Yes, indeed I am. I’m simply mad for contemporary romances these days. It’s like I’ve discovered something magical and undiscovered. It could very well be the result of reading and writing historical romances for the past three years solid, but I’m giddy with the ‘new’ contemporary love.

It started with Rachel Gibson’s NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, which received my one and only 10 star review so far.  Though I must tell you, that book wouldn’t be the only one I’d give it to. I absolutely adored DAISY’S BACK IN TOWN, NOT ANOTHER BAD DATE, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, SEE JANE SCORE and TRULY MADLY YOURS. And I realized immediately what the huge appeal was. It’s the realism of the dialogue, because as much as we might not like it, people do curse the odd time or two. I like the fact that men act like ‘men’. They screw up–sometimes royally. The heroines too. Some of them even share tidbits of their awesome sex life with their closest friends.

I’m one of those readers who insists on reading contemporaries where I’m not rolling my eyes and saying, “See, a guy would never say that!”

For example in NOT ANOTHER BAD DATE, the hero has been burned before. His college girlfriend stopped taking her birth control pills to trap him into marriage. He’s a widower now with a 13 year-old daughter and he doesn’t want any more kids. Well he’s hooked up with the heroine, the college girlfriend he’d originally dumped his dead wife for before his wife got pregnant. They have sex and the condom breaks. The heroine bought the condoms. Well how does the hero react? Yes, very badly, basically accusing her of tampering with the condom. A fight ensues and she kicks him out of her house. And this I found very real. His reaction, erroneous, but completely understood given his past experience. Of course he had to eat crow when he came to his senses, which I loved even more.

DAISY’S BACK IN TOWN was one of those stories that I’ll never forget. I have to tell you, I was still upset with the heroine and her dead husband when I finished the book.  Daisy, Steven, and Jackson (the hero), grew up together and were all best friends. The two boys (into men) fell for Daisy but they agreed neither of them would date her. Daisy comes onto Jackson and at the age of 18 they start dating. She gets pregnant and before she can tell him, he breaks it off with her. He’s just lost his parents, his life is crazy and he needs space. She’s emotional and clingy. She turns to Steven and he convinces her not to tell Jackson, to marry him and raise Jackson’s child as his own.

Fifteen years later, Steven dies and Daisy returns to her hometown to tell Jackson he’s the father of her 15 year-old son. Jackson wants nothing to do with her–and seriously, who can blame him. Yes, it’s a romance so Jackson meets and begins bonding with his son before it’s all said and done, but boy was I wrung dry with emotion from this one. While Jackson could forgive them, I was less charitable. But it was that kind of emotional read that I couldn’t put down and have already reread since I read it three weeks ago. I swear that books haunts me. And if it elicits that kind of reaction from me, the author did their job splendidly.

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Destiny Series - Book Two

After Rachel Gibson, I discovered Toni Blake. I truly can only thank (or curse, when it begins interfering with my writing) Avon Books for my new obsession with contemporaries–especially these kinds of contemporaries. If they didn’t send me these books, I would be oblivious to what I’m missing. So back to Toni. I received an advanced copy of her latest book, SUGAR CREEK. Now the cover is beautiful. Really just gorgeous, but it doesn’t say to me this is going to be a steamy and tension-filled read (another thing I love in my romances). Going just by the cover, I thought the heat level would be lukewarm at best, which incidentally was what I also thought about Rachel Gibson’s books. Boy was I wrong. And I mean wrong with a capital ‘W’.

In this book we meet a slightly surly, totally hot police officer ( our hero, Mike) who lives with the sort of guilt that can weigh a man down for life. Rachel, our heroine, returns to Destiny (love these fictitious small town locales), her hometown, to her help her grandmother with the family apple orchard farm. There’s bad blood between Mike’s family and Rachel’s. Mike’s family believes the land for the orchard farm was stolen from his family by Rachel’s, so we’re starting off with automatic conflict between hero and heroine. Of course, the fact that the story opens with him giving her a speeding ticket when she roars back into town, helps that conflict right along. I just loved this book and of course, just like in Rachel’s case, upon finishing the book, I immediately started buying up the backlist.

Destiny Series - Book One

SUGAR CREEK is the second book in Toni Blake’s Destiny series. This means there was one book before this one, which of course I had to have. You’ll be happy to hear that book one, ONE RECKLESS SUMMER arrived in the mail today, along with SWEPT AWAY (not related to this series and an Avon Red title). I was so impatient to read more of Toni’s books, I read whatever Avon Books had on their site for the Browse Inside, and boy doesn’t ONE RECKLESS SUMMER start off with one steamy scene. However, if you’re like me, I would not advise that. It makes the wait for the physical book to come in the mail endlessly long.

I also discovered that Toni Blake also writes sexier, spicier books as Lacey Alexander. Who knew? I didn’t. I’ve already ordered a couple of her titles to try out. I didn’t go buck wild because they are trade books and therefore more expensive. I rarely ever buy trade books.

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Last, but certainly not least, while I was impatiently waiting for Toni’s books to appear in my mailbox, I spotted Christie Ridgway’s latest release, CRUSH ON  YOU in Walmart. Since I knew it was a book I featured on the website under June Contemporary, I felt compelled to buy it. Plus, the back cover copy sounded like it would be just my thing. It was my thing. I enjoyed it thoroughly.  After I finished CRUSH ON YOU, I was ready for more so I found her website and started reading the blurbs and ended downloading her entire Knitting series from Penguin Putnam’s website: HOW TO KNIT A WILD BIKINI, UNRAVEL ME and DIRTY SEXY KNITTING.

I particularly enjoyed this series. I was able to finish all three books in as many days (or maybe it was two days). The series is about three half-sister connected by their sperm donor father. Each book takes readers through each of their romances with sexy, handsome, loving heroes. This is a series I would strongly recommend be read in order (as listed above). The characters overlap and one subplot begins in the second book and isn’t resolved until the final book.

I finished the final book, DIRTY SEXY KNITTING, today, just in time for the arrival of Toni’s other books. Can’t beat that timing. Of course, now that I’ve discovered Christie Ridgway, I’ll be checking out her entire backlist (I’m feeling broke already).

So for all of you historical romance readers (or paranormal or romantic suspense readers) who don’t really dabble in contemporaries, who wants to try one of these fabulous books? It’s simple. Tell me what you read and why you don’t normally read contemporary romances and you’re entered to win the book of your choice from all of the books listed here. If you do read contemporaries but have never read any or a particular author from this post, tell me who you do read and what you love about the author’s books. Winners will be posted June 4th.