On Book: Bookstore Romance Day Edition
Bookstore Romance Day, August 17, is like the Valentine’s Day of book-lovin’ — a day celebrating romance as a genre, romance novels’ loyal readers, and the bookstores that champion them.
But you don’t already have to be a convert to check out the hype. Here’s a big slate of one-day events, year-round book clubs, and great reads, whatever your commitment and heat preferences.
Speed Dating
Bookstores all over the Seattle area (and all over the country) will champion romance novels with discounts, recommendations, fun gimmicks, and events for gathering. That format makes it a great day both to visit your favorite store and to take the excuse to check out a mysterious new-to-you one. My top picks:
– Head to the Seward Park location of Third Place Books, whose commitment to the romance genre pulses through its established Radical Romance Book Club and occasional “Happily Ever After Hour” gatherings; all three locations will have a big sale, with 20% off romance titles.
– Check out Tangletown’s Wise Owl Books & Music, featuring genre romance selections, a raffle, and a free (with purchase) “Blind Date with a Book” – Romance Day Style.
– Go give your favorite local bookstore some love, whether they’ve got anything planned or not. Capitol Hill’s new-ish Nook & Cranny Books, run by longtime theatre champion Maren Comendant, is a great one to get to know. (See Seattle Times profile here.)
– Take a break from the indoors entirely and head to the beach with Charlie’s Queer Books, holding a Silent Reading Book Club event Saturday afternoon at Golden Gardens.
Browse other Bookstore Romance Day events here.
Immersion
The first of a planned annual event, Seattle’s own Emerald City Romance Authors & Readers Event brings dozens of romance authors together, where fans can meet the authors (and each other) and pick up some new books. The all-day conference is at South Seattle College, in West Seattle.
Read bios of the Emerald City Romance event authors here.
And after this weekend of events is over, don’t forget the Northwest has a ton of authors you can check out year-round. Prolific romance writer Kate Danley, with two novels due out this year, is also a big champion of theatre and a playwright herself; her recent farce, Building Madness, was a big hit at Olympia’s Harlequin Productions last year (see NWT’s review here).
Take the Plunge
Find your next great book! You can hop in however you choose (serial monogamists, casual fun, and ENM unite), but my approach with romance novels is they’re best served up one at a time. You just have to find one that really draws you in — for the day, for the weekend, or … ?
(Spoiler alert: A few of these will be landing in NWT’s top picks for September.)
Remember: almost all of these will give you 30+ pages of preview on Google Books. My advice is to go there, skip ahead to chapter 2, and see if the author’s writing style lands for you. If not, hop to the next pick! You can always come back.
Romance Book Picks
My top four romance novel releases this year (so far) rose to the top pretty easily. Perhaps my favorite this year is the one I just read. Lavash at First Sight blends delicious food, spicy connections, long-festering family drama, workplace spite, and reality TV ridiculousness, where romance is both the sting and the salve (but mostly the salve). Taleen Voskuni’s second novel is a very fast and fun read.
You can find the other three among my picks already this year: We Could Be Heroes (stereotype-challenging gay superhero/drag romance by Philip Ellis) (see NWT’s review here); Looking for a Sign (fun astrology-traipsing girl-meets-girls-finds-love tale by Susie Dumond) (review here); and Just for the Summer (latest from the predictably fantastic Abby Jimenez) (review here).
Something Different
Looking for a love story but one that’s wrapped up in a much different sort of tale? Here are eight great stories that stand alone, but where the romance is a compelling “meanwhile” — contemporary fiction picked for romance fans and the romance-curious alike.
– One of my very favorite releases so far this year is one I just finished. Monica Wood’s How to Read a Book finds three people dealing with some much more immediate issues but also, with luck, finding love in there somewhere, too. It’s a sweet story (with some sadness), full of hijinks, wisdom, and unexpected humor.
– In It’s Elementary, lurking beneath a unique layer of hell (in the form of PTA eruptions) is a murder mystery, work and family drama … and maybe some romance in the air along with it. Already known for her three earlier romance novels, Elise Bryant steps out of the box a little with this sweet and suspenseful saga.
– Bobby Finger’s Four Squares is a bittersweet tale of an old romance and a new life, as the protagonist hops back and forth between his relationship with a closeted man in 1992 and his quest for vitality anew at a queer senior center, 30 years later.
– Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame finds the named protagonist unveiling a secret old love — baking — in bold sweeps on a primetime British baking competition, as she tries to keep the flame going with another old love (her husband); the debut novel from Olivia Ford, whose work as a TV producer lends reality to this episode.
– Lia Louis’ Better Left Unsent is mostly a story of workplace disaster and self-empowerment, but it’s also a tale of a meek, underestimated person figuring out her love life. (An August pick; see review here.)
– Why are so many great new releases set in Minnesota? No idea, but it’s a welcome trend. Lara Avery’s The Year of Second Chances is folksy and mournful like Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club (review here), and keeps hope bright like the aforementioned Just for the Summer. This one, from a writer known for YA novels, finds a young widow dared (by her late husband) to get back out there and find love again.
– Looking for a few good men? This one has them dropping out of the ceiling. In The Husbands, the protagonist finds romance quite unexpectedly, each time a new man drops into her life (indeed, their life supposedly built together) and then disappears again. Figuring out how to find love, and then again how to keep it, turn out to be very different things in this funny pairing of the magical and mundane.
– The Body Next Door should speak to thriller fans, as Vashon Island-based author Maia Chance has our protagonist wondering if she’s found Mr. Not-So-Right; the romance in this one just might be harboring a killer.
Authors
Want a reliably great (and prolific) writer to check out? Three atop that list are:
– The aforementioned Abby Jimenez, who writes human characters in situations that are at once funny, frustrating, rootable (it’s a word now), and relatable. (Read my rave on Jimenez’s writing and her latest here.) You can also watch her compete on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars (season 4, episode 7 – “Rose Bowl”) if you feel so inclined.
– Sarah Adams who, between her expanded re-releases and new works, puts out a bewildering number of well-written romance releases. Unlikely pairings in a small town are her forte; you might start with When in Rome.
– Alexis Hall who, with a similarly mind-boggling output, transcends genres and spice levels, full of British wit and the occasional prude, in his outstanding queer fiction (read my pick of Hall’s latest here and review of an earlier work here).
Shared Interests
Workplace drama? That’s a fun one. The aforementioned Lavash at First Sight, Looking for a Sign, and Better Left Unsent, plus the bliss of veiled identity in Jessica Lepe’s Flirty Little Secret, are good picks for this one.
Hustle culture? From scrappy business owners to reality TV rivals, there’s plenty of that in romance reads. Recent releases of note include Elle Everhart’s Hot Summer, Tehlor Kay Mejia’s Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream, TJ Alexander’s Triple Sec, and Lizzy Dent’s Just One Taste.
Love dogs? Me too, although the romance world is a little lighter here. Farrah Rochon’s Pardon My Frenchie is a great new pick (the enemies-to-loves is a predictable element, but the poodle-spoiling nosy grandma orchestrating it all is a welcome addition). The just-out Worst in Show, by the locally-based Anna E. Collins, might land well with you, though the dialogue feels way too expository on basic stuff (y’know those meetings that could have been an email?) for my taste.
Favor a trope? Plenty of romance readers like to sort by them, so if it’s a set trope you’re after — friends-to-enemies, or rich-meets-poor, or mistaken identities, or fake-dating-turns-real-at-some-point — there are plenty of lists out there just for you. I don’t find the trope-sorting to be particularly helpful in finding a book I’ll actually like, though, so I’ll leave you to it.
Backstories
Prefer to read about romance writing, rather than the novels themselves? You can do that too, with a couple of great (and very different) new releases.
A new academic work dives into the rather unique rise of the romance novel and its impact on publishing in general. In Love in the Time of Self-Publishing, journalism professor Christine Larson looks at the genre’s wide reach, including the community built around the books and romance’s oft-overlooked readership.
Meanwhile, back to fiction: The Rom-Commers, Katherine Smith’s funny and gloriously observant new novel, looks at the rather unglamorous world of co-authoring a rom-com when as a ghostwriter gets stuck working with her hero, an iconic filmmaker, on a feature film he doesn’t want to make.
A Future Together
Want to nurture your budding (romance novel) interest? Some local book groups make that a thing: among them, Third Place Books’ Radical Romance Book Club (Seward Park); Charlie’s Queer Books’ Romance Book Club (Fremont); and Brick & Mortar Books’ Romance Book Club (Redmond).
Enjoy! 💞