My Top 2019 Romance Reads!
Okay, so admittedly, the title is a bit of a tongue twister but the exciting thing is . . . I have read so many amazing books this year. I took chances on new to me authors (some of whom have made this list) and fell back in love with some of my unicorn authors (*cough* Lisa Kleypas *cough*).
The beautiful thing about rounding up the year’s read is seeing just how many times you fell in love - with a character, with a particular plot, with a setting. I can’t wait to see what 2020’s reading brings me!
For the sake of keeping this blog post from being a gazillion scrolls long, I'm going to keep my thoughts short & sweet.
Tiny disclaimer: some of these books did not release in 2019, it's just when I found them :)
Let's do this thing!
If you would have asked me two months ago my favorite book(s) of 2019, I would have said Parallel & Intersect from Elizabeth O'Roark. And then she had to go and release Across Time, which slammed the Parallel duet right out of spots 1 & 2 (a hard feat, trust me) and captured my heart and soul from the very first page.
Time travel. 1930s France. Slow burn.
A hero that's growly and swoon-worthy, all at once. I can't adequately put into words how much I loved Henri & Amelie's story. Of every book I've read this year, it's this one I wish I could see put on the big screen. It's that good. Honestly, it's better.
If it's possible for someone to jump into my head and discover all the I wish there was a book that included THIS, then Kathryn Nolan did it in spades.
Henry is an antiquities librarian and Delilah is a private detective who finds stolen rare books. Their chemistry sizzles, and I'm just going to say it: this book made me miss my old job as a historian something fierce.
Nolan's writing is out of this world. There's a sex scene that made me blush - which doesn't happen often. And the mystery wound throughout had me sitting on the edge of my seat. A must read.
Holy crappola. Does that count as a review? Because it should. This was my first read from Kate Bateman, but I've since gone back to read almost all of her books (written under KC Bateman).
The premise of this book is what hooked me: heroine in need of a husband so her beastly cousin will stop trying to trap her into marriage. But Georgiana is smart, and instead of allowing her fate to be determined by a husband who will order her about, she heads to the local prison, set on finding a man on death row.
She ends up married to the one and only Benedict Wylde, who is actually an undercover Bow Street runner...and whom she runs into just days later at a ball.
I died for this book. Hands down, lived and breathed for it.
I stumbled across this book completely by accident. I'd never read Dee Garcia before (hadn't even heard of her) but you can bet she's on my radar for pretty much forever now.
Venom is a dark fairytale retelling where Captain Hook falls in love with Tinks, and Peter Pan? Well, Hook is pretty much ready to send good old Peter to an early grave.
GAH. I loved this one so hard. Hook is a tortured hero and watching him try to come to grips about how he really feels about Tinks made this book a standout for me.
Good news for me: Garcia has plans to expand in this world and I am readyyyy.
I dug into my first Devney Perry book at the start of 2019, but it's this one - Letters to Molly - that really captured my soul.
I don't want to give away too many spoilers/details with this one, but I will say this: Letters to Molly reminded me why second chance romances will always be my favorite trope. In life, we, as humans, often take those closest to us for granted. They'll be there, we tell ourselves. I'll call to catch up next week, we say.
After reading this book, I wanted to hug Mr Luis a little tighter, reach out to my best friends, and generally just remind the people around me that I care and love them.
This book is a heart-toucher. You won't be the same after you've finished.
So, this is the moment when I reveal that sometimes I put my foot in my mouth out of pure stubbornness. When everyone is salivating over a book, a show (hello, Game of Thrones), a song, I will do everything in my power to hold off so I can enjoy it when everyone else is over the craze.
I should have read Pestilence so much sooner because GOOD. MOTHER. OF ROMANCE. NOVELS.
If using the Four Horsemen mythology as book heroes isn't original enough, Thalassa proceeded to blow my mind with this book. The twists, the turns, the utter humanity driving the plot forward--I salivate for this story, I really do. Luckily for me, waiting meant that I could dive into War (book 2) right away.
Did I binge these two books in the span of 24 hours? Yes, I did. Did I sleep more than 30 minutes? No, nope I did not. #NoRegrets.
Lisa Kleypas is one of my unicorn authors. Her heroes remain at the top of my All-Time Book Boyfriends list (I'm looking at you, Matthew Swift) and her heroines are quirky and intelligent and I just love them.
And when I realized that Devil's Daughter centered around Phoebe, the one and only Lord St. Vincent's daughter, I drove to Barnes & Noble at 9pm and stayed up until 3am finishing this one.
It's everything I want in a Lisa Kleypas book: a vibrant historical setting, a broody hero with a secret heart of gold, a heroine who is determined to make her own way in the world, come hell or high water, despite society's expectations. I can't wait for the next book in this series!
How do I put into words my love for a series that's this complex, this vivid, this good? To let you in on a little secret, sometimes we authors read a book that makes us doubt our own creative abilities.
This series did that to me.
It's an age gap, forbidden romance with so many twists you're definitely going to want to sit down for this one. Perhaps the thing I loved most about this book is that it takes place in Mexico. I don't know if Hawkins has visited before, if she is just amazing at research, or what, but the setting is a character all on its own. For me, that takes a book from amazing to I want to live in this world.
Friends to lovers? Sign. Me. Up. That's exactly what I thought when I saw Melanie Harlow (who I had never read before) had released a new book.
Little did I know she was about to put me on an emotional rollercoaster that resulted in 1) no work getting done, 2) an Uber Eats delivery because I couldn't be bothered to cook, and 3) a total binge session of about 7 of her books in a row. Not even kidding, I dove in hard to her backlist without a single regret.
I adored Noah and Meg's relationship. From their hilarious banter to alllll the steamy bits, to all of the moments that connected them from friends to so much more. Insatiable is the reason I love friends to lovers as much as I do.
I am, admittedly, a Lauren Layne diehard. I've read every one of her books, own some in both ebook and paperback, and pretty much awkwardly fangirled all over her when I met her at Book Lovers Con earlier this year.
When it comes to The Prenup, this felt like the romantic comedies we grew up adoring. The Harry Meets Sally and The Wedding Proposal (how I love you, Ryan Reynolds).
While The Prenup doesn't have the steam factor as some of LL's other books, I dove into this one the way a chocolate addict devours Hershey bars. All in, no hesitation. It didn't disappoint. Hilarious, a sexy Irish hero, the best banter I've read in so long. I adored it.
(Not Available in Kindle Unlimited / Link to Amazon)
Woohoo, did you see a book that you loved or that you want to read in 2020? Sound off in the comments below! <3