First off, before we dive into the nitty-gritty of what you’re all here for, I just want to take a second to say THANK YOU(!!!) to everyone who’s subscribed.
It’s no exaggeration to say that this little newsletter was a totally spontaneous idea brought on by a helpful Twitter suggestion — cut to yours truly watching that subscription number going up and up and excitedly bum-rushing my husband in our apartment to inform him of the latest total — so I mean it wholly, honestly, and bottom-of-my-heart sincerely when I say I’m psyched that all of you wanted to sign up for this.
So yeah, we’re starting off with Feelings right away and we’re gonna keep that train rolling all the way through this post — because if you’re new here, you might not realize that there’s going to be a lot of them up ahead. Such is the case when you’re talking about good books, I’m afraid; chances are there will be the online equivalent of flailing hands. OKAY. On to the recs!
(Pictured above is none other than Linda Belcher herself, a confirmed canon romance reader.)
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
There are some books that can be accurately described in a single word: “unputdownable,” and this one, by NPR’s Linda Holmes, was absolutely that for me from the very first page — nay, the first sentence. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry much about needing to take breaks from reading, because I picked it up to start when my husband and I were spending a quiet Fourth of July weekend at an Airbnb with only the occasional breaks for poolside chilling and board games. From the minute I met Evvie Drake, I HAD to know how her story would pan out, and if you’re at all curious about the journey on this one, let me be the one to tell you that it is beautifully funny and achey all in the same breath. Evvie’s planning on leaving her husband when she gets the call that he’s unexpectedly passed away, and much of the book is spent with her struggling to reconcile the fact that she may have been in an abusive marriage (moreso emotionally than anything physical) while also trying to navigate the potential of a new romantic relationship with recently retired pro baseball player Dean Tenney — who just so happens to be renting out the basement apartment in her house while he tries to figure out his post-career life. This isn’t necessarily a romance, per se, but it’s got so many elements of one (including that mandatory HEA) to really fit the bill. So if you want a book filled with real characters who struggle to work through their issues (both together and apart), a love story to root for, and snappy, sparkling dialogue, you can’t go wrong with this one. (Content warning for discussions/recollections of spousal abuse.)
Faker by Sarah Smith
This one snuck up on me, and I mean that in the best of ways. I picked it up at the start of a long car ride coming back from vacation and before I knew it, I’d been totally sucked into Smith’s utterly charming debut. Emmie Echavarre is one of the few female employees at a power tool company primarily staffed by men, and she considers herself a professional “faker” — someone who feigns a tough-as-nails facade just to make it through her day. But there’s one thing she doesn’t have to fake, and that’s her dislike for her coworker, Tate Rasmussen, who’s been kind of a dick to her since the day they met. When the two have to come together on a charity project for work, they realize that spending long hours in one another’s company might not be as unbearable as they thought. The “enemies to lovers” trope is a well-worn one in romance, and while some reviewers were left with the impression that Tate is too mean to Emmie at times, I’m going to politely disagree. When it comes to the snarking, Emmie gives as good as she gets — and later on, when Tate’s secret cinnamon roll tendencies start to emerge, you realize that his dickishness is more a byproduct of the fact that he has more Feelings for her than he knows what to deal with. (Bonus: this has a first kiss scene that’s scorchingly hot.)
The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
I’ve really got Aarya over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books to thank for turning me on to this one, because without her killer review, I wouldn’t have necessarily realized this was a romance that was very much related to my interests. I’ve been recommending this to people left and right on Twitter and with good reason — it’s funny and endearing, with exactly the right amount of spookiness befitting a fall-into-winter read. (The truth is, though, that you should pick up this book regardless of the season.) Prickly widow Alva Webster has been raked over the coals in the press and the public eye after the sudden and suspicious death of her husband, but now that she has all this newfound freedom ahead of her she impulsively decides to buy a fixer-upper. Unfortunately, rumors of ghost sightings on the property halt the necessary repairs, so Alva eventually (albeit begrudgingly) enlists the help of eccentric and brilliant scientist-professor Samuel Moore to investigate (and hopefully debunk) any possibility of supernatural happenings. Why begrudgingly, you ask? Well, the good professor finds himself somewhat smitten with the widow and, try as she might to resist, she can’t help herself from being charmed by him in turn. This Gilded Age-set debut has gorgeous prose, a steamy romance, and just enough chills and thrills to make you want to read it with a hot cup of something.
Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J. Christopher
I grew up watching plenty of rom-coms, so the truth is that when it comes to reinterpretations, especially gender-swapped ones, I’m already sold. I’ve been a fan of Andie’s Twitter feed for a hot minute-and-a-half, but when I heard that she was writing her take on How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, only with the roles reversed, I knew I was going to have to add this to my already-towering to-read list. Jack Nolan is a verifiable cinnamon roll who’s also perpetually unlucky in love, and his internet media career isn’t faring much better. As a last-ditch effort to try and expand his horizons in terms of the articles he gets to write, he pitches his boss on one more story: How to Lose a Girl. Unfortunately, the girl he’s already met is one who knows how to keep him on his toes in more ways than one. Hannah Mayfield is an event planner with a give-no-f*cks attitude who’s been focused more on working her way up the corporate ladder than on her dating life, but when she tries to make a pitch to oversee a wedding for a huge client, her boss questions whether she’s even got a single romantic bone in her body. Enter Jack, the perfect guy to help convince the higher-ups that she’s a relationship type of girl. Unfortunately, while they’re both stringing each other along for a different purpose, these two start to realize pretty quickly that they might actually want to be in this for real.
What’s Next?
In terms of what’s ahead, I’ve been drumming up a lot of fun ideas, including:
recs based around specific tropes (so if people have requests for that, feel free to reply to this email or poke me on Twitter)…
guest recs (if you’re interested in offering your own recommendations on a guest post, you can reach out either one of those ways too), and…
maybe even some fun open thread posts where we all talk about what we’re reading!
This is all a new frontier for me and I’m always interested in feedback, so don’t hesitate to reach out with ideas or suggestions of your own.
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.