intelligent. funny. mildly innapropriate. all of my favorite things.

Modern Romance by stand-up comedian/fricken hilarious, Aziz Ansari was more fun than any "self-help" book should be. Being married, it mostly made me laugh out loud and be grateful that I am not longer in the dating scene. But I appreciated his take on finding romance in this tech-heavy world we live in. And seeing how there are SO many different ways to communicate and meet people these days, how ironically difficult it is to find love. I have a girlfriend who lives in DC dealing with this. Between online dating, going out in bars, Tindr, Facebook, she has countless ways to meet men, seemingly makes connections with them, and it then leads to a big black whole of nothing. WHAT IS GOING ON? Well Aziz teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg to give you some insight on why finding your perfect match is so hard.

summer and sun and all things hot.

I am in Myrtle Beach this week with my mama for our annual mother/daughter girls trip. We haven't been to the beach in about a year and a half, and it was long, long overdue! Since it still feels like summer from where I'm sitting, I am going to review one of the sweetest novels of the summer titled Butternut Summer by Mary McNear.

Butternut Summer is the second installment in McNear's series (the first being Up at Butternut Lake  which you don't necessarily have to read to enjoy this novel). Caroline's ex-husband Jack who unceremoniously left her and her daughter, Daisy is back in Butternut Lake, hoping to rekindle the flame, claiming he is a changed man. Caroline has her doubts but she is a little caught up with financial issues and Daisy running around with a mechanic who has a seedy history (and in my opinion the best people do) to really give Jack and his changed man speech much thought.

Despite Caroline's attitude and inability to believe that people can change, It is so, so sweet watching Daisy and Will fall in love. Even watching Caroline and Jack figure out where they stand warms the heart. It's all rather predictable, but that's what I'm looking for in a breezy summer romance novel.

it's still wedding season!

Celebrated authors Margaret Brownley, Robin Lee Hatcher, Mary Connealy and Debra Clopton have pulled together their brilliant storytelling powers and created quite the collection of novellas titled Four Weddings and a Kiss: A Western Bride Collection.

Four authors, four love stories, four strong female heroines, in the West. The tomboy, Maizy MacGregor (raised by her dad, wears britches and all). The writer, Molly Everton (educated and underestimated by her father at his newspaper where she works). The one who's misunderstood, Katie Pearl (lost her family in a tornado and everyone thinks she's crazy because she has trust issues). And, the wrongly accused, Grace Davenport (accused of killing her third husband, doesn't have the best track record with spouses staying alive). Let me tell you, these women are feisty, and you will LOVE them and the way that the Lord works in their lives.

when harry got mail and met sally in seatle.

Like many thirty-something women, Molly Hallberg uses Nora Ephron's romances as a resource for finding a relationship that lasts in Linda Yellin's latest novel titled, What Nora Knew. Molly is a divorced writer living in New York City and dying to do more with her career than work at her current online magazine. She's also romantically challenged and when she bombs her next assignment on "finding one's soul mate" she realizes that she might me settling with her current chiropractic boyfriend. The novel has funny on every page, is borderline raunchy and introduces you to characters you can't help but love.

curious and curiouser.

When Laura Gantt returns to her hometown to bury her mother, she is hit with the impossible news that her father, who drowned when she was a teenager, has returned to town as well when sightings of an unkempt mountain man circulate through the small town. Like this woman doesn't have enough to deal with her mother passing away, she now needs to come to terms with the fact that the father that she loved dearly could have deserted her. As Laura tends to her mother's affairs, she also rekindles the flame with her high school sweetheart, Sean, who knows much more about her father than he cares to share. Dark, dark secrets are looming over this second-chance romance, adding a chilly air to the otherwise romantic novel A Stillness of Chimes by Meg Moseley.