(The new author discovery is embarrassing because omg Shana Galen has been around forever and it’s weird that I haven’t read any of her books before. Don’t judge me, just recommend me which Shana Galen books I need to read next.)

Trust Me, Laura Florand

The angst scale has clarified a lot of things for me, including one of the reasons I keep coming back to Laura Florand, whose books feature not just angst but really delicious food. Trust Me is the third in a series I haven’t read, which ordinarily wouldn’t matter but here matters — a bit. Our heroine, Lina Farah, is recovering from an attack that happened in the second book in the series, which made me feel slightly behind the times.

But there isn’t too much information missing here: She’s recovering from a trauma, and she falls for the black-ops guy who’s been tasked with her protection. This is the kind of set-up that can lead to high-handedness on the part of the protector, but Florand manages (mostly) to show that Jake’s main wishes for Linah are happiness and freedom. He doesn’t want to wrap her up in cotton wool; he wants her to get her life back. It’s a refreshing stance from a black-ops guy in a romance novel.

(Before you ask: Yes, I reported back to Whiskey Jenny on this book. Obviously. I would never read a book with a black-ops-guy hero and not tell Whiskey Jenny about it. I value our friendship too much for that.)

A Duke by Default, Alyssa Cole

What a better situation we are in now than a few years ago. A few years ago, I was pestering everyone to read Alyssa Cole’s Radio Silence trilogy, and mostly people did not know who she was. Now she is a Big Deal in Romance, and I am living for it, not least because it means she’s in the middle of writing several serieses that I adore. A Duke by Default is the second in her Reluctant Royals series (the first was A Princess in Theory), and it’s about a woman called Portia who’s trying to get her act together. She accepts an apprenticeship with a swordmaker in Scotland (this is modern day, so calibrate your expectations accordingly), who turns out to be a surprise duke.

A Princess in Theory stays my favorite in the series for now, but A Duke by Default is pretty fucking great too. Portia does brilliant work as the swordmaker’s publicity department, but continues to undervalue her skills as she’s been taught to do by her family. Along the way, she starts to find ways to adapt to her brain’s wiring in ways that maximize her talents — which makes this a very satisfactory romance in the sub-genre of protagonists learning to love themselves as well as their partners. There is also a #swordbae hashtag and some alluring glimpses into the love life of Portia’s sister, who I dearly hope will star in her own book soon.

Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies features two novellas by one of my longtime faves, Theresa Romain, and a new-to-me-but-good-heavens-why-has-it-taken-this-long author called Shana Galen. I don’t know to what extent romance authors play around in shared worlds, but can I say, having read Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, that I would be all for it. The school is designed to appeal to the daughters of gentry, but the skills it teaches range far beyond dancing and mathematics, to forgery and fighting and faking accents.

Though these two novellas are vastly different, they each feature a second-chance romance, which imo is the best path to take for a romance novella. “The Way to a Gentleman’s Heart,” by Theresa Romain, reminds me a little of Rose Lerner — another of my faves! Marianne Redfern always thought that she would marry Jack Grahame, until she learned that he was betrothed to a heiress. She fled her home and came to London, where she has worked hard to establish herself as a talented cook at Mrs. Brodie’s Academy. But now Jack Grahame has appeared on her doorstep and threatens to unsettle her whole tidy life. In this story you may expect plenty of delicious food and emotional negotiation; and it’s a wonderful change to see a historical romance where neither character enjoys extravagant wealth. (Hence the Rose Lerner comparison!)

Shana Galen’s “Counterfeit Scandal” is tonally entirely different, which again, I adore. This is what shared-world romance can offer us! It’s like Jane Unlimited!

Ahem, anyway. “Counterfeit Scandal” is about a spy called Caleb whose work required him to fake his own death years ago, leaving behind his beloved Bridget, an artist and counterfeiter who had just learned she was pregnant with his child. Eight years later, Caleb is back in town with a price on his head, and Bridget is determinedly trying to find the child she was forced to leave at an orphanage years before. My one note on this one is that space constraints don’t really allow for a resolution of Caleb’s plotline, which leaves an asterisk on his HEA with Bridget and little Jimmy.

What romances have y’all been enjoying lately?

The post Romance round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

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!

The post Epidemiology and Elevators: A Romance Novels Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.