Sarah Chamberlain’s second book, Love Walked In, is a tender and layered romance with a mental-health focus. It follows 2024’s The Slowest Burn and has a similar feel of honest people doing their best in a sometimes difficult world. The novels opens with Californian Mari Cole arriving at Ross & Co Booksellers in London. She…
Past Present Future is a sequel to Today Tonight Tomorrow. You need to read the first book to fully appreciate this one. Rowan and Neil get together on the last day of their senior year, officially ending four years of intense academic (and occasionally immature) rivalry. They have one glorious summer together, but college plans…
Thank You For Sharing is one of the best contemporary romances of 2023, with its quick wit and soft-hearted love story. I adored the central protagonists, and I loved the way they move with aching slowness toward attachment after years of bitterness. Liyah Cohen-Jackson hasn’t seen Daniel Rosenberg since they had a huge blow-up fight…
Kissing Kosher is a soup of a book. It’s a tasty broth with lots of yummy ingredients but a bit more simmering might have resulted in a more robust product. Avital Cohen needs help. A lot of help. Her family bakery Best Babka in Brooklyn is understaffed, her dreams of being a world-class photographer are…
Marry Me by Midnight is a historical romance set in London during the Georgian period. It’s a Cinderella retelling set in the Jewish community, with a gender-swapped twist. Isabelle Lira is the heiress to end all heiresses. Since the death of her father, she is the wealthiest woman in London’s Sephardi Jewish community, and quite…
Isabelle Lima is the heiress to her father’s share of a major business, but the partners are pressuring her not just to marry, but to marry one of them. Isabelle decides to host a series of balls, à la the prince in Cinderella, to meet the eligible men of the Jewish community, after which she…
Unorthodox Love is a sweet, fun look at the love life of an orthodox Jewish woman who tries to land true love and help her family out at the same time. While there are a couple of dull stretches, it’s still a nice romance. Penina is a virgin at twenty-nine, and the matchmaking scene just…
I read Unwritten Rules, KD Casey’s début for Carina Press, back in October 2021, and I’m afraid I wasn’t very impressed – I gave it a C-. I found the romance lacklustre, the chemistry lukewarm (at best) and the characters ill-defined – although it was very clear that the author has a great deal of…
Marcella Bell’s Snowbound in her Boss’s Bed makes the same mistake I’ve seen in a few books lately – focusing on the wrong part of the story. Miriam Howard, event planner, is the daughter of a Black pastor and hasn’t fit in with her family since she converted to Judaism. Temporarily hired to replace a…
I know Rebecca Crowley from her soccer romances (such as Crossing Hearts, which I previously reviewed at AAR) but currently she’s been writing a contemporary romance series called Orchard Hill, with characters who practice their Jewish faith. I picked up Shine a Light, a Hanukkah-themed romance recently and thoroughly enjoyed this holiday read. Ellie Bloom’s…
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