Second Chance Coma: Coast Road

Coast Road (1998), by Barbara Delinsky, was published by Simon and Schuster. Though not marketed as a romance, it's essentially a second chance romance story. Jack and Rachel met in college. He was studying architecture and working as a TA in an art course, she came from a wealthy family and was studying art. His …

Escape to the Past: The Rock Creek Six

After several years of reading romance novels, I've narrowed my preferred romance story type for reading and writing: Contemporary tales featuring ordinary people, with strengths, flaws, and pasts, who are happy on their own, but find another person who helps them grow. I've enjoyed other types - paranormals, millionaire, billionaire, suspense, and so on - …

Snowstorm Seduction: Stranded with the Rancher

One of the challenges of romance is getting your couple together, and keeping them together until propinquity kicks in, in a short period of time. A favourite device for this is weather enforced isolation. I do this in my Romance One, where a rainstorm and bridge washout leave my couple stranded and alone. I was …

Campground Love: Hometown Girl Again

This book and the next I'll be discussing have several aspects in common with my Romance One draft. It's reassuring to see this, because it lets me know that my ideas are well within the genre. For example, in Stranded with The Rancher (next post), it's a storm that brings together and isolates the couple …

One Royal Wedding and Four Happy Endings

I'm not sure whether it was a newsletter or a tweet that led me to The Baronet's Wedding Engagement (2017), by Jessica Hart, but promotions work.  This is the second story in a set of four overlapping stories, by different authors, and I went on to read two of the others. Max lives in a …

Second Chances

Travel, when it comes to my reading and writing, is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I get extra reading time. Light reading is a perfect way to pass nervous hours on planes, and during long bus rides. On the other hand, I get less writing time. Although I can write in noisy areas …

Hard to Love a Rich Man: Billionaire’s Love

Billionaire's Love is a 2016 romance novel by Brenda Pearson, from Friesen Press. First, I have to say that I love this cover. A beach at sunset, the pose, minimal detail, and lots of clear space for title and author. And this scene is implicit in events in the book. Great work from Katie Harding …