Welcome, beloved patrons, to our Romance Garden, in which four devoted romance readers (who also happen to be library staff) share their current favorite book, genres, and characters.  We hope this gives you some ideas for your own reading…because, as we said, every mind needs a little dirt in which to grow…

Bridget: Mine to Take by Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden delights in taking familiar tropes and shattering all her readers’ expectations.  The result is always nothing short of incredible, and always keeps readers guessing as to precisely how these characters are going to make it together in the end.  Her Nine Circles series (her first with a major publishing house) pushes the envelope until it nearly falls right off the proverbial table, but it is because she is willing to take such risks that this series succeeds as well as it does.

The series opens with Mine to Take, a dark, edgy contemporary romance that centers around Gabriel Wolfe, an unstoppable and nearly heartless business tycoon, who has spent his adult life plotting to revenge himself and his mother against the man who ruined both their lives.  Now, after years of waiting, Gabriel’s chance has finally come, but in order to get to his enemy, Gabriel has to go through the man’s step-daughter, Honor St. James, who is a partner at the family firm (and, incidentally, the estranged sister of Gabriel’s closest friend).

From here, it would be easy for Ashenden to rest on her laurels and simply spin out a tale of love redeeming all wrongs, but she is too good a writer, and the stakes of her story are far too high.  Both Gabriel and Honor suffered terrible emotion loss as children, and it left them both broken characters in many ways.  The wonder of this book is how they manage to put themselves–and each other–together again.  I love especially how Ashenden upends gender expectations in her stories:  Gabriel comes across as the ruthless alpha-male, but he is hamstrung by his past and trapped by his own fears, and it is the seemingly well-behaved Honor who has the active role, putting together the pieces of the mystery surrounding her step-father and Gabriel, and, ultimately, being the only person strong enough to set her hero free.  The second book in the series, Make You Mine, takes this theme even further, but that is fodder for another post.
While these books deals in very difficult subject matter at times, and certainly aren’t light reading, they are so emotionally rich and rewarding that they become unforgettable, and the characters are so vital and well-drawn that they linger even after the final scene has played out.

 

Kelley: The Highland Guard Series by Monica McCarty

For lovers of Scottish historicals, The Highland Guard series is the perfect blend of history and romance, with each book finding a seemingly invincible warrior faced with an opponent he cannot defeat: the woman who loves him.  Described on Monica McCarty’s website as “Special Ops in kilts,” The Highland Guard is a secret army of Scotland’s fiercest Highland warriors. Recruited to fight for Robert the Bruce during the Scottish Wars of Independence, each guard member has a specialty such as hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, seafaring, or survival skills, and although the team is made up of members of opposing clans they learn to work together as brothers to achieve their common goal. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that they all just happen to be tall, rock-like with battle-earned muscle, and devastatingly handsome.

Each book in the series focuses on a different member of the guard and the woman who ultimately conquers his heart. In the The Chief, legendary and aloof swordsman Tor MacLeod meets his match in the selfless and open-hearted Christina Fraser; in The Hawk, unmatched seafarer Erik MacSorley falls for Lady Elyne DeBurgh who challenges him to be more than the charming façade he shares with the people around him; and in The Viper, the meanest and coarsest member of the Guard finds himself facing Lady Isabella McDuff, a revolutionary in her own right who not only doesn’t fear him but comes to love him instead.

Thanks to a Washington Post review by Sarah MacLean, I started my own exploration of this series with Book 9, The Arrow, so it is possible to jump into the middle of this series and still follow along with no trouble. The books are full of the danger of the wartime setting, but mingled with wit and humor, especially in the interactions of the guard members with each other.  And of course these wouldn’t be bodice rippers without romance, secrets, misunderstandings, and plenty of sexual tension and steamy scenes in between.

Warning: The Highland Guard novels are addictive, so you won’t be able to stop turning the pages to find out what happens next… even though we all know how books like these end. And that’s exactly why we love them.

Melissa:  The Love Letters by Beverly Lewis

If you’re looking for the literary dirt this blog post promises, Amish romances will not be where you find it.  There’s plenty of dirt in literal Amish gardens, but very little in the popular romance stories that center on Amish people.  The Love Letters is no exception.

Beverly Lewis is the mother of the “bonnet ripper.”  Her first novel, The Shunning is widely credited for launching the Amish romance novel phenomenon in 1997.  Even after twenty plus offerings, Lewis continues to publish some of the best written Amish fiction on the market.

The Love Letters centers on Marlena, a young Amish woman torn between the more liberal church of her parents and the conservative Amish sect of her finance.  After agreeing to spend the summer helping to care for her grandmother, Marlena also finds herself in charge of her estranged sister’s infant daughter.  As she grows attached to the baby and is more and more drawn to the more progressive Amish churches she encounters, things become tense between her and her long-distance finance.  Intertwined with Marlena’s story is that of a young, special needs Amish boy, who craves his father’s approval and befriends a confused, wandering Englischer (non-Amish person).

A bit light on the romance and a bit heavy on the evangelism, The Love Letters is saved by the author’s smooth writing and likable characters.  As Lewis herself has said, Marlena is one of her most “tender-hearted” leading ladies to date and a reader can’t help wishing her the best.  As is almost always the case in a good bonnet ripper, things are wrapped up neatly and happily in the end.  The romantic conclusion is a bit rushed, but still satisfying.  A good choice for those of you who prefer your romances to be true comfort fiction and are willing to pass on the steamy details.