Romance

(Originally published February 17, 2018 in the Marquette Mining Journal.)

This week there has been a lot of love and romance in the air. Now is the time to sit down with a romance novel and munch on those Valentine’s Day chocolates your significant other bought you.

Cathy Maxwell’s If Ever I Should Love You might tickle your fancy. An Earl with virtually no money has to find a wife, a woman with wealth and tolerably pretty (his words). So there are 3 young ladies, known as the “Spinster Heiresses” are on the top of his list. One of whom he had saved her reputation many years before. The author asks, “Why do people fall in love?” Come join her and maybe you will find the answer.

A Million Little Things by Susan Mallery, #1 NY Times bestselling Author of “The Friends We Keep”, is has a multilevel plot filled with expectations, assumptions, and classic family dynamics. This is a funny, tender and moving story of 3 women facing surprising change as well as the challenging impact of friends. The book is filled with lots of family dynamics and drama. Go ahead and indulge yourself.

Another novel by Susan Mallery, Second Chance Girl, doesn’t get any better. Mallery has a way of expertly blending emotional nuance, humor and awesome storytelling. The characters will have you laughing, crying and falling in love. Go dunk some of those chocolates into a cup of hot milk, stir and cozy up for an evening of love and romance.

The novel The Paris Secret by author Karen Swan is a story you will find difficult to put down until you’ve read every page. Be prepared to be up late into the night with this book. The main character, Flora Sykes, a high-powered fine art agent, is called in to assess some art objects in a Paris apartment that had been abandoned since WWII. The very powerful Vermeil family asks her to trace the history of each painting. The story uncovers a scandal, a secret that delves into the heart of the family. Flora and Xavier seem to have a powerful attraction to each other, but despite that attraction, he is very determined to separate Flora from his family’s affairs. What secrets is he trying to hide?

In Wired, Julie Garwood once again created another masterpiece. It’s not only romantic, but also suspenseful. This book with make romance skeptics think twice about romance suspense being dead. A beautiful computer hacker, Allison Trent and a bad-boy FBI agent have to collaborate, but as hard as Liam tries, Allison wants nothing to do with his job and turns him down. Wait until you uncover the secrets Allison is hiding and how Liam will do almost anything to get her to join his team, even putting his job and both their futures on the line.

Last but not least, Jayne Ann Krentz, who has written more than 50 bestsellers, gives us Promise Not to Tell. Both Virginia Troy and private investigator Cabot Sutter share a similar childhood horror story having both lived in a cult where Virginia’s mother was killed as a fire swept through the building. He was one of few who survived that horrible fire and he is the only one that can help her now. It will be hard to put this book down, so start reading early so you can get some sleep tonight.

--Nicki Malave, Network Coodinator