Genre: Contemporary Romance

In recent years, the romance genre has become known for primarily two types of romance stories: one that is full of romcom fun hijinks and one that is a steamy, passionate “will they won’t they”. Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life doesn’t follow either formula and in many ways goes in an entirely different direction from most recent trending booktok/influencer. Readers expecting a one on one, passionate and sexy romance drama focusing on its lead characters Alice and Hayden are going to be caught off-guard or disappointed; just look at some of the top-rated Goodreads and book influencer reviews and you’ll know what I mean. However different is certainly not bad and for more veteran or mature readers that have been reading romance novels for a while, Great Big Beautiful Life feels like a callback to an earlier time where the genre had more of a drama and women/contemporary fiction element beyond the heat. While this novel follows Henry’s signature style and tone at a surface level, Great Big Beautiful Life’s theme of “love” goes far beyond Alice and Hayden’s expected meet-cute and instead thoughtfully reflects on the power of love and the things people will do and sacrifice for…

Book #2 in Sara Raasch’s Royals and Romance series, Go Luck Yourself is a fun and highly entertaining romance novel continuing Raasch’s unique blend of royalty woes mixed with holiday shenanigans. Contrary to what I thought was an anthology series due the main character being Coal’s younger brother Kris this time around, Go Luck Yourself is a direct sequel that picks up immediately after the events of The Nightmare Before Kissmas which is a required read in order to understand this book’s plot (I made the mistake of trying to read this book without context and it simply doesn’t work). Although more or less following the same formula as the first book, this one felt more refined, cohesive, and thematically strong paired with outstanding character work (not to mention steamy scenes). Tweaking and addressing many of my previous nitpicks, I thoroughly loved Go Luck Yourself and found it to be an ambitiously crafted and all-around perfect romance novel that can be read at any time of the year. Set a few months after The Nightmare Before Kissmas’s conclusion and shifting the main character to Coal’s younger brother Kris, Go Luck Yourself revolves around his struggle to figure out his place…

Intentionally throwing its FMC Margo Bradley into countless romance tropes with a tongue-in-cheek sense of self-awareness, Victoria Lavine’s debut Any Trope But You is a solid and generally light-hearted contemporary romance novel that has a lot to like. Catering specifically to chick lit romance readers looking for an easy snowy-themed read, the story is largely predictable and sometimes cheesy, but in a wholesome and comforting way. Outside of the expected meet-cute and fish out of water wilderness romps, the novel also has added depth and substance with Margot’s sister and Forrest’s father’s fragile health. But the story as a whole largely keeps the tone light, making Any Trope But You an easy (albeit safe and slightly typical) romance recommendation. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to being primarily drawn to this book by its hilarious sounding premise of a jaded romance writer being cancelled and inadvertently experiencing all the romance novel tropes she used herself in her past novels. While I’ve read an increasing number of romance novels as of late, I perhaps read them for different reasons than the typical romance reader and often find ironic enjoyment outside the humor that was intentionally planned. While the jaded…

Falling somewhere in the area between being creatively genius vs a festivity-induced fever dream, The Nightmare Before Kissmas is light-hearted and cute dramedy that hits all the right beats one would expect for a holiday romance novel. Personifying popular holidays as magically inclined individuals reminiscent of Rise of the Guardians paired with the familial expectations and burdens of royalty akin to Casy McQuiston’s Red White and Royal Blue, the Nightmare Before Kissmas is constantly a lot of fun and a feel-good escapism read. And while it’s frequently cheesy and often tap dances on the line between being endearing and cringy, the plot is solid, featuring surprisingly ambitious commentary on the materialism and purpose of holidays as well as holiday politics in this fantasy-leaning version of the world. Despite initially being a bit of a box office bomb, the 2012 animated film Rise of the Guardians and its source material The Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce have since become sleeper hits thanks to the creative and charming way they personified popular holidays as magical beings and culture associated with said holidays. The Nightmare Before Kissmas features a lot of similar concepts but utilizes them for an adult romantic dramedy…

Erik J. Brown’s sophomore YA novel following his heartwarming post-apocalyptic coming of age debut All That’s Left In the World, on the surface Lose You to Find Me appears to be an entirely different kind of book considering the very different genre and relationship dynamics of its main characters. I previously reviewed and loved All That’s Left In the World and while Lose You to Find Me wasn’t originally on my to-be-read radar, I was intrigued and interested to see if Brown’s excellent character work and relatable writing in a more straight-forward (get the pun) m/m coming of age story without the survival adventure angle would be as successful. To be honest, I went in with tempered expectations due to how negative some of the reviewers for this novel were, but I was relieved to find that yes, Erik J. Brown is a fantastic YA author who is far more well-rounded than I expected. Leaning more into the comedy aspect of what Brown himself dubs “Rom-Dramedy” while still having dramatic and occasionally romantic moments, this novel certainly has a different flavor and character narration voice from his first novel, along with different themes and focus. However, do not listen to…