This is a friends-to-lovers romance with some "fade to black" intimacy. It's part of a series, but I have not read book 1 and never felt lost while reading this one. The H and are in their later 30's and have been friends since 5th grade.
Deciphering Her Enigmatic Heart: A Historical Western Romance by Carol Colyer. 1875. A fast-paced, kisses only romance, where a lady becomes a Pinkerton agent who improvises under pressure.
Three Sisters Torn: Margaret- BK 3: A Historical Regency Romance. A 2nd chance kisses only story.
I have read many romance bks with no explicit scenes and none have referred to religion. Also I can appreciate it if you do not have a faith and wish it didn't upset you so much when you happen to read a romance bk with faith based passages. I seem to run across books with statements of prejudice. In fact I emailed one very famous romance author who also lives in my state and her answer boggled my mind. Because of her popularity I will not state her name as I wouldn't want to ruin other readers pleasure of reading her great bks.
I am a "Believer" so fortunate to have lots of choices, but now too many with 1000s of ebks on my Kindle!
Here comes the sun even though I love that rainy day feeling!
I have read many romance bks with no explicit scenes and none have referred to religion. Also I can appreciate it if you do not have a faith and wish it didn't upset you so much when you happen to read a romance bk with faith based passages. I seem to run across books with statements of prejudice. In fact I emailed one very famous romance author who also lives in my state and her answer boggled my mind. Because of her popularity I will not state her name as I wouldn't want to ruin other readers pleasure of reading her great bks.
I am a "Believer" so fortunate to have lots of choices, but now too many with 1000s of ebks on my Kindle!
Please don't assume I don't have faith or spiritual beliefs. I can take spiritual quotes or refences in small doses. I can name you 6 romances w/ the MCs or their families 'have faith' and gossip about people in town or try to demean or physically harm them. Or lie or cheat. If this is faith, I want no part of it in my romance.
I've liked most of the spiritual romances I've read by Elizabeth Camden.
Check out these reviews by me on Good Reads. Using HR-ML moniker. -----
A Biltmore Christmas Diane Ashley ^^The Judge's Bride ( Montana Brides #1) Patricia Carroll A Wing & a Prayer (bk #1 ) Julie Lessman The Best Of Intentions (Canadian Crossings #1) Susan Anne Mason The Sea Before Us Sarah Sundin
^^The heroine of this one told a whopper of a lie, making her a big hypocrite.
I don't expect perfect characters. But a character of faith should try to LIVE his/ her faith.
The heroine of this one told a whopper of a lie, making her a big hypocrite.
I don't expect perfect characters. But a character of faith should try to LIVE his/ her faith.
Thanks for explaining and now I agree with you. Amazing that you have run into these type of books. I do have Camden's bks on my wl but haven't read any yet, because of my tbr pile.
I also have too many dnf bks usually because of authors disappointing me as sequence of the book different from the excerpt.
My favorite reads are so called "clean" bks, no mention of religion are my good ole standbys known as Regency romance. I don't know what type of bks I would be reading today without the writings of Jane Austen who probably triggered this entire genre for the 20th and 21st century.
Here comes the sun even though I love that rainy day feeling!
I have read many romance bks with no explicit scenes and none have referred to religion. Also I can appreciate it if you do not have a faith and wish it didn't upset you so much when you happen to read a romance bk with faith based passages. I seem to run across books with statements of prejudice. In fact I emailed one very famous romance author who also lives in my state and her answer boggled my mind. Because of her popularity I will not state her name as I wouldn't want to ruin other readers pleasure of reading her great bks.
I am a "Believer" so fortunate to have lots of choices, but now too many with 1000s of ebks on my Kindle!
I think we have discussed before, or at least I make no secret of, the fact I'm an atheist. I do occasionally read and sometimes even love an inspirational romance. The character type that I love to read are the genuinely kind, gentle, compassionate beta-type characters, and a storyline where the romance is low angst with most of the drama coming from outside forces around the couple. This is very hard to find, and more likely in an inspirational romance than non-.
The line for me is hard to describe, but it's a sense of is the author preaching a sermon through the characters, or is the faith a natural part of their day-to-day existance? I gave 5 stars to Heart on the Line by Karen Witemyer. Absolutely loved it, because the faith and prayer occurred organically in the story. I adore the H in that book. On the other hand, I dnf'd Echoes of the Moon by Jennifer Taylor around 25% into it because the author forced in a religious theme or passage every few pages. And I do mean forced, because the dialogue became highly contrived for the specific purpose of working in the bit of a sermon. It was so obvious it was jolting.
I rarely review the inspirational romances I read unless they fall at the very top or bottom of the rating. I know that my "line" is subjective and may be colored by personal bias, so it's not really fair to the author for me give a review most of the time.
One of the books I listed above, was WW2 era, where the heroine lied about everything. She stole the press credentials of a woman and assumed her identity & went to Europe in her stead. The guy she loved was too preachy. I got a little over 50% and stopped. They both were a hot mess. The story was the opposite of spiritual. Both MCs were self-righteous & I did not stick around to see if either grew as persons.
I read a range of clean to erotic romances. But IMO the more sex scenes a book has, generally the less romance and emotional intimacy. The genuine emotional closeness is the pay-dirt of a rom to me. Some authors don't get the emots right.
One of the biggest fallacies is some people assume if someone does not have faith or religion, he/she can't be a good person. IMO some folks talk up their faith, but their actions don't reflect their faith.
Yesterday I noted the bk, The Judge's Wife. A widowed Christian woman exchanged letters w/ the Judge (& a prosperous rancher) She told him she had kids but not how many (10!) She doubted the strength of the Judge's faith, while telling him this whopping lie!!! She assumed he'd gladly support them all.
Elizabeth Camden has Bible quotes, but the H + h face moral dilemmas. Just like in life.
One of the biggest fallacies is some people assume if someone does not have faith or religion, he/she can't be a good person. This is just baloney.
mlover: Ironically we've run across completely different themes on books and in my life I've never personally heard a disparaging word about any person who is an atheist. My family and friends have not found any prejudiced to them as atheists but boggles their minds when the news media scorns people of religious faith.
read a range of clean to erotic romances. But IMO the more sex scenes a book has, generally the less romance and emotional intimacy. The genuine emotional closeness is the pay-dirt of a rom to me. Some authors don't get the emots right.
I totally agree with you and I call the erotic bks with too many sex scenes fillers to probably to meet a page count for publishers.
Here comes the sun even though I love that rainy day feeling!
A Warriner to Tempt Her : A Regency Romance (The Wild Warriners Bk #3) by Virginia Health.
A Beta male w/ some alpha qualities. A physician who encountered the heroine 1 yr after she was nearly raped by a stranger. She helped in his foundling infirmary and she was well-read in science. Her family's physician tried to convince her dad that she needed an asylum (unnecessary). The hero was gentle and listened. He also alerted & vaccinated his townspeople against smallpox. TMI?
Kisses and 1 sex scene, but what stayed with me was the hero's gentleness & genuine understanding toward the heroine. He lost his cool a few times, w/ just cause.
A Warriner to Tempt Her : A Regency Romance (The Wild Warriners Bk #3) by Virginia Health.
A Beta male w/ some alpha qualities. A physician who encountered the heroine 1 yr after she was nearly raped by a stranger. She helped in his foundling infirmary and she was well-read in science. Her family's physician tried to convince her dad that she needed an asylum (unnecessary). The hero was gentle and listened. He also alerted & vaccinated his townspeople against smallpox. TMI?
Kisses and 1 sex scene, but what stayed with me was the hero's gentleness & genuine understanding toward the heroine. He lost his cool a few times, w/ just cause.
Can be read as standalone.
The whole Wild Warriners series is great, IMO, all clean stories.
A Warriner to Tempt Her : A Regency Romance (The Wild Warriners Bk #3) by Virginia Health.
A Beta male w/ some alpha qualities. A physician who encountered the heroine 1 yr after she was nearly raped by a stranger. She helped in his foundling infirmary and she was well-read in science. Her family's physician tried to convince her dad that she needed an asylum (unnecessary). The hero was gentle and listened. He also alerted & vaccinated his townspeople against smallpox. TMI?
Kisses and 1 sex scene, but what stayed with me was the hero's gentleness & genuine understanding toward the heroine. He lost his cool a few times, w/ just cause.
Can be read as standalone.
I love the Wild Warriners! Dr. Joe is one of my favorite H's and favorite rereads.