My reading life used to be quite a bit different than it is now. For one thing, I didn't read as many books. For second, I didn't read as many books that I truly enjoyed. It took a lot of reading magazine reviews and reading MANY genres and authors to finally nail down a whole bunch of authors that are reliably good for me AND eliminate genres I don't like from my reading routine.
One of the earliest authors I found that I really liked was Kristin Harmel. I started with her more romances/chick-lit-y books over 10 years ago. I've read nearly every novel she's written (all except a YA one from 2010 that my library doesn't own and I found out about years before I started purchase requesting a bunch). That's 12 books that I have given an average of 4 stars to (8 got 4 stars, 2 got 5 and 3 got 3) and that's a FANTASTIC track record.
She pivoted away from the more chick-lit-y type books she started with to a couple contemporary adult fiction, not exactly romance (there were romances but they were the main driving force of the story) but not literary fiction either. Then after a few of those she pivoted to historical fiction, mostly set around World War II but I have enjoyed all of her takes on that very well documented point in time.
I am not going to summarize all 12 books because that would just take awhile but I will, in general, recommend them all and highlight a few of my favorites. (This one and this one are the ones I gave 3 stars to, just FYI).
We're starting with her two books that I gave 5 stars to, Italian for Beginners and The Art of French Kissing. I haven't read either of these in a few years so I can't say that they would both warrant 5 stars now but when I first read them, I really enjoyed them. So much that I own them AND they have survived many a book purge (which is really saying something because there are many books that haven't survived those).
Both books feature 20-something women living in Florida who for some reason need a break and end up taking a (weekish?) vacation to Europe, one to Paris and one to Rome. Both woman eat a lot of the local food, take in the local monuments, and meet a local guy to give private tours. I really can't remember all the details of either one but I feel like one of the ladies may have been an accountant back home? There was definitely a broken engagement in there too.
These are easy, light book, pretty chaste. I think a connection is made to Roman Holiday except without the princess aspect (a movie I went on to watch, mainly because of these books). Maybe I'll read these now and will find them less light, bubbly, and fun but when I was in my mid-late 20s these were exactly the kinds of books I was looking for. A little romance, a little travel, and delicious sounding food.
The other one of her books that I own is The Life Intended which is contemporary and about a woman whose husband died a few years ago. She is now considering moving on with another man but she keeps have VERY vivid dreams that her husband is alive still. And not her husband as he died, but aged to meet her in her present day. There is also a kid they have in these dreams. She prefers her asleep life to the awake life with a guy she's trying to decide if she wants to be in a relationship with. (I also find this book amusing in that most of the main characters share a name with one of Matt's siblings, like 4 of them maybe? It's significant portion of them.) I've read this more than once and always struck by how it all came together in the end.
The last one is one I don't own but wouldn't mind owning because it is one of my favorite historical reads of the last ~5 years. It got it's own post in September 2020 AND it made my 10 item gift list in 2021 and my Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2020 list. That would be The Book of Lost Names. I was captivated by this story of a young woman, Eva, who is forced to flee Nazi occupied Paris because of her Polish father. She finds safety in the Free Zone, making false identity papers for children, to get them to safety over the borders. She's Jewish but has to act at being a Catholic since the Catholic church is their secret work zone for making the papers. She is distraught at having to change the children's names, for safety reasons, and so devises a code she hides in the pages of a book, so someday, she could link up the new names with their birth names. Except she has to run one night and doesn't see that book again for 65 years. And that's via tv. She needs to see the original book in person. And that means a trip back to Europe and pieceing together the rest of her own story in those 65 years. Told in the so popular duo time line format, with Eva near present day working through what she needs to do to get back to that book she left 65 years ago. And, of course, also told from her World War II era self. My Mom picked this one up on her own and I saw it sitting at their house. I, of course, asked her about it and she enjoyed it too!
There are a handful of other World War II novels, one about a wine maker (read that if you are interested in wine, particularly French wine), one about a woman leading a group in the European woods to hide from Nazis (good if you have a higher tolerance for dirt), a woman hiding Allied soldiers in Nazi occupied Paris (good if you can take some tense scenes and/or like Paris), and one about art and German POWs working in Florida after the war (good if you like art).
Kristin Harmel is a must-read author for me (although, to be fair, I have MANY authors I just automatically read their next book if I've enjoyed previous ones) and one I do get excited to dive into a new book for. She's been reliably good for me for over a decade and that's a very rare status!
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