Baker-themed romances. I didn't pick them on purpose, I swear.
Inez Kelly, Sweet as Sin - I don't read many contemporary romances (not my bag) but this one wasn't bad. Heroine is a spunky baker who hooks up with the bad boy next door for a summer fling, only it turns into a relationship and bad boy's demons of traumatic past come out. I never really connected to either of the characters, so it didn't do it for me, but it's not bad as far as that sort of thing goes.
Grace Burrowes, The Soldier - Burrowes' books are so quiet, so at-their-own-pace, so peaceful. I know it's a bizarre thing to say of a romance novel, let alone as a positive thing, but I love that quality, the one that makes the books a mood piece, a warm summer day, more than anything else. The hero of the story is a decorated officer of the Napoleonic wars, who comes to stay at his new estate in Yorkshire and the heroine is the village baker. He is haunted by the demons he brought back from the war, she has secrets of her own, but together they form a connection. First off - I loved the hero. He was pretty much utterly amazing in a quiet, competent, trying-his-best-to-cope way. The heroine was...a mixed bag. I liked her well enough for the first 2/3 of the book but then she did something so idiotic, I pretty much lost most of my liking for her (short non-spoilery version - she loves the hero, but she has a secret she thinks might make him not like her, so instead of telling him the truth, she decides to accept someone else's marriage proposal, even as the hero is very explicitly in love with her and offers her marriage. Hello, coward! She comes to her senses way late) Ultimately, I ended up wanting her with the hero because he needed her for his happiness and because she would make a good wife, not because I liked her.
Grace Burrowes, The Soldier - Burrowes' books are so quiet, so at-their-own-pace, so peaceful. I know it's a bizarre thing to say of a romance novel, let alone as a positive thing, but I love that quality, the one that makes the books a mood piece, a warm summer day, more than anything else. The hero of the story is a decorated officer of the Napoleonic wars, who comes to stay at his new estate in Yorkshire and the heroine is the village baker. He is haunted by the demons he brought back from the war, she has secrets of her own, but together they form a connection. First off - I loved the hero. He was pretty much utterly amazing in a quiet, competent, trying-his-best-to-cope way. The heroine was...a mixed bag. I liked her well enough for the first 2/3 of the book but then she did something so idiotic, I pretty much lost most of my liking for her (short non-spoilery version - she loves the hero, but she has a secret she thinks might make him not like her, so instead of telling him the truth, she decides to accept someone else's marriage proposal, even as the hero is very explicitly in love with her and offers her marriage. Hello, coward! She comes to her senses way late) Ultimately, I ended up wanting her with the hero because he needed her for his happiness and because she would make a good wife, not because I liked her.