small town romance
Rock Bottom Girl is a quick-witted romantic comedy that falls over its own feet in several aspects. Sometimes a little over-the-top and mannered, the characters struggle with serious cases of emotional arrested development that keep this one from soaring to a high grade. It’s one of those small-to ...
B+
Don’t let the blurb for Emma Barry’s Chick Magnet fool you; this is a surprisingly serious romance with a lot of dark issues floating about in its prose to match its sense of personality. But while it lacks the sense of easy-breezy fun the synopsis promises it’s beautifully poetic and romantic ...
One Duke Down reminds me of some of my favorite older romances. A heroine hiding away in a small town, a sweet small town romance, combined with dazzling seascapes bring this love story to life.
One sunny day, Miss Poppy Summers catches a man in her fishing net. An extremely handsome man with lon ...
I don’t read much m/f romance these days, but I’m always up for one of Kate Clayborn’s because they’re so thoughtful and tender and honest. She writes complex, well-drawn characters who are dealing with relatable, real-life problems, and while not ‘flashy’ or full of drama, her books non ...
Her Hometown Detective by Elizabeth Mowers is an entry in Harlequin’s kisses-only Heartwarming line. The characters and storyline are a little outside what I usually see in small-town romances, but they reflect the sorts of folks I actually encounter in small towns and I enjoyed this one quite a ...
For the Love of the Bard has fun with its lighthearted small-town byplay, but it’s not particularly substantial. Still, for a fun, quick summer read, it more than does the job.
Literary agent and author Miranda Barnes vows she’s going to do one thing this summer – finish the latest volume ...
Sometimes I feel a bit like a damaged romance heroine when I open a book by a new-to-me author. You know the trope - she's been hurt by love before, and is wary of trying again. But eventually the hero hits the right notes with her, so she cautiously starts to trust and eventually love him. Reading ...
I enjoyed the previous book in this series, and was pleased when I learned that big-hearted, slightly awkward Charlie Matheson would be getting a story. Better Than People was warm and lovely, with a well-developed romance and well-rounded characters, and I’d hoped for more of the same here - bu ...
A Retro Review
originally published on October 11, 2013
My tolerance for treacle tends to be low, so it probably surprises no one when I say that small-town contemporaries tend to be a mixed bag for me. Happily for me, The Christmas He Loved Her ended up being both a wonderful read and something b ...
The last time readers of Ms. Stacey’s Boys of Fall series saw this hero and heroine, they were getting to know each other on the hood of a car. Sam Levitt left town shortly after, expecting to never see Jen Cooper again. But when a request from a trusted mentor beckons him back to Stewart Mills, N ...