A Bollywood Affair and The Bollywood Bride are the first two books in Sonali Dev’s Bollywood series. They are two of my favourite romance novels, my go-to comfort reads, and brilliantly addictive. I could give a TED talk on why they should feature at the top of every Best Romance list.
Bethany has been rejected by both boys she invited to homecoming, and Jacob has been dumped by two of the hottest girls in school. All this and the fall semester has barely begun!
When assassins attack her home on her sixteenth birthday, Kalothia flees to the royal court – a beautiful but lethal nest of poison, plots and danger.
Her humdrum life is throw into chaos when her childhood best friend rolls into town – now an internationally famous K-pop singer – and demands she honour their childhood promise of attending prom together.
When Dr. Georgia Young realizes she’s stuck in ‘cruise’ mode with no target destination, she slams on the breaks and calls a time out to re-evaluate her life and the choices that have led her to it. Her daughters, ex-husbands, mother, colleague and best friends worry that she’s lost her mind, but Georgia is over prioritizing the opinions of others above her own. She commits to overhauling her life and being intentional about making choices that revitalize and feed her spirit. The death of a university crush also inspires her to seek out all men she has loved over the years with the goal of letting them know that they mattered. Terry McMillan’s 2016 novel is a story of reinvention and second chances and it challenges all of us to consider whether we are living our most optimal life or simply going through the motions.
One of my favourite books this year has been ‘The Comeback’ by Lily Chu. It’s a sweet, romantic comedy about a workaholic, corporate lawyer – Ariadne Hui – whose life is upended when her roommate invites her gorgeous cousin to stay in their small apartment. Unknown to Ari, the quiet, artistic South Korean guy loafing on her couch is one of the biggest k-pop musicians in the world. Lily Chu has created two compelling, charming characters whose growing relationship propels them to liberate themselves from the expectations of others and discover what they really want from life. It’s a joyful, thrilling ride of a story that I whipped through in record time.
A second chance romance about two successful writers – Eva Mercy and Shane Hall – who survived brutal childhoods and an epic romance that ultimately crashed and burned in their teens.
The interwebs tell me August was Romance Awareness Month. Although we’ve missed that delightful bus, I offer up this sparkly selection of romance novels because (1) we should celebrate romance every day (2) we’re going to need some tingly happiness to handle the annual slide from flip flops and ice cream to hot chocolate and falling leaves. Give yourself an extra challenge and try an author you haven’t read before.
Indian-American writer, Sonali Dev has layered her warm romcom style, accomplished heroines and Indian culture into two of Jane Austen’s most famous novels with marvelous results.
On a bright April day last year, I managed to grab a quick lunch with Sareeta Domingo. She’d whittled an hour out of her fiercely busy schedule to chat with me. To be safe, we ate at the Pret a Manger off London Bridge, a short walk from the Harlequin Mills & Boon office where she works as an editor. When we spoke on that April day, Domingo was a published author with a romance novel (The Nearness of You) and an erotic novella (The Confessional Diaries of a Girl in Town) under her belt. In the months since that interview she has released Love, Secret Santa, a sweet Christmas romance for teens, cued up Love on the Main Stage – a summer romance for teens – for release this month, she has a July novel coming as part of Jacaranda’s 20 for 2020 campaign called, If I Don’t Have You, and she’s worked with a clutch of remarkable writers (including Dorothy Koomson, Daniellé Dash and Sara Jafari) on a new anthology celebrating women of …
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