Retro Wendy: Category Romance: More Than Cute Little Books with Dreadful Titles

This post originally ran at Heroes & Heartbreakers on March 10, 2011 making this very much a "time capsule" read. For one thing, I use the word "diverse" - which has taken on a different connotation within publishing since 2011.  Also, Harlequin has closed a number of lines since this post originally ran, and digital publishing has completely changed the "short contemporary romance" landscape. 

All my life, I’ve had a thing for the underdog. The little guy who is not only the odds on favorite to lose, but is expected to do so in a spectacularly epic fashion.

The romance genre is the ultimate underdog in the court of public opinion. Romance readers are used to nobody taking us seriously, to people treating us like brain-dead ninnies, and to the snide remarks that inevitably follow if someone finds out what we like to read. But it’s even worse for the category romance reader. Those of us who like to read The Cute Little Books With The Dreadful Titles. Because not only do we have to deal with the non-romance reading population sneering at us, we also get it from fans of the genre who really should know better.

As a librarian, I spend a lot of time banging my head up against brick walls. One of my favorite brick walls is educating fellow librarians on the genre, and I tend to devote whole talks on just category romance. Why? The number of titles published every month is mammoth, and it’s a diverse sub genre (no, really—it is).

The biggest reason, though? It’s by far and away the most misunderstood branch on the fiction tree. I would argue even more so than the romance genre as a whole. Hey, when even some romance fans deride the category format as “trash,” you know there’s something rotten in Denmark.

I’m often asked what the appeal of the category romance novel is. Why do readers love to read them? The short and sweet answer is that it’s all of the romance, with none of the BS. Ask any romance reader why they like the genre and you’ll get a variety of answers. At the end of the day, however, aren’t all of us there for the love story? We’re there for hero and heroine falling in love and riding off into the sunset. Category romance, with its shorter word counts and fewer pages means that the author has to have an intense focus on the romance in order for the book to work. A category writer cannot mess around. They cannot get sidetracked on a 25-page tangent about the weather, the history of the quaint small town, or the Battle of Waterloo. They need to get to the point. And the point of it all is the romance.

I kicked any lingering snobbery I had towards the romance genre to the curb when I was hired on at my very first professional library job some 10+ years ago. However, I told myself that it was OK to read romance because “It’s not like I read Harlequins!” Seriously, even this librarian can be an idiot. Then one day I actually read one of those “trashy Harlequins” and I fell in love with that strong, intense focus on the hero and heroine relationship. To this day, when I pick up a category romance, that’s what I’m hungry for. Give me the romance, all of the romance, and let nothing else in the story detour me off the road to Happily-Ever-After Land.

I’ll admit it can be easy to make fun of category romances. The titles. The sometimes dippy cover art. The overblown, over-the-top-sounding back cover blurbs that are staples in some of the lines. I also admit that it can be a confusing sub genre to navigate. Even years after a lot of publishers have fled the sub genre, only leaving Harlequin, there’s so much published every month, so many different lines, that for the uninitiated it can be a little confusing. It also tends to enforce the negative stereotype that because the books are in separate imprints, then all the books are somehow the same. Yes, each line might have certain guidelines, but just as there is more than one historical romance out there about an American heiress in London, or more than one paranormal romance out there about vampire hunters, it does not mean category readers are reading the same book over and over again. Likewise, the authors are not filling out some generic template for their books, cranking a story out in a couple of hours.

Seriously, if only it were that easy, right authors?

This nonsensical idea that All The Books Are The Same proliferates across the genre, but nowhere more than in category. Those of us who love them know that this could not be further from the truth. And because I love banging my head against brick walls, over the coming months I plan on highlighting many of the category romance lines and expounding on what makes these Cute Little Books With The Dreadful Titles so great, and so addicting. Hopefully by the end of these posts, even if you aren’t a converted category romance fan, you’ll maybe come to understand a little bit of why so many of us love them. At the very least, I hope that the members of our community will stop throwing some of those slings and arrows our way. Hey, don’t we get enough of that garbage from everyone on the outside?

Top 5 Unusual Historical Best Bets for June 2019

Squeaking in under the wire, file this month’s Unusual Historicals column under “better late than never.” But while I’m running obscenely late this month, that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of intriguing options for historicals that take place outside a Regency era ballroom. Keep your one-click finger ready, it’s time to go browsing!

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.  

Catherine St Day looks forward to a quiet widowhood once her late husband’s scientific legacy is fulfilled. She expected to hand off the translation and wash her hands of the project—instead, she is intrigued by the young woman who turns up at her door, begging to be allowed to do the work, and she agrees to let Lucy stay. But as Catherine finds herself longing for Lucy, everything she believes about herself and her life is tested.  

While Lucy spends her days interpreting the complicated French text, she spends her nights falling in love with the alluring Catherine. But sabotage and old wounds threaten to sever the threads that bind them. Can Lucy and Catherine find the strength to stay together or are they doomed to be star-crossed lovers? 

Waite’s anticipated debut with Avon is the first in the fantastically-titled Feminist Pursuit’s series. I’ve been kicking around corners of Romancelandia for a long time and can tell you - the fact that this book exists and is being published by Avon is A. Very. Big. Deal. Insert gif of confetti throwing.

A Touch of Forever by Jo Goodman

Lily Salt has sworn off men. After finally gaining her independence, the last thing she needs is another man telling her what to do. But the handsome railroad engineer from New York isn't at all what she expected. He's kind, gentle...and tempting enough to make her wonder what a second chance at love might be worth.  

A self-acknowledged black sheep, Roen Shepard knows what it means to feel alone. Recognizing a kindred spirit in the reserved widow whose fascinating blue-green eyes have seen too much, and charmed by the warmth of her ready-made family, the two begin an unlikely friendship.  

When a complication from his past follows him to Frost Falls, Roen proposes a mad scheme to protect the new life he's built and keep close the stubborn woman he's accidentally fallen for—a marriage of convenience. But Lily has secrets of her own, and the closer he gets to uncovering them, the more he comes to realize that the only truth that matters is the secret to unlocking her heart. 

In my experience Goodman’s westerns tend to be “slow burn” romances, which means I have to be in the right headspace before tackling them (read: Wendy is behind). This is the third (and final?) book in the Cowboys of Colorado series and received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.

A Debutante in Disguise by Eleanor Webster 

A society lady
…with a secret! 

Determined to help people, Letty Barton has a double life—she’s a trained doctor! No one must know “Dr. Hatfield” is actually a woman. Called to an emergency, she comes face-to-face with her patient’s brother, Lord Anthony Ashcroft… They’d once shared a spark-filled flirtation—now he’s a brooding, scarred war hero. But how long will it be before he recognizes her beneath her disguise and the sparks begin to fly once more? 

As a child the heroine’s love of science was indulged, but now that she’s an adult her mother expects her to be sensible and marry. Oh, Romancelandia mothers. Will they never learn? Anyway, this back cover blurb is Wendy catnip featuring an unconventional heroine with a Big Secret and wounded hero.

Game of Spies by Pamela Mingle 

Life as a lady-in-waiting for Mary Queen of Scots isn’t at all what Isabel Tait expected. But she must either tolerate the mindless partying and ceaseless backstabbing of Mary’s other ladies, or risk being sent home to a forced marriage. She’d almost rather return to her family—if not for a certain handsome gentleman who arouses a new desire in her, something she’s never before experienced. Of course, he’ll never notice her…  

Gavin Cade is on a mission. Tasked with spying on the Queen, he’s found the perfect woman to help. Sweet, shy Isabel is an easy target for his charms. Before he knows what’s happened, he is the one beguiled. With the fate of England in the balance, he must keep his plan to expose the treasonous queen a secret, or he will never seduce his sweet English rose.  

Because there’s one thing he’s learned about Isabel Tait…she’s got a backbone of steel and may never forgive him. 

Elizabethan era romances aren’t exactly thick on the ground, which is what caught my eye about Mingle’s latest from Entangled Publishing. Set during the time when Mary, Queen of Scots was basically under house arrest, it features an older (for the time period) heroine on the shelf, and a mystery subplot.

One Night of Temptation by Darcy Burke

Faced with a marriage she can’t abide, Lady Penelope Wakefield takes drastic measures to preserve her freedom. Her brilliant plan is foolproof until a sexy but imperious rector “rescues” her.  

Rector Hugh Tarleton has no patience for the Society philanthropists who seek to bestow their pity—and not much else—on his oppressed flock in one of London’s worst neighborhoods. When the daughter of a marquess is kidnapped and brought to the rookery, he vows to protect her, but the temptation to surrender to their mutual desire will certainly ruin them both. 

While browsing for historical romances Burke’s is a name I’ve seen crop up more than once, but I’ve never actually read her. This one caught my eye because the hero is a rector, and while I’ve seen vicar heroes in my day, never a rector. I’m going to cross my fingers, dive in, and hope that the potential “savior complex” pitfall doesn’t materialize. Also, for readers that must read in order, be advised this is book six in a series.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?

Retro Wendy: If You Build It, They Will Come: Erotic World-Building

This post originally ran at Heroes & Heartbreakers on August 5, 2012

Even though I’ve currently declared a moratorium on paranormal reading, that does not mean I ignore the subgenre completely; I still buy plenty for my library patrons to read, and I follow many bloggers who are diehard paranormal fans. One thing that is typically always mentioned in reviews for paranormal books is the world-building. Was it good, bad, or indifferent? In some cases, the world-building can make or break a book for a reader—too much and the romance gets lost. Not enough and the reader is slogging through wallpaper. But what about world-building in other corners of romance? 

Any story worth its salt—regardless of genre or subgenre—needs to have decent world-building. It’s what helps transport the reader into the story, as opposed to relegating us to the sidelines where we’re barely interested observers. I love getting lost in a book, sucked in to the point where I don’t want to come up for air. World-building does that for me.

Some of my favorite worlds have been built within the realm of erotica and erotic romance. An excellent example would be Logan Belle’s Blue Angel series. It follows the travails of Mallory Dale, a law student who hangs up her legal briefs for pasties when she gets sucked into the world of the New York City burlesque scene. What Belle has done very well in this series is flesh out that scene for readers. She’s got an excellent back-drop to populate her characters with, she sprinkles in plenty of drama, and gives readers a soap opera feeling against what, for many of us, is an exotic lifestyle.

Megan Hart takes a slightly different approach, especially in her early Spice novels, Dirty and Broken. It wasn’t the setting so much as the characters. She has a way of slyly interesting recurring characters without beating readers over the head with a series-baiting stick. Newcomers won’t feel like they’re missing anything, but fans will get a giddy thrill recognizing and seeing former secondary players again, waltzing across the pages of multiple books.

But as well as Hart does this, Portia Da Costa is the pro. Da Costa has a long and extensive career that carries across several publishers and lines. What I love about her books is that she’s designed her own erotic universe. It’s like all the characters she’s ever created reside in this giant bubble, and they can pop up in any given book.

One couple that the author seems especially fond of is Maria and the enigmatic Mr. Stone. These two got their own book with Entertaining Mr. Stone, showed up in In Too Deep, and even crossed publishers to make an appearance in the recent Carina Press book, Intimate Exposure. Then there was the time the couple from In Too Deep, one of my personal favorites, was spotted in a crowded restaurant scene in Kiss It Better. It detracts nothing for the newbies, but for someone who had read all those stories, it caused my heart to skip a beat.

The misconception with erotic writing is that as long as the author delivers the sex, readers will happily return to the trough to gorge. Is the sex important? Yes, but it’s not nearly enough. For a book we can really sink our teeth into, one that will linger beyond just a few scintillating moments of feeling naughty? We need the characters and we need the world.

What are some of your favorite moments of world-building in erotica and erotic romance?

#TBRChallenge 2019: Three Harlequin Historical Undones

One of the few "rules" I give myself for the TBR Challenge is to read from my print TBR.  However the book I ended up selecting was a pretty quick DNF and with familial obligations this week, I opted instead to burn through three short stories languishing on my Kindle from the defunct Harlequin Historical Undone line.  To keep things cohesive, I went with three written by the same author, Marguerite Kaye.

Spellbound & Seduced opens in 1622 with a witch, betrayed by her own daughter, being burned at the stake.  Before she dies she, naturally, puts a curse on her daughter, stating that her husband will die on their one-year anniversary and that every woman in their line will lose their husbands until a "one true love" can break the curse.  Fast forward to 1822, and that witch's descendant, Jura Mcnair, is living in a remote cottage, determined to die alone, the curse along with her.  Lawrence Connaught, who turns out to be the new laird, arrives on her doorstep, injured, just as a snowstorm is blowing in.  He's captivated, she's lonely, they're snowed in - oh, whatever shall they do?

Jura is a witch and herbalist, talked about in hushed whispers, but respected by villagers for her willingness to help and heal them of various ailments.  Still, wanting to break the curse, she has resigned herself to a life of loneliness.  The paranormal aspects are written with a light touch but given that a "one true love" is the only way to break a 200-year-old curse...well, a short story didn't provide me with enough of a word count to convince me.  Pleasant and OK.

Final Grade = C

Behind the Courtesan's Mask is a perfect example of a story that works better in a short format.  Had this been a full-length Harlequin Historical I'm pretty sure the hero would have gotten on my last hot nerve.

Constance had no idea she had an identical twin sister until she shows up on her doorstep, near death from consumption.  Her sister now passed, Constance has returned to her sister's townhouse to pack up her things, and given that her sister was a courtesan known as "La Perla" - well, the townhouse is eye-opening indeed.  To Constance, widowed when her upstanding, staid, completely devoid of passion, vicar husband dies - her sister's life is a compelling mystery.  So when Troy Templeton, Earl of Ettrick shows up at the door, thinking that Constance is her sister, well...she doesn't correct him.

Troy is a diplomat and there to warn the infamous La Perla away from his boss's son.  Instead sparks, tension, and flirtation means he ends up ravishing Constance - who is a willing participant.  Troy, naturally, thinks the worst of her since he was duped as a young man by a courtesan/fortune hunter.  There's some mild, read in between the lines slut-shaming, but Kaye counteracts this with Constance's pragmatic views on sex work - especially since she got to properly know her long-long sister before her passing.  In a full length novel I think I'd want to smack Troy into next Tuesday, but the shorter format means his moments of jackassery are blessedly brief.  It didn't light my world on fire, but I liked this one.

Final Grade = B

Finally, I read Lost in Pleasure, a perfect example of one-clicking based on author name and not reading the back cover blurb carefully.  This, very brief, story that clocks in at 40 pages is a time travel romance.  Richard, Earl of Kilcreggan is wealthy, captivated by all things scientific, and has a fabulous library.  However, he's got a bit of ennui and wishes for something to "happen" - which comes in the form of Errin McGill, an American antiques dealer from the 21st century magically appearing in his library.  Errin got there after she sat in a Regency-style wingback chair (which turned out to be once owned by Richard) in a dusty London antique shop.

What follows is sex, dress shopping, traveling back and forth in time, more sex, and finally the two realizing they're in love and need to be together.  One reason I have a hard time with time travel romance is I find all the "time travel stuff" rather tedious.  "Oh golly, I traveled back in time! You sure do talk funny! You sure do wear funny clothes!" etc. etc. etc.  A positive on the short page count is there's less of this.  The downside is that I don't believe in the longevity of the romance.  Where are these two going to live? How will they live?  How will Richard adapt to the 21st century or how will modern, independent, Errin adapt to life as a woman living in the early 19th century?  They have great sex, she gets to wear pretty dresses, they go to balls, the theater and what-not...but it's not enough to make me believe.

And yes, I'm aware that me dissecting a time travel romance, the height of fantasy, is patently ludicrous, but there you have it.

Final Grade = D

A bit of a mixed bag for me for this month's challenge, but given my limited attention span, going with short stories was the right course of action.  Also, it reminded me of how much I appreciated the defunct Harlequin Historical Undone and Spice Briefs lines for offering readers different.  I read three stories, all by the same author, and got a witch, a historical, and a time travel.  Oh sure, it wasn't all a raging success for me, but I think it's another reason why Carina's Dirty Bits line has failed to ignite much interest in me, a reader who LIKES to read short.  It's all contemporary, all the time and when it comes to shenanigans? Viva la variety!

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is June 19

Hey, hey, hey!  For those participating in the 2019 #TBRChallenge, a reminder that your commentary is "due"on Wednesday, June 19.  This month's theme is Historical!

Historicals are my first love in romance so I've got an obscene amount of options for this month's theme.  I suspect more than a few of the TBR Challenge participants are in the same boat!

But what if you *gasp* don't like historicals? Or maybe you're just not in the mood to read one this month?  Hey, no problem! A reminder that, as always, the themes are completely optional.    The goal is to read something, anything, that has been languishing in your TBR.

If you're participating on social media, please remember to use the #TBRChallenge hashtag so people can follow along.

And it's not too late to sign up!  Simply leave a comment on this reminder post.

You can learn about the challenge and check out the full list of blogging participants on the information page.

Review: Swim Deep

TW: sexual abuse


Limecello told me about Swim Deep by Beth Kery months ago with a conversation (widely paraphrased) that consisted of, "It's different and it sounds like your kind of book."  I read the description, which screams Gothic, and that was enough for me to one-click.  Naturally, me being me, I finally got around to reading this February 2019 release in June.

Let's get this out of the way up front, this isn't an erotic romance - which is the sub genre Kery is known for.  This is an amalgamation of Gothic, romance, suspense, and women's fiction and for that reason it starts out rather bumpy.  This was most definitely a second half book for me once the plot starts to bubble over.

Anna Solas is a young, beautiful starving artist working two jobs.  She meets and falls fast for the older, more worldly Evan Halifax, a hedge fund manager who sweeps her off her feet, marries her after a whirlwind courtship and takes her to live in his magnificent, fortress-like home in Lake Tahoe.  The home he inherited from his dead first wife, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth, who naturally casts a long shadow, died in a drowning, whose body was never recovered.

If you're passingly familiar with Gothics you'll kind of know what happens next.  Evan isn't all that he seems, his lies by omission start to unravel, and Anna, secluded up in the mountains doesn't know who to trust.  The plot is a solid one and even though I knew one character was not all that they seemed, Kery does a good job of building suspense, throwing in misdirection and leaving the reader questioning what they *think* they know.

But (and yes, there's a but...), it's kind of a lumpy read.  The beginning is like getting thrown into the deep end of the pool with the expectation that the reader already knows who these characters are.  You don't.  I spent the first third of this book asking myself, "Who are these people? Why should I care about them? I don't think I do care about them..."  To be honest the only things that kept me from setting aside this book in the early chapters were Limecello recommended it to me, and it's a Gothic.  I'm achingly nostalgic toward Gothics to the point where I give them a lot of rope before throwing in the towel.

And I'm glad I did.  Because after a while I got a better handle on the characters and the pacing picks up on the plot.  There were definitely times I wanted Anna to be smarter, to be less trusting, but then we wouldn't have too much of a book and she makes up for it in the end.

There are certainly problematic elements to this story though, and the mix of Gothic, romance, suspense and women's fiction did make the story feel unfocused at times.  Sexual abuse is a driving force behind the suspense and when a secreted away box of sex toys and recordings are found there's an uncomfortable correlation with depravity (it's in between the lines, but I felt like it was there).  This will be a deal breaker for some readers, and likely not register at all for others.  It wasn't necessarily a deal breaker for me, but it did cause me to squirm in my seat.

This book ended up being a bit of a mixed bag for me.  Uneven is probably the best way to describe it.  There were parts I enjoyed, but I'm not sure enough to make up for the lumpy beginning, slow character development, and problematic elements. Evan does something over the course of this story that was a bridge too far for me, but it helps tremendously that Kery doesn't try to do too much with the ending when it comes to the romance.  However, it's a Gothic and on that score, it worked for me - and reminded me a bit of the more lurid sounding Gothics that were turned out during the height of the pulp era.  Depending on your nostalgia for Gothics and/or your fandom for Kery's work, your mileage may vary.

Final Grade = B-

Retro Review: Leave It To Cleavage

This review of Leave It to Cleavage by Wendy Wax originally was posted at The Romance Reader in 2004. Back then I gave it a rating of 4-Hearts (B Grade) with a sensuality content rating of PG.

Every now and then a book comes along to remind me why I keep reviewing books after 5+ years. There are two perks to this volunteer job 1) discovering new authors and 2) loving a book that you normally would not have a touched with a 10-foot pole. This second novel by Wax definitely falls into the second category. It’s got a silly title, a bright orange cover featuring a pink bra, and it screams romantic comedy – a sub genre that very rarely works for yours truly. So you can imagine my delight when I read the first page and was immediately hooked.

Miranda Smith is a former beauty queen and heir apparent to her family’s long-running lingerie business. However, while she has an MBA, her husband is the one running the company. Miranda is more of a spokeswoman than anything else. However it’s on a cold January day when her world comes crashing down around her.

She’s in her husband’s office looking for a stamp when she finds some pictures – pictures of Tom wearing women’s lingerie. Also in one of these pictures is a woman’s hand, sporting a perfect French manicure, poised on Tom’s butt. Flabbergasted, Miranda also discovers a letter from the bank that mentions an audit of her family’s company, Ballantyne Bras. Seems Tom was cooking the books.

But that’s not the worst of it. Tom also emptied their joint bank accounts and his closets. He then left her a “Dear Miranda” letter saying he wasn’t coming back. With Ballantyne Bras as the driving force of the local economy, plus with no clue as to extent of the damage her husband has wrought – Miranda has no choice. She’s going to have to take over the running of Ballantyne, try and come up with a plan to save the company, find the weaselly Tom, oh and divorce his sorry butt. However things get even stickier when the handsome local police chief starts snooping around. Why won’t Blake Summers just leave well enough alone?

Blake won’t leave well enough alone because he gets a tip from an anonymous caller claiming that Tom has met with foul play, and that Miranda had something to do with it. So Blake decides to do some snooping around – only to become seriously distracted by Miranda.

I loved this story from the get-go thanks to Wax’s charming, breezy writing style. It’s crisp, clear and kept me easily turning the pages. It also helps that it’s funny without trying too hard. While some of the plot borders on silly at times, Wax reigns herself in before she goes over the top. She also has a way of making the silly sound totally plausible, and making the reader swallow every spoonful with nary a nagging doubt in sight.

What seals the deal though are the characters – which are often found in silly circumstances but are never silly themselves. Miranda is a refreshing woman with a lot working for her. She’s a former beauty queen with brains. She’s battled infertility problems, but thought her marriage was sound. Tom’s disappearance is a rude awakening that allows our heroine to take control of her life. Blake is a sexy and charming, with an older father to look out for and a jock teenage daughter to raise. Imagine this poor guy’s confusion with his basketball star “little girl” decides she wants to enter a local beauty pageant, starts wearing make-up, and has boys sniffing around!

Leave It To Cleavage is much more than a standard romantic comedy, and I can’t help thinking that Bantam shoe-stringed it with its dopey bubblegum cover art and title. It’s a cozy mystery and women’s fiction novel with a romance tucked neatly inside. While Miranda is taking control of her life, she also has to figure out where the heck Tom is, plus deal with her burgeoning feelings for Blake. The romance is just gravy for our girl, and by the end of the novel this reviewer was cheering her on has she makes her final stand. Very easily one of my very few standout books of the year – don’t miss it.

Guest Review: Summer on Mirror Lake

Today the Bat Cave is hosting guest reviewer Janet Webb who many of you know from her writing at Heroes & Heartbreakers (RIP), Criminal Element, and as a longtime resident of Romancelandia. Welcome Janet!

Honeymoon Harbor is a romance destination worth visiting—it’s a vibrant Pacific Northwest community, complete with a long-ago Romeo/Juliet*esque family feud, gorgeous brothers, to-die-for scenery, and plots that gently wind themselves around the heart strings. Summer on Mirror Lake is the 3rd Honeymoon Harbor book. Herons Landing #1 and Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane #2 are the first two book in the series. It reminds me of Debbie Macomber’s Pacific Northwest series (a compliment, believe me!) because earlier characters don’t disappear after they get their HEA: they are woven into the plot. (N.B. what really packs a wallop, the pointed brother to brother advice.)

Gabriel (Gabe) Mannion is the second oldest Mannion son, destined from birth to compete with his over-achieving older brother Quinn (former hot-shot lawyer, now crafts beer entrepreneur extraordinaire). Gabe did not expect to collapse at the funeral of his mentor but hey, who would? Where to recover and recuperate?

When he lands in the emergency room after collapsing at the funeral of a colleague and friend, Wall Street hotshot Gabriel Mannion initially rejects the diagnosis of an anxiety attack. But when warned that if he doesn’t change his adrenaline-fueled, workaholic lifestyle he could end up like his friend, Gabe reluctantly returns to his hometown of Honeymoon Harbor to regroup. 

Gabe reluctantly admits “that everybody had their limits,” and he decides to go for a run each morning along a lakeshore trail and visit Quinn’s bar each night to drink away his chagrin at having a life-plan interruptus. He knows that second chances don’t come along all that often. And in case we missed it, JoAnn Ross slyly reminds us of the quintessential second chance story.

But it wasn’t too late. He figured that ER doc was more like Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Future. He hadn’t revealed what would happen. Only what could. Gabe was perfectly capable of changing his fate. All he had to do was make a plan. It wasn’t all that different from analyzing financial data. 

What could go wrong? Gabe is a man with a plan and everyone in Honeymoon Harbor knows he’s richer than God. The problem with drinking at Quinn’s bar is that after two weeks Quinn tells it to him straight: “You do realize that you’re driving customers away.” Come again? But Quinn’s right, the bar isn’t as busy as it was when he first came to town. Of course, Gabe denies that it has anything to do with him but Jarle Biornstad, Quinn’s Norwegian giant of a cook, agrees: “The edgy vibe radiating off you is scaring people away.” They tell him how to fill his “days of leisure.” He should build a boat, something he loved to do before he went away to college. Specifically, a Viking faering.

“Even if I wanted to, which I haven’t said I do, it’d be a push to get a decent-size one done in three months.” Which was his deadline. By then he’d be rested, at his fighting weight and ready to get back into the fray.  

“Because your summer schedule is so booked.”  

Gabe gave him a hard stare. “You’re pushing me.”  

“Just saying,” Quinn said mildly. That was a funny thing about the eldest Mannion. Gabe couldn’t remember his older brother ever yelling, or even raising his voice. Yet, somehow, just like his dad, who was the quieter of his parents, he always got his way, always made things happen. 

Quick aside to JoAnn Ross: when is Quinn’s story coming down the pike because I’m more than ready!

I’m sure readers are more than ready to meet the heroine of Summer on Mirror Lake. Chelsea Prescott, head librarian and friend to all, faces life with a determinedly glass-half-full attitude. That’s her choice. Her childhood slid into tragedy after her younger sister died and her doctor dad left the family. Her mother died when Chelsea was in college—police called it an accidental overdose, but Chelsea saw it as a slow, tragic suicide. Honeymoon Harbor’s library was her safe place and former head librarian Lillian Henderson was her second mother. Chelsea may have stepped into Lillian’s shoes, but she’s determined to put her own stamp on the job. The Summer Readers’ Adventure group is Chelsea’s pet project—she not only wants kids to delve into books during the summer, she’s planning field trips to enhance the curriculum. What would match up better with a “Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book on northern myths” than a visit to see an actual Viking ship under construction? Brianna, a good friend of Chelsea, and the only Mannion sister, spills the beans, although she warns her girlfriend “not to get your hopes up.”

"He’s been a loner out at the lake, and extremely noncommunicative even with us. I have the feeling something significant happened in New York, but if anyone knows what it was, it’d be Quinn, and he’s not talking." 

Everybody knew that Quinn Mannion held secrets as tightly as a priest hearing a confession at St. Peter the Fisherman’s church. Which was why he undoubtedly knew personal things about most people in Honeymoon Harbor.  

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask,” she decided. “All he can do is say, no, right?”  

“Right. And good luck. Quite honestly, I think it’s be as good for him as it would be fun for the kids.” 

A week or so later, Chelsea tracks down Gabe in a “back corner of the Honeymoon Harbor wooden boat-building school.” He doesn’t remember her although he has fond memories of Lillian Henderson. Chelsea tells him that Mrs. Henderson is on the advisory board.

“I didn’t realize libraries had advisory boards.”  

“Many do.” Twin dimples appeared in her cheeks as she smiled. She was, as his grandfather Harper would say, cute as a button. Even as her naughty librarian glasses had him imagining unbuttoning a few more of those buttons, Gabe reminded himself that he didn’t do cute. 

And he doesn’t do boat-building tours, telling her it’s a liability issue. Chelsea protests: “Even if I promise that they won’t touch a thing?” “Even then,” Gabe says and if you think that’s the end of it, you need to read more romance.

Summer on Mirror Lake is my favorite of the Honeymoon Harbor series because the protagonists are so different, yet they’re absolutely made for each other. Even when they resolve their difficulties over boat visits and decide to have a secret summer fling (that everyone in town knows about), the end of August looms like a big dark storm cloud. Everyone knows Gabe’s real home is the gold-paved canyons of Wall Street—or is it? JoAnn Ross never disappoints—take this to the beach and enjoy.