★ Remember When
Mary Balogh offers a Regency-era, quietly enchanting story of second-chance love in Remember When. Nearing her 50th birthday, widow Clarissa Ware, the Dowager Countess of Stratton, returns to her family’s country estate alone, intent on contemplating the next phase of her life. With her children launched into society, she is seeking new meaning and begins by rekindling a friendship with Matthew Taylor, the village carpenter she loved when she was 17. No great drama ensues, but Balogh is a master at drawing readers in without it; the engrossing story unfolds through depth of emotion and long passages of introspection. Clarissa and Matthew are seasoned people with failings and successes behind them, yet they realize there is more ahead—a breadth of love that is a pleasure to discover through their eyes.
Into the Woods
A stay at a summer camp gives a dance teacher and a rock star a new start in Jenny Holiday’s Into the Woods. After years of bad dates and approaching 40, dance teacher Gretchen Miller decides to embrace her impending crone status by giving up men and focusing on her dance studio. But while filling in as a mentor at a camp for artistic teens, she meets rocker Teddy Knight, a lauded songwriter whose band recently broke up. Sparks fly, so maybe Teddy can be her last—blazing—sexual hurrah? Teddy is all for it, since he’s flailing professionally and new songs aren’t yet coming. These two bicker at first and banter throughout, yet in the end are understanding and kind to each other, just what they both needed all along. A story of two modern, authentic and endearing characters at a crossroads, Into the Woods is funny, emotional and even a bit inspirational as Gretchen and Teddy grapple with issues both personal and social.
Stuck in the Country With You
Zuri Day takes readers on an entertaining, emotional roller-coaster ride in Stuck in the Country With You. Genesis Washington is surprised when she inherits her great-uncle’s Tennessee farm, but surprise turns to chagrin when she learns her next-door neighbor is her one-time hookup, former pro football player Jaxson King. Though their night together stirred up trouble in her family that Genesis doesn’t want to repeat, she can’t avoid the sexy Jaxson, who steps in to help her again and again. Despite the fire between them, which singes the sheets in love scenes hotter than Jaxson’s chili, trust between the pair is hard-won. However, both find time for self-reflection on the way to their Happily Ever After, and Day shows how they grow as individuals before they completely commit as a couple. Stalwart friends and neighbors round out a cast of likable characters that adds to the satisfying fun.
