AAR
How To End a Love Story
How to End a Love Story is billed a romance shaped by grief and healing. It delivers a shallow, joyless hash instead. I’ve read it–you probably shouldn’t. This is a…
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Nothing But Trouble
I loathe football and you couldn’t pay me to watch a hockey game and yet two of my favorite romance series feature each: Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars (football) and…
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Untouched
There’s a certain satisfaction in finding a romance novel that’s fully aware of its contradictions. Maisey Yates’ Untouched is one of those books that pulls you in, even as you…
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The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells
Rachel Greenlaw’s The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells opens with intrigue but fizzles before it can fully cast its spell. I had high hopes—her previous novel, Compass and Blade, was…
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The Finest Print
Looking for a well-written historical romance that also delves into Victorian-era newspaper taxes? The Finest Print offers both. You’ll also learn about penny bloods—now called penny dreadfuls—the era’s available birth…
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Creation Lake
Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake has been met with rapturous praise. It’s vital and profound, it consolidates Kushner’s status as one of finest novelists working in the English language, and daring,…
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Midnight Man
This book’s boinking is bonkers. The first time the two leads have sex, a day after they first meet, it’s against a wall and the hero is clinging so tightly…
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Protecting What’s His
This was Tessa Bailey’s debut, published in 2013–and, back in the day, I loved it. I recently re-read it and, again, it made me laugh. It has an extremely alpha…
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It’s In His Kiss
Jill Shalvis’ It’s in His Kiss returns us to Lucky Harbor—a place that, by this point in the long-running series, is as much a character as the people who populate…
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Sugar Creek
Destiny, Ohio, isn’t exactly where Rachel Farris imagined herself returning, but when her grandmother needs help with the family apple orchard, she finds herself back in the small town she…
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Till Death Do Us Part
I stayed up past my absurdly early bedtime to finish Till Death Do Us Part–it’s a page turner that you HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED and I couldn’t put it…
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The Invitation
Ah, romance novels. When they’re brilliant, they offer a sublime respite from the world. When they’re predictable, they’re… fine. The Invitation is fine. It’s the sort of romance where hot…
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