Just to be 100% clear, I read MANY MORE than just these three romance novels this year. And so many of them were great!
But I didn’t take detailed notes on any of them, and these stuck out when I flicked through my Kindle history. Let’s think of these as a representative sample, and all be thankful that I didn’t pick Kitty Thomas and try to explain those plots.
I Hope This Finds You Well was recommended by a coworker, who has discovered the joys of the romance novel since becoming a parent (he loves an audiobook escape).
An IT fuckup grants Jolene access to everyone in her office’s texts and private messages. This is my worst nightmare. This is unimaginably horrible to a woman with social anxiety bad enough that she sings when entering a room at work. To give people time to stop talking about me without looking awkward. Just knowing I had the capacity to read people’s thoughts like that would be paralysing for me, I’d be terrified. I cringed by proxy the entire time I read this.
However, it actually turned out to be pretty good. Which is damning it with a bit of faint praise, I know, but my left eye is twitching again just writing about it.
Unlike me, Jolene does not end up rocking in the corner, and instead starts using the messages and emails to get a leg up on her colleagues in the lead up to rumoured layoffs. Along the way, there’s some enemies to lovers action (action is the wrong word, this is strictly sweet), personal growth, and a satisfyingly earned HEA.
Which is great but I forgot about all of it amidst The Horror.
The Wife Situation was a first-book-free experiment that resulted in me reading way, way more Lyra Parish than I would have expected.
Fake-marriage-turns-real is everywhere in the romance genre, and when well-executed, it can be a lot of fun. It’s the yearning. While it can be annoying that one honest conversation could save pages and pages, the yearning is irresistible, especially in a split-perspective format.
Easton needs a wife, but has no time for pesky complications like falling in love. So he picks Lexi, a broke actress, and sets out some clear guidelines: one year, an allowance followed by a cheque on completion, and no falling in love.
A total fantasy billionaire he-falls-first confection, The Wife Situation sets up a cast of ongoing characters for the subsequent books, nails the yearning and the banging, and is really enjoyable. I should mention that the series is incomplete – there are only five of seven currently available (and I’m a book behind?!).
I watched the first three eps of Heated Rivalry before I picked up the first two books (thanks, Lainey Gossip!).
I don’t know that it would have captured me if I hadn’t seen The Yearning in the show before I read it. I know the structure is deliberate, but I found it hard to engage for a while.
On the one hand, I love that – when their hookups are quick and almost impersonal, the writing makes big chopping timeline jumps in and out of their encounters. When they start to be more meaningful, the writing blossoms in line with their emotions. I can see it, especially now I’m on the other side of it. But I don’t know if I would have stuck with it, if I didn’t already know that the change was coming.
Once it does, though, wow. The yearning between Shane and Ilya is top notch, and their terror of coming out is heartbreaking.
I was much less conflicted over Game Changer, the first book in the series, surrounding Scott Hunter & Kip. This might make me a basic bitch, honestly, but it’s a much more traditionally structured romance novel.
Scott could have been easy to dislike, dragging Kip back into the closet with him, except that his past struggles with poverty make his fear of losing it all really relatable.
Reid’s men are emotionally available, longing for love, but terrified to reach for it in the toxic masculinity of the hockey world. It’s a potent combo – you’ll find yourself yearning for their happy ever after right along with them.
