Coco Zephir is a bookseller at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Mass., where she works on the events and marketing teams. She loves romance titles and here offers highlights of books that appeared this year:
Welcome to the best of the best in romance! Here's a list of six standout titles to round out the year.
Our first pick is Once Upon a Time in Dollywood (Berkley), a debut novel from Ashley Jordan. Once Upon a Time follows Eva as she navigates leaving the life she has always known as a playwright in New York City to retreat to her grandmother's cabin in Tennessee. As Eva seeks solace and rest, she collides with complications she wasn't expecting--namely Jamie, a single dad, who may just be as complicated and messy as she is. This story is for those looking for depth, human connection, and heart in their romances. It's an incredible debut from a promising new voice in the genre.
It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram (Forever) is the best second-chance romance of the year. When Ramin gets dumped while asking his boyfriend to marry him, he decides an escape is in order. What's more distracting than a trip to Italy to forget your ex? While roaming the cafes of Milan he runs into his high school crush, Noah, on a relocation tour with his ex-wife and son. Sparks fly between Ramin and Noah, and what began in their teens picks right back up in a journey of adventure, wine, and self-discovery.
In B.K Borison's First-Time Caller (Berkley), a preteen calls in to a Baltimore radio show Heartstrings, seeking relationship advice for her mom. The holdup? The host, Aiden Valentine, has lost faith in love. What ensues is a '90s rom-com, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired, delight of a romance featuring a radio show host and a young mom mechanic. Readers nostalgic for the '90s and lovers of first-rate banter will devour the lead rom-com in B.K. Borison's Heartstrings series.
Female Fantasy by Imam Hariri-Kia (Cosmo Reads/Sourcebooks) follows Joonie, who finds that men in real life can't compare to Ryke, the merman in the book she's reading. So when she learns that Ryke was based on a real human, she sets out to find him. Romance fans will love this paranormal comedy that alternates between her journey to locate her soul mate and the fictional world with Ryke.
Sarah MacLean offers us a stunner of a family saga, layered with one of the hottest romances of the year, in These Summer Storms (Ballantine). Alice is returning home to the family island for her father's memorial. Engaging with her family isn't the easiest, especially when it requires participating in an inheritance game led by an enigma of a man who happens to be very distracting. MacLean serves us a contemporary romance as if she's been doing it all along (not the 20-plus historical romances comprising her backlist), and we couldn't be happier about it.
Lastly, Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting (Tor) is a fantasy-romance pick. Harrow's lyrical prose follows a lady knight and a scholar tasked with writing her legacy. As the knight and scholar rewrite history, something deeper blooms that threatens to destroy the political establishment. This love story comes for your gut, while promising hope in a time of political upheaval. It's a fantasy, it's a romance, it's The Everlasting.