Love & Romance

The Someday Garden

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by Ashley Poston
First sentence: “There was once a house on the cliffs that grew the most beautiful flowers.”
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Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and on-page sex, plus talk of death. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Ten years ago, Sophie and her best friend, Harriet, visited the Lilymoor estate in Maine and made a plan to return. But life got in the way, and only Sophie has made it back. This time, though, it’s in the role of Head Gardener, helping the estate get ready for the bicentennial. She just wants to do this temporary job and go back to her life, but there’s something about this place. And then a magic door appears, and behind the door is an intriguing man… and maybe there’s more to Lilymoor than even Sophie thought,

I like Ashley Poston; I really do. However, this one just felt derivative. She’s already written this story (The Seven Year Slip, which is excellent), Sure, this is a different place with different characters, but it’s really not a different story. I was more interested in Juliette’s story. I wanted this to be sapphic. Or a straightforward tale of grief. I just didn’t want what I got. I did start this one on audio, and I stalled out, losing interest. But I had it in print already, and I didn’t want to bail – maybe it would get better? – so I finished it that way.

It didn’t get better, but it didn’t get worse either. It was just an overall meh. I really need Poston to do something completely different.

Audio book: The Hocus Pocus Handbook

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by Ann Aguirre
Read by Nikki Grey and Sebastian York
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some mild swearing (maybe an f-bomb, but I don’t think so) and some mild violence. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Thea Winter is a changeling in the Winter Faerie court. She’s always kept her head down, mostly, and stayed out of trouble. But all of a sudden, she’s roped into court politics, being forced into marrying someone from Summer, in hopes of stopping a war. However, that person has disappeared, and Thea and Winter’s Hound, Kerboros, are sent off to find the person and make good on Thea’s marriage. Which is inconvenient, since Thea is developing feelings for Kerboros and (honestly) doesn’t want to be married. As they search through the lands, and collect a wide array of friends and companions, their attraction grows. But what will happen when the Lord of Winter finds out.

First, the complaint I had all the way through: a book titled Hocus Pocus should not be about fae. It’s a bad title. And secondly: There is a magical handbook, one that Thea’s foster father made her, that is much too conveniently tied to the chapters. Every chapter started with a spell (or a description of an art piece, if it was Kerboros’ chapter), and it just dragged after a while. And then there was no chemistry between the characters. At. All. This would have been better as a friendship story, just a plain road trip story, something that didn’t lead with expectations of romance. Because, there was none. Oh, she told me there was, but I just didn’t feel it. At. All.

That said, I liked the narrators, I liked the side characters and I was interested enough to finish it. Just not to like it.

Audiobook: The Blonde Identity

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by Ally Carter
Read by Emily Ellet & Andrew Eiden
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs; violence; and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

In Paris, in the middle of a blizzard, a woman wakes up with a headache and no memory of who she is. She finds herself caught up with spies – mostly because she looks like her identical twin sister, Alex, who IS a spy. She ends up teaming up with Sawyer, Alex’s partner, to help her 1) figure out who she is and 2) find Alex. What they didn’t expect was that sparks would fly between the two of them.

I’ve had this one on my shelf since it came out, but I just never got around to reading it. I was looking for a new audiobook, though – after I started and bailed on several (as well as print books! Gotta love a reading slump), and I realized that this one might be fun. And I was right: it was the perfect mix of action/adventure, of women being smart but also being vulnerable, and romance. I’ve loved Carter’s YA books, and this is – like she pitched it when it came out – just a grown up Gallagher Girls book. And I adored it.

It was exactly what I needed at exactly the time I needed it. (See? THIS is why I have shelves of TBR books. So I can pick them up when it’s the “right” time!)

Audiobook: Moon Called

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by Patricia Briggs
Read by Lorelei King
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, as well as violence with a pretty high body count. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Mercy Thompson is a shapeshifter, but she was raised by werewolves, so she knows a lot about them. And so when a newly changed wolf shows up at her garage in the Tri-Cities, Washington, she knows there’s going to be trouble. And she’s right. She teams up with the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Wolfpack, Adam, but when he’s severely injured, she returns home to Montana and her first love, Samuel, for help.

First off: this is much more world-building than actual story. There was a lot of explaining (no, please: sum up!) about wolf habits, wolf law, and pack politics. (The words “I’m not pack” were uttered more times than I cared to hear.) It was a decent mystery: who was at the heart of kidnapping kids and turning them into wolves, and how they were developing tranquilizers that worked on werewolves, was interesting. But, it wasn’t a romance. Not really. Sure, there were hints of a love triangle between Mercy, Adam, and Samuel, but it didn’t really go anywhere (yet). I liked Mercy as a character – she was smart and resourceful and didn’t let the men push her around. So, there’s that. But will I read more? Probably not. It was fine, but not exactly something I really want to spend a lot of time with.

Free Falling

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by Lyla Sage
First sentence: “There was a dead man across the table from me.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Soul Searching
Release date: September 22, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including many f-bombs. There are also several on-page, descriptive sex scenes. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Clarke has always had her act together. She’s the one who stayed home, who helped out, and all she wants to do is run the antique shop that her parents built. But, her life seems to be falling apart. There are repairs on the shop she can’t figure out how to pay, and the noise in her head – from the ghosts in the town – is getting louder and harder to block out. Enter Leith. His father died five years ago and left him the farm, but there’s a weird clause in the inheritance that means he has to be married in order to inherit. He’s had a crush on Clarke for forever and he has recently just ended a long-term relationship, so it seems like a good idea to get Clarke to pretend that they’re in a relationship so he can get the farm.

It’s a bit more complicated than that: Leith doesn’t want the farm, not really. He likes working on it, but doesn’t really want to be in charge. There’s his dad’s no-good brother who’s trying to get the farm so he can sell it to developers. And then there’s Clarke’s depression. So, some heavy issues in there along with the fake dating and the romance.

I did like this one. It was fun – I do like a fake dating trope – and I didn’t mind Clarke and Leith as main characters. It took a while for them to feel like characters, to feel like they had any chemistry – I really didn’t enjoy the first 50 or so pages – but once I settled into the book, I thought it was good (or good enough). I’m still not sure if I’ll read any more in this series. But, then again, maybe I’ll give into the hype and keep reading Sage’s books.

Audiobook: The Missed Connection

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by Tia Williams
Read by Khaya Fraites
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, talk of trauma and anxiety, and a few on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

After a year off, Sasha thinks she’s ready to get back in the game. She’s a casting agent, and she’s been hired to cast a lipstick commercial for makeup brand Seraphina. Which means getting on a plane for a transatlantic flight. She’s not happy about this, but when she meets Seat F, she feels like there’s an instant connection. They spend the flight talking and holding hands… but when they get to Paris, she loses him. Which is why she goes back to her old contact – a former private detective Wes (I can’t remember his last name!) – to help her find Seat F. But, the connection between her and Wes may be too much to ignore.

I really enjoyed this one! It was good to have a grounded romance, well-written, with fleshed-out characters that kept my interest without me rolling my eyes! I think I had a few nitpick items, but honestly, it didn’t really matter. Williams handled this in a way that felt realistic while also adhering to the guidelines in romance, and everything in the book felt intentional. It was smart, it was fun, and I definitely will be reading more from her.

Heartstopper Volume 6

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by Alice Osman
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5
Content: There is a handful of swearing, including a few f-bombs. There is also some fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Teen Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

The final volume of the Heartstopper series sees Nick finishing up high school, and applying to university, Charlie being head boy, and everyone worrying that the friend group will fall apart as they head their separate ways.

I’ll be honest here: I kept confusing the Netflix show with the graphic novel. I thought Nick had already graduated (that’s the TV show) and that they had these existential discussions already (also the TV show). Which means, I don’t really remember what happened in Volume 5. And that this volume felt redundant. Pretty much everything in here has already happened in my brain (what I get for watching TV?). It’s always good to hang out with Nick and Charlie, though, and I didn’t dislike this volume. I just thought the story was farther along than it actually was.

I needed to get the book to finish out my Heartstopper collection. I would say I’d miss these characters, but to be honest, I’m not sure I will. I am glad that their story has come to a satisfying stopping point, though.

Audiobook: All About Love

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by bell hooks
Read by January LaVoy
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: It’s challenging to read, and very honest about emotional abuse. It’s in the Creative Non-fiction section of the bookstore.

I’ve had this on my radar for a long time, one I knew I “should” read. It just turned out that I had a little bit of a window, and it’s a short read. That said, it’s not an easy one.

The basic premise is that hooks believes that people, Americans especially, don’t know how to love. And this book is all the things that are keeping people from fully experiencing love. It’s a hard book, mostly because hooks is so black and white. Capitalism, patriarchy, sure, but also our tendency to tell little white lies, to not be fully honest, to place too much emphasis on romantic love. The nuclear family divides us – we should be living in community – and prevents us from experiencing all forms of love.

It’s also one that I kind of regret listening to it. While LaVoy was an excellent narrator, I needed to see the words, and – this is unusual for me – I wanted to mark up the book and make notes in the margins. I know I will need to reread this, in print form, sometime. I just think I need to sit with it for a little bit first.

Christmas in Austenland

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by Shannon Hale
First sentence: “
Release date: September 22, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: Austenland, Midnight in Austenland
Content: There is some mild swearing, and talk of abuse in a cult setting. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Perhaps I should start with this: when I learned that Hale had written another book set in Austenland, I was super excited. I love these books, I love the movie; it’s very much a comfort read/watch for me. What could be better, in this crap timeline we find ourselves in, than another silly romance set in a world where everything is mostly good and works out?

Reader, that is not what I got.

Kestrel is at Austenland because she won a dance contest (she danced the longest). She’s mostly trying to move beyond a 2-year-old breakup when her boyfriend left her high and dry. She wants to immerse herself in this world. Except, she can’t because of two reasons: Miss Charming’s ex-husband shows up and inserts himself into things (and he’s emotionally abusive), and Kestrel’s ex-boyfriend shows up, which throws Kestrel’s life into chaos.

Sounds delightful, yes? Except that it wasn’t. Partially because in alternating chapters, Hale gives Kestrel a tragic cult background that she has to escape from. It’s a completely different book, those chapters. And then, even worse, Hale spends too much time telling us how Kestrel feels. It was super annoying and just made for a boring book. I was so annoyed, I bailed halfway and then read the ending just to see. I am so disappointed. Maybe it’s because I expected too much from the book, built it up too much in my head.

But it’s not good. And that made me sad.

Audiobook: Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It

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by Brooke Averick
Read by the author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Phoebe Berman is coming up on her 30th birthday, and she’s feeling anxious about it. Mostly because she’s never been in a relationship or on a date or kissed anyone or (gasp) had sex. And this is a Problem To Be Solved. So, against the advice of her therapist and friends, she makes a How to Lose Your Virginity in Thirty Days list.

It’s as embarrassing as it sounds. (There were multiple times that I was driving and I had to resist the urge to cover my eyes while I was listening.) See, Phoebe has crippling anxiety (and she’s unmedicated! Someone in the group thread for our Romance book club said the title should be “Phoebe Berman Needs Lexapro”), especially around relationships. And that doesn’t bode well for her status as a virgin.

It’s super hard to read about a person who is struggling with crippling anxiety (though John Green does it in his books), especially when they’re super unlikable. And I did want to smack Phoebe over the head a lot. She’s the same age as my oldest, and my 20-year-old is less annoying/obsessive/whatever than Phoebe is. Granted, I do have a daughter who struggles with this same thing, and maybe it would be annoying to be in her head all the time, so I tried to have patience and compassion around Phoebe. But it was hard, especially since I could see what the solution was early on. It’s good to have representation, especially in the romance genre, but it was a hard one to get through it (this was my second attempt, after all – I bailed on reading the book).

Averick’s narration was good, but I’d have liked to hear this book read by an experienced narrator; it may have smoothed out a few of the rougher edges on the book.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t my favorite, either.