Susan Andersen

In J.R. Ward’s The Angels' Share, the second in her Bourbon Kings series, the mighty Bradford family has fallen. Patriarch William’s apparent suicide is beginning to look like murder. And since the man bred hate more easily than most people draw breath, there is no shortage of suspects. There is also no one at the helm of the Bradford Bourbon Company—or the BBC as it’s known—their billion-dollar family business. It falls to Lane, the youngest Bradford brother and a former playboy (reformed now that he's gotten serious with gardener Lizzie King), to take charge.

It soon becomes clear that William has left the business all but bankrupt. And the hits keep coming as Lane uncovers one transgression committed by his father after another, all of which threaten the family estate of Easterly and the survival of the BBC. Still, Lane is damned if their generations-old family business will fail on his watch. But this is new territory he’s trying to map his way through, and he is certainly getting little help from his family. His mother is a prescription medicine-addicted recluse, oldest brother Edward is a fragile shadow of his former self after the kidnapping and torture he suffered on his father’s orders, Lane’s middle brother Max is MIA, and his wild child sister, Gin . . . Well, she’s Gin—not interested in being useful.

The Angels' Share hosts a large cast of characters. If you missed The Bourbon Kings, the first book in the series, it may take you a while to get them all straight and become truly engaged in the story. Yet these characters will suck you in. A number one New York Times bestseller many times over, J.R. Ward has written an operatic lollapalooza of a story, filled with a rich mix of good guys, bad guys, back stabbers and hard workers, high-stakes business deals and small gems of personal growth. Ward has infused it throughout with her affection for Southern sensibility, which sings in the characters she has created, who love, care and fight for the continued success of Easterly and the BBC.

In Nobody But You, the third in New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis’ Cedar Ridge series, Shalvis delivers a fast-paced love story deftly interspersed with themes of coming home again and learning to move beyond entrenched preconceptions.  

Army Special Forces officer Jacob Kincaid left home at 18 and—aside from quick visits to his mother—has avoided Cedar Ridge, Colorado, ever since. But Jacob’s hometown tugs at him with irresistible force following his Army buddy’s death in a mission gone sideways. This time, he hopes to reconnect with his entire family—especially his twin, Hudson—and soak up the peace and quiet of the spectacular Colorado mountains until he has to report back to duty. Before he can make a dent in his plans, however, he discovers a beautiful redhead tying her boat to his dock.

Sophie Marren’s been in limbo since divorcing her serially cheating husband. She’s living on the boat he loved far more than he ever loved her, but she’s weary of having to move it daily to avoid moorage fees and fines she can’t afford. She’s set aside her own dream of starting a concierge business to accept a series of temp jobs that allow her to (barely) make ends meet. Scoring a dock in front of an empty cabin feels like her first stroke of good luck in way too long. Right up to the moment she comes up against a rule-spouting hunk she assumes is Lake Patrol.

Nobody But You flows like a refreshing Colorado river on a hot summer day. The only glitch is the cutesy treatment of the hero’s mother’s dementia. Readers who have dealt with this debilitating disease with their loved ones will likely wince at the portrayal of a character who, even as she thinks herself back in a time when her grown sons were young, has no difficulty playing chess, understanding social media and verbalizing her wishes without the short term memory loss and confusion that generally typifies this condition. That said, few authors write family dynamics better than Shalvis. She yet again enchants with her trademark style and wit, eliciting tears one moment, delighted laughter the next—and always, always a huge sigh of satisfaction.

Susan Andersen is a New York Times bestselling author of 23 romance and romantic-suspense novels.

The Bollywood Bride by critically acclaimed author Sonali Dev starts with a bang when an impulsive act by Ria Parkar, the Bollywood scene’s reclusive Ice Princess, threatens to expose her family’s history of mental illness—a history she’s sacrificed everything to keep private. In a moment of vulnerability, Ria agrees to attend her cousin’s Chicago wedding. She knows she shouldn’t go, because the last person she wants to see will also be attendance. But she’s so homesick for her favorite cousin, aunt and uncle that she can’t stay away.

Vikram Jathar, Ria’s first friend and only love—the man she fled 10 years ago in the most bridge-burning manner she could devise—is every bit as furious with her as she expects. In his eyes, Ria exchanged their relationship for a glamorous life in the spotlight. Yet he can’t seem to stay away from her.

Objectively, Ria knows better than to get involved with Vikram again. She understands that they have no future and that she should return to Mumbai. But it’s so wonderful to be back with the family who gave her childhood normalcy, who provided the best summers of her life. And no matter how sternly she tells herself that she must go back to India, she can’t tear herself away from them, nor from Vikram. Then everything changes.

I fell in love with Dev’s writing in her first novel, A Bollywood Affair. The Bollywood Bride is its polar opposite in tone: darkness and angst to her first novel’s lightness. Yet it’s filled with the same complexity of characters, rich sense of family love and enticing peeks into a culture of which I now have a bit more knowledge. Dev’s ability to weave these elements throughout the story is admirable, and she has created a lush, satisfying second-chance-at-love tapestry.

Susan Andersen is a New York Times best-selling author of 23 romance and romantic suspense novels.