This is a fun and charming sports romance, and it also deals with a couple of issues which rarely get addressed in this category, the most significant one being professional sportsmen dealing with serious injuries and the rehab from such, and players ‘aging out’ and facing the end of their careers. There’s a refreshing trope flip where, for once, it’s the HERO who has to make a significant life change in order to make the relationship work - too often I see heroines giving up

This is a sweet Regency romance written, unusually, in first person. The protagonist is one Juliana Ashbourne, at the beginning of the novel a governess in a London household to a young boy and girl. She’s on shaky ground with her employers though, since the husband has nefarious intentions towards her and the wife dislikes Juliana’s influence over her daughter in particular. Hence, the news that the maternal grandfather she’s never met has died and left her a substantial for

A sweet romance set in a small Texas town in the 1880s, Cowboy Charm School begins with Texas Ranger Brett Tucker racing into a church to stop the wedding of wanted outlaw Frank Foster. Problem is, it’s the wrong Frank Foster… and things don’t improve much for Tucker as he does his best to repair the damage done, trying to get Frank back together with his outraged would-be bride, Kate. It’s a hilarious and at times poignant comedy of errors as candy-maker Kate has to step bac

Sweet Christmas Romances 2017 is exactly what it says on the box... a collection of five Christmas romance books which are sweet - in more ways than one. All of the heroines are bakers, either amateur or professional, and the sweet Christmas treats they produce are in some way instrumental to their story. At the end of each book, the author shares a recipe which has been featured in the story - and they all look really yum. I've definitely planning to try out the Bourbon Baco

This was so sweet I think I can feel my teeth rotting. It was absolutely delightful, though; the story of Willa, a top pastry chef who has moved to a quiet town to try and rebuild her life after a tragedy that shattered her entire world, and Derek, the hunky sheriff who falls for her at first sight but has the wisdom and patience to wait until she's ready to move on. This is a beautiful example of a slow-burn romance; nothing happens quickly, because Willa is very clearly not

Amanda Mariel has created an extremely likeable pair of protagonists in Hunter and Rose, an honourable Earl and a young seamstress being blackmailed into marriage by a man she despises. Hunter's wrestling with himself, trying to deny his growing attraction to and fondness for Rose, was particularly well-written and believable. He's definitely the kind of hero I'd love to see more of in Regency romances; I'm not fond of the Reformed Rake trope and Hunter was about as far from

A charming novella, this story focuses on Christy and her daughter Jill, a little girl living with the life-threatening Type 1 diabetes. Despite the title I didn't feel that this was a 'Christmas' book specifically... it would have been so easy to have Joel discover that Christy and Jill had no money to celebrate Christmas and have him play Santa for them. A charmingly written 'sweet' romance, I have to say that the story felt a little thin on character development. The chara