Treating myself to some post-Valentine romantic reads

Yes, Valentine's Day has come and gone but that doesn't mean you have to tuck away those romance themed novels until next year. If anything, a good love story is truly soothing for those moments of real world stress(which we are sadly experiencing more and more of these days).

Since my Valentine's Day plans were limited, due to a sprained knee(which is getting much better,thankfully), I chose to treat myself to a little online shopping for a few fictional literary treats. While one of the titles is actually a Blogging For Books request, all three of my picks do have a romantic theme yet each of them differ in style as well as substance:

THE LADIES OF IVY COTTAGE: This second entry in Julie Klassen's new series focuses on Rachel, an impoverished gentlewoman who moves in with her friend Mercy Grove,who runs a private girls' school. Rachel takes a teaching position at Mercy's college but all too soon, it's clear that she is not cut out for the job.

However, Rachel did inherit her father's massive book collection and is encouraged to start a circulating library in the village. While that notion does please her, a mystery crops up as she sorts through the books and Rachel finds herself relying upon the man who inadvertently caused her financial distress for assistance in this matter, with perhaps a promise of love surprising them both.

Despite the old fashioned setting of Klassen's stories, she does feature heroines who are seeking to be more than just wives and mothers(although she doesn't rule that option out at all). While her leading ladies do want to find true love, they also want to be appreciated as capable women on their own merits as well:

THE WEDDING DATE: This debut novel by Jasmine Guillory has been getting a lot of good buzz and it sounds like smart and savvy romcom fun.

Alexa and Drew have quite the meet-cute as the two of them become trapped in an elevator at the same San Francisco hotel. While Alexa was simply on her way to a girlfriends only party, Drew is expected to attend a wedding and is without a plus one.

She agrees to help him out of this tricky social situation and their one time only date slowly yet surely starts to turn into something much more.  With both of them having careers that allows them limited free time on the weekends to date and each of them having very different social circles, this modern love may not be as easy as their first "date" was to arrange.

I am so looking forward to checking out this delightful book and hope that it will be the first of many wonderful reading engagements with Jasmine Guillory. Finding a new author to enjoy is harder than going on a blind date, if you ask me:

WHITE FUR: Jardine Libaire's novel has several elements to juggle, starting with the story being set in Manhattan during the latter half of the 1980s.

When Yale student Jamey meets up with working class Elise, their connection is instantly physical and leads them both down an emotional path which separates each one from their friends and family. Their passion is strong enough to keep them together but how long can that flame stay lit before it burns them both out?

This book is being touted as a sexy,modern Romeo and Juliet, due in part to the intricate writing style of the author, and that certainly sounds intriguing.  It would be sweet to savor a well heated romance, indeed:

Different degrees of romance, to be sure, but each of these books has much to offer in that category. Granted, I'm not the biggest romance reader, or the most knowledgeable, yet the one love that I completely do understand is of books and for that, I will always swipe right: