• Best Christian Romance Books,  Best Clean and Wholesome Romance,  Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Heart of Clay by Shanna Hatfield

    It’s never too late to give love a second chance. . . even for a hard-working cowboy.

    Callan Matthews awakens one day to the realization her husband has taken a nose dive off the pedestal where he’s resided since the moment they met. As Clay unwittingly tugs at the last few threads keeping her from completely unraveling, she has to choose between walking away or running back into his arms.

    Easygoing cowboy Clay Matthews works hard and plays even harder. He’s the last person to wade into emotional turmoil, but he’s up to his neck in it trying to decipher his wife’s suddenly frosty feelings toward him.  When tragedy strikes and a life-altering secret is revealed, this tender, sometimes humorous sweet romance embraces the beauty of letting go of the past and daring to fall in love all over again.

    The author on writing Heart of Clay:

    “I began writing my first book, Heart of Clay, in February 2010. I’d been toying with the idea of the story for a while and I finally decided to sit down and see if I could write it!  The idea was one of a realistic couple struggling to hang on to their marriage instead of letting it go.”

    Shanna Hatfield

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Plain Jayne by Laura Drewry

    Twenty-five years was a long time to be stuck in the Friend Zone.

    For the last dozen of those years, Jayne has lived half way across the country, and even though she and Nick have stayed in contact, she hasn’t actually seen him since he kicked her out of his wife’s funeral almost four years ago.

    Does she still have feelings for Nick? Possibly. . .maybe. . .okay, yes, but the Jayne who left town all those years ago is not the same Jayne who’s moving back. This Jayne is smarter, more experienced, and determined to build herself a better life, the kind of life she wants and deserves. She’s a grown-ass woman with a plan for crying out loud, and she’s not about to let these feelings for Nick slow her down another second. But from the second she hits town, she knows it’s only a matter of time before this freight train of disaster derails in spectacular fashion, and when it does, she’s not only going to lose her best friend, but the only family she’s ever known.

    The author’s inspiration for writing this book:

    “I’ve always enjoyed books set in small towns, and once Jayne presented herself to me, I knew her story had to take place in one, and what better thing to do in a small town than to own a bookstore? As for the best-friends theme, I’ve always loved those type of stories, so when Nick presented himself as her protector, it only made sense that these two would be best friends.”

    Laura Drewry

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    When You Got a Good Thing by Kait Nolan

    She thought she could never go home again. He can never know the truth about why she really left. 

    Kennedy Reynolds has spent the past decade traveling the world as a free spirit. She never looks back at the past, the place, or the love she left behind—until her adopted mother’s unexpected death forces her home to Eden’s Ridge, Tennessee.

    Deputy Xander Kincaid has never forgotten his first love. He’s spent ten long years waiting for the chance to make up for one bone-headed mistake that sent her running. Now that she’s finally home, he wants to give her so much more than just an apology.

    Kennedy finds an unexpected ally in Xander, as she struggles to mend fences with her sisters and to care for the foster child her mother left behind. Falling back into his arms is beyond tempting, but accepting his support is dangerous. Will Kennedy be able to bury the past and carve out her place in the Ridge, or will her secret destroy her second chance?

    The author on this series:

    “The Misfit Inn quartet is intended to highlight everything that I love about living in the small town South–all the quirks, foibles, and dreams that provide a fabulous backdrop to contemporary romances about stubborn, independent women and the men who love them.”

    Kait Nolan

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Bayside Desires by Melissa Foster

    Fall in love at Bayside, where sandy beaches, good friends, and true love come together in the sweet small towns of Cape Cod.

    As the co-owner of Bayside Resorts, Rick Savage has a fabulous job working with his best friends and brother, and a thriving business in Washington, DC, which he’ll be returning to at the end of the summer. Spending time with his family is great, but being back on Cape Cod has unearthed painful memories. When sweet, smart, and overly cautious Desiree Cleary moves in next door, Rick is drawn to the sexy preschool teacher, and she just might prove to be the perfect distraction.

    Running an art gallery was not in preschool teacher Desiree Cleary’s plans, but after being tricked into coming to her impetuous, unreliable mother’s aid, she’s stuck spending the summer with the badass half sister she barely knows and a misbehaving dog. If that’s not frustrating enough, she can’t escape the sparks igniting with her strikingly handsome and pushy neighbor, Rick, who makes all her warning bells go off.

    Passion ignites as Desiree and Rick spend long summer nights sharing heartfelt confessions and steamy kisses. For the first time in years Rick is enjoying life again instead of hiding behind mounds of work miles away from his family. Desiree has touched him in a way that makes him want to slow down. Only slowing down means dealing with his demons, and he isn’t sure who he’ll be when he comes out the other side.

    A few words on writing:

    The easiest part of writing—and the part that I find the most exciting—is the meeting and creating of the characters, and figuring out the storyline. It never fails to amaze me how much joy writing brings to my life. I look forward to finding out what happens next with my stories, probably just as much as my readers do. 

    Melissa Fostre

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    A Promise to Keep by Susan Gable

    Loving her wasn’t what he’d promised…

    Hayden Hawkins made a deathbed promise to his brother Ian: Hayden would watch over Ian’s son Nick, and the boy’s mother, Ronni. Despite Hayden’s initial feelings for Ronni, everything changed when she captured—then broke—Ian’s heart. Hayden’s avoided her since.

    Now Nick’s in trouble and needs Hayden’s guidance. It’s time to keep his promise. But getting close to Ronni stirs up old emotions, not all of them good. Then there’s the new chemistry they’re both feeling.

    The last thing Ronni needs is to get involved with former Marine Hayden, notoriously known as the love ‘em and leave ‘em member of the Hawkins family. Not that he’d want her anyway. Her own husband hadn’t wanted her…the cheating husband she’d intended to divorce before an IED in the Middle East blew up her entire life, trapping her in a prison of the vows he’d broken. Hayden can’t help but feel for her. She’s not the woman he thought she was. She deserves happiness. But neither of them can see how that’s possible.

    A few words on the power of books and writing:

    Books have always been one of my favorite places to seek refuge when life gets painful. I can do that by reading…or writing. And that may be the best way to make lemonade (or, you know, books) out of lemons.

    Susan Gable

  • Best Clean and Wholesome Romance,  Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Full Circle by Mona Ingram

    Single and pregnant, Bella is given a choice. Give up her child for adoption or leave town.

    The choice was never in doubt. Bella moves across the country, settling in Santa Monica. Determined to make a life for herself and her child, she and her new friend Sophia sell children’s clothing at the Venice Beach market. 

    When their creative designs are featured on television, their business takes off and they accept an offer from Rafael Vargas to expand their business. Bella fights her attraction to the handsome entrepreneur, but deep in her heart all she really wants is love.

    Mona Ingram on Full Circle‘s Rafael:

    The other hero who gets my heart started is Rafael, in Full Circle.
    Rafa is (of course) handsome, but he’s driven to succeed in business while being restrained in his personal life. I could go for him in a big way.

    Mona Ingram

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    The Littlest Cowboy by Maggie Shayne

    What’s a sheriff to do when he finds a baby on his doorstep?

    Sheriff Garrett Brand has raised his entire brood of siblings single-handedly, and he’s done his best to teach them some values, to mold them into honorable, responsible, and trustworthy human beings. So when a baby lands on the doorstep of the Texas Brand, his first question is which younger brother is in for a butt-kicking? But the little fellow isn’t named after Ben, or Wes, or Adam, or Elliot. The little feller is named after him–Garrett Ethan Brand–according to the note his mama left behind.

    He’s still racking his brain to figure it all out, when a woman shows up at the ranch in the dead of night, spitting, fighting mad, and accusing Garrett of murdering her sister and stealing the baby! Chelsea is confused, heartbroken, and too mad to think straight, and the same trouble that found her poor sister is right on her tail. But of all the places she and the baby could’ve wound up, Garrett thinks this ranch is the best one.

    Advice for aspiring writers from Maggie Shayne:

    Write. Just write, and write for the sheer love of it. Write with the same excitement you feel when you’re reading a real page turner. Write a story you cannot put down. Write with passion. Don’t write for anyone else but yourself. Love what you write. And just keep going and going and going.

    Maggie Shayne

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Saying I Do by Tracey Alvarez

    A jilted small-town doctor. An allergic-to-white bridal boutique owner. Can these two gun-shy cynics ever say ‘I Do’?

    Dr. Joe Whelan lost his taste for love when he was left at the altar–thanks to a woman who should’ve kept her focus on his fiancée’s bridal gown and out of his business. Moving to the remote Stewart Island wasn’t far enough to get away from those humiliating memories. Luckily Joe’s got a plan to both get even with the sharp-tongued firecracker who ruined his life, and to ensure his sister doesn’t marry the biggest mistake of hers.

    MacKenna Jones loves a good wedding so long as she’s not the one walking down the aisle. Now she’s temporarily back on Stewart Island and face-to-face with the good doctor who boils her blood one moment and weakens her knees the next. A seven day road trip with him to sabotage his sister’s wedding in the Marriage Capital of the World wasn’t her idea, nor was falling for his sexy bedside manner–so why are wedding bells ringing in her ears?

    Some writing advice from the author:

    Learn the craft first, help other writers along the way, keep reading good books, don’t compare yourself to anyone else, refuse to stop writing even if you never earn enough for an espresso, remember the sage advice that this journey is a marathon, not a race.

    Tracey Alvarez

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Substitute Bride by Noelle Adams

    For more than two years, Rose has been the nanny for James Harwood’s daughters.

    For more than two years, Rose has been the nanny for James Harwood’s daughters…

    She adores the girls, but she tries to maintain a professional distance with James—no matter how attractive she finds him. However, when his engagement falls apart and he starts to look at her differently, Rose no longer sees him only as her boss.

    James isn’t the kind of man to fall for his nanny, so he doesn’t know why he can’t stop thinking about her in very wrong ways. He’s determined to resist, to keep his life simple and to find an appropriate substitute for his wife who died. But with a manipulative ex-fiancée, two precocious daughters, Rose’s interfering Southern grandmother, a short-lived fake engagement, and feelings that won’t be denied, nothing remains simple for long.

    Noelle Adams on one thing she enjoys about writing:

    I always say that breaking down the traditional alpha hero into a genuine, vulnerable human being (which is my modus operandi) is one of my great joys in life.

    Noelle Adams

  • Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Summer at the Lake by Linda Barrett

    Flying Solo — single parents, second chances and the power of love…

    Veteran NY cop, Rick Cooper, heads to his family’s lake house after losing a hostage negotiation, resulting in the death a child. He brings only his dog and his saxophone for company. Single mom, Kristin McCarthy hears the sound of the saxophone gliding through the night air…a healing sound for her daughter.

     An attractive widow with a damaged kid are the last people Rick needs in his life, and he tries hard to remain aloof. The ladies, however, knock down his barriers simply by being themselves. Fearful but brave, smart but silly. Before long, warm feelings grow between him and Kristin. Feelings that spark potential for a future together. However, before Kristin allows herself to dream, Rick must prove he’s a man she and her daughter can trust. Can they count on him forever? 

    Awards Linda Barrett has received for this book:

    Award of Excellence, Wisconsin Romance Writers of America
    Write Touch Readers’ Award, Colorado Romance Writers of America
    Award of Merit–Holt Medallion, Virginia Romance Writers