Romance Novel Reviews

I recently read a few wonderful romance novels. This started as some research for a book I am editing, but romance has a way of getting its hooks in me and completely drawing me in. And these books were no exceptions.

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison is a nod to Sleepless in Seattle and is such a gorgeous, fun novel that I adored with all my heart and definitely sobbed for the last twenty pages or so. I was skeptical about this book because I didn’t like the ending of Good Spirits, another B.K. Borison’s novels that I read around Christmas. But I just felt really drawn into this book and I am so glad I gave this author another shot because this book definitely tugged at my heartstrings (no pun intended to the series).

First-Time Caller follows Aiden, the host of a Baltimore radio romance show where he gives advice to callers about their love lives. But the years have kind of wrecked his perspective on love because most of the calls are about disgruntled wives not liking a gift or complaining about something altogether minor. One night, Lucie’s daughter calls into the show on behalf of her mom. Lucie interrupts the call and then is on air. Telling all of Baltimore about what love should be and why she hasn’t found it yet. Aiden (and all of Baltimore) is enraptured, and Lucie and Aiden team up to help her find love. This book was so stinking cute!! I loved everything about it. I thought Lucie and Aiden’s chemistry was amazing, the side characters were incredible and the themes of family and finding yourself were wonderful.

Elise Bryant is an author I totally fell in love with after reading Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling. Happily Ever Afters is a YA romance, and one I completely adored. Tessa Johnson and her family move which gives Tessa a chance to enter a prestigious private school that has a program for creative writing. Writing has always been easy for Tessa. She has been writing romance for as long as she can remember, and her biggest fan is her best friend Caroline. But when she starts school, she realizes how different of a writer she is from everyone else, and suddenly she can’t write a word. She starts turning in old chapters to her teachers while she tries to find a way to get her creative spark back. Tessa and Caroline hatch a plan to have Tessa fall in love so she has some real life experience to work into her stories. Yet Tessa ignores the natural chemistry she has with her close friend Sam and instead fixates on Nico, another student in the writing program but one that has a girlfriend. Tessa makes a series of mistakes, lying to those closest to her in an attempt to make sense of what she is going through and feeling. I loved this book because it was realistic and full of angst. Tessa annoyed me but she’s supposed to. She is just trying to figure her life out, and she is doing the best she can. But what I really loved about this book is that I have been having my own struggles with writing, and this book reminded me that fear is my biggest enemy when writing. And for the first time in awhile, I wrote a lot of pages and it felt really good, and I will be forever grateful for this book coming to me right when I needed it.

Rachel Lynn Solomon had written one of my favorite romances, Weather Girl, so I was really excited to try another of her novels, What Happens in Amsterdam. I loved this one so so much! It was so atmospheric and beautiful. Dani loses her job after a very bad breakup and decides to take the leap into the unknown, moving her life to Amsterdam, a place she always wanted to live but never had the courage to go to. What she doesn’t expect is to run into her first love, Wouter who is living in Amsterdam as well. When they were teens, he was an exchange student living at her house and they fell for each other, but after Wouter returned home, their relationship ended, leaving them both heartbroken. Dani and Wouten run into each other and realize they can help each other out. Dani lost her job in Amsterdam and has to find a new one in ninety days or her visa will be revoked. Wouten wants to inherit a property that he has loved his whole life, but there is a stipulation that he has to be married. The two decide to get married to solve both their problems planning to get divorced in a year, but the forced proximity rekindles all their feelings and chemistry for each other. This book was so warm and funny but also really full of depth. Dani and Wouten had both gone through so much, and it was a joy to watch them coming back together and figuring out their next steps with each other. I loved this book wholeheartedly and can’t wait to keep reading more by this author.

And last but not least, I read another second chance romance, Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. Second chance romance doesn’t tend to be my favorite trope, but this one and What Happens in Amsterdam really knocked it out of the park for me. Every Summer After alternates between the past and present, following Sam and Percy as teenagers and then adults. They spent every summer together on Barry’s Bay, slowly falling more and more in love. But when things end badly, they don’t see each other or speak for over seven years. When Sam’s mom passes away, Percy goes back to Barry’s Bay for the funeral, realizing that her feelings for Sam have never changed but also that she has to tell him why things went wrong, confessing something she’d long kept to herself. I read this entire book in one sitting, I literally couldn’t put it down it was so good. There was one thing I didn’t like about it, but I don’t think it was enough for me to not love and want to recommend it. Plus I have to read the sequel!

I don’t think I am completely out of my romance mood yet, let me know if you’ve read any of these or have any recommendations based on these! I’d love to try some more of these authors and others like them.