Written in the Stars is a clever, fizzy rom-com that’s pure pleasure to read and easily joins the constellation of my 2020 favorites. It winks at Bridget Jones's Diary and Pride and Prejudice in broad characterizations but very much charts it's own path as a thoroughly modern sapphic romance full of wit, humor and heat.
You know those romance novels that affect you so deeply you still think of them months or years later? Hook Shot is one of those for me. It was the first Kennedy Ryan book I ever read and a revelation in how a romance novel can tackle deep trauma but remain powerfully uplifting.
Its heroine, Lotus DuPree, is a larger than life goddess of a woman wrapped in a tiny, tattooed package. Fierce, funny & captivating, she's made a prominent place for herself in the design world and owns every room she walks into with the force of her charisma.
You know when you find that just right book at the just right moment? The one that's written in the perfect voice, set in a location that captures your imagination, with characters you can't get enough of and a heat level in your Goldilocks zone? That was 40-Love for me.
From the first page, I was utterly immersed in Tess Dunn's island vacation, my neck aching in sympathy and sides in laughter as the well endowed Tess engages in a losing battle with her bikini top. Struggling to retie the suit more comfortably, she quickly finds herself bare breasted, urgently seeking the broad shouldered shield of Lucas Karlsson.
Not having read the first in the Matchmaker Bay series, I went in blind, but what I found was a wonderfully fresh, poignant small town romance with humor, intimacy & surprising depth.
Moonflower Bay includes everything that makes a small town easy to romanticize. It's gorgeously set along the banks of Lake Heron, has unique mythology & traditions, & includes a cast of well meaning, meddling residents who know each other deeply & show up to ease one another's burdens. It's a community that's both tight knit & tolerant.
I appreciate a romance novel that takes a broad view of happily ever after and attends to the personal and professional growth of its main characters in tandem with the developing romance. The Boyfriend Project does this well and offers an accessible entry point to readers who enjoy women's fiction but haven't been reading much romance.
It is very much Samiah's book, and the early pages focus solidly on the female relationships in her life: a close bond with her snarky/sweet sister and the birth of a great girl squad. The hilarious confrontation gone viral that brings the squad together rivals any romance meet cutes I've read.
