Tag: small town romance

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 I’m excited for a new series from Devney Perry. Crossroads, book 1 of her new Haven River Ranch series, is coming June 4th ✍🏻

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NEW SERIES FROM DEVNEY PERRY!!!

Devney Perry has a new series coming in 2024. Check out the gorgeous cover of the first book of her forthcoming Haven River Ranch series, Crossroads.

Coming June 4th

I met West Haven when I was eight years old. He taught me to play poker when I was nine, and we made paper airplanes together when I was eleven. He kissed me when I was sixteen. He was the best part about my family’s summer vacations to Montana. He was the boy who stole my heart. I was twenty-three when life ripped us apart.

Years later, I’m breaking my vow and returning to the ranch, not as a guest but its new owner. West might want me gone, but even he has to admit the only way to save his family’s legacy is with my help.

It’s not easy working side by side and facing those old memories. But this situation is only temporary. We’re at a crossroads. And as long as I don’t let myself fall in love with West Haven again, maybe this is our chance to put those ghosts to rest. Maybe this time we’ll finally be able to say goodbye.

PREORDER

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Devney Perry’s Sable Peak, the final The Edens series romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes: unrequited love; small town romance; found family

Without a doubt, Devney Perry’s Sable Peak, the final book of her The Edens series, is phenomenal. In totality, this series has been a breath of fresh air in romance reading over the past year as it focuses on a generational family, the central focus of a small town in Montana. But Sable Peak did something that the other books in the series, even more than the other books in Perry’s booklist, don’t: change her formula.

For the most part, Perry follows a pretty standard 3 act structure with some type of separation of her MMC and FMC at the 80% mark. Many romance authors follow this narrative structure, and we, the readers, love it…except that it can be tiresome. With Sable Peak, Perry’s structure still follows a 3 act structure, but the packaging looks a bit different. Add to it the unrequited love of Vera, an exceptionally complex character in her stable of characters, and it makes for emotional peaks and valleys between Mateo, her MMC, and Vera. Perry first creates the tension through Vera’s point of view when she realizes Mateo only sees her as a friend or sister-figure. Perry stays away, at the beginning of the story, from flipping between Vera’s and Mateo’s points of view, instead building the tension of her story solely through Vera’s point of view. I found it compelling. Once the inciting incident begins, the story between Vera and Mateo ignites and turns into the type of story we love from Perry. Adding in the complication of Vera’s relationship with her father simply adds another layer of tension to the story, actually drawing Vera and Mateo closer together. 

Everything you love about a Devney Perry romance is found in Sable Peak: a sweet, yet spicy romance set in a small-town setting, a family that loves beyond its members, and an ending that steals your breath as her FMC and MMC find their way to an epic happily-ever-after. This time, Devney Perry broke her mold a bit, and it worked for her (at least it did for this reader). Here’s to hoping for more story experimentation while offering the type of romances we expect from her.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Devney Perry finished her The Edens series with aplomb. Vera and Mateo are my FAVORITE couple in this emotional, measured series of a beloved family. Sable Peak, the final book, is FINALLY available. ✍🏻

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Sable Peak by Devney Perry is now live! 

An unrequited love, small town romance from Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, Devney Perry.


Vera Gallagher is chasing constant. For four years, her life was anything but normal. And the years before that she refuses to even remember. Dwelling on the past only hurts. Life is fragile, a lesson her mother taught her well. She’s determined not to waste a moment of her newfound freedom.

Maybe some would consider her crush on Mateo Eden wasted time. Maybe some would call her a fool for loving a man who hasn’t once dropped a crumb of interest her way. Still, to Vera, it’s Mateo or nothing.

He’s handsome. Charming. Witty. And he loves his family the way Vera loves—with her whole heart.

Maybe he’ll never notice her. Maybe she’s too damaged, too broken, to find that normal life she craves. Maybe her secrets will always keep them apart. But Vera will love him anyway. Whether Mateo realizes it or not.

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/44bwg7t

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/SablePeak

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3qBpPNh

Meet Devney 

Devney Perry is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over forty romance novels. After working in the technology industry for a decade, she abandoned conference calls and project schedules to pursue her passion for writing. She was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Washington with her husband and two sons. 

Connect with Devney

Website: www.devneyperry.com

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2kncXnb

Amazon: https://geni.us/nAXkP

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/devneyperrybooks

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324585607979213/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/devneyperry

Bookbub: http://bit.ly/2v1Hr7t

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/devneyperry

new release

✍🏻 Corinne Michaels’s gorgeous Broken Dreams is HERE. This is your weekend read! ✍🏻

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Broken Dreams by Corinne Michaels is now live! 

What could possibly go wrong fake dating the gorgeous single dad in a small town?

The answer, you fall for him.

It started out perfect. Grady Whitlock needed a plus one for his business meetings, and I needed a date for a wedding.

We had a plan. It was a good one.

Until it wasn’t.

I was not supposed to have feelings for him. I was not going to let my heart race when his soulful blue eyes stared into mine. No way should I have noticed his smile or the dimple on his right cheek or his strong arms when he held me close. I especially wasn’t going to melt when I saw him play with my daughter.

Most of all I was not going to sleep with him.

Nope. None of that was supposed to happen, but it does.

Now I find myself dreaming of him every night. Wishing we were really a couple because the way he kisses me doesn’t feel as if it’s pretend.

But we’ve both watched our dreams shatter, and I can’t handle another broken heart.

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

https://geni.us/BD_Amazon

Paperback: https://geni.us/BD_PB

Audio coming December 2nd!

https://geni.us/BD_Audio

Narrated by Sebastian York & Kit Swann

Add to Goodreads: https://geni.us/BD_GR

Meet Corinne


Corinne Michaels is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of romance novels. Her stories are chock full of emotion, humor, and unrelenting love, and she enjoys putting her characters through intense heartbreak before finding a way to heal them through their struggles.

Corinne is a former Navy wife and happily married to the man of her dreams. She began her writing career after spending months away from her husband while he was deployed–reading and writing were her escapes from the loneliness. Corinne now lives in Virginia with her husband and is the emotional, witty, sarcastic, and fun-loving mom of two beautiful children.

Connect with Corinne

Website: http://corinnemichaels.com

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2N1H2Gb

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NVZmhv

Facebook: https://bit.ly/1iwLh6y

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/corinnemichaelsbooks/

Instagram: https://bit.ly/2L1Vzo6

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@corinne.michaels

Bookbub: https://bit.ly/2yc6rss

Pinterest: https://bit.ly/2m7MkEL

Verve: https://ververomance.com/app/corinnemichaels

CMBOOKS TO 77948

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Melanie Harlow’s Make-Believe Match ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-/B+

Tropes: marriage of convenience; opposites attract; meddling grandmother; hate to love or enemies to lovers; one night stand; small town romance

Melanie Harlow has cornered the market on small-town romances set in Michigan and its surrounding areas. She has this way of connecting her series and inviting readers into her world…where you hate to leave. Her newest series, Cherry Tree Harbor, also reads like her dirtiest, enticing more readers into the lives of the Buckley siblings. Make-Believe Match proffers up Devlin Buckley’s marriage of convenience romance. He meets Lexi one night in a bar, and they share a fiery memorable evening together. When it’s revealed a day or so later, that Devlin is the representative of the company wanting to buy her family’s ski resort, fireworks fly as Lexi vows to block Devlin’s efforts. When complications arise, the only way forward is a marriage of convenience between Devlin and Lexi. Hate slowly evolves into love, and Lexi and Devlin must acknowledge their feelings to move forward into a future together, one that saves her family’s resort, or they must be content with the consequences. 

Make-Believe Match reminds readers that change can be good when you have an apt partner to inspire and uplift you. Both Devlin and Lexi have lost parents, so they’ve created emotional mechanisms to handle their pain. Instead of setting them free, it has reduced their capacity to process change and embrace love. Melanie Harlow has woven their journeys together in a way that provides the emotional ungirding for her romance. 

She has also whipped in a spicy treat for her readers who love a little smut with their romance. Devlin and Lexi are pure fire. Additionally, the treat of extended family is my favorite part of this new series. Besides returning to Devlin’s older brothers whose stories we received in the first two books of this series, Lexi’s grandmother’s machinations and her cousin’s villainy add emotional depth to Harlow’s romance. All of these elements conflate to bring about a captivating and titillating story. 

Small-town romance fans, if you’re not reading Melanie Harlow, you are missing out. She continuously crafts regional romances that tug at heartstrings and fog up glasses. Her Cherry Tree Harbor has been an absolute delight, and I inhaled Make-Believe Match.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Stacy Travis’s Love You More, book 1 of her Buttercup Hill series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B+

Tropes: single dad; grump/sunshine; insta-attraction; small town romance; romantic suspense

Stacy Travis’s newest book, Love You More, the first book of her Buttercup Hill series, adds to the tradition of small-town romances found in stories by authors such as Devney Perry, Catherine Cowles, Elsie Silver, etc.  Travis has deftly crafted a regional small-town romance much like the authors noted above. Given that I live in California, I’m excited about this series because it sits at my geographical back door. Even more, she has set up a compelling series, starting with Jax and Ruby. Here’s what I loved about Love You More:

  1. There is nothing better than grump/sunshine. Ruby is the light to Jax’s dark, and Stacy Travis has drawn their chemistry well in this story.
  2. I’m also a fan of the single dad (or parent) trope because we know cute encounters with the heroine are a deciding factor for their future. Ruby and Jax’s daughter, Fiona, are adorable together, instantly hitting it off, given their shared experience of losing a parent. Fiona adds levity to Jax and Ruby’s fraught romantic journey.
  3. This is small-town romance at its best in a wine town such as Napa. Stacy Travis has carefully created this town, making us fall in love with it while also wanting more.
  4. The plot and character development are the most important parts of this story. I know readers will want more steam from these two, but, given that this is the first book of the series, Travis has taken the space to set up the region of her series while also doling out the beginnings of a mystery certain to thread through the other books of this series. She’s made some keen decisions with the development of this series in this first book.
  5. Small-town romance needs a combination of fun and angst, and I think Stacy Travis has balanced those two well in her first book.

My biggest criticism of Love You More is the inconsistency in her characterization of Stella. There are moments in her story when her want for Jax versus the pull of her responsibility for her sister is confusing. She would accept Jax in her life to quickly turn around and spurn him out of her need to care for her college-aged sister. It was story whiplash, and I thought it interrupted the flow of her plot. 

As the first book of a new series, Stacy Travis’s Love You More, was a delight. I’ve read Stacy from the beginning and her growth as a romance writer is paying dividends in Stella and Jax’s story. I can’t wait to find out Jax’s dad’s secrets. I imagine, though, that Stacy Travis will keep us guessing.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Devlin and Lexi are HERE! The next book in Melanie Harlow’s charming Cherry Tree Harbor series is LIVE. Make Believe Match is the perfect spicy snack before your Thanksgiving holiday. Grab it TODAY!!! ✍🏻

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Make-Believe Match by Melanie Harlow is now live! 

𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗺𝘆? 𝗡𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘆.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗸𝗶 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁? 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆…

Getting hitched is the only way I can inherit Snowberry Lodge, and I’ll do anything to spare my childhood home from the wrecking ball-even wear Devlin Buckley’s ring on my finger.

Not that I’ll enjoy it.

Sure, he’s charming and handsome, and that no-last-names one night stand we shared ended with a fantastically big bang (I saw stars I hadn’t seen in six months, if you catch my drift).

But I’ll never trust him-he was working for the company trying to bulldoze my life.

Right up until the day he knocked on my door with an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Marry him, and he’ll help me restore my family’s crumbling resort to its former glory-and get revenge on his ex-boss in the process. Once our goals are achieved, we’ll go our separate ways.

𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄.

𝗨𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 “𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗳𝗲.”

Once we’re sharing a last name-and a bed-our make-believe match starts to feel a little too real.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝗜’𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹, 𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴… 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲, 𝗺𝘆 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁.

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/48VyZFu

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/Make-BelieveMatch

Add to Goodreads: https://harlow.pub/Make-BelieveMatch-GR

Meet Melanie


USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling author Melanie Harlow writes sweet, sexy, feel-good romance. She likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. If she’s not writing or reading, she’s probably at Orangetheory or watching Schitt’s Creek again. She lifts her glass to readers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.

Connect with Melanie

Website: www.melanieharlow.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7095467.Melanie_Harlow

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Melanie-Harlow/e/B00DXOYC1S

Facebook: harlow.pub/ap

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/351191341756563

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melanie_harlow/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authormelanieharlow

Bookbub: harlow.pub/bb    

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 Jewel E. Ann’s Not What I Expected is such a fantastic read. Check out its surprise special edition cover! ✍🏻

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🎉 Surprise! 🎉 
 
𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝: 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 @𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐣𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰! 
 
𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 #𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝  
 
Amazon: https://books2read.com/u/4XEa7N 
Signed Paperback: https://www.jeweleann.com/store 
 
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬:  
 
Limited Edition Cover 
 
Not What I Expected—a full-length enemies-to-lovers, small-town romance. 
 
Christmas in Birdville—a sexy holiday novella previously published in The Holidate Season anthology. 
 
USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller Jewel E. Ann redefines modern romance with this unforgettable enemies-to-lovers story. 
 
Are humans meant to mate for life? 
 
After four kids and an unfortunate but fateful end to her twenty-two-year marriage, Elsie Smith meets the new guy in town. 
 
Kael Hendricks is … a little younger, a lot sexy, and too confident for his own good. He also doesn’t believe in marriage, and all that goes with it. 
 
And … 
 
He’s just opened a new business that threatens the livelihood of Elsie’s family’s store—just in time for the holidays. 
 
The problem? 
 
There’s an undeniable attraction that leads to out-of-control situations, a loss of inhibitions, and a lot of small-town gossip. 
 
As Elsie tries to redefine herself and convince her family she isn’t having a midlife crisis, she’s forced to answer the biggest question of all … 
 
Can she love an enemy who will never surrender? 
 
Christmas in Birdville 
 
Henry Bechtel’s mom is coming home for Christmas. Only, he lost the family house in a game of poker. Days before his mom’s arrival, he meets the new owner and seizes the opportunity to coerce her into letting him move back “home” for the holidays. What he doesn’t know is that she has questionable motives, too. 
 

#notwhatiexpected #jeweleann #ContemporaryRomance #HolidayRomance #SmallTownRomance

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 Happy Cover Reveal Day, L.B. Dunbar! What’s not to love about a silver fox cover! Check out Sterling Brick, coming January 25th! ✍🏻

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From L.B. Dunbar comes an all-new small-town romance with a big family and the silver fox swoon one expects from her love over-40 romances. STERLING BRICK will be released on January 25, 2024. We are thrilled to share the cover with you! 

PRE-ORDER HERE

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3Zz2BEx

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/46xbgd4

Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/3PYNtNJ

Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/48riTDo

Kindle Unlimited

Audible: coming soon

Add to your Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3t8VVkd

What to expect:

✔️reunited high school sweethearts

✔️former military man

✔️current fireman/bricklayer

✔️newly divorced single mom

✔️she-grump/sunshine

✔️all the spice

✔️small-town romance

BLURB: 

Love wasn’t part of the blueprint when high school sweethearts reunite in their small town. But this former military man never forgot the girl he left behind and he’s more determined than ever to rebuild their relationship brick by brick and heart by heart.

Getting locked in the men’s restroom during my mother’s funeral wasn’t exactly how I expected to run into my high school sweetheart. The one who got away. The one who broke my heart.

I could toss the busted doorknob in my hand at him, but I’d prefer to get the heck away. Because twenty years later, Knox Sylver isn’t a teenage boy anymore but a broad-shouldered, thick scruff man with eyes that still look at me like I’m the only person in the room.

As a newly divorced mother of two teenagers, it’s been a long time since anyone sees me. And Knox is definitely watching.

Unfortunately, he made choices in the past and I wasn’t one of them.

According to him, that is ancient history. 

Also, according to him, it’s never too late for a second chance. He’s out to prove he’s solid and stable, having returned to our small hometown, in a better place after a career in the military. He’s a local hero as a fireman and he wants to rekindle the flame between us.

I’m the one with decisions this round.

Do I stay where memories hurt? Or do I leave my past, and Knox, behind me again?

Golden Czermak/FuriousFotog, photographer; Joey Berry, model; Lori Jackson Designs, cover designer. 

Find more books by LB Dunbar here: https://www.lbdunbar.com

Blogger Sign Up: https://forms.gle/oR7vx5b1gw7CjrKD8

 ABOUT L.B. DUNBAR:

L.B. Dunbar loves sexy silver foxes, second chances, and small towns. If you enjoy older characters in your romance reads, including a hero with a little silver in his scruff and a heroine rediscovering her worth, then welcome to romance for those over 40. L.B. Dunbar’s signature works include women and men in their prime taking another turn at love and happily ever. She’s a USA TODAY Bestselling Author, as well as an Amazon Top 10 Later in Life Romance with her Lakeside Cottage and Road Trips & Romance series. L.B. lives in Chicago with her own sexy silver fox.

To get all the scoop about the self-proclaimed queen of silver fox romance, join her on Facebook at Loving L.B. or receive her monthly newsletter, Love Notes.

 AUTHOR LINKS

Facebook Page | Instagram | Amazon | Bookbub | Goodreads | Website | Tik Tok

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Uncategorized

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Jessica Peterson’s I Wish I Knew Then ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-/B+

Tropes: opposites attract; he falls first; second chance romance; small town romance; hate to love

Jessica Peterson’s I Wish I Knew Then is the perfect beginning to her newest series, Harbour Village. Peterson has envisaged a world that captivates her readers and promises more enticing stories. In this new story, Riley and Louise “Lu” meet in their youth and fall madly in love, but circumstances and familial expectations pull them apart, changing their life plans. Ten years later, Lu finds herself back in the small town where they met for her best friend’s wedding. In one moment, she reconnect with Riley, but initially their situation is precarious. The longer Louise stays in town, the more she is drawn to Riley, and she realizes quickly that Riley never forgot “Lu.” Instead, he created the world he imagined for them, and he’s insistent on reminding her of and encouraging her to realize her dreams. Can Lu move past her hurt and anger towards Riley who left her heartbroken ten years earlier?

Throughout I Wish I Knew Then, Jessica Peterson focuses on real-life situations through the course of her characters’ journeys. It’s what I love about her. It would be easy to write romance focused on crafting $ex scene after $ex scene. And Peterson lays it on “thick” in her newest book. Riley and Lu have chemistry and attraction in spades; however, Peterson has always infused her romance with real life truths. In her newest book, she untangles the difficulties of people from varied socio-economic backgrounds, the difficulty of choosing your dreams over the expectations of your family, the capacity for someone of a lower socio-economic class overcoming it to achieve success, and the balance of work and life in achieving dreams. Peterson creates characters who are female positive without giving up masculinity or being seemingly heavy-handed in its feminism. Riley is both alpha and beta. He strives to provide the means for Lu to imagine and live her dreams. He’s meant to raise her up, and this is a decided character trait, intentionally drawn by Peterson’s deft writing hands.

While Lu might be portrayed as indecisive about her future, this isn’t the case. Lu makes the greatest strides as she must buck her family’s expectations for her, pushing back against decades of familial tradition. To realize her dreams, she must choose herself. While it might seem that Peterson crafts Riley to give Lu her dreams; instead, Riley is drawn in such a way as to provide the space for her. Lu makes her own choices in her own time in her own way. Riley is simply there to protect Lu’s dreams. And that is the beauty of this romance. Riley doesn’t explain them to her; he doesn’t gift them to her; Riley simply encourages her to embrace her most truest self. My favorite moments in this book were the ones when Riley’s internal life reflects on his love for all parts of Lu. His love provides Lu with bravery because she can buck her family’s expectations for her own future.

Whether it’s the steam of her story or the intellectual insights threaded throughout her stories, Jessica Peterson has written I Wish I Knew Then to both titillate and test our perceptions. Riley and Lu’s romance will make you laugh, make you cry, and make your glasses fog. Ultimately, it will ask you to believe that love can transcend the challenges of life.

In love and romance,

Professor A