When I picked up Ivy Fairbanks’s debut novel, Morbidly Yours, late last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It did not disappoint.

This book surprised the heck out of me.

After reading Love, Theoretically back in 2023 (and loving it, I should add), I thought Ali Hazelwood had crossed my threshold for steam in her books.

Here’s the deal. I loved this book, but, and it’s a big one, I kind of had to tell myself that I was not reading an Emily Henry title.

As part of the “improbable meet cute” series of short stories, this one definitely met the description “improbable,” but I didn’t care one bit.

Florence and Jude spend summers in Michigan at Harbor Arts Camp. Every year on the last night, the "HAC"ers find someone at the bonfire to hang out with until sunrise.

Eliza is a widow and she’s not even thirty yet. Her late husband has left her a fortune, but there’s a catch—a morality clause that means she can do nothing untoward. It’s a good thing that the new Earl of Somerset is her childhood love (is there any chance for them after how they left things a decade ago?) and he’s the one controlling those purse strings.

Ellis and Wren grew up together and had their son, Sam, as teens. A decade later, their marriage fell apart. Now in their 30s, they still can’t keep their minds off each other. A summer road trip to drop Sam at college is an opportunity to see whether forever might still be possible.

Xavier is a veterinarian. He’s known for a gruff bedside manner, but he’s also very good at his job. When Samantha comes in with a kitten who has a life-threatening condition, he gives it to her straight; and she serves it right back.

Since her best friend died of cancer six months ago, Lenny has been taking temporary nanny jobs–a weekend here or there because that’s the limit to how long she can “hold it together.”

Meghan Davis has done it again, making unsuspecting victims of her readers, fooling us with a campy vampire cover and description, and punching us in the gut with the full spectrum of human emotion.

This was an interesting take on a second-chance. While I wouldn't categorize it as strictly romance, more contemporary fiction, it centers on Charlie and Vivian now in their sixties, who were married forty years ago.

This was a cute rom-com set in a small town with lots of interconnected characters. I didn't read the first story in the "Rock Bottom Love" series, but I enjoyed the story of Jillian and Levi reconnecting after years apart.