• Book cover of The Sweet Talker
    Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    The Sweet Talker by Gina Azzi

    I’ve sworn off hockey players. Until the pregnancy test turns pink.

    Noah Scotch is revered in Boston, a veritable god on the ice. I’m a nerdy, newly minted college professor who would rather color code my planner than hit the club scene. Noah shouldn’t look at me twice but when he does, I falter. Who can blame me? The sweet talker with the deliciously chiseled abs and sinful chocolate eyes is a force. On and off the ice. One hot and intense night with Noah has me second guessing my lack of a dating life. Growing up in a hockey family, I know better than to get serious with a player. But the more time I spend getting to know Noah, the more my intention to keep things casual rings false. Now, I’ve got a hopeful heart and a baby on the way. I just need to tell Noah. But when I do, will I end up with everything I never knew I wanted? Or on my own? A  review of the novel:

    “Indy is a great character: smart, driven, focused and still fun. Noah is super sweet and funny, so I liked them both immediately. The supporting cast is Indy’s family, Noah’s brother and other players for the Boston Hawks and I liked them all. They set up the next story in the series well and make me want to read the next one. This is a low-angst, HEA story with real heart and lots of laughs. I highly recommend it.” Daisy Knox

     

     

  • Book cover of Hope for the Cowboy
    Best Christian Romance Books

    Hope for the Cowboy by Hannah Jo Abbott

    He’s committed to the ranch he loves, she’s just here for a job, but they just might find each other too.

    Katie Wadford is devastated after being fired from her job as an account manager. When no other large firms in town will hire her, she’s desperate to find a place to prove herself. Reluctantly she returns to her hometown in hopes of working for a small business to boost her resume. Sawyer Macklin is certain that his family ranch doesn’t need a business manager. When his father hires one anyway, Sawyer agrees to get along. But the woman who shows up in high heels isn’t anything like what he expected. When Katie offers the ranch as the location for a church fundraiser, Sawyer volunteers to help, but only so he can tell her it’s a bad idea and put an end to it. He finds out Katie is a hard person to say no to. As they learn to work together, will Sawyer’s fears of his past mistakes keep them apart, or will they both find a future they didn’t expect? A five-star review of the novel:

    “Hope for the Cowboy is a well written, sweet, heartwarming, small town romance. I love the characters, the family dynamics (6 brothers, wow!), small town nosiness and more. For both Katie and Sawyer, life has not worked out as they had hoped. Their first meeting is upsetting for both, but as they work together, their relationship grows in a realistic way. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their story unfold.” Bernadette Cinkoske – Goodreads

     

     

  • Book cover of One True Loves
    Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

    A breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

    In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever. Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness. That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves. Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly? The author on her inspiration for the novel:

    “I really wanted to write about an impossible situation. A woman who has to choose between the husband she thought she lost and the fiancé who has made her believe in love again felt pretty impossible to me. I kept asking my friends, ‘If this happened to you, what would you do?’ The fact that no one had an answer felt like a great place to start a book.” Taylor Jenkins Reid

     

     

  • Book cover of Highland Renegade
    Best Historical Romance Books

    Highland Renegade by Cynthia Breeding

    She just has to win over the handsome Scottish laird whose family has lived there for centuries. How hard could it be?

    Emily, the Dowager Countess of Woodhaven, has received title to lands in the Highlands—MacGregor lands—and after surviving an abusive marriage, she’s determined to make a new start…without a man. When Ian MacGregor heard that the Sassenach countess was actually laying claim to his lands, he figured to scare the aging widow away by showing her the hardships of living in the Highlands. She’d leave before the first snowflake fell. But he never imagined that the widow was young and beautiful and more territorial than a she-wolf. No matter, he’ll prove that a fragile, London woman like her would never survive life without her servants…and if he happens to give her the coldest and most remote rooms, all the better. Despite his best efforts to freeze her out, things between them heat up. But Highlanders hate the Sassenach, so Ian faces a dire choice—his clan or the irresistible English aristocrat who seems to have taken not only his lands, but also his heart. High praise for the novel:

    “The chemistry between Ian and Emily sizzles off the page, and keeps you turning until the last moment, and there is more than just romantic happiness at stake, when it seems somebody is out to make Emily’s life even more miserable than he had ever originally intended.”
    Author Jennifer C. Wilson

     

     

  • Book cover of Summer in Sweetbriar Cove
    Best Contemporary Romance Novels

    Summer in Sweetbriar Cove by Melody Grace

    Two novels in one, Summer un Sweetbriar Cove takes you to the charming small town on Cape Cod that’s home to friendship, laughter, and feel-good romance. 

    In MEANT TO BE, a runaway bride goes in search of true love on Cape Cod. Romance author Poppy Somerville is hiding out at her aunt’s beach house after calling off her wedding. Handsome next-door-neighbor Cooper is soon keeping her up all night – in more ways than one – but can the couple find a way to heal from past heartache and write a new happily-ever-after? In ALL FOR YOU, pastry chef Summer Bloom is opening her dream bakery in Sweetbriar Cove — much to the dismay of local bookstore owner/landlord Grayson Reid. He’s learned the hard way that a woman can turn your whole world upside down, but Summer’s kisses – and those chocolate croissants – are too tempting to ignore. Can this headstrong pair mix the right ingredients for love? The author on writing about writing in the new adult genre:

    “New adult is about the time when your choices create the world you live in. The relationships you have in your late teens and early twenties are the ones you remember for the rest of your life: everything is intense and new, but has so much consequence too. That vivid, crazy emotion is so much fun to write, and it’s been an amazing challenge to explore the adult side of relationships too.”
    Melody Grace