Category Archives: Romance

I found Debbie Macomber as an author with the first of the Rose Harbor novels (“The Inn at Rose Harbor”). What grabbed me from the first was her ability to eloquently describe the feelings of grief and loss that the main character, Jo Marie Rose, deals with when she discovers her husband is missing in action and presumed lost. Throughout the series, and especially in this book “Silver Linings”, Ms. Macomber continues to astound me with her ability to express feelings – both good and not good in a way that I can relate to. Once again, I spent a good portion of this book laughing and crying. I honestly don’t know what more you can ask from a novel about life.

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“A Radical Arrangement” is a sweet book in the tradition of the Regency romance stories I read back in the 1990’s. It is a clean romance with only a couple of romantic kisses but with lots of verbal sparring.

It has a fun heroine, Margaret Mayfield, who is rather young compared to most young women in romance novels today (she is nineteen years old.) The hero, Sir Justin Keighley, seems to be well established and quite a bit older but it is hard to say if he is in his twenties or thirties. This was very much the age range of the books of that period and may very well have reflected the age differences of couples during the Regency period. It was a tad difficult to try to relate to the Margaret but given the way the character is portrayed, it probably would have been a bit difficult to set her age at something more comfortable for the reader. Difficult but not impossible. Something the author may wish to consider for future books.

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I have read a number of Susan Mallery’s books in the Fool’s Gold series. The most recent is “Kiss Me” which is the story of Phoebe Kitzke, a realtor on a forced vacation, and Zane Nicholson, the cattle rancher who finds himself unwillingly taking a bunch of greenhorns on a quickly slapped together cattle drive.

Phoebe has just received a serious dressing down for some unethical business practices and, in fact, may lose her realtor’s license altogether. During her month of suspension, her friend Maya talks her into joining her on a cattle drive at her ex-family’s ranch in Fool’s Gold, CA. Zane is Maya’s ex-step brother who takes his responsibilities seriously, perhaps too seriously, and that is where the fun comes in.

Phoebe is a kind-hearted and very funny individual. I loved the thoughts, dialog, and actions that Ms. Mallery dreamed up for this character.

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“Ever After” is the final book in the Nantucket Brides Trilogy by Jude Deveraux. I’ve read the previous two and find that “Ever After” fits in well with the theme. The books deal with couples who meet on Nantucket and who, with a little ghostly assistance, end up finding their happy ever after. The only unusual thing to me was that I didn’t get a feeling of finality at the end of the book. There are certainly enough young men and women in the Montomgery-Taggert clans to keep stories coming into the far future. There are certainly some individuals, such as Todd and Raine, who I would like to have as the main characters in a book.

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Instead of the simple romance that I expected, reading “Sweet Girl” by Rachel Hollis was more of a real life adventure with romance thrown in. I didn’t realize that it was part of a series (“Party Girl” was the first book and one that I will be reading very soon.) You don’t need to have read the first book, but based on how well written “Sweet Girl” is done, I highly recommend reading both of the books – that way you will know more about the characters.

First of all, the book is very funny. It is told a little tongue-in-cheek and I found myself smiling and laughing my way through it. However, it also deals with very serious issues and it does so in a very responsible way. There is nothing glib about the way these characters feel about things that matter. But just like I find in my life, laughing about little things helps one cope with the hard to imagine and live with serious things.

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“The Dead Play On” is the first book I have read in the on-going series by Heather Graham. While there was a slight paranormal twist at the beginning, it didn’t seem to have much of an impact on what happened in the rest of the book. Otherwise, the book is both an on-going romance between Cafferty and Quinn and a murder mystery. The two individuals are private investigators who have been asked by the police to assist in solving a crime that has strange (paranormal) overtones. Apparently, their PI firm specializes in such cases and are known around New Orleans for their involvement in other cases (i.e., previous books in the series.)

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When I first decided to read “In Love With A Gentleman”, I thought it might be a typical romance, which I would enjoy, but it turned out to be a story about a young woman’s journey of self-discovery as much as it was a romance. Lea is so determined to meet her dream man and make her dream life come true, she somehow neglects to check to see if dreams fare well in reality.

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