Bodyguard’s Saint-Tropez Temptation
by Bryony Rosehurst
Category romances are small-scale by design. Like a poet writing a sonnet, the writer has to pack a big punch into a tiny space. So when BODYGUARD’S SAINT-TROPEZ TEMPTATION (Harlequin, 254 pp., ebook, $4.99) opens on a view of Riviera buildings “clustered below like pennies spilling over the coastline,” it’s clear we are in excellent hands.
Dani Sharpe left the rescue service after her girlfriend and partner drowned, and now works as an obsessively professional celebrity bodyguard. Her new client is the A-list bombshell Sasha March — but Sasha doesn’t want security. Sasha wants out: Her agent, ex-husband and a major director are ruthlessly controlling all aspects of her life. Dani is dubious, but one evening at a party watching Sasha get manhandled, talked over and humiliated is enough to convince her. They pack a bag, toss Sasha’s phone out the car window and are in a secluded villa in Spain two days later with nothing to do but each other.
Sasha’s euphoria at her liberation quickly collides with Dani’s determination to remain aloof; the angst as they work out their growing entanglement is framed with all the gorgeous scenery and luxurious accessories that are part of the classic Harlequin charm. There’s no space to hide in a category — not for the characters, and not for the author. Rosehurst has the category writer’s knack for being simultaneously direct and revelatory, as when Dani reflects on her past: “Sometimes, she thought maybe she deserved to be punished by something worse than grief.”
The Love Variations
by Victoria Lee
Grief also takes center stage in THE LOVE VARIATIONS (Dell, 293 pp., paperback, $20), an enemies-to-lovers romance between two rival pianists at a high-pressure arts academy. Jamie Larson is the epitome of technical perfection, but his playing has lacked all emotion since his little brother’s death. Marigold (Goldie) Gensler’s expressiveness keeps winning her accolades and applause, but she’s also coping with a recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. She once ghosted Jamie on a date freshman year, after learning her mother’s illness was terminal. Jamie said horrible things in response and they’ve loathed each other ever since. Now, with an international competition in Stockholm looming, all that pain and thwarted passion is turned up to full volume.
This is a capital D-drama of a romance, obsessive and anguished and full of lush musical language. Goldie’s parents were professional musicians, and the difference between her high-toned artsy childhood and Jamie’s hardscrabble Midwestern upbringing underscores a lot of their other conflicts. They both work too hard and care too much, and the moment when they start seeing past each other’s emotional armor is truly worth swooning over.
By the Bootstraps
by Alexa Martin
In our last romance, grief is more of a grace note, the pinch of salt that makes the sweetness stand out. In BY THE BOOTSTRAPS (Berkley Romance, 387 pp., paperback, $19), Luna Starr impulsively uses her inheritance after her mother dies to flee Denver and buy a house sight unseen in a small Texas town named Celestial. There she immediately meets a hot cowboy and his hot twin brother, who live on the ranch next door. Naturally Luna is thrilled by all of this — until her feelings for one of the brothers start to deepen, and all her old insecurities about being too much and too needy come back into play.
The romance is lovely, but this is very much Luna’s story. Like Rebekah Weatherspoon, Mia Hopkins and Jackie Lau, Martin writes characters who feel like your lifelong friends as soon as they show up: irreverent and ride-or-die loyal. This book deserves an edition with hot-pink sprayed edges, a foiled glitter cover and maybe even a coat of frosting — it’s bouncy and sugary and hopeful as birthday cake.
And the supporting layers are perfectly baked: Luna is funny in her flaws, and the family drama at the ranch feels just resolved enough to satisfy, with room for more development in future books (wise readers will spot the sequel bait at once). Martin’s ebullient voice pulls you through, even when the small-town charms of Celestial feel a little too good to be true.
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