Romance novels to read this month
The Kiss Quotient, by Helen Hoang (Berkley)
Stella Lane, the heroine of Helen Hoang’s “The Kiss Quotient,” is keenly aware of her mother’s disappointment in her personal life. Never mind Stella’s career success, her mother wants a grandchild. But having a baby, of course, requires sex — something with which Stella has little experience, and none pleasurable. (Like Hoang, Stella is on the autism spectrum; in Stella’s case, physical contact is a particular sensitivity.)
Stella sees a single logical path: hire a professional “with a proven track record” to teach her about sex. The professional in question is Michael Phan, a handsome, affable male escort who prides himself on leaving his clients satisfied and never seeing them again. When Stella offers him an outrageous sum of money to take her on as a repeat client and broaden her instruction to relationships as a whole, he can’t refuse — and finds he doesn’t want to. There is much to savour in this book: Stella and Michael are beautiful, nuanced characters. Readers will delight in seeing themselves reflected in Stella and Michael and in their journey to understand themselves, each other — and love.
It Takes Two, by Jenny Holiday (Forever)
Summer is the time for weddings and wedding romance — and Jenny Holiday’s “It Takes Two” is a delicious one, filled with a wild cast of characters. Maid of honour Wendy Liu is feeling the heat from her best friend with bridezilla tendencies to throw a bachelorette party for the ages. Even worse (or better), Wendy finds herself in a partyplanning competition with Noah Denning, her best friend’s brother, the boy who broke her heart years ago.
Competition isn’t new to Noah and Wendy; they’re notorious for going toe-to-toe, something readers will immediately see for what it is — a desire to be close to each other. Now, the stars have aligned, and Wendy and Noah are finally together, single and mature enough to admit they want more … maybe. This is romantic comedy at its best, complete with clever, sexy banter, a vibrant cast of characters, a wedding that is a character in itself (and getting bigger and bolder and more outrageous with each passing page), and a fabulous will-they/won’t-they/just-do-it-already back and forth that will have readers staying up late to see the romance through to its inevitable, wonderful end.