Romances are often the books I turn to for comfort and fun when real life is stressful. Here are some that I’ve read in recent months.

A thriller-romance with a lovely setting in the coastal north west.

The Obsession by Nora Roberts. A thriller-romance. The early scenes should maybe come with a trigger warning for sexual assault survivors, but we get an early win with the perpetrator put away forever. Unfortunately, he was the father of Naomi Bowes who grows up attempting to deny the impact that the earlier horror had on her way of being in the world. I loved that Naomi is a photographer and we get to see the world through her lens.

Once a Soldier by Mary Jo Putney. I usually review Putney novels for British Isles Friday, but this one was set in a fictional country between Spain and France. The tiny kingdom of San Gabriel is under threat as Napoleon has been exiled to Elba but some of his troops are marauding around Europe. The two protagonists are very English, complete with the romance trope of an unbridgeable class difference. I liked how Putney used that to explore the concept of privilege without dragging down an otherwise adventurous plot.

True Love and For All Time by Jude Deveraux. I somehow managed to read these out of order — in order is better! In Deveraux’s Nantucket, we encounter ancient ghosts, reincarnations, and magical time travel all in a real setting infused with the charm of New England. I’m saving the third book in the series, Ever After, for R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril. I like my spookiness not scary in the least — this series is perfect!

Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh. This is not much of a romance but it’s the 15th story in a series of romances, so I’m putting it here anyway. I love the Psy-Changeling world so it didn’t bother me that we needed a kind of breather story to get us re-oriented as this world has undergone a giant shift in the last few books.

Have you read any of these books? Do you have other authors to recommend, knowing that these are some of my favorite authors?

Check out Stainless Steel Droppings today for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XI announcement and to grab your own copy of this gorgeous artwork to support it.