Top Ten Tuesday: April Showers

It’s April and while the weather outside Philadelphia has ranged everywhere from the 30s to 89 degrees, these romance novels featuring umbrellas on the cover are kind of the perfect springtime books to share. Ironically, I don’t often use an umbrella as I hate carrying a wet umbrella that’s dripping everywhere, I much prefer a raincoat with a hood or just moving a little quicker and not worrying about getting a little wet.

April showers, bring May flowers, so while we’re moving through springtime, pick up one of these sweet or sassy romance novels to fill your time!

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April Showers

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Luc O’Donnell is tangentially—and reluctantly—famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he’s never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad’s making a comeback, Luc’s back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything.

To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship…and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He’s a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he’s never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately, apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.

But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that’s when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don’t ever want to let them go.

Funny Feelings by Tarah DeWitt

When falling in love is the punchline . . .

Farley Jones is being forced to date Meyer Harrigan, the man she has come to love, in order to make all of her stand-up dreams come true.

It’s agony-a tragedy, even. In lieu of flowers, please send cash . . .

Meyer and his daughter Hazel have been everything to her since they came into her life three years ago. So, all joking aside, the stakes are especially high when it’s not only her career, but both of those relationships on the line.

A former stand-up star himself, Meyer has been vital to the trajectory of her career since he began managing her . . . Since he became her closest and most treasured friend, in the process.

This friendship is the only reason why, when the biggest opportunity of Farley’s career includes thrusting him back into the spotlight to stir up publicity, he agrees-in spite of his grumpiness, his protectiveness over Hazel, and his disdain for public attention.

It doesn’t take long for their act to bring all those other funny feelings out into the open, and, like most matters of the heart, it quickly begins to feel like anything but a joke.

June, Reimagined by Rebekah Crane

June Merriweather is on the run—from her own life. Her brother is dead, her parents are liars, and her college major is a joke. Apart from her best friend, Matt, June is desperate for reinvention. And a one-way ticket out of Cincinnati to the Scottish Highlands is a good place to start.

With a backpack, an urn, and a secret, June begins again. She snags a job at a café and finds lodging at a quaint inn with a quirky cast of housemates. The only problem: the inn’s infuriatingly perceptive (and sexy) owner, Lennox. He’s suspicious of June. After all, no one comes to Scotland in the winter unless they’re running from something. From rocky start to sizzling temptation, June’s new world is exhilarating…and one detour away from disaster.

With her past and her future both vying for attention, June can’t begin to picture where her reimagined life is headed next. And falling in love with the last person she expected is only the beginning.

Maya’s Laws of Love by Alina Khawaja

Maya Mirza is so convinced she’s unlucky in love that she’s come up with a list of laws to explain it. Most importantly…

• Maya’s Law #1: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
  But that’s about to change. Maya’s headed to Pakistan for an arranged marriage with a handsome, successful doctor who ticks all the right boxes. First comes marriage, then comes love—she’s sure of it. Except…
• Law #4: When you think you’re lucky, think again.
  From the start, Maya’s journey is riddled with disaster, and the cynical lawyer seated next to her on the plane isn’t helping. When a storm leaves them stranded in Switzerland, she and Sarfaraz become unlikely travel companions through bus breakdowns and missed connections.
• Law #6: Trips are never smooth sailing.
  And before long, Maya’s wondering whether she’s just experienced the ultimate in misfortune—finally meeting the right man a few days before she marries someone else. And Maya might just be the worst person to keep a secret.
• Law #18: If you’re overtired, you’ll always spill your guts.
  But maybe, if she’s willing to bend some laws, this detour could take her somewhere totally—and wonderfully—unexpected.

My (Not-So) Perfect Summer by Phoebe MacLeod

As spring flowers start to bloom in London, Autumn’s life is looking up! She has a great relationship with her brilliant teenage daughter Chloe and she’s on track to be Deputy Head at the London school where she works. And with a pay rise on the cards, she’s excited for her and her long-term boyfriend Marc to buy their first home.

But Autumn’s barely opened the estate agent’s website when Marc vanishes with half their savings, leaving her no choice but to move into grandma’s rural home in Kent. And things go from bad to worse when Autumn is involved in an accident during the move, leaving the village’s dashing new baker Jake in plaster cast, and making her a local outcast before she’s even unpacked her bags.

Determined to put things right, Autumn offers to help Jake in the bakery over the summer holidays. But as things heat up in the kitchen, Autumn can’t help noticing that Jake is a lot more Paul Hollywood and a lot less Mr Kipling than she originally thought.

Maybe this summer isn’t such a write off after all?

No Judgments by Meg Cabot

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland—twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.

But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can . . . but to do so, she’s going to need help—help she has no choice but to accept from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker.

But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her penitent ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

Off the Map by Trish Doller

Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been traveling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.

Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.

Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love – if only they choose it.

On the Honey Side by Staci Hart

No one can ever have Keaton Meyer.

Least of all me.

The brooding construction manager is a man of myth and legend, rarely seen in the wild. Once upon a time, he was the star quarterback, the smiling homecoming king, royalty in our small town. Until tragedy struck. And then he disappeared completely.

Now he’s resurfaced, and I can’t keep my eyes off him.

He’s an island surrounded by lava, bound by a desert and guarded by dragons. I don’t stand a sunshine’s chance in a hail storm.

Our siblings disagree and are out to prove it, nudging us into each other in the hopes we’ll fall. But with our town in tumult and the two of us firmly in the middle, nothing between us is easy. And when he’s faced with an impossible decision, I learn the truth of what I already knew.

No one can have Keaton Meyer.

And I have the broken heart to prove it.

Rain Delay by Allie Marie, illustrated by Jennie Rose Denton

Lucas Abbot is finally ready to put on the breaks.

After a lifetime of privilege, Lucas is ready to make something of himself–for himself, by himself, without handouts, or the legacy of his father’s name nipping at his heels. And if everything goes as planned, he’ll get to do it with his best friend, Rachel, by his side.

Rachel Rowe is ready to spread her wings and take flight.

After growing up all over the globe with her nomadic parents, Rachel thought that she was finally ready to settle down. Finally ready to put on the brakes. Finally ready to tell her best friend, Lucas, how she really feels.

When work moves them both to Chicago, Rachel sees the opportunity to lay her heart on the line. But the second Rachel and Lucas sign a six month lease, heartbreak collides with her brand new roommate, and she watches all of those plans crumble at her feet in the middle of their shared living room. In light of her heartbreak, Rachel forms a new plan: take off the parking brake, live on the road again, and crush any feelings she has for Lucas beneath the tires as she goes.

But while Rachel is dead set on putting her best friend in the past, Lucas is more determined than ever to pick up the fragments and piece them back together.

After years of avoiding their feelings, and one fateful night that has tape lines drawn between them, a break for rain will either drown them, or be exactly what they need to repair the damage before the clock runs out.

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.