I won’t be doing this every time, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out all the new folks who have signed on for this newsletter over the last week or so: hello! Every time I get a new subscriber email in my inbox, I do a little dance. (I do not have unsubscriber emails turned on because I don’t want that kind of negative energy following me into 2020, thank you very much.) Anyway, if you’re here because a friend sent you here, or because I self-promoted a bunch on Twitter, or you enjoyed one of my tweet threads that recently picked up steam (like this one all about the glut of horniness to be found in Star Trek), welcome! Happy to have you here, et cetera et cetera.
So I think we’re far enough along on this journey together for me to start widening the field with guest recommendations! If you’ve got a book you want to shout out on the weekly newsletter or want to take over an entire installment of Kissing Books sometime, feel free to give me a shout. You can reply to this email directly, hit me up in the Twitter DMs, whatever route you’re most comfortable with. I’m fully cognizant of the fact that I can only read so many books myself, and since I’m trying to diversify my romance habits as much as possible this year, opening this up to subscriber participation will benefit me too!
Note: If the book links look a little different, it’s because yours truly is an official IndieBound affiliate now! So if you like any of my recs and feel inclined to buy it through my Kissing Books-specific link, I’ll receive a little kickback in return. No pressure, of course, but it’s never a bad time to support your local indie bookstore anyway.
Whiteout by Adriana Anders
(romantic suspense; content warnings for gun violence, on-page murder of minor character)
SO I kicked off my reading in 2020 pretty intensely with this one, but in my defense, it happened after I saw that this book was being pitched on Twitter as similar to the “Ice” episode of The X-Files, only without the gross earworm alien. That pretty much made it a 1-click buy for me right off the bat until I was lucky enough to get approved for an ARC, and now here I am reccing it all to you so you can make sure you smash that pre-order button when it drops at the end of the month. Angel Smith has been working as a cook at a research station in Antarctica, but when she’s preparing to leave for the summer, an unexpected attack by hired mercenaries intent on uncovering something that’s been dug up in the ice throws a wrench in her plans. Desperate to survive and hunted for what she knows, she bands together with the man who finds her half-frozen and still alive: gruff glaciologist Ford Cooper. Together, they’ll have to work to trek across a brutal landscape in order to escape their pursuers — but the tension between them is hot enough to melt even the thickest ice. This is some GOOD forced proximity romance, y’all, and the stakes are HIGH; this is not a book for the faint of heart, but if you like your thrills along with your steamy love scenes, wrap yourself up in a cozy blanket and enjoy the heart-pounding sensation that comes from furiously reading along to find out how Angel and Ford make it out alive.
The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
(historical romance)
A MARRIAGE OF CONVEEEENIENCE. Look, I’ve never professed to be anything but tropey trash, and Tessa Dare’s first book in her Girl Meets Duke series hits so many of my favorite buttons it’s ridiculous. The scarred, grumpy Duke of Ashbury needs an heir — which means he needs a wife — and when seamstress Emma Gladstone shows up on his doorstep literally wearing a wedding gown, he decides right then and there that she’ll do just fine. He lays out his terms and that should be the end of it, right? Except Emma has a few rules of her own to set down, and when the two of them start living beneath the same roof as husband and wife, they soon discover that no number of rules is going to stop them from developing real and equally terrifying feelings for each other. This novel is basically Regency Batman (because Ashbury literally prowls the streets at night looking for criminals to take on) meets Beauty and the Beast (because ALL the servants shamelessly ship them together), packed to the brim with Dare’s trademark wit and humor that just makes every one of her books so delightful to read and has solidified her as an auto-buy author for me.
Stripped by Zoey Castile
(contemporary romance)
Did you love Magic Mike XXL? (Follow up question: who DIDN’T love Magic Mike XXL?) Did you wish that it was even more of a romance-filled romp than we were blessed with? (We were already blessed with a lot in that movie, tbh.) Castile is here to fill that void in our hearts and parts with her Happy Endings series, a delightful trilogy of rom-coms that give you couples to thirst over and cheer on in equal measure. Schoolteacher Robyn Flores runs into the equally charming and handsome Zac Fallon when she accidentally picks up his laundry bag instead of hers (complete with star-spangled sequined thong), but she definitely isn’t expecting to see him later too, dancing as part of a male revue headlining her BFF’s bachelorette party. But Zac’s not easily deterred by Robyn’s reaction to what he does for a living, because as far as he’s concerned, he’s just met his dream girl, and he’s going to put all his efforts into wooing her — and hopefully showing both her (and her old-fashioned family) that there’s plenty of mind behind all of his muscle.
Kissing Books is a weekly newsletter about, well, exactly what it sounds like, plus other non-romance novels that might have varying levels of smooching in them. Questions? Comments? Reply to this email, or find me on Twitter @carlylane. If you’re reading this on Substack or someone forwarded this email to you, consider clicking that helpful button to become a regular subscriber.