It’s true, it’s true: I may have forgotten to send the newsletter out this week on the regularly planned-for day of Thursday (or Thorsday, or Thirstday if you happen to celebrate), but in my defense, it was raining A LOT yesterday and I was also recovering from several hours of traveling on New Year’s Day. To make a long story short, our plane had more than a fair amount of turbulence coming back from visiting my folks in Maryland and I may have spent most of that time either trying to focus on the latest book capturing my attention (which WILL be linked below in this newsletter, you’re welcome in advance) or gripping my husband’s hand until there was a not-so-mild sweat transfer happening. I have watched the LOST pilot too many times; also, I do not want airplanes to treat me like I am on a ride at Universal Studios, thank you very much.
ANYWAY, we’re only a day late here, but I have a feeling these recs are going to make up for it. Just a hunch.
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.
White Whiskey Bargain by Jodie Slaughter
(contemporary romance)
So I’d heard whispers about this one being bandied around the timeline, but tabled it in the back of my brain to read at SOME point in the potential future — and then a Twitter mutual helpfully informed me that Kindle Unlimited is offering a Very Nice Deal of 99c per month for the first three months, and it’s something I’ve been meaning to pull the trigger on anyway but hadn’t gotten around to yet. I was sick over a holiday week and in need of some at-home entertainment, and when I saw THIS title available on KU it was the very first book I snatched up to try. Set in the deep Appalachian region (Harlan, Kentucky, to be exact), it’s a modern-day marriage of convenience(!) plot arranged between the heirs of two moonshine distilling families in an attempt to assert their territory from an encroaching rival. After her mother’s death, Hannah Hawkins has been thrust into a role she doesn’t feel prepared for — but that’s nothing compared to how she feels when her direct competitor Carlos Meza suggests she get hitched to his son, Javier. At first, it’s clearly a business decision, but obviously these two have eyes, so that doesn’t last for very long — and when the stakes get even higher after their mutual enemy makes a bold move against them, they’ll be forced to come to grips with the truth that their marriage might not be a choice they’ve made to pursue in name only. It’s a hot, hot, HOT slow-burn romance that culminates in a very satisfying crescendo, with lots of action and tension (not just between Hannah and Javier, but OK, that’s a big part of it), and I would love to see more stories set in this world from Slaughter in the future.
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole
(contemporary romance)
I’m a big fan of Cole’s Reluctant Royals series in general, and when I realized I still had a couple novellas and a book to treat myself to reading before the release of the next installment this spring, I jumped on this one as an end-of-year pick and it was one of the best decisions I could have made. Folks who have read A Princess in Theory (and if you haven’t, you should GET ON THAT) are probably more than familiar with Likotsi, who’s introduced in that book as pretty much the woman in control behind the scenes for Prince Thabiso of Thesolo. This time around, she’s got her own love story that needs revisiting — because she’s back in New York City and she just ran into the woman who broke her heart. When Likotsi and Fabiola encounter each other on a stalled subway train, the chance meeting leads to a charming and achey Before Sunrise-type scenario where they impulsively decide to spend the evening together, exploring the city and catching up while maybe lowkey trying to uncover what went wrong between them the first time around. The novella jumps back and forth between past and present, showing us the two individual timelines of their relationship, and as the two come clean to each other about past regrets and decisions, they realize that maybe it’s not too late to give things another shot after all.
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
(contemporary romance)
Before I launch into my mini-review of this one (which, let’s be real, might involve a lot of exclamation points), I’m going to let one of my earlier tweets on this book serve as intro:
THIS BOOK, Y’ALL. So I started it on Wednesday (the aforementioned New Year’s Day) while we were literally sitting at our gate waiting to board the plane, and I didn’t stop reading it (with occasional breaks for turbulence anxiety) until we’d landed — and even then I found opportunities to read it once we got home and made myself keep reading it until I could finish it before going to bed. I wanted to spend the entire day with this book, with the story of Meg and Reid, with the gorgeously warm, visual prose that reminded me of all my best memories of living in New York City and everything I love about that place, with the love story that gradually blossoms between the two of them, right up until the very last page. Meg’s talents at hand-lettering have made her famous, an in-demand artist popular on Instagram who designs custom journals, signs, you name it. But she has another talent too: reading people, and when she first met Reid Sutherland and his fiancee she had the feeling that their marriage was destined to fail, which is why she weaved a secret word into their wedding program. A year later, Reid’s tracked Meg down with program in hand. He’s cracked her code, and now he’s wondering exactly just how she knew that his carefully planned-out marriage was going to implode. But that’s only the start of a relationship that helps Meg repair her creative block and gives Reid the space he needs to really open up about himself along the way.
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.