Meet Cute is one of those books with a cute cartoon cover that disguises some serious subject matter within. I'm starting to get used to these, but it still throws me if I don't carefully read the blurb. In the prologue, we meet Daxton and Kailyn, both attending law school together. The title refers to their first and second meetings, in which Kailyn walks right through Daxton's frisbee game and then spills coffee all over herself when trying to get into the seat next to him in class, the only seat available. Oh, and Daxton just happens to be the star of Kailyn's favorite teen drama of all time, so she fangirls and then is horribly embarassed. (He's essentially Dawson from Dawson's Creek.)

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The third book in Kelly Bowen's Devils of Dover series pairs two doctors who both happen to be smugglers as well. Katherine is the daughter of a smuggler and was brought up in the family business. She studied under a midwife and then went to war, and has since been patching up the locals. Harland is a Baron and also a doctor, something his late wife hated him for. Since they both have a disastrous past relationship and are trying to keep secrets (very poorly), their relationship progresses in fits and starts.

Almost nothing seems to bring people together like how troubling a specific trope can be (let’s be honest, it’s the secret baby trope that gets mentioned most often). Seconds later, the conversation will turn to “Oh, but I loved this secret baby book by…” because there is also always an author who manages to defy expectations of a trope.

Here, the Love in Panels team talks about the books and authors who have managed to defy difficult tropes.

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Little reviews of No Two Ways, Play it Again, and Dating You / Hating You.

Highland Crown is a Scottish romance between a Highlander and a Lowlander, both on the run from the British authorities for aiding Scottish rebels and well... shooting a soldier. The authors, a husband and wife team, call it an adventure romance, and that's absolutely true. There's a lot of hiding and escaping and stabbing. The hero is shot not once, but twice. (Thankfully, the heroine is a doctor.)

I'm not sure how it's possible, but Just Past Two is even hotter than Three-Way Split. The plot is fairly straightforward: a married couple goes to a college reunion and events there set off a very sexy chain reaction. Their sex life has been reliable and consistent, but now they can be honest about their needs and fantasies and the results are a rollercoaster of sexual gratification and fear of rejection.

Though they're in the same series, Wrong Bed, Right Girl is totally different from Wrong Bed, Right Roommate. The heroine in this one, Talia, is the sister of the hero in WBRR, and she's just moved out of the apartment to let her brother and best friend have their own space. Unfortunately, the prima ballerina she's subletting from was an informant for the DEA and she's left town and the ballet for *reasons.* Talia's pretty much taken over her life, which means that when Reed comes to check on Stacey, he ends up literally falling into the bed that's now Talia's. 

Comics Will Break Your Heart is a Romeo & Juliet-style young adult romance that features the youngest generation of two feuding comics families. Miriam's mother settled the big lawsuit case years ago, after her father died, but now the TomorrowMen franchise is massive and has spawned a sure-to-be-huge live action film. Miriam is resentful, even before the scion of the Warrick family, Weldon, shows up in town for the summer. Weldon has been sent back to his father's hometown so as to "not be a distraction" to his father.

Whether you started reading romance by sneaking books from your grandmother’s house or by opening a box of books and the most unlikely book was sitting there, we all have stories about how and when we first started reading romance. And usually, there’s a book or series that solidified the love affair. Below are some of the books that got the Love in Panels teams hooked on romance.