Five Books Everyone Should Read is a feature we’re running in 2015. We’ve asked some of our favorite authors, readers and bloggers to share five books that touched them or have stayed with them throughout the years.
Today we have our good friend, fellow SoCal Blogger and Super Librarian, Wendy, here to share her list of Five Books Everyone Should Read.
By now it’s been pretty easy to spot the running theme of this awesome Book Binge feature: The “OMG only FIVE books?!?!? Are you high?!?!?!” running theme. But never let it be said that Wendy isn’t up for a challenge, to which I responded by making up my own rules. That’s me, hardcore rebel all the way. For the sake of my sanity I’ve decided to focus on only the romance genre, and only books that are readily available in digital at, what I consider, a reasonable price (I’m looking at you Simon & Schuster – $15.99 for a digital copy of Breathless by Laura Lee Guhrke?! I guess the question is – are YOU high?!?!). So without further ado…..
To Dream Again by Laura Lee Guhrke
Blurb: Beautiful widow Mara Elliot has only one goal—to save her London factory from the creditors. A no-nonsense woman of business, Mara has no patience with impractical schemes and risky ideas. But when she is forced into accepting handsome inventor Nathaniel Chase as her business partner, Mara has no choice but to go along with his reckless plans, plans which put everything she’s worked for at risk.
Nathaniel knows success doesn’t come to those who play it safe. Mara’s factory is the perfect place to transform his innovative ideas into reality, but his new business partner isn’t cooperating. The provoking beauty questions his judgment at every turn and fights his plans every step of the way, but she also sparks his desire like no woman he’s ever met before. Can Nathaniel convince her to trust him and follow his dream, or will he have to give up everything he’s ever wanted in order to win her heart?
Wendy’s Thoughts: This book hit all of my sweet spots. A beta hero who is a toymaker (as in, children’s toys – not THOSE kind of toys) and a heroine obsessed with security after the death of her husband, a man prone to get-rich-quick schemes. She needs a man to keep her business afloat (her lack of a penis is something her creditors can’t seem to get over) and the hero needs a factory to build his model trains. The prevailing theme of the conflict is fear – how it holds us back, keeps us hostage. The heroine’s fear is understandable, and watching her break free from it was one of the many highlights of this excellent read.
Blurb: Claire is looking forward to some romance now that her son is finally off to college. But a sudden crisis has her wondering if her sex life will be over before she even goes on her first date. When Claire meets Justin, she cannot understand why a great-looking, younger guy who can get any woman he wants is so interested in her dilemma. And why is he pushing Claire to complete her sexual bucket list?
When their flirtation leads to an unexpected night of passion, Justin makes it clear that it was a just one-time thing. Claire knew that something that hot was too good to last!
But Justin comes back for more, and now it’s Claire’s turn to say no. Opening herself up to sex was one thing. But love? That’s a chance she’s not willing to take. When Justin won’t take no for an answer, she wonders if there is any such thing as happily ever after. And what will it cost her to find out?
Wendy’s Thoughts: I read this in the original format, a two-part serial, and it nearly killed me having to wait for the second installment. A heroine in her 40s, who put her life on hold after her marriage broke up to raise her son, now thinks that her empty nest will translate into her finding her groove thing. Then she’s diagnosed with breast cancer. She mistakenly wanders into an erotic reading salon instead of the cancer support group she was going to attend, and that’s how she ends up meeting the hero, who puts the whore in manwhore. He’s determined to help her make up for lost time by becoming her sexual “wing man.” Everyone knows someone like Claire, which makes this story so powerful. It was a real departure for Belle, who up until this point specialized in fun stories featuring plots that had a soap-opera feel to them. This one was an emotional gut-punch however and sucked every last bit of oxygen out of my lungs. Serial no more, both parts offered in one volume, it’s not to be missed.
A Reason to Live by Maureen McKade
Blurb: May 30, 1865:
“How could I refuse the wish of a dying man?”
“During the War, I watched over too many young boys in the hospital, comforting them as they cried out for those they loved, as they whispered their final thoughts to me. Keeping a record of their names, families, and last words seemed a small tribute to their sacrifice – until the war ended, and I found a new mission in life.”
“I would visit the loved ones of those poor soldiers and deliver their messages so that some comfort could be found even in grief …”
But Laurel Covey never expected to find a man like Creede Forrester – an ex-gunslinger who rode all the way from Texas to Virginia in the hope of finding his son and ended up saving her from a band of ruffians. It pains her deeply to tell him of his boy’s death, and she believes that in his heart, Creede blames himself for driving his son away. But there is something more to this rugged, weary man. Something that draws Laurel close to him … something she cannot resist …
Wendy’s Thoughts: I’m a sucker for a nurse heroine and Maureen McKade wrote one of the damn finest nurse heroines ever. Suffering from what we now know is PTSD, the heroine decides to deliver the dying last words of some of the soldiers who perished at her field hospital during the Civil War. She wants to complete this mission before she completely loses her mind. Circumstances lead the hero to her doorstep, and upon learning of his son’s death, he vows to accompany the heroine on her mission. Emotions run high in this story, and the variety of people they encounter (some happy to see them, some not) adds another dimension to this western. McKade has written a number of very good books in her career, but to date I feel strongly that this is her masterpiece.
Always to Remember by Lorraine Heath
Blurb: Refusing to pick up a gun for the Confederacy, Clayton Holland was branded a deserter and imprisoned during the war. When he returned home to Cedar Grove, he was given a coward’s welcome, spurned by everyone in town. To Meg Warner, Clay’s presence was a constant offense: a betrayal of the cause for which her husband and brothers died.
As a punishment, she commissioned Clay, a talented sculptor, to create a memorial for Cedar Grove’s fallen heroes, hoping that every name he carved into stone would carve remorse into his heart. But, as Meg spent months watching Clay work, she began to see strength instead of cowardice. And she discovered that a hero could be found in the most unlikely of men. That passion could be sculpted from a heart hardened by bitterness. And that sometimes love–like courage–whispers instead of shouts.
Wendy’s Thoughts: For the record, I don’t believe in giving books an A+ grade. But this was one book where I was sorely tempted. The heroine is literally drowning in her hate for the hero. Her beloved husband and three brothers, all dead fighting for the Confederate cause while the hero “cowardly” refused to pick up a gun and fight. He lives, while they are cold in the ground – in an unmarked, mass grave. So she vows to make him pay, to hire him to build a monument honoring the town’s fallen soldiers. Instead what she gets is a lesson in what it means to be truly brave. It’s stunning from the first word to the last.
His Wife for One Night by Molly O’Keefe
Blurb: Jack McKibbon knows the score when he offers to marry his best friend Mia Alatore. He’s fixing a bad situation for her—that’s all—they aren’t making a real life together. She wants to stay on the ranch and he’s got his studies and inventions elsewhere. Still, this arrangement is a good deal for both of them.
Until that one night…
A sexy interlude with Mia makes Jack rethink their relationship…and their future. But all his plans grind to a halt when she asks for a divorce. Once upon a time, Jack might have agreed. But now that he knows the chemistry they share, he’s not giving up a second chance to be with his wife.
Wendy’s Thoughts: For me, books that end up being keepers tend to be “slow builders.” I really need to get firmly entrenched in the story before it dawns on me about halfway through that I want to drop my life and do nothing but read the book until the end of days. This was my very first read by O’Keefe (she hadn’t yet transitioned to single titles) and from the very first sentence I knew. I just knew. Again, I don’t believe in A+ grades, but this is the only other book that sorely tempted me. I loved that the heroine, finally at her breaking point, tired of getting her heart trampled on by the hero, decides enough is enough. The hero, having just suffered a personal tragedy, is pushed to the breaking point when the heroine finally puts her foot down and he realizes just how massively he dropped the ball with her. Emotional angst galore, a secondary cast that broke my heart nearly as much as the primary romance, all the trademarks that fans have come to expect from an O’Keefe story – and this was ground floor, entry level for yours truly. If you’ve only read O’Keefe’s single titles, this is a good reminder that she wrote some really good category romances. Seek them out – says Wendy.
I’m notoriously stingy with A grades, but when it comes to the cream of the crop – the “OMG you HAVE to read this!!!!” books? It was shockingly easy to whittle it down to five. I loved all of these. I wish I could pick up each of them and read them for the first time all over again.
More about Wendy: Romance Writers of America Librarian of the Year 2011. Blogging for truth, justice and the right to read what you want since 2003. Visit her at her blog The Misadventures of Super Librarian and follow her on Twitter: @SuperWendy