On Day Three of our Mother’s Day Book Bash, we’re highlighting the romance category, namely, Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, and Inspirational/Christian/LDS Romance:
Contemporary Romance
When Lyn sets off on her supposedly uncomplicated and unromantic cruise, she never dreams it will include pirates. All the 25-year-old Colorado high school teacher wants is to forget that her dead fiancé was a cheating scumbag. What she plans is a vacation diversion; what fate provides is Braedon, an intriguing surgeon. She finds herself drawn to him: his gentle humor, his love of music, and even his willingness to let her take him down during morning karate practices. Against the backdrop of the ship’s make-believe world and its temporary friendships, her emotions come alive.
However, fear is an emotion, too. Unaware of the sensitive waters he navigates, Braedon moves to take their relationship beyond friendship–on the very anniversary Lyn came on the cruise to forget. But Lyn’s painful memories are too powerful, and she runs off in a panic. Things are bad enough when the pair finds themselves on one of the cruise’s snorkeling excursions in American Samoa. However, paradise turns to piracy when their party is kidnapped. Lyn’s fear of a fairytale turns grim. Now she must fight alongside the man she rejected, first for their freedom and then against storms, sharks, and shipwreck.
2 to 3 flames
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
When her former boyfriend shows up eight years later, Madison isn’t sure if she’s more relieved or angry he doesn’t recognize her. Especially since she’s forced to work with him for a few months and he has no clue she kept such a huge secret from him.
When Stephen finally realizes Madison is the same girl he knew as Bea from his grandparents’ town, he’s excited to catch up and reminisce about those summers — but she seems cold and wants nothing to do with him.
The truth comes out and he learns he’s the father of a seven-year-old son, throwing him into completely unfamiliar territory as he tries to develop a relationship with his child and attempts to rekindle the romance he’d once shared with Bea.
Can they each overcome their sense of betrayal and learn to be united for the sake of their son, and perhaps find love again?
1.5 Flames
Price: Free
Buy Link: Amazon
The housing market is crashing, and Sophie’s life is crashing with it. At twenty-four, her successful real estate career evaporates. She’s broke, can’t find a job, or pay her bills. At the urging of her roommate, Sophie accepts a job in her fallback career—teaching six-year-olds. She hopes it’s temporary. After all, how long can a tanking economy last anyway? The best part of the new job is Liam, another employee at Rio Grande Elementary. The worst part of the new job is, well, teaching.
Sophie has a surprise real estate closing from a contract she wrote months ago, leading her to a niche in the real estate market and to a new partner, Kevin. Sophie must choose between Liam or Kevin and between a lucrative career or recess duty.
This new adult, chick lit novel is a sweet romance filled with humor as Sophie navigates her life as a teacher, trying to balance lesson plans and love.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Billionaire CEO Luke Ryder doesn’t want to hire his best friend, Brooke, as his matchmaker. Not when he’s been in love with her for eight years. Too bad she doesn’t see him as relationship material and is engaged to another man. If the matchmaking company she works for closes, Brooke is out of a job, and Luke is out a best friend. There will be nothing stopping her from moving to Italy with her fiancé. And Luke isn’t about to let that happen.
Brooke’s dream career may be crumbling, and she will do anything to keep Toujour in the black. Even recruit Luke, America’s favorite bachelor, as her next client. Surely his perfect smile and swollen bank account will send clients swarming to their doors. But when matching up Luke works a little too well, Brooke wonders if she’s with the right man. Maybe she should finally forget Luke’s playboy image and admit he’s changed. All Brooke has to decide is if she’s willing to risk her heart.
Part of the No Match for Love series, Miss Match will delight readers who love Hallmark movies and sweet romance. This series combines complex characters with smart dialogue and a fast-paced plot.
3 Flames
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Erin doesn’t have time for a relationship. After six years of late nights and mind-numbing assignments at her job as a marketing executive, she’s finally landed the coveted Smithson Jeweler’s account—which means her love life will have to wait a little longer.
When the actress at the first commercial shoot upsets the director, Erin finds herself cast as the leading lady alongside Jake, a handsome up-and-coming actor who rescued her cat from the streets and stole her heart.
Flustered, she walks away from the shoot wearing the diamond ring, and her mom mistakes it for an engagement between Erin and Jake. Both are desperate enough to get their parents off their backs, that they run with the lie.
Now Jake and Erin have to figure out how to admit their story is false without hurting their parents or destroying the friendship they’ve gained with each other.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
As the bumbling town TV traffic reporter, Kate Covington is a constant source of entertainment, but Kate sticks with her dead end job because of her love for news anchor Brian Schaffer. When Brian spontaneously runs off to marry his high school sweetheart, Kate panics and quickly follows. She finds herself in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, desperate to tell her best friend how she feels before he makes a huge mistake and marries the wrong person. The mistake, however, is all Kate’s.
As the scorned bride runs back down the short aisle, Kate quickly realizes she just interrupted the wrong wedding. The would-be groom, Chad Leida, explains the predicament Kate has caused him…he needs to marry before turning 30 in order to inherit his family fortune…and he no longer has a bride.
When Chad asks Kate to marry him and promises her a million dollars for a year of her time, Kate isn’t sure what to do. She has a great deal of debt to her name due to caring for her ailing grandmother, but she also doesn’t want to let go of the idea of love and marriage going together.
Kate’s impulsive decision changes her entire lifestyle…and her ideas about love. From Las Vegas to San Francisco and even to the Midwestern city of Omaha, Kate learns that even when she turns up in the Wrong Place, sometimes it is at just the Right Time.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Historical Romance
Is it too late for second chances when the girl you loved in your youth comes back into your life? Gerolt de Warenne became guardian to a child-heiress named Cassandry when he was only nineteen-years old. As he watched her grow into a lovely young woman, he found himself falling in love with her, but Cassandry viewed him as an older brother. So, burying his feelings, he gave permission for her to marry another. Twenty-four years later Gerolt and Cassandry meet again. With the loss of their respective spouses, Gerolt hopes to finally court Cassandry, but she desires to remain a widow. Instead, they agree to a betrothal of their children. Matters become complicated as their friendship begins to evolve into the romance Gerolt has always wanted. But by the law of the medieval Church, Cassandry and Gerolt can’t marry if their children do. Can they find a way to be together? Or must they sacrifice their future for the love of their children? “Courting Cassandry” is a “Hearts in Autumn” romance, medieval romances revolving around heroes and heroines “in the autumn of their years.” Because love isn’t only for the young!
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Handsome young heir Adam Brody sees nothing but possibilities in the sprawling old building he’s just purchased. With a little hard work, he will transform it into a hotel to meet the needs of those traveling by railroad. Aunt Caroline believes he’s lost his mind, but she agrees to help him give it a try.
Left a widow with a small daughter, Elizabeth Caldwell must find work. When she sees an advertisement in the newspaper inquiring about cheerful young women to work in a hotel, she decides to apply. However, the hotel owner specifically requested single ladies, so she must hide her former marital status, and her child, if she wishes to get the job.
With cloudy pasts to overcome, both Adam and Elizabeth want to believe in a bright future. Will they find the strength they need in each other, or will their differences keep them apart?
1 Flame
Price: Free
Buy Link: Amazon
Harriet Martin left her plantation home in Atlanta and came to Kansas with one thought on her mind—finding the mother of the man she was supposed to marry. She will never find peace or be able to move on until she knows that Jane, a former slave, is safe and happy.
Tom White wants nothing more than to be his own man—traveling where he will, taking whatever jobs come his way, moving on again when he gets feeling itchy. Now working at the Brody Hotel, he starts to put down roots for the first time since he was forced to leave his home at the age of fifteen.
Both stubborn, independent, and free spirited, Harriet and Tom have more in common than either one wants to admit. By the same twist of fate, they each have exactly what the other needs—if destiny will allow them to find the happiness they’ve been seeking.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Inspirational/Christian/LDS Romance
Sometimes the dream you never planned for is the one you can’t live without.
Six years after a painful divorce, Josh Conrad is happy traveling the world as a photographer. When he arrives in Portugal, he plans to complete the assignment as quickly as possible. What he doesn’t plan for is Sofia, the girl he baptized eleven years earlier on an LDS mission, and soon he’s making excuses to prolong his trip.
Sofia Monteiro leads a structured life in Braga, Portugal, teaching high school by day and caring for her mother by night. After she reconnects with Josh through mutual friends, the memory of a failed relationship and her new graduate program are enough reasons to stay away from him.
As they collaborate on a project, Josh is wary of repeating his old mistakes and Sofia hesitates to spend time with an American who’s only passing through.
Can two people with wounded hearts bring themselves to trust their dreams to each other?
The Secret Life of Daydreams is a clean and wholesome contemporary LDS romance set in Portugal.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Do Squire and Kelly have enough patience and faith to make their second chance possible?
After his deployment, injured and discharged Major Squire Ackerman returns to Three Rivers Ranch, anxious to prove himself capable of running the cattle operation so his parents can retire. Things would be easier if the ranch wasn’t missing 1.6 million dollars, which forces Squire to hire Kelly, the girl who rejected his high school prom invitation, as his accountant.
She’s back in town with her four-year-old son, living in her parent’s basement until she can get her life back together. With fresh ink on her divorce papers and open gashes on her heart, she’s not ready for much beyond her new job on the ranch.
Squire wants to forgive Kelly for ignoring him a decade ago. He’d like to provide the stable life she needs, but with old wounds opening and a ranch on the brink of financial collapse, it will take patience and faith to make their second chance possible.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
On the way to her cousin’s wedding, Kari Montgomery stumbles in a rainstorm not knowing her encounter with the owner of a pair of steel blue eyes will change her life forever.
Associate history professor, Kari Montgomery, broke off her engagement when she realized her fiancé wasn’t the kind of man she thought him to be. Ever since she’s carried feelings of loss and wonders where she fits in since the death of both her parents. All that changes when she looks into a pair of remarkable steel blue eyes as she attempts to make it through a rainstorm the day of her cousin Emily’s wedding. But even though Kari begins to feel compelled toward Youth Pastor Randy Steele, she isn’t sure if she can love again or if she is even worthy of that love. Can Randy reach her and show her how wonderful life can be with God in control of their futures?
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
Ella Valentine doubts she’ll ever recover when her twin brother passes away in college. Four years later, living in a new city and working for a large corporation, she gets caught in a lie and saddled with a new boss who she suspects might be losing his mind. Now he has her enacting insane acts of espionage while trying to catch the culprit who has embezzled money from their company. If it wasn’t for his deep brown eyes and lazy smile she just might quit. Is this God’s plan for her life? She isn’t even sure who she is anymore without her twin and the way things are going she just might end up in the loony bin.
Charles “Charlie” Murray II may be the heir presumptive to his father’s industrial dynasty, but all he really wants is to create–be it drawings or a marketing campaign. When he’s summoned to the home office to take over the position of CFO, he discovers his new assistant is the same woman who passed him a phony phone number in a diner the previous weekend. If he can figure out who’s been stealing from the company, he just might attain the position of his dreams or will he sacrifice it all to be with Ella.
1 Flame
Price: 99¢
Buy Link: Amazon
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Mother's Day Book Bash 