers. I don’t know why!
ARE THESE ROMANCE WRITERS ALSO LAWYERS: Alexis Daria and Alyssa Cole, so far as I am able to discern, are not. Jasmine Guillory is! Lawyers love to write romance novels!
What’s next?
All you who read romance novels, please rec me some good ones that you’ve read lately! These are three contemporaries, which has been lovely, but now I would like to read some historicals or perhaps even some sci-fi or fantasy ones. Leave your recommendations in the comments, please!