Janga's Most Anticipated Contemporary Romances: July - December 2015

Looking at the wealth of amazing contemporary romance titles available between July 1 and December 31, you would never guess that a “Save the Contemporary” campaign was being waged a few years ago. My 2015 book calendar is so full of contemporary titles that I will likely be reading them into 2016, and every title on that calendar is a book I really want to read. However, even among the stars, some shine more brightly. The following are all books that will move to the front of my TBR queue the minute I download them. Please be advised that the list is heavy on small-town romances (I was a fan before the current trend started) and series titles (I’m an admitted series addict, but in my defense, a substantial majority of 2015 romances are part of a series.)

        Some Like It Scottish (Kilts and Quilts #3), Patience Griffin—July 7

(Also, The Accidental Scots (Kilts and Quilts #4) —December 1*)

Griffin has a knack for creating characters that I find engaging from the opening page. I love the kilts and the quilts. :) And how great to have a contemporary set in Scotland !  I loved Griffin’s first two novels, and I fully expect to enjoy the next two just as much.  I even love the covers. I will probably have read Some Like It Scottish by the time you read this, but right now it is on my download list for next Tuesday. And I’m already anticipating The Accidental Scots.





       Brown-Eyed Girl (Travis Family #4), Lisa Kleypas—August 11

This is my #1 most anticipated contemporary romance. I’ve been waiting six years for Joe’s story. Not only have I preordered it, but I have also cleared my calendar so I can reread Sugar Daddy, Blue-Eyed Devil, and Smooth Talking Stranger and be poised to start Brown-Eyed Girl the second it downloads. I love the Travis family, and I am beyond eager to revisit them. With sentences like the following one from an excerpt, I’m already falling in love: “It seemed the air had turned into champagne, every breath filled with effervescent, free-floating giddiness.

       Fatal Frenzy (Fatal #9), Marie Force—September 15

I started reading Force’s Fatal series back in 2010 and was captivated by the lead characters Washington, D.C. Metro Police Detective Sergeant Sam Holland and Nick Cappuano, friend and chief of staff of Senator John O’Connor. The developing relationship between Sam and Nick is at least as essential to each book as the particular case, and the cast of recurring secondary characters is superb. But it is that relationship that put Force’s series on my auto-buy list. Sam is now Lieutenant Sam Holland and Nick is vice-president of the United States, and they are married. But their relationship continues to be as intriguing as the dead bodies that keep turning up. I can’t wait to see what’s next.       

1    The Comfort of Favorite Things (Hope Springs #5), Alison Kent—September 15

I love the titles of this series so much that I’d probably buy the books for that alone, but I am also hooked on the characters. In the first book (The Second Chance Café), readers meet Tennessee Keller who has lost touch with his brother Dakota and his sister Indiana after a teenage trauma alters all three lives. Ten finds his HEA with Kaylie Flynn and reconnects with Indiana in Book 1, and Indiana gets her HEA with Oliver Gatlin and summons Dakota to Hope Springs in The Sweetness of Honey (Book 3). Finally, in the fifth book, Kent gives us Dakota’s story—and it is a reunion romance! I cannot tell you how eager I am to see Dakota get his HEA.

       Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island #2), Sarah Morgan—September 25

(Christmas Ever After—Puffin Island #3--October 27*)

I didn’t read my first Sarah Morgan book until Sleigh Bells in the Snow (2013), but I knew when I read that first O’Neil Brothers book that all the Morgan raves I had read were deserved. I loved the O’Neils, and First Time in Forever convinced me that the Puffin Island series would be just as great. I’ve been counting the days since then to the release of Some Kind of Wonderful, a reunion story (my favorite) with a sexy bad-boy hero. The following month, the third book in the series will be released. Christmas Ever After pairs a heroine and hero who loathed one another at first sight. What fun it will be to see them fall in love!

       A Winter Wedding (Whiskey Creek #9), Brenda Novak—October 27

The whiskey Creek series started three years ago with When We Touch, a novella in which Kyle Houseman married the wrong sister. The right sister, Olivia Arnold, finds her HEA with Brandon Lucero, Kyle’s stepbrother. Now after eight novels in which Kyle watched his closest friends find their perfect matches, Kyle will get his story. One of the things I’ve loved about this series is that Novak has done some really different things: a hero and heroine from the wrong side of the tracks, a hero dealing with the discovery that his long-time best friend is gay and in love with him, a heroine with what could be a fatal illness, and a heroine just out of prison. This time it’s turning the guy who betrayed the heroine of the first story into the hero. I am really eager to see what Novak does with this one.

       Along the Infinite Sea (Schuyler Sisters #3), Beatriz Williams—November 3

I may be cheating a bit by including this one on this list. It is more women’s fiction than contemporary romance, and since it is set in the 1960s with threads from the World War II era, it is not contemporary in the strictest sense. And the protagonist is pregnant with the child of her married lover. But whatever label fits—or doesn’t—and whatever romance taboos are violated, I am looking forward to this book with the highest expectations. The Secret Life of Violet Grant and Tiny Little Thing, the other books about Schuyler sisters, were winners for me. I love Williams’s treatment of character, her use of the past impinging on the present, and her wonderful prose. I fully expect to love this book too.

       Our Now and Forever (Ardent Springs #2), Terri Osburn—November 10

Terri Osburn has written some of my favorite small-town romances, and I laughed and sighed my way through His First and Last, her first Ardent Springs book. This second one has a runaway bride, a husband seeking reunion, and a marriage trial by celibacy. Now does that not sound irresistible? I don’t even intend to try to resist. I’ve read the teaser, and I have already booked my return ticket to Ardent Springs, Tennessee.

In the interest of full disclosure, Terri Osburn is a friend from the same Eloisa James bulletin board group as Manda Collins and PJ, but rest assured friendship is not my reason for including her book on this list.

       My Kind of Wonderful (Cedar Ridge 2), Jill Shalvis—December 22

I wasn’t sure Jill Shalvis could produce another series that could rival Lucky Harbor in my estimation, but Second Chance Summer left me fathoms deep in love with the Kincaid Brothers and eager for more books in the series. This second book is Hudson’s story, and his heroine is not the lingering kind. Count me in. (And just in case you are like me and enjoy anticipating well ahead of publication, Jacob’s book, Nobody But You, will be released March 29, 2016.)

      Anything for You (Blue Heron #5). Kristan Higgins—December 29

If Kristan Higgins puts her name on the cover, you can be sure I am going to read the book. But even among all my Higgins keepers, her Blue Heron books rank an extra star. I love this series. These are books that I’m ready to reread as soon as I finish them. And this one is Connor O’Rourke’s book—and Jessica Dunn is saying no to his proposal! It sounds like Higgins is giving me a perfect way to end my 2015 reading year.

*These books added to the ten make the full dozen.

Review - - The Sweetness of Honey

The Sweetness of Honey

By Alison Kent

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: October 7, 2014

 

Indiana Keller had hoped that when her brother Tennessee contacted her to help Kaylie Flynn create a garden (The Second Chance Café) that she and her brother would be able to regain the closeness they shared growing up before a life-changing night that haunts all the Keller siblings, but Ten still seems distant. Motivated in significant part by her desire to lessen that distance literally, Indiana buys Hiram Glass’s property in Hope Springs, Texas, to expand her produce business, IJK Gardens, which is headquartered in a Buda, a town 40 miles away. The move enlarges more than the number of cultivated acres in Indiana’s business. Glass was a beekeeper, and so she adds beekeeping to her enterprises. She hires a private investigator to search for her other brother, Dakota, who disappeared from her life and from Tennessee’s. She also adds Ten and Kaylie’s circle of friends. Among them are the mysterious Will Bowman, one of Ten’s parolee employees, and Oliver Gatlin, member of one of the town’s wealthiest families. Both men are attracted to Indiana.

Handsome, enigmatic Will keeps his past hidden, but he makes no effort to hide his appreciation of the beautiful women of Hope Springs: Kaylie Flynn, pregnant with Tennessee Keller’s child and about to marry him; Luna Meadows, newly married to her high school love, Angelo Caffey; and the lovely Indiana, on whom all his attention is now focused. The reunion of Luna and Angelo (Beneath the Patchwork Moon) resulted in revelations that reawakened Oliver Gatlin’s grief for his brother Oscar who has lain comatose since an automobile accident eight years ago and changed the direction of his life. He too is drawn to the beauty and elusiveness of Indiana. She is aware of the special qualities of both men, uncertain of where her heart is leading and fearful that old guilt makes her undeserving of new happiness.                       

The Second Chance Café was five-star read for me, and I liked Beneath the Patchwork Moon almost as well. I was predisposed to like the third book since it featured a sympathetic heroine in whom I was already invested and two potential heroes whom I found interesting. But my interest in the characters was not enough to overcome my impatience with the turtle-like pace of this book. I’m a reader who appreciates quiet books, and I have favorite novels that are heavily introspective. Even so I felt that Indiana’s story was too often second-verse, same-as-the-first material, and I sometimes needed to know more about what Will and Oliver were thinking. My liking for Indiana increased, and I loved one part of the ending. I also enjoyed the appearances of the couples from the earlier books, particularly the continuation of Ten and Kaylie’s HEA. While I was frustrated because I didn’t understand some of Will’s choices, I can reluctantly accept that the questions may be necessarily delayed to be answered in a later book, but that explanation doesn’t work for Oliver.

Despite my disappointment in this particular book, I remain a Hope Springs fan. Kent is a gifted writer, and my hopes are high for at least two more books in this series. I recommend the Hope Springs series to contemporary romance fans generally and to small-town romance fans particularly. It offers a fascinating mix of characters who are refreshingly complex and original, and the second-chance theme introduced in the first book runs through the series. But I recommend you start with The Second Chance Café and Beneath the Patchwork Moon to see this author at her best. One other caveat for readers who are fans of Kent’s erotic romances, this series has a relatively mild sensuality level.

~Janga

Review - - Beneath the Patchwork Moon

Beneath the Patchwork Moon

By Alison Kent

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: March 4, 2014

Luna Meadows discovered her vocation as a weaver in the weeks following an accident that required a long recovery accompanied by some question concerning the degree of mobility that Luna would retain. In her weaving, eighteen-year-old Luna found a way to express her fears about the future and her anguish over the death of Sierra Caffey, her best friend. Ten years after the accident that claimed Sierra’s life and left Oscar Gaitlin, Sierra’s boyfriend, in a persistent vegetative state, Luna’s hand-woven, story-telling scarves have become a favorite accessory of celebrities and earn their creator a lucrative living. Still, in some ways, Luna is still frozen in the aftermath of the twin accidents a decade after they occurred. She lives in her parents’ home, and she is haunted by the secret she holds. But she has decided that it is time she makes some changes in her life.

She buys a loft that gives her living space and space for her loom and makes plans to move out on her own at last. She also sets up a non-profit and purchases Sierra’s home with plans for turning it into a community arts center in memory of Sierra and Oscar. Sierra’s death devastated her parents, and two years after the accident, they moved to Mexico with their four younger children, leaving behind their house filled with the accumulated stuff of a family’s life. On the anniversary of her friend’s death, Luna enters the house to begin the task of clearing it for the necessary renovations. She is prepared for the memories that will assail her, but she does not expect the appearance of Angelo Caffey, Sierra’s older brother and Luna’s first love.

Angelo hasn’t been back to Hope Springs, Texas, since he left eight years ago. He never planned to return to the place where he lost not only his oldest sister but also the family who disowned him. Like Luna, an accident that happened ten years ago still has a heavy claim on him, as do his memories of Luna, the girl he left in Hope Springs. Angelo knows that Luna possesses more information about the circumstances of Sierra’s death than she has revealed, and he wants answers. He strikes a deal with Luna: he will work with her for five days cleaning out his family home, five days during which he will probe and push for the full truth about a day that changed both their lives. Her self-protective instinct tells Luna that she should refuse Angelo’s, but her heart prompts a yes.

As Luna and Angelo tackle the job of cleaning the house, they are confronted at every turn with the past that both unites and divides them. The feelings they shared as young lovers were powerful, but they were too young then to protect what they had from the forces that separated them. However reluctant Luna and Angelo may be to admit it, the physical attraction and the emotional connection between them remain strong even after eight years with no contact. But the secrets and half-truths have to be revealed before the wounds of the past can heal and the hope for a future together can be realized.

Although Kaylie Flynn and Tennessee Keller, the heroine and hero of The Second Chance Café, the first book in Kent’s Hope Springs series, appear in this second book, Beneath a Patchwork Moon can easily be read as a standalone. The focus is clearly on the tangled relationship of Luna and Angelo, two complex, creative characters unable either to let go of the past or to make peace with it. Setting is less important in this second book than it was in the first, although there are enough details such as the class distinctions and the community efforts to offset the funding cuts to arts programs in public schools, to make the reader aware that Hope Springs is a small town.

There is a pervasive melancholy in this novel that not even an HEA completely overcomes. The tragedy and its shattering effects cannot be undone even as some survivors find that happiness is still possible for those marked by loss. This is romance, strong and satisfying romance, but it is romance with a realistic edge. There are no magic wands or happy pills in this story that resurrect the dead or make whole everything that was broken.  Some readers may find this a problem; other readers will find that it adds to the story’s emotional power. I belong in the latter group.

The Hope Springs series is typical in one respect. The town is peopled with fascinating characters who leave the reader longing for their stories. The Sweetness of Honey, the third book in the series, is the story of Indiana Keller, Tennessee’s sister, introduced in The Second Chance Café, and Oliver Gaitlin, introduced in Beneath the Patchwork Moon. It will be released October 14, 2014. That leaves at least the mysterious Will Bowman and the missing Dakota, the third Keller sibling. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will be making several more visits to Hope Springs.

~Janga
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