Cat Sebastian has become one of my go-to romance authors for just consistently tender romance content. (My favorite and most tenderest is The Ruin of a Rake, but they’re all terrific.) Her latest, Hither Page, is set between the wars in England and features a shell-shocked doctor who has retreated to a small English town to escape his memories of the war. Meanwhile the titular Leo Page has been sent to the small English town to investigate a suspicious murder and discover whether there’s any Spy Stuff afoot.
Although I don’t tend to like romances that follow a single couple across multiple books, I would make an exception if Hither, Page could be the start of its own series. James Sommers and Leo Page, solving crimes between the wars! I’d be so into it. The central romance was a good one: James has retreated from the world, but the world — in the form of Leo Page — has very much not retreated from him. He’s one of these protagonists who claims to want peace and quiet, but then falls in love with the least peaceful least quiet party imaginable — because actually what James wants a retreat from is chaos, which he has known far too much of in the War. On his side, it’s a question of making space for, if not adventure, then at least the unexpected. Meanwhile Leo, who has always thrived on the chaos of spycraft, but has never had a real family, begins to find something appealing and desirable in small-town life.
The setting was chef’s kiss, with a gorgeous cast of secondary characters, from sharpshooting lesbians to an orphan girl instituting minor townwide socialism to a even-shell-shocked-er-than-James veteran living in the forest and avoiding human company. If there was any problem with this as a murder mystery, it was that I couldn’t identify anyone who sucked enough that I wanted them to be the murderer. I wanted everyone to live happily ever after, and hey! It’s a romance novel! So they did!
(I received an e-galley of this book for review. Do we still have to make this disclosure? It’s so weird. Newspaper reviewers don’t have to make this disclosure. What even is this life.)
Because I tend to skew historical in my romance reading, I haven’t read nearly as many sports romances as I would like. Off the top of my head, the only one I could think of was the Ruthie Knox romance about long-distance biking or whatever (Ride with Me), and that’s on the outer edges of what could be considered a sports romance. I was delighted to find Alexa Martin’s Intercepted, the first in a series about the romantic lives of the fictional Denver Mustangs NFL team.
I read Intercepted after a bit of a break from romance reading, and it was the greatest reminder of why I love this genre so much. Though the sex scenes were a little awkward, I just absolutely loved the two central characters, and I loved how easily Martin wrote reasons for them to be apart as well as together. Marlee had a one-night stand with Gavin, but he disappeared the morning after, and she’s been trying to forget about it ever since. She’s dating Chris now, and things are going well, except that he keeps making excuses for why they’re not getting engaged or talking kids. And then Gavin gets traded to the Mustangs, and everything changes.
Gavin’s first on-page appearance sees him helping with the dishes. YES the bar is low for men but I AM SOFT FOR THIS. Dishes are such a pain! It is the best when a guest helps with them! And then he stayed my fave by consistently and staunchly standing up for Marlee throughout the rest of the book. Not only is this a terrific trait in a romantic lead, but it also sets up a central conflict in their relationship, which is that Marlee wants to fight her own fights, and it’s hard for Gavin to step back and let her do it.
The banter and chemistry between the leads was wonderful, which tends to be a common feature of romances I love? But where Intercepted truly shines is its putdowns. Marlee and Gavin, and even Marlee’s gentle friend Namoi, end up in confrontations with assholes a bunch of times over the course of the book, and Martin has them put the jerks resoundingly in their place. It’s so satisfying. If you’ve ever experienced l’esprit de l’escalier, where you think of the perfect thing to say as you’re on the way home from the confrontation with the asshole, Intercepted will be balm to your soul.
The next book in this series is about adorable sunshine wide receiver TK. He had a minor role in this book, but he was such a bunny. I can’t wait for him to find happiness!
Many thanks to the marvelous Not Now, I’m Reading podcast for recommending Adriana Herrera’s American Dreamer, because it was a treasure. The protagonists are a food truck owner hoping to make it big in Ithaca, NY, and a public servant working to establish a mobile library to get books to poor kids. Yes, those are their jobs. Yes, it is as great as you’re imagining. Jude hasn’t spoken to his family since he came out, while Nesto has a massive, loving, supportive family; Nesto is driven and open, while Jude is more careful of his heart.
Just, what a dear and kind book. You can tell a social worker wrote it, if I may be slightly vain about my own people: Herrera writes with such compassion, and she neither glosses over the hardships and traumas that life can bring, nor presents them as insoluble. Instead, she’s truly solving a feelings problem, unpeeling the challenges that Nesto and Jude face with care and kindness. This book felt so emotionally true, and I maybe cried a little bit while I was reading it, although in justice to me I was on a plane.
(Ugh, that’s a lie, I wasn’t on the plane yet, I was just making excuses. I was in the airport waiting for a very delayed flight.)
I CRIED ABOUT THIS NEXT ONE TOO, frankly I do not know what y’all want of me. The latest in Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals, A Prince on Paper, series follows Ledi’s cousin Nya, whose father was caught doing many treasons and also poisonings.1 After years of being told that she’s frail and foolish and should stay home and be the dutiful daughter, Nya is trying to find an independent life for herself. New York didn’t match her movie-montage dreams, and she’s headed back to pretend-Lesotho when she finds herself in bed (litrally!) with the playboy prince of pretend-Luxembourg, Johan.
Nya and Johan were absolutely terrific. Their blossoming mutual admiration for each other was perfectly written, and y’all know I am soft for romances where they admire each other. In particular, they’re able to see qualities in each other that individually they struggle to see for themselves. While Nya fears she’ll never be brave, Johan admires the bravery in her choice to live life with an open heart. While Johan is afraid that his many pretenses (put on to protect his younger sibling from media scrutiny) mean that there’s nothing more to him, Nya is able to see his good heart almost from their very first meeting at the start of the book.
That’s not why I cried, though. I got mushy as shit about Johan’s younger sibling Lukas, who’s begun acting out for reasons neither Johan nor his stepfather (the king!) can understand. And with a looming referendum to decide whether the monarchy will be retained or abolished, it’s more important than ever that Lukas doesn’t tumble into scandal. Nya’s able to see a scared kid trying to find a place in the world, and Lukas coming out to her as nonbinary is just the dearest thing. And when Lukas comes out to their father, and receives nothing but support (even if it’s a little clumsy at first), I cried even more. Every time I think about their dad’s reaction I get choked up all over again.
Gosh, I have missed romance! It’s been a minute since I read a whole bunch of them in a row, and it felt so great to read four in a row where I really loved all of them. Catch me up, friends! What romance novels have you been reading? Any new favorite authors?
- Not fun, noble, Captain America-genre treasons. Real, bad treasons. ↩