I’m not sure where 2019 has gone, but here we are - already in August.  RWA has come and gone, the kids are either already back in school or will be very soon, and large swaths of the US are looking forward to Pumpkin Spice Everything. While, on one hand, I felt energized at RWA to come home and “read all the things,” the reality has been “um, not so much.”  Distracted and cranky seems to be the mood of the moment. So to snap myself out of it, why not browse for intriguing sounding unusual historicals? Here are the August releases that caught my eye.

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When the world isn’t so great (okay, when it’s a dumpster fire) and you don’t have the time or perhaps the mental capacity to read, a movie with a guaranteed happily ever after can be a great solution. But how do you know which ones come with that satisfying ending and not a breakup or a cliffhanger? I’ll share my two favorites to get this movie marathon started.

What if you lived above your queer tattoo shop and your new next door neighbor right across the hall was a pastor? And what if he was super hot? And what if you were raised by Evangelicals, are now an atheist disowned by your family and have a really complicated relationship with organized religion? Well, you'd be Seth in Covet Thy Neighbor.

Editor's Note - This post is from Margrethe, but we're planning to make some more of these posts in the future. For now, you can check out the posts Suzanne wrote for RomBkLove on Road Trip Romances and Neighbors!

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Love from A to Z is an unconventionally structured romance, narrated in dual POV but also through the lens of a third party who is (with permission from the characters) telling their story in large part by connecting the dots between their journal entries. For the most part, it reads like a typical dual-perspective romance, but there are a few breaks where the author breaks the fourth wall and talks about how two people can see the same event in totally different ways. It fits the story, especially because the two main characters meet while traveling, come from different backgrounds, and there's a distance between them the entirety of the book. They're bound by certain things, such as Islam and their Marvels and Oddities journals, but most of the book consists of them figure out how to bridge the gaps between their many differences.

Catalina has always had to hold back her power, ever conscious that one slip could steal the will of those around her and make her vulnerable to their obsessive love. Now, with the future of House Baylor and Baylor Investigations squarely on her shoulders, she has to shake out her wings and do what needs to be done to find answers for herself and her clients. The last person she expects to derail her investigation however is Alessandro Sagredo, international playboy and the only man who has ever been able to even attempt to resist her. His skill at killing and disappearing are yet another mystery for Catalina to detangle.

On July 24th, The Ripped Bodice unveiled their latest endeavor: the Awards for Excellence in Romance Fiction. You can read the announcement or go straight to their site to see the list of judges, selection process, and more.

Getting Schooled is a college-set enemies-to-lovers romance between two non-traditional students. Reese is a 26 year old grad student working under her mother, a professor of Black lit. Jason is a 28 year old Army vet who was honorably discharged after a helicopter crash (maybe a plane crash, apologies) took the bottom half of one of his legs. He's back home to get a mechanical engineering degree and is working with his father and brothers at the family car dealership.

Brazen and the Beast was one of those rare (for me) books that I inhaled in one day. While I loved Wicked and the Wallflower, this second Bareknuckle Bastards novel was even better. One of the most difficult things to accomplish when writing in a genre with established beats and a guaranteed Happily Ever After is consistent tension throughout the book. Brazen and the Beast had me guessing until the end just how this couple would work things out. Maclean gives workshops on writing conflict, and it's clear that she knows what she's about when you read a novel like this.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit and talk with Alisha Rai about The Right Swipe, romance and dating. The Right Swipe is the first in Modern Love, a new series for Rai with Avon, who previously published her angsty and soapy Forbidden Hearts series. In The Right Swipe the main characters meet via a dating app, and although they had fantastic chemistry, they just as quickly lost that connection only to be reunited unexpectedly in a very public way. The realities of modern dating via apps, from sexting to ghosting are central.