Five Happy Things
Love Stories
Valentine’s Day is coming up in just a few weeks, so this week I’m sharing five favorite love stories. I’ve been on a bit of a romance kick for the last year (for reasons to be revealed soon), so I had a lot to choose from!
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan - I loved this book so much! The main character is a screenwriter for The Romance Channel. When her husband leaves her and her two kids, she turns that story into the best script she’s ever written. So big that her agent decides to sell it to a major motion picture company. They film at her home, and sparks fly (in the loveliest way imaginable) with the leading man who plays her ex-husband. What none of this conveys is the very fun voice of the main character. She’s just terrific. I think the author must have named her main character Nora as a nod to Nora Ephron, because she gets that style of banter just right. (Bookshop link, Amazon link)
Book Lovers by Emily Henry - If you like witty banter and lots of book talk, this is the story for you. It’s a love story between an agent and an editor, and it plays with lots of classic romance tropes in a very fun way. The main character, for example, is the “cold” city woman left behind by not one, but two former boyfriends who found love in small town romances. 😂 I’ve read - and enjoyed - other books by Emily Henry, but this is my favorite. (Bookshop link, Amazon link)
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez - Every woman Justin dates finds her soulmate immediately after they break up. It’s a curse. Emma has the same curse! When they meet in a Reddit thread, they decide to cancel out their curses by dating each other, so that they’ll each find their soulmates after they break up. Of course they fall in love! This is a fun, slightly silly premise - and the love story that unfolds is richer and more satisfying than I ever expected. (Bookshop link, Amazon link)
The Stand-In by Lily Chu - I heard this author speak at the Portland Book Festival this fall and she was loads of fun. This is the book I decided to start with, and I really enjoyed it! Gracie recently lost her job, and when she gets mistaken for a famous actress, the frazzled movie star makes her a fantastic offer: be her stand-in at all the publicity events surrounding her new movie release. That means being squired around town by her handsome leading man. . . (Bookshop link, Amazon link)
Float Plan by Trish Doller - The main character is heartbroken when her fiancé commits suicide. They had been fixing up a sailboat and planned to sail across the Caribbean, and she decides to make the trip alone. After one harrowing crossing, she realizes she needs help and hires a professional sailor who’s recovering from his own wounds. This one is all about learning to start over without burying or pushing away your past. (Bookshop link, Amazon link)
What are your favorite romance novels? Tell us in the comments!
You can find past newsletters with book recommendations here.
Enjoy!
Best,
Wendi
❤️
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Ha, you'll be so sorry you asked, Wendi. I grew up with a mom who watched soaps for ages until she was finally eye-rolled/mocked by more 'serious' 'friends' into not doing so, and so I never used to tell people I read romances, though I do so constantly. I prefer romance with magic or space ships, but every once in a while I revisit Real Life (TM), so I've included a few contemporaries. These are a few of the books/series I love enough to actually reread, and I'll try to suggest books I haven't previously shared:
ANYTHING by Kate Healey, because she writes ethical, well-balanced and intelligent characters, but for today I'll specifically mention her Movie Magic series, BESPOKE & BESPELLED, and SAVORY & SUPERNATURAL, because if you can have romance PLUS sewing and cooking, why wouldn't you? These books are set in the NZ film industry, from a stitch-witch making costumes for her favorite film series - and having said film sabotaged in various ways by someone who doesn't want the film to go forward, to a craft services chef who also has a tiny gift of clairvoyance... and a main actor, who is being haunted, but doesn't believe in the supernatural at all...
Zen Cho's SORCERER TO THE CROWN. This is arguably also a mystery (hmm, sensing a theme here), but this is about a "unacceptable" wizard in The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers. He's unacceptable because he's not a white Englishman, and he's doubly unacceptable because he's trying to track down why the magic of England is diminishing... and he asks a woman (gasp! clutch pearls!) for help... The sequel to this is also loads of fun.
Contemporary fiction I really loved:
CODENAME CHARMING, by Lucy Parker is about a puppy-dog friendly and clumsy British royal and his bodyguard who tries valiantly to keep he - and the royal's personal assistant, out of the tabloids. Somehow compromising photographs find them constantly, and after a real lulu, to quell rumors of her having an affair with her boss, the royal family requests that the bodyguard and the personal assistant stage a relationship. The reluctant agreement and ensuing shenanigans are a hoot.
THE HEART PRINCIPLE, by Helen Hoag - in the most unromantic description ever, I'll say it's a book about rebuilding identity after loss, about mental health, neurodivergency, and the stressors of caretaking (both of oneself, and of loved ones). The pacing is slow, the relationship gradual, but the payoff - for both parties in the coupledom AND the reader - is immense.
GEORGIE, ALL ALONG, by Kate Clayton - A personal assistant to an actor is out of work when her boss decides to step away from the field. She returns to her hometown, challenged to do something SHE wants, but her whole life and career has been built around helping others achieve their dreams. Finding a friend-fic journal from her teen years allows Georgie to embark on a journey to find the self she feels like she lost along the way. This has such a traditional trope set up as another journey/discovery book the characterization is so well done, and the emotional resonance and maturity present is lacking in similar novels. Clayton highlights the importance of friendships as well as family and romance - and explores forgiveness and rediscovering ourselves for those who fear we are aimless or failures or "duds" in life.
...okay, this is why I couldn't be a librarian - I would either ignore everyone and read, or I would NEVER shut up, and the line at my checkout would be too long. Thanks for sharing your faves - I hope you find something good here.
Thank you for the recommendations! I have put 3 into my Audible Wishlist and will start to read the 4th one this afternoon. Your book recommendations are so great!