romance

‘You’ll Love It Here’ by Natalie Sue is about finding family, finding values, and finding love

/ Pamela Kramer

In the supremely clever, touching and very humorous “You’ll Love It Here,” author Natalie Sue brings us Mona Bucket, a marketing whiz who seems to be on the verge of achieving her goal of being promoted to director, only to have it all implode when a nightmare client pushes all the wrong buttons and Mona snaps. Mona is instructed to take six weeks belated leave after the death of her father, three months before. Mona has been an expert at keeping her eye on the ball (getting her promotion) and keeping everything else and everyone else — family, friends, neighbors, colleagues — at arm’s length. So when she’s forced into a situation where she must spend time with her neighbors, who knows what might happen.

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‘Sea of Charms’ by Sarah Beth Durst is a delightful romantasy in her ‘Spellshop’ series

/ Pamela Kramer

“Sea of Charms” by Sarah Beth Durst is her latest fantasy and part of a series of books set in a fantasy realm, each of which easily works as a stand-alone novel. Each one is a romance, and each one is filled with magic, magical creatures, flying cats, and lots of magical love. This novel focuses on a character we met in “The Enchanted Greenhouse,” Marin, a woman who has a magic sailboat and delivers supplies to the various islands that make up the Crescent Islands Empire.

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‘The Windsor Affair’ by Melanie Benjamin is an in-depth account of the rivalry between two women, completely fiction but also steeped in real facts

/ Pamela Kramer

Historical fiction is a favorite for many readers and for many reasons. When the fiction part is gripping and engaging, we get to learn about history while enjoying a fabulous novel. And that’s what “The Windsor Affair” accomplishes in spades. It’s the fictional account of two real women who were married to British kings, and whose relationship could only be described as fraught with hostility and bitterness from both parties.

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‘When You Loved Me’ by Beatriz Williams is a lovely story of love, family, and history

/ Pamela Kramer

Beatriz Williams’ novels set on Winthrop Island are a perfect combination of fabulous stand-alone reads, as well as part of the Winthrop Island books; they return Williams’ fans to Winthrop Island, where many of her books are set, and bring back the fabulous characters we met in those previous novels. “When You Loved Me,” introduces Lucy Cooper, whose father has lived on the island his whole life. Bud Cooper stayed on the island because he was determined to find the legendary pirate’s treasure that was rumored to be buried somewhere on the property.

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‘The Last Lady B’ by Eloisa James is a delightfully unique romance

/ Pamela Kramer

Romances are romances, right? Not exactly, as Eloisa James proves so beautifully in her latest novel, “The Last Lady B.” It seems the antithesis of romance when Genevieve agrees to marry Lord Burnsby, whom her father describes on the first page as “a nasty old goat with three dead wives.” Her groom is older than her father, but unlike her father, he’s extremely wealthy and willing to offer her sister Rosie a dowry, without which Rosie will not be able to marry a titled gentleman. Because while love is all well and good, without money, love was nothing at that time and in their social class.

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‘Off the Record’ by Sara Goodman Confino is a clever and engaging novel

/ Pamela Kramer

One of the joys of reading is starting a book and being hooked from the first page, and with “Off the Record,” author Sara Goodman Confino accomplishes that and more. This enchanting story features Judy Greenberg, who in 1962 has graduated from college with a degree in journalism. Unlike her college peers, Judy is not interested in an MRS. Instead, she is determined to have a career as a journalist — and not one who writes about “women’s issues” like getting stains out of tablecloths or child rearing.

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‘The Shippers’ by Katherine Center is the ultimate shipboard romcom

/ Pamela Kramer

Katherine Center has cleverly titled her newest rom-com, “The Shippers.” The setting is a cruise ship, so in that sense the title is logical. But I learned a new term: “ship” is slang for relationship. To be specific, the verb means wishing for two people to be together; the noun is the actual romantic pairing. In this novel, the romantic couple that is being “shipped” appears to be clear from the start, but as we know, things in fiction (and real life) are not always what they appear to be.

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‘The Last Letters of Sally and Walter’ by Cammie McGovern is about family, relationships, and Scrabble

/ Pamela Kramer

When we think of letters, and perhaps especially “last letters,” we think of heartfelt correspondence between people sharing ideas and emotions. We don’t usually think of the board game Scrabble and the letters we use when playing that game. The main characters in “The Last Letters of Sally and Walter” meet at an independent living community when Sally decides to try attending the Scrabble club one evening.

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‘No One Knew’ is the second in the ‘Noelle Marshall’ series by Kendra Ellliot

/ Pamela Kramer

“No One Knew” is a thriller that grabs you from the first page, wherein a lonely teenager finds a dead body. Author Kendra Elliot knows the central Oregon setting well, and through her capable descriptions, we feel the bitter cold of winter as main character Noelle Marshall, along with her coworkers and FBI boyfriend, try to figure out who is behind the murder of that man and two other dead bodies that appear in succession and why the FBI is getting whispers about something big being planned by domestic terrorists.

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