My anniversary is this week, so I’m in a romantic mood. So I wanted to tell you about two books I’ve read recently that I loved! One is The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter, a contemporary romance set in Montana with a cowboy flair. The other is The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, a delightful regency by Julie Klassen.

In The Accidental Bride sets up an almost impossible situation…two people who planned to elope as teens, now find themselves married through a fake ceremony. As I was reading I kept waiting to see how she would pull it off — boy did she! Shay can’t stand the thought that her neighbors are watching her to see what another man wiill leave her. Travis just wants a do-over of the past tired of living with his regrets. The valid marriage license seems to be the ticket to make Shay give him a chance. She needs money to save her ranch and he needs time to prove his love is real.

While I could anticipate where the story headed at times, that didn’t rob the joy of the journey. Instead, as a writer, I couldn’t wait to see how Denise would work Shay and Travis out of the impossible situations she wrote them into. These characters have a spark between them and a brokeness that made me root for them. I wanted to see love win because they both needed it so deeply. The setting makes it a cowboy tale with a twist. A very enjoyable read — just what I’ve come to expect from Denise Hunter. A contemporary romance that leaves me with a smile.

In the Maid of Fairbourne Hall, Julie Klassen brings the regency period to vivid life. Margaret Macy flees her family’s home in London when she is forced to avoid the unwanted advances of a suitor her stepfather is forcing on her. Suddenly penniless and with nowhere to go, she finds herself a maid in the home of a man she refused to marry two years earlier. As she stumbles through being a maid, she is force to look in the mirror and see how horribly she treated the staff. Not only has her situation changed, she finds herself changing.

Nathan Upchurch still dreams of the woman who turned him down, but he has no illusions that she could ever love him. Instead, he presumes that his love will be unrequited. When people from London continue to search for the missing Miss Macy, he can’t forget about her or can he?

I’ve never been a fan of regencies, but this author’s books are now my favorites. She creates the world of 1815 in such a way that I can fully envision the setting, the characters, and a world that seems so different from our own. The plot has moments of intrigue, dashes of romance, and flashes of humor. It’s hard to identify one of her novels as my favorite, but this one tops the list. A must read for fans of historical and regency fiction.