Tag Archives: Romance

Book Bouquet: Country Romance Reads

It’s always nice to escape into a sweet romantic story. Here are some reading suggestions set in small towns or rural environments that will bring some love to your TBR list:

As always, the links below lead to Amazon.com. When you go there, if you buy anything Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits. Thank you in advance for your support of CMLE’s programs!

The Chai Factor by Farah Heron
“Thirty-year-old engineer Amira Khan has set one rule for herself: no dating until her grad-school thesis is done. Nothing can distract her from completing a paper that is so good her boss will give her the promotion she deserves when she returns to work in the city. Amira leaves campus early, planning to work in the quiet basement apartment of her family’s house. But she arrives home to find that her grandmother has rented the basement to . . . a barbershop quartet. Seriously? The living situation is awkward: Amira needs silence; the quartet needs to rehearse for a competition; and Duncan, the small-town baritone with the flannel shirts, is driving her up the wall.

As Amira and Duncan clash, she is surprised to feel a simmering attraction for him. How can she be interested in someone who doesn’t get her, or her family’s culture? This is not a complication she needs when her future is at stake.”

American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera
“For Nesto Vasquez, moving his Afro-Caribbean food truck from New York City to the wilds of Upstate New York is a huge gamble. If it works? He’ll be a big fish in a little pond. If it doesn’t? He’ll have to give up the hustle and return to the day job he hates. He’s got six months to make it happen—the last thing he needs is a distraction.

Jude Fuller is proud of the life he’s built on the banks of Cayuga Lake. He has a job he loves and good friends. It’s safe. It’s quiet. And it’s damn lonely. Until he tries Ithaca’s most-talked-about new lunch spot and works up the courage to flirt with the handsome owner. Soon he can’t get enough—of Nesto’s food or of Nesto. For the first time in his life, Jude can finally taste the kind of happiness that’s always been just out of reach.”

You’d be Mine by Erin Hahn
“Annie Mathers is America’s sweetheart and heir to a country music legacy full of all the things her Gran warned her about. Superstar Clay Coolidge is most definitely going to end up one of those things.

But unfortunately for Clay, if he can’t convince Annie to join his summer tour, his music label is going to drop him. That’s what happens when your bad boy image turns into bad boy reality. Annie has been avoiding the spotlight after her parents’ tragic death, except on her skyrocketing YouTube channel. Clay’s label wants to land Annie, and Clay has to make it happen.

Swayed by Clay’s undeniable charm and good looks, Annie and her band agree to join the tour. From the start fans want them to be more than just tour mates, and Annie and Clay can’t help but wonder if the fans are right. But if there’s one part of fame Annie wants nothing to do with, it’s a high-profile relationship. She had a front row seat to her parents’ volatile marriage and isn’t interested in repeating history. If only she could convince her heart that Clay, with his painful past and head over heels inducing tenor, isn’t worth the risk.”

Untouchable by Talia Hibbert
“Sensible, capable, and ruthlessly efficient, Hannah Kabbah is the perfect nanny… until a colossal mistake destroys her career and shatters her reputation. These days, no-one in town will hire her—except Nathaniel Davis, a brooding widower with a smile like sin and two kids he can’t handle.”

Taking Flight by Siera Maley
“Seventeen-year-old Lauren Lennox is a city girl at heart. Being born and raised in Los Angeles, California by her movie star mom and ex-child-star father sounds like an ideal childhood, but with a mother who’s always busy and a father who suffers from alcoholism, Lauren’s already parentless childhood and her resulting rebellious streak are made worse when her mother passes away and she’s left alone with her father, who doesn’t care how little school she attends, how much alcohol she drinks, or how many girls she sleeps with. When she puts too many toes out of line and a judge deems her father unfit to be her guardian, she’s shipped across the country to the rural mountains of northern Georgia, where a personal friend of the judge lives with his wife and two kids on a farm.”

Book Suggestion Series: The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride (Nocturne Falls, #1)

We love to read books, and to talk about books. Check out our entire series here! Need more book chatting and suggestions in your life? Listen to our Books and Beverages podcast!

Some days I really enjoy reading a nice, fluffy romance book – and this series has a bunch of them! This is a paranormal series, with each book looking at a different character. In this book, the series is introduced, and we learn about the founding of the town and the family who got it all started. You learn about the town, and all the fun things available in this community. And you get to have an adventure that (spoiler alert!) turns out okay in the end, because it’s fun, romance, cozy mystery and that is how they work. If you need a fun series to try during the holidays, check out this series – complete with an assortment of holiday-themed books!

The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride, by  Kristen Painter “Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town where Halloween is celebrated 365 days a year. The tourists think it’s all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better. Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.

After seeing her maybe-mobster boss murder a guy, Delaney James assumes a new identity and pretends to be a mail order bride. She finds her groom-to-be living in a town that celebrates Halloween every day. Weird. But not as weird as what she doesn’t know. Her groom-to-be is a 400-year-old vampire. Hugh Ellingham has only agreed to the arranged set up to make his overbearing grandmother happy. In thirty days, whatever bridezilla shows up at his door will be escorted right back out. His past means love is no longer an option. Not if the woman’s going to have a future. Except he never counted on Delaney and falling in love for real. Too bad both of them are keeping some mighty big secrets…”

Books and Beverages Podcast Episode 101: Romance

Angie, Ariel, and Annie on location at St Cloud Public Library

Welcome everyone, to
Books and Beverages Podcast from CMLE!

This is our book group podcast, where we discuss different genres of books each week, while we sit in our comfy chairs and sip our beverages. And you are, of course, an important part of this book group. You might want to find a comfy place to sit, to sip your beverage along with us, and just enjoy being part of our discussion.

Attention: you could win a FREE  romance audiobook!!  Leave a comment on our website! As a special thank you to our listeners, we have two free digital audiobook downloads for randomly selected commenters! We have copies of Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn from HarperAudio (we discuss this series!), and The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles #1) by Laurie Forest from Harlequin Audio.  Tell us about a favorite romance book, give us some ideas on new romance book suggestions, or other romance-reading ideas and you will be eligible to win!

This is a very inclusive book group. There are no “right” or “wrong” books to read and chat about for our book group. We want to talk about books – and we want you to share your books. At the end of our time together, everyone should have at least a couple of new things for your To Be Read (TBR) pile!

We love books, so it seems entirely appropriate to start off our book group with Romance books! Romance is an extremely popular genre – and probably much broader than you would generally imagine. There can be romance elements to books in almost any type of book. In this episode we have fun chatting about a a broad range of books we have enjoyed. Thanks to Ariel and Annie for joining Mary and Angie this week! Books are always more fun when you can chat about them with friends.

For more information about Romance books, and lots of suggestions for books you might enjoy or books you might recommend to others, see our full webpage for this episode. All drinks referenced will also be provided on this page, with links to them, photos, and recipes for you to try them for yourselves.

Young Romance Issue 1
romance stories occur across all genres and formats!

RART Retreat April 1: Embracing Romance


The RART Retreat is back! Register by March 28 and join us on April 1, 10:00-3:00, to discuss readers’ advisory for romance fiction and related genres and enjoy a talk by best-selling paranormal romance author MaryJanice Davidson. Cost is $25 for MLA members and $30 for non-members and includes breakfast and lunch.

Location:

Inver Glen Branch, Dakota County Library
8098 Blaine Ave.
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
(651) 554-6840

Schedule at a glance:

10:00 – 10:30  Registration
10:30 – 11:00  Ice Breaker and Introductions
11:00 – 12:00  MaryJanice Davidson
12:00 – 12:30  Lunch
12:30 – 1:30    Romance Panel Discussion
1:30 – 1:45     Break
1:45 – 2:45     Diversity and the Romance Genre
2:45 – 3:00     Wrap up

(Note from Mary: I really like MaryJanice Davidson’s books! If you like fun, fluffy, with a swig of vampires/mermaids/werewolves, that take place in Minnesota – these are the books for you!)

TWO Booklists! – Romance Novels vs Romantic Novels

Chocolate love

Looking for a feel-good read?  We found two booklists for you that should be just what the doctor ordered!  First up, Top 10 Romance Fiction: 2014, compiled by Donna Seaman.  She says, “The best romance novels reviewed in Booklist between September 15th, 2013 and September 1st, 2014. . .are all page-turners.”

Not a fan of ‘those’ romance novels?  Check out Emily Temple’s 50 Romantic Novels for People Who Hate Romance Novels.  Temple says the list is for people who find stereotypical romance novels to be “gaudy or slapdash,” and that her list is made up of “real literature.”

So, whether romance novels are your ‘thing’ or not, you can curl up during the cold Minnesota winters and read one of these 60 feel-good stories.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/mkysqxp, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0