Are you in need of a romance that'll help you believe in love and goodness and happily ever afters? While I know that a lot of us already have our favorite go-to tropes for times like these, if you're in the market for something a little extra gooey, I'd like to suggest something featuring a beautiful cinnamon roll character!
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, cinnamon rolls are genuinely good, kind people who have suffered an undue amount pain in their lives. You know those sympathetic sweeties with painful pasts who just make you yearn the see the moment when they finally get all the love and happiness they deserve?
The one who's exhausted from grinding and hustling to keep their family's business afloat and their family together.
The one who's spent years selflessly taking care of a sick parent and neglecting their own well-being.
The one who made a foolish, youthful mistake and has spent years atoning for it.
If reading about some sweet, injured souls finding their one and onlies sounds like your cup of tea at the moment, take a look at the five titles I've highlighted below, plus the booklist at the end with even more great reads!
Achingly sweet and steamy as all get out, The Kiss Quotient is about a successful woman on the autism spectrum with a passion for mathematics and no skills in the bedroom who decides to improve her performance by hiring an escort. Both main characters are such quintessential cinnamon rolls; they care so hard about the people in their lives! They deserve all the happiness! I just love them both *sniff* so much.
Waiting for the Flood is a sweet second chances novella about a shy book restorer who must find a way to open his heart again, and the man who's there to help protect his neighborhood against an impending flood. I love Alexis Hall's books for their unique blend of quirky wit, intimate connection, and a subtle, pervasive sense of longing. His are stories about people who care deeply, who think too much, who take things to heart.
A good chunk of Roan Parrish's books would fit here (In the Middle of Somewhere and Riven), but Small Change is the one I've got to go with. It centers around Ginger, a prickly pear of a tattoo shop owner, and Christopher, a sweet and lovable sandwich shop owner, and the internal struggles that threaten to keep their relationship from ever taking off. I really appreciated that Christopher is just so good without ever feeling like a Pollyanna.
An Unseen Attraction features a sweet romance, a dash of murder and inheritance shadiness, and a working class setting that's a bit grittier than your usual period romance. The cinnamon roll character comes in the form of the endearing Clem, a guileless lodging-house keeper who is thought a bit odd by many, but who may be just the right fit for the serious and straight-laced Mr Green.
Sexy slow burn (heavy on the burn) romance featuring Shay, a spunky, adorably kind-hearted waitress slash hair stylist, and Sean, the strong-and-silent-type cook with a dark and tragic past that has him feeling less than worthy of her. This one is full of deliciously intense emotional highs and lows that'll put your heart through the ringer in the best possible way.
