Two snowed-in romances and a good ol' redemption story
Trying to combat the rainy blues with steamy reads.
It’s been a real damp deluge down here in ATL all week, and while I don’t necessarily object to a rainy day or two (because it usually means I can curl up under a blanket inside with a mug of something hot and a good book), dealing with a near-constant pour for days on end has really been a downer on my mood.
But if there’s anything that’s always lifted me out of a mental or emotional slump it’s cracking open a good book, and I’ve had a pretty decent streak with some of my more recent reads, some of which I will proceed to share with you RIGHT NOW.
The Earl of Her Dreams by Anne Mallory (Indiebound)
(historical romance)
There are some books that come into your life and may not be the Greatest Thing You’ve Ever Read, but they’re so full of tropey catnip that they might as well be. Enter Anne Mallory, who (sadly) isn’t writing any more historical romance currently, but I’d heard so many good things about her from trusted readers that I felt compelled to check out her backlist and see which books spoke to me personally. Luckily, the first one I picked up, The Earl of Her Dreams, was full of SO MANY THINGS I LOVE. Forced with the choice of either marrying a man she can’t stand or running away, Kate Simon chooses the latter, disguising herself as a boy and getting a job working at a roadside inn. Of course, because the innkeeper believes her to be a young man, an incident of overcrowding ends up forcing her to share a room with the mysterious and somewhat rakish Christian Black, who… well, basically deduces she’s a woman almost immediately, much to his own delight. When the guests are stranded as the result of a snowstorm — and then a dead body turns up in the stables — everyone’s a suspect, and Kate and Christian must work together closely in an attempt to solve the mystery while unearthing each other’s secrets (and resisting the simmering tension that exists between them) along the way.
Tempting Heat by Sara Whitney
(contemporary romance)
One of the things I love most about snowed-in romances is the forced proximity aspect. When two people literally can’t go anywhere, especially if they have a complicated history together, are they going to avoid each other the entire time or are they actually going to talk out their feelings? (Spoiler alert: in romance, it’s usually the latter.) Finn Carey came back to her apartment with a rising snowstorm licking at her heels, fully prepared to ride it out on her own — but she didn’t expect to run into someone from her past who just so happened to be crashing in her roommate’s bed. Tom Castle has plenty of regrets when it comes to Finn, including the biggest one that led to the dissolution of their friendship, but also the fact that he’s never told her how he really feels about her. As the storm rages on and the power goes out, the space they both occupy becomes as much about relying on one another for necessary body heat as it does being the place where they can finally be honest about each other about everything they haven’t said before.
Thirsty by Mia Hopkins
(contemporary romance)
This one has been on my TBR for a long time and I honestly can’t tell you what motivated me to finally pick it up, but I’m so, so glad I did because it does things that I’ve never really seen in any other romance I’ve read. First and foremost, the book is written entirely from the hero’s POV, which I wasn’t entirely sure would work for me as a reader since I’ve never encountered it before — but Hopkins has a way of writing her heroes that makes them feel both complex and captivating, and it makes for a great redemptive romance. Ex-con Salvador Rosas is a little down on his luck lately; he’s just lost the place he was crashing at, but the good news is the neighborhood he grew up in looks out for its own. Enter Vanessa Velasco, who’s got a garage space in need of cleaning up for a deal on rent — even if she technically doesn’t offer it to him, to begin with. There’s history between them, even if they went their own separate ways for a time, and when they initially pursue a romance it’s only meant to be a fun distraction from the stresses of their everyday lives, but of course, it becomes much more than they ever could have planned for.
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