Time for some self-reflection here. When was the last time you gave yourself a self-care day? In most of our cases, it’s been a while. We are halfway through the year and it’s time to switch things up. I recently took a Friday off work, just because, and the agenda consisted solely of things I wanted to do. Coffee was involved and a lot of lounging on the couch reading. It was so relaxing and exactly what I needed. I can’t recommend a day to yourself enough girlfriends. So today I am recommending some romances I have read that I think will be perfect additions to your next self-care day.
Let’s start off with bang here, a literal forbidden bang, with Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas. This romance is between Jordan and Pike, who is the father of her boyfriend Cole in the first half of the book. It was over halfway through the story before anything remotely physical happened but all the angst leading up to that point had me completely hooked! It felt like a complete mess involving two people who were obviously perfect for each other, and I needed to see how everything would come together in the end. However you decide to treat yourself on your next self-care day, this story is totally engrossing. You will be so into Pike and Jordan’s romance, your mind will drift away from the hundreds of things typically taking up space there during the day.
For the longest, my favorite Daphne Du Maurier novel was hands down, Rebecca. Then I did buddy read of Frenchmen’s Creek and I’m not so sure on my favorite anymore. I wouldn’t categorize Frenchmen’s Creek as a romance because there isn’t a happily ever after per se at the end, but the romance within the pages of this book is one that has stuck with me since having read it. This one would be perfect for a self-care day because the entire theme of the book centers around escape. Our heroine is escaping from her not so happy marriage for the summer to her husband’s families summer house where she meets a French Pirate. You can’t think of pirates and not think of escapism with the freedom of roaming the seas. Lady Dona gets to escape her real life a bit, adventuring around the area with her pirate and getting caught up in a bit of danger. In true Du Maurier fashion, the writing is absolutely beautiful. You get the sense early on that you are getting a glimpse into another time. I highly recommend this one of your next self-care day. It will truly carry you away.
Grace Draven is an author whose stories I really want to explore more. I read Phoenix Unbound at the end of 2018, and if you like a bit of fantasy in your romances, I can’t recommend this one enough. Gilene, our heroine, is a fire witch sacrificed by her village every year to be burned at the stake as entertainment. Her sacrifice saves the other women in her village. The Empresses favorite gladiator, Azarion has seen through Gilene’s illusion and blackmails her into helping him escape. The world building is fantastic. You will easily get lost in it on your self-care day. Draven’s writing is so atmospheric and the romance between Gilene and Azarion is very slow brewing. Gilene instantly became one of my favorite heroines and brace yourself, I cried so hard at the end of this book.
My last recommendation is one I recently read and I loved it so much. A Lesson In Thorns by Sierra Simone was pure genius. If you want something little sexier for your self-care day, here you go, you can thank me later. If you haven’t read Sierra Simone before, she is a master at very dark, atmospheric, sexy as hell romances that can feel so wrong but are so good and right you just can’t help yourself. I was addicted to this book. I flipped through once I finished and I just about highlighted something on every page. A Lesson In Thorns follows a group of friends who meet back up at this place they frequented as kids called Thornchapel. There is so much sexual tension flowing between the five of them you just feel it emanating from the pages. I could fangirl over this book for hours and hours but seriously, read it. The next book in the series releases on August 1st so perfect reason to fall in love with this story now, so you can be all caught up for the next release.
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