Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (2019)

LOVED this chick lit about Chloe Brown, chronically ill web designer and grump who sees her life flash before her eyes and decides that she needs a good bucket list. 

"Red" Morgan, her super hot building superintendent, gets inadvertently involved and despite all Chloe's efforts, they embark on her list. Of course, Red has secrets and baggage of his own, primarily his artistic career and heartbreak. 

Beautifully written, with a lovely slow burn and smoking love scenes, this is a lovely romance with rich secondary characters, a beautifully diverse cast, a heroine who is curvy and a super hot but sweet romantic lead. Delightful.

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane (2019)

Really fun but substantial chick lit about a woman who is a bit lost who gets a job as a barmaid for her high school boyfriend. 

Strong, vivid characters abound and the romance itself is a lovely slow burn. 

Really quite good.

One in a Million by Lindsey Kelk (2018)

Really liked this adorable Brit Chick Lit about Annie, who owns a social media start up with her best friends. She makes a bet with her landlords that she can make someone Instagram famous in 30 days and the random stranger selected is hapless historian Dr. Samuel Page, whose girlfriend has just dumped him. 

In addition to the social media bet, Annie goes about putting Sam through Boyfriend Bootcamp, which includes a makeover, social skills, conversation and getting him into the outside world. The delight of this book is in the charming characters and their very realistic relationships, especially between Annie and her friends and family. And the relationship between Annie and Sam is a lovely slow burn. 

Am definitely checking out more Lindsey Kelk books! And she has a bunch, yay!

Read Bottom Up by Neel Shah and Skye Chatham (2015)

Lovely, unique novel written in email and text from the perspective of two characters meeting and falling in love. And then struggling in the relationship.

Shah wrote Elliot's perspective and Chatham wrote Madeleine's as well as their conversations with their best friends. This lends the novel a unique authenticity and reality.

Charming and very relatable. Unfortunately, the only book written by these two together. :( 

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren (2018)

I so, so love Christina Lauren. Hazel is a kind of wacky woman, who admits that she's way too much. She gets back in touch with her crush years later, Josh, but is really worried that she'll become too much for him as well. So they try and set each other up with other people, which does not work at all. Because they can't deny their attraction and affection! 

Love it. Slow build, but hot love scenes, plus wonderfully rich characters. Heart heart heart.

"The way Emily describes it: when I meet someone I love, I become an octopus and wind my tentacles around their heart, tighter and tighter until they can't deny they love me just the same." (p. 9)

"Dinner parties at my apartment consist of paper plates, boxed win, and the last three minutes before serving featuring me running around like a maniac because I burned the lasagna, insisting I DON'T NEED ANY HELP JUST SIT DOWN AND RELAX."

This Could Change Everything by Jill Mansell (2018)

As I've said a million times, I love Jill Mansell because you don't know which of the players will end up together. Plus, such lovely rich characters. 

The book kicks off with Essie having a joke round robin letter sent to her entire address book, which results in her beau ditching her and getting fired (by beau's mother). But she soon finds a home with extravagant character Zillah and finding a job in a nearby bar, run by a very handsome Lucas. Much entanglement and complication ensues until everyone ends up with the right person. V. sweet.

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren (2018)

I love Christina Lauren. This is a lovely, multilayered novel that wanders back and forth in time, telling the story of Macy and Elliot, childhood sweethearts who meet again many years after something separated them. Lauren does a beautiful job of keeping the suspense up of what separated them and in telling their story since then. 

Also, ELLIOT IS TOTALLY JASON MANTZOUKAS. He is TOTALLY Mantzoukas. That's all I'm saying. Sweet and romantic and endearing and emotional and complex. Love.

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen (2017)

I always love Sarah Dessen, despite her pastel covers and completely forgettable titles. 

Louna works for her mother's wedding planning business one last summer before heading off to college. She meets reckless, open-hearted Ambrose at a wedding and has to decide whether she is ready to open her heart again after her first love affair's tragic end. 

As always with Dessen, the characters are SO rich. Louna's mother, her godfather, Ambrose and her best friend--all practically leap off the page. And the fun inside look into wedding planning is also delightful. Beautifully done as always.

Bad Bachelor by Stefanie London (2018)

Romance with a librarian? Yes, please. 

When notorious "Bad Bachelor" Reed McMahon and PR genius is recruited to help librarian Darcy Greer with her library's fundraiser, the sparks fly. Ugh. I can't believe I just wrote that. 

ANYHOO, There's this website called Bad Bachelors, which is like a Yelp for dating and Reed's reviews are seriously affecting his work and home life. It all works out, though, as these things tend to do. The first in a series.

Roomies by Christina Lauren (2017)

Romantic comedy about a woman who is obsessed with a busker at her subway station who gets attacked one day and is saved by him. In order to try to repay the debt, she gets him an audition with her uncle's Broadway show. It's a match made in heaven until they discover he is in America illegally, as he overstayed his visa. Enter a marriage of convenience. 

Funny but a bit deeper than your average chick lit, and I LOVED the Broadway setting portrayed pretty realistically. Very endearing.

Meet Me at Beachcomber Bay by Jill Mansell (2017)

I always adore Jill Mansell and sometimes you just need to read a book about charming people falling in love, despite a few hiccups, in a beautiful British location. 

Let's see: There's a girl with a weird name, who has a contentious relationship with her stepsister, who meets a man on a plane, but loses contact, then he shows up as her stepsister's boyfriend but there's still attraction. So girl with weird name pretends to be dating her boss. who has his own hopeless (seeming!) love affair, PLUS a whole thing with his birth mom. Everything turns out beautifully, sigh.

CLEMENCY! The name is Clemency. Well, yeah.

Built by Jay Crownover (2016)

I read this entire book in one night. It was delicious. 

Zeb Fuller is a contractor who's spent a bit of time locked up, and sports tattoos, a beard and unruly hair. Also, mossy green eyes. Sayer Cole is a lawyer who recently discovered a half-brother (who happens to be Zeb's good friend). When Zeb finds out he has a son, Sayer gets involved in helping him get custody of the boy and keep him out of the foster system. AND, despite the fact that she's incredibly cautious about feelings due to her emotionally abusive father, they are drawn to one another. 

Even though this book is billed as "New Adult", this feels like a truly adult (as in grown-up people with grown-up lives) romance. And it is FILLED with rich characters who have their own stories (in Crownover's sprawling catalogue.) Sexy and romantic, while being realistic and touching. SO thumbs up.

If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins (2015)

Marvelous romance novel, which could be classified as a regular novel.

The novel is about two sisters: Rachel and Jenny. Jenny is divorced, still good friends with her ex and moving to upstate New York to open her bridal design store. Rachel is married to Adam and has three adorable toddler triplet girls. However, the course of divorce and marriage never runs smooth. 

The beauty in this novel is in the rich characters and relationships, from the one-upping in unhappiness that their widowed mother delights in, the secret about their father only Jenny knows, and Jenny's new handsome super. 

Rich and realistic and touching and hard and sweet all at once.

Scrumptious by Amanda Usen (2011)

Pretty adorable romance novel about a chef and the hotshot new chef that her friend hires to come in and fix her ailing restaurant. 

There's a less interesting subplot about someone sabotaging the restaurant, but the romance itself is pretty adorable. It's fun to read a romance about grown-ups--two people who aren't afraid to get busy, but aren't so sure about commitment. Good characters, well-done and spicy sex scenes.

The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie (1996)

Another utter love. Picked this up at a used bookstore out of a remembered fondness for Jennifer Crusie and she did not disappoint. 

Daisy is a scattered, free spirit artist trying to make her living through her art. Her neighbor, Linc, is a straitlaced English professor who is angling for a job at a prestigious school but needs a fiancee to complete the picture. 

Crusie creates a charming story out of this familiar premise, thanks to her vivid and realistic characters, her humor and her ability to create real chemistry and believable romance for her characters. Beautifully done as always.

Cure for the Common Breakup by Beth Kendrick (2014)

I am always so proud of myself when I read a book that was actually published in the current calendar year. You'd think being in a library almost every day would give me a leg up on the new releases, but I tend to be a bit behind the times.  I blame the excess of amazingly readable books I see every day (and my constantly expanding GoodReads To-Read list--current count: 298).

Anyhoo, this is a delightful chick littish novel about an airline attendant who gets in a plane crash and her pilot bf (who was about to propose), breaks up with her while she's still in the hospital.  So she takes her settlement and her injuries and goes to Black Dog Bay, a town whose entire tourism industry is dedicated to healing people who are getting through break-ups.

The surprisingly delightful part of this novel is that Summer, the stewardess, is hilarious and full of the devil.  No neurotic, shy, insecure chick lit heroine here.  She's funny and full of sassafras and turns the town upside down, in a good way.  A host of wonderful little details (like the Rebound Salon and local bar the Whinery) and great, rich characters, as well as a very dashing romantic lead, make this great fun.

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie (1996)

Excellent contemporary romance about two sisters filming a movie in the small town of Temptation, Ohio. Strong female characters, realistic but swoony romantic leads, interesting secondary characters and a well-crafted plot all add up to a great romance.   Followed by Faking It, a sort of sequel. Equally funny and charming, if not even more so.