The old adage, “Never judge a book by its cover,” often rings true. However, sometimes your reading shelf gets so full of romances that it’s hard to know where to start. So since red is the color of love, for Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to share with you all the romances on my shelf with a red cover. Hope you enjoy!

I am not Indian, nor am I Bengali, but that didn’t stop me from loving these two characters who are. Naomi gets hired to update the Mukherjee family bazaar. When owner Gia decides that her son Dev should also consult, the fun begins. Naomi feels like she doesn’t have enough culture with her free-spirited mom, while Dev thinks he had too much with his overbearing family. These two are a great match and I enjoyed this one immensely. Wish this one was a series so I could go back for more.

I haven’t read anything by this author before, but when I saw that it was about a chef and had a red and purple cover, I was all in. Sage lives on a farm in a small town in Oregon. She likes her simple life. But when superstar New York chef Fisher arrives, she starts to rethink things. I really liked these characters and thought the story was captivating. I also cried through parts of it - which I don’t necessarily enjoy - so be warned. Excellent read, though, and I hope the author writes more in this world.

Ok - to be fair this book cover is mostly white, but it has a lot of red on it, so I’m counting it. Main premise here - Sophie is set to get married to a horrible guy and she can’t get out of it. So she hires a professional objector to come and stop it (who knew that was a thing?). Then she starts working with him and sparks fly. Once I got past the anxiety of having to object at weddings, this one was a good read. I would never do that, but there were some fun adventures with those who do.  

Sometimes, when you pick out books based on the color of their cover, you find some unicorns. Like this one. It was recommended highly online by a trusted source, so I thought why not? Friends - this is not your typical romance. Dan decides to take his girlfriend to a new tropical resort in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, the first day they are there, the sun explodes and the apocalypse descends. I would say this reminds me of Lost quite a bit - but spoiler alert - they are NOT in purgatory. Thankfully. This one captivated me so much I read it in less than 24 hours. Good read - even if it was not what I expected when I checked it out. I kind of like that about it. Four stars, definitely recommend.

I saw this one win the Goodreads Best Romance before I had a chance to read it, so I’m glad I found time. This one was so good I read it in one sitting. Helen Zhang is a successful YA author and her popular series is turning into a TV show. But one of the head writers has a history with her family and she’s not happy about it. I loved the characters and the story and it was a nice palette cleanse after the insanity of the previous book. I think this one was my favorite of all the Red Reads. I can see why the Goodreads crew liked it so much. Highly recommend.

Well, that was funner than I thought. Maybe I’ll do a little more color-based reading as the year passes. After all, we were all raised on Reading Rainbow, right?

Happy Reading Red…
:) Amanda