| Let’s just get this out of the way: Romance deserves more respect. It outsells a lot of fiction, it generates over $1 billion for the publishing industry and romance writers are often ahead of the curve on cultural and social trends. My first romance recommendation is debut author Ashley Herring Blake’s novel, “Delilah Green Doesn’t Care.” Blake sets up a hometown reunion between Delilah and Claire when Delilah returns to Bright Falls for a wedding photography gig. Claire has been running a bookstore and raising her daughter. On paper, these two wouldn’t work -- book nerd meets Big Apple edgy artist -- but Blake uses humor and clever flirty dialogue In Natalie Caña’s “A Proposal They Can’t Refuse,” Kamilah Vega desperately wants to redo her family’s Chicago-based Puerto Rican restaurant but all her scheming grandfather wants is for her to be settled and married. Liam Kane, a whiskey importer, also has a meddling grandfather who reveals a cancer diagnosis and tells his grandson it is his dying wish that he marry Kamilah. Trouble is, Kamilah and Liam have always had a fractious relationship. On the surface, this is a romance born of ambition and convenience and subterfuge. But Caña has infused the novel with the power of family bonds, the importance of heritage and some sizzling chemistry. I was hooked on “Love on the Brain” by Ali Hazelwood when I spotted the scientist lead characters and the setting at NASA. Bee Konigswasser is brought into the space agency to co-lead a project to develop better technology for astronauts. She’s excited until she learns that the other leader on the project is none other than her graduate school nemesis, Levi Ward. When the project starts to go awry, Bee privately wonders if Levi is sabotaging her. But she’ll belatedly realize he’s become a powerful ally and a love born in a laboratory begins.
— Kerri Miller | MPR News | 