Tis the season to be holly jolly, but I write these words with sorrow as I think about the untimely and sad passing of the great Sophie Kinsella. Her family wrote on Instagram that she slipped away happy to be surrounded by her family in the midst of the holiday season. Along with millions of readers world-wide, I am grateful for the many hours of joyous, romantic fun she gifted us. Her last novel, WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? was filled with the love and humor that defined her work even as it unveiled the heartbreak of the author (and the protagonist) battling a terminal glioblastoma. Shop in peace and joy, Ms. Kinsella, and thank you.
In other news, I am a white, middle-aged woman (any actuaries reading and calculating can take their interpretations of “middle” and leave, thank you very much) who fell in love with romance back when successors to Georgette Heyer were coming into their own. Yet this month I delighted in a number of titles that would have surprised the younger me. First off was a story I should have read when it came out several years ago. Christina Lauren’s AUTOBOYAGRAPHY is a book I now know, however, that I will treasure for years of rereads to come. The authors exquisitely portray a young, bisexual man coming of age in conservative Utah, in love with another young man who absolutely cannot be gay. I adored the family support surrounding Tanner, especially as it contrasted with the unyielding confines of Sebastian’s homelife. The best-friendship between Tanner and Autumn is another of this book’s gems, as is the respect and recognition the non-LDS authors show to the dominant Utahn Culture. At its heart, however, AUTOBOYAGRAPHY is a beautiful love story, replete with all the feels.
Coincidentally, the next book that beguiled me had a similar theme, set in an entirely different world. Once again, I am late to discover an author beloved by romancelandia, but Rachel Reid’s THE SHOTS YOU TAKE has made me an instant fan. Riley and Adam were rookie hockey players picked up by a pro team at the same time. They roomed together and became best friends, but only Riley had the courage to acknowledge the ever-present physical and emotional bond growing between them. Years later, as both their lives have weathered challenges and loneliness, Adam reappears in Riley’s life, determined to fight for the love he once insisted on denying. “Sweet romance” is a specific category that this book’s heat would melt faster than ice cream in July, but THE SHOTS YOU TAKE is a genuinely sweet and lovely story (complete with blistering heat). I can’t wait to read this talented author’s backlist.
Another author I’m sorry not to have found earlier is the gifted Lucy Eden. Her newest book, THE LOVE AUDIT, captured my heart and mind as it tells a fun, contemporary love story while simultaneously teaching a valuable lesson/reminder of Black American history. Jasmine and Derek are competing marketing/PR strategists, determined to ignore their personal history and out-do each other in winning management’s approval of their very different project development ideas. They’re both dispatched to check out the small town of Miller’s Cove in person (alas, they’re forced to share the last available bungalow!) where they separately learn the town’s history. (Fictional) Miller’s Cove was settled by refugees of the Oklahoma Greenwood Massacre of 1921, and both Jasmine and Derek must weigh their desire for professional glory against respect for an oasis of peace carved out of devastation. THE LOVE AUDIT was hot, romantic, and thought-provoking, and I’m eager to read more of Ms. Eden’s work.
Returning to authors I’ve loved in the past, I inhaled Shaylin Ganhi’s LOVE LETTERS FOR OTHER PEOPLE and Mhairi McFarlane’s COVER STORY. LOVE LETTERS FOR OTHER PEOPLE has an absurd Cyrano de Bergerac plotline that nevertheless grabs the reader’s attention and heartstrings. Aubrey and Nick were high school lovers who were separated by fateful circumstances and mishaps. When Aubrey returns temporarily to her hometown where Nick still lives, Cupid-like forces fight heroically to bring them back together. My eyes rolled, but I could not put the book down. Ms. McFarlane’s COVER STORY tells the slightly more plausible but equally satisfying story of two journalists forced to work together undercover to bring down a lecherous town official. When their cover’s threatened, Bel and Connor must suddenly convince part of the town they’re lovers while maintaining a professional distance before others. Ms. McPharlane always includes intricate subplots reflecting the complicated world we live in, but her central love story here, as in all her books, is ultimately rewarding.
A debut author charmed me utterly with her recently released THE HEIR APPARENT. Rebecca Armitage skillfully skirts real life with her fictional account of a young woman a few rungs down in the British line of succession who unexpectedly becomes the “heir apparent” (i.e. the first in order of succession) upon the sudden death of her father and brother. Granny’s still alive (I’m sure her resemblance to the famous queen we all knew for decades is completely coincidental), and her devotion to protocol and lineage leaves little room for Lexi’s own dreams and ambitions. Does the throne care that Lexi was near the end of her medical school studies and in love with a commoner thousands of miles away in Australia? Not particularly. But Granny’s not a complete villain (that would be the lascivious uncle, whose resemblance, again, to any real royal is an obvious coincidence) as she gives Lexi one year to come to terms with her new role. I loved THE HEIR APPARENT (even when it brought tears to my eyes), and I’m fervently hoping that Ms. Armitage has many more books in the works.
Lastly, I’m writing these words on a cold and dark December night, but I wish you the joy of the holiday season whenever you read them. Take some well-deserved moments to settle in with a warm cup of your favorite beverage and a good book. My SECOND SIGHT will whisk you away to another time and place and leave you with a smile in your heart.
Meg's friends during her high school years all expected her romance novels to hit the shelves decades ago, but she foolishly allowed "serious pursuits" to get in her way. Her stories tell most frequently of second chances--in life, love, and sometimes even at rediscovering a soul-mate from a previous life.
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