The writing duo publishing as Christina Lauren quickly rocketed into my current Top Five Fav Authors list, and THE ROMANCE REVIVAL is an excellent example of their reigning status.  In turns over the top, crazypants, sentimental, sweetly sexy, and suspenseful, this modern-day rom-com has it all.

THE ROMANCE REVIVAL has plenty of tropes, the largest being a Second Chance Romance.  There’s also Marriage in Trouble, Forced Proximity and the most fun one here, Amnesia.

But the premise for the second chance is pretty unusual and wildly entertaining.  Even though there are some darker elements to this storyline, it still manages to be pretty frothy and very fun.

Dr. Emery Martin fell madly in love with her husband Luca, when they met in Vegas three years ago.  She’s been forced by non-disclosure agreements from her top-secret job to lead a double life.  She’s a leading top level scientist as a very hush hush lab hidden underground.  Her uber-demanding job and her job secrets have kept her living largely apart from her delicious hubby since their whirlwind marriage.  When Luca is killed right in front of her, Emery uses a life-saving but super secret (and highly illegal) compound to revive her legally dead spouse- the first human to ever get the compound.  But when he awakens from the recovery unit, he doesn’t remember anything of his former life or his former love.

Hijinks ensue as many evildoers try to get their hands on Luca and on the illicitly used compound.  While the premise sounds a little grim, the reality is anything but, as Lauren takes this story and shakes it up in a snowglobe of shenanigans to fall down in glittering bits of sprightly tale onto the page.  There is even a lot of needed personal growth of Emery and Luca over the course of events, bringing spots of beautiful emotional complexity to the narrative.  And of course, Lauren gets me right in the feels with winning quotes like,

        “On paper, we still don’t make sense, but it turns out love doesn’t happen on paper.” and         “I become aware of something much more profound: Our bodies have long known each other in a way that our minds haven’t, at least not until recently. They were simply holding this secret for us, keeping it safe and sacred, waiting for our minds to catch up to the depth of what we have.”

Lauren’s THE ROMANCE REVIVAL is a blast- energetic, gripping, and deliriously delicious.  Don’t you dare let this treat pass you by!