Sponsored by St. Martin's Griffin.
Critically acclaimed author Trish Doller’s unforgettable and romantic adult debut about setting sail, starting over, and finding yourself. Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until Anna impulsively goes to sea in their sailboat, intending to complete a trip they’d planned together. But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane has his own demons. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.
Hello romance lovers! I hope that this week has been treating y’all well. It’s been fairly good over here on my end. Past Me splurged more than a little bit on books and coffee last weekend. Which means I have a lot of deliveries headed my way that I’m super excited for. True, I don’t need more books but I also don’t need Peanut Butter M&Ms. And if you offer those to me I’m going to take them, so, there you go.
We’re finally back to a semblance of normalcy in my house, at least in terms of our distance education as the teenager is back to having regular Zoom classes. This also means that I’m back to gentle and also less than gentle reminders to pay attention. It’s tricky but we make it work and we should be back on track soon.
Of course then spring break is happening in a few weeks, and the reset will happen again. Yeah… But that’s a problem for Future Me. Maybe subconsciously, Past Me knew this and was trying to butter Future Me up with my online shopping spree.
Here’s a fun, and quick, quiz I found while perusing the web. It’s an easy pick your Zodiac sign and get a romance recommendation. I’ve read the one that was given to my sign (and I loved it), and you might find a new read!
Check out this awesome list of YA authors trying their hands at romance.
As I’m sure we all know, March is Women’s History Month. This was established in 1995 to celebrate and recognize the contributions that women have made. Technically, I think this was started specifically for women in America. If we’re being honest though, it is something that should be celebrated worldwide. Despite the limitations that society has historically tried to put on women, there have always been boundary pushers all over the world and to this I say Huzzah!
Some of these same women invented things that we still use nowadays, such as Hedy Lamarr and signal hopping, Mary Shelley with science fiction, and Ada Lovelace and computers. Women have always had their hands in all the inner workings that make up the world, no matter what history (emphasis on the “his”) may try to tell us.
Which isn’t to say that men haven’t done good things because they have. However, most, meaning cis-gender white men, have never really had to fight as hard as women (or men of color if we’re being honest) to get recognized for it. Bottom line is this: everyone brings something to the table. But, until we start recognizing and, more importantly, acknowledging everyone’s contributions, the battle cry for recognition is going to be an endless refrain.
With that in mind, my recommendations today are romances where women had jobs in fields that they would have been denied access to and even today still have to fight twice as hard to get recognized for what they do in these fields. Whether they’re an old favorite, a new release, or just new to you, they are all examples of aspiring women.
Level Up by Cathy Yardley
Tessa has aspirations to be a video game engineer and one of the ways she is working towards that is by creating a fandom-based game in three weeks. This isn’t a feat she can necessarily accomplish on her own so she enlists the help of her friend and roommate Adam to get the task done. While working together, these friends begin to realize that they want more but will their own ambitions stop them from taking the leap?
A Lady’s Formula for Love by Elizabeth Everett
In this recent release, Lady Violet Hughes is founder of a secret society composed of England’s most brilliant female scientists. She is also on a confident mission for the Crown and, as such, has her own bodyguard in the form of one Arthur Kneland. Unbeknownst to anyone, especially Arthur, she is in love with him. Arthur is a mostly reserved man intent on separating business and pleasure but slowly begins to warm up to Violet. When Violet’s life and work are put in danger, they must work together to find out who the culprit is as well as discover that their feelings for one another can no longer be denied.
Remedial Rocket Science by Susannah Nix
When Melody accepts a dream job in the IT department at an aerospace company, she doesn’t expect that her one-night stand from college would be the CEO’s son. She tries to stay away from him due to this as well as the fact that he’s a bad boy and has a girlfriend. But fate seems to continuously throw them together, making both parties unable to deny their attraction to each other.
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Lucy Muchelney is looking for a change of scenery after watching her ex-lover get married and finds it in a letter from Catherine St. Day. The widowed Countess of Moth is looking for someone to help translate a French astronomy text to fulfill her late husband’s work. As the women begin to work together, they slowly begin to fall in love. When sabotage and old wounds threaten their newfound love, they will have to fight to stay together.
These are just a few of the offerings that I could find but there are tons more out there in a variety of sub-genres and time periods.
That’s all for now friends. Catch up with me as @PScribe1 over on Twitter. Until next time!