Since it's shortly before Christmas, let's review a Christmas romance. Season of Wonder (Harlequin, 2018), from RaeAnne Thayne, is her ninth Haven Point novel (and her 60th book). Haven Point is an idyllic small town (is there any other kind?) in Idaho, and the new home for Dani and her two daughters. Dani left the …
Tag: small town
More Small Town Bliss: The Best Man Takes a Bride
In The Best Man Takes a Bride, by Stacy Connelly (2018, Harlequin Special Edition, Home and Family), Jamison Porter is a single dad struggling to look after his four-year-old daughter. He had an unhappy marriage, separated, and a few months ago his wife died in car crash that also injured his daughter. His parents divorced, …
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Small Town Bliss: Coming Home to Crimson
One of the many things about literature that I learned from film studies is how to spot the 'right romantic couple.' They are the couple that speak the same language. In other words, their conversations with each other suggest a deeper connection or a greater understanding than their conversations with others. In genre romances, the …
More Alward Cowboys: Crooked Valley Ranch
Several years ago I read (and loved) The Cowboy's Homecoming, third book in the Crooked Valley Ranch series. In my review, I praised both the story and the series. Now I've finally read the first two: The Cowboy's Christmas Gift, and The Cowboy's Valentine. The Cowboy's Christmas Gift has a slightly misleading title. Duke isn't …
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 - …
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 …
Angel, Brawn, and Brains
I'm still catching up on reviews, after a few weeks of much reading and not much writing, so three for the click of one today. All were cheap purchases for inflight reading, from my local used book store. None were great, but all helped make flying easier. Satan's Angel, by Fayrene Preston, is from 1991, …
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 …
I’d really love to see you tonight: Healed with a Kiss
When I'm writing stories or essays, I listen to light classical music, or Enya. For other online work, such as these posts, my music of choice is soft rock from the 1970s and 1980s. As I started drafting this post, "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight," from 1976, started to play, and it seemed …
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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 …
Bethany Rose Artin 
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