Books like At Your Service — picked by fans

This book is a celebration of many things: embracing your visible markers of age, seeking a new kind of relationship with an adult child, and the fabulous music of the 80’s and 90’s.

Any person from Generation X will absolutely see pieces of themselves and their friends in the characters in this book. Originally college friends, our couple finds themselves both back in New York and via a series of missteps and then some forced proximity (not only do they have to work together, they have to work for his daughter), they fall gloriously in love.

This was the first book in Natasha’s Men of Lakeside series. Most people don’t realize that this book was one of the launch titles for an entire line of romances geared to readers who are looking for “older” characters. Personally, I loved The July Guy for the heroine. Anita is an independent, sexually-confident woman who makes no apologies for her life choices. In other words, she is like many of the women I know. And Noah is not your typical romance hero. He is a widower whose only experience had been with his wife. I love how skillfully Natasha flipped the near-virgin widow(er) trope.

Small town romance + coming home + second chance? This book was like catnip to me. Dakota and Dexter felt like real people I would know. I love any story that explores how our needs and ambitions change as we grow older, and this book delivered. Dexter made choices when they were young. Dakota made some career choices that have set her life in a tailspin. I also very much enjoyed the friendship between Dakota and her best friend, Sinclair (Sin). Enduring friendships are another facet of a character’s ability to love that I enjoy seeing in a good romance. 

This is one of my comfort reads. It’s been out a while, so it may be a little dated in terms of technology, but the heat is still there. One of the things I love most about this book is that it blows the perception that we should have everything figured out by the time we reach a certain age or level of success. Isabel thought she had a fool-proof guide to living a successful life free of messes. Well, you know that had to blow up in her face. But I also like Lorenzo Gage’s story as much. As one of the world’s most bankable movie stars, he should be riding high, but he finds himself inexplicably discontented with his career and life choices. This book reminds me it’s okay if I don’t have a handle on every little thing.

Ilona Andrews is a husband-and-wife team that writes realistic, diverse characters and edgy, complex storylines. From the unique, somewhat sci-fi Innkeeper Chronicles to the gritty post-shift world of the Kate Daniels series and the powerful families of the Hidden Legacy series, the Andrews team excels at next level world building, flawed, relatable characters, and I love every one of their books, but Blood Heir is my favorite because it has a strong grown-up street kid with a found family vibes and is a tension-filled slow burn romance, with a strong, intelligent, compassionate, witty female protagonist. 

Do you like some romance with your murder mystery? Then you will love Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie. Better known for her many bestselling romantic comedies, twice RITA winner Crusie had been writing laugh out loud love scenes for years before she turned to murder mystery. And boy does it show!

The pace is lightning fast, the dialogue a delight, the snazzy sister talk and keep your hair on cop talk metamorphose swiftly into a laugh-a-minute embezzlement and attempted murder romp. Does true love win? Ask Jake or Lucy. Or perhaps Lucy’s sister Tina, who will always take the opposite view. A well-plotted story that satisfies yet still leaves you wanting more!

This 2022 psychological thriller was a fun read in so many ways. Like Maum’s novel, it takes a slightly unique approach to the typical affair story, following a young woman whose life is torn apart when her married lover and his wife die, and she is blamed for it (despite not knowing the man was even married!)

In this book, Collins explores the most archaic notion known to man: that people have been blaming women for things since the dawn of time. Literally, since Eve’s consumption of an apple in the Garden of Eden, through the twentieth century, women paid consequences, and men went on their merry way. Flora Collins gives this notion a modern twist. Yes, some things never seem to change—but technology has increased both the risks and the consequences of any relationship.

Vera’s entire life is destroyed by what happens to her; she can’t even return to… show more.

Kaya Clark is the wild child I longed to be growing up. Although her family story is tragic and well-explored, how she inhabits her world of nature and allows it to inhabit her is stunning. Once again, she is a young woman who is an outcast who manages to rise above her limitations and those placed on her by society. 

Beyond the incredible storytelling and intriguing plot lines, I was mesmerized by the natural world of the North Carolina marshes, being as much a main character as Kaya herself. The intricate details of the lushness and cruelty of the natural world were incredible. In looking back at my favorite novels, one of the commonalities is the writing’s ability to come alive in my head and to take up a permanent space as much as my own lived memories. This novel is one of those.

There is little in life, be it circumstances or people, which appear to be as they’re presented and Montgomery does a masterful job of exampling this fact in “Deception,” a captivating thriller. Finley Borders, the daughter of a prostitute; murdered by the drugged-out pimp assigned to the role of “father” when their daughter was just a child, embodies an ambition that pushes her from the Faraday Center for Children just as she reaches the age of emancipation. At a young age, she has seen much more of life than is warranted but understands there is so much more to be lived. Frequency at the card table during the late nights and early morning hours when she’d escape, unknown, from the center groomed Fin for a lifestyle amidst the underworld’s elite.

While sitting at a high stakes “by invitation only” poker table in Cannes, Findley receives an urgent phone call that… show more.

I loved Ella Shane who rose from Lower East Side poverty to success.

She directs and performs in her own opera company – most unusual for a woman in 1899, even in New York. Never forgetting where she came from, she is grateful for all she’s achieved. In this first of a three-part series, Ella turns sleuth after one of her young singers dies mysteriously onstage.

When the singer’s cousin (a Duke, no less) arrives to investigate, the promise of romance is definitely in the air. The contrast between late 1890s protocols versus the changing attitudes of the coming new century is fascinating. The main characters are beautifully and compassionately drawn, and the story has an action-packed finale.