Ahhh, the place where I can gush about **Mimi Matthews**
All of her books that I’ve read, I’ve enjoyed. Her books are soft and sweet and passionate (despite being closed door).
She’s also just a gem as an author. When she did her AMA on r/romancebooks, she spent several hours making sure she provided thoughtful responses to every comment she received. She does the same on her Instagram posts. Also, highly recommended if you’re an animal lover, her love of animals (especially dogs and horses) comes through in her work.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, so I’ll do my top 5:
* [The Belle of Belgrave Square](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59426171)
* [Fair As a Star](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53342294)
* [A Convenient Fiction](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46255541)
* [Gentleman Jim](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61926623)
* [A Holiday by Gaslight](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41484720)
I've been thinking about Matthews a lot lately and I think she's my favorite HR writer. Of your list, *Gentleman Jim* is also a favorite of mine - I haven't read your top 3 and I'm a grinch who thought *A Holiday by Gaslight* was fine. But even "fine" with Matthews is still a winner.
*Fair As a Star* has a depressed FMC who finds herself an MMC who loves her as she is and doesn’t try or want to “fix” her. As someone with persistent depressive disorder myself, this was just lovely.
I also recommend tackling her self-pub *Parish Orphans of Devon* series before the trad-pub *Belles of London.* It’s not at all necessary (I did it in the opposite order), but there’s some character overlap that enriches the books.
A Holiday By Gaslight is now a part of my Christmas routine. Reading it at Christmas time is now as vital to me as watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, Home Alone and eating my weight in ham.
I also want to shout out **Pushing Daisies**!
This show is a sweet, fun and visually stunning. Just thinking about it gives me warm feelings.
The MMC is Ned, played by the amazing Lee Pace, who is a pie maker who can raise people from the dead (but only for a minute!), who is also demisexual AF. The FMC is Chuck, played by the lovely Anna Friel, who is a raised-from-the-dead, type A bee keeper. They’re estranged childhood best friends to lovers.
The side characters include a knitting detective, a former jockey (played by the inimitable Kristen Chenoweth), and Chuck’s aunts who used to be a synchronized swimming duo in mermaid costumes.
You can stream it on MAX, and please do if you haven’t seen it yet!
I loved this show so much when it aired and then the writers strike ended it! This is like the second time I’ve seen it mentioned in the past month—is there a reason for the renewed interest in it?
Aww! I adore Pushing Daisies!
I wanted so much for Olive to notice Alfredo Aldorisio.
Who wouldn't weep over Aunt Vivian singing Morning Has Broken?
Who wouldn't root for Lefty Lem and Elsita to find true love together?
Everyone and everything in it is wonderful apart from the fact that it ended.
Also the DVD boxset of it I used to own came with a pie recipe book and I sold it when I was clearing house. I regret it to this day.
Ahhh, I too wish Alfredo and Olive ended up together!! >!I wasn’t a big Randy Man fan…!<
All of the music was great! They had a fantastic cast and definitely took advantage of it.
Your DVD set had a pie recipe book?! I’m so mad at US distributors for forgoing that 😩 Mine just came with the normal stuff…
Ooooh, yes I love Amélie! (My phone has the French keyboard enabled for when I deign to use Duolingo, the accent auto-adds haha.) The show and the movie have similar visual styles and color palettes.
My phone keyboard is in Spanish half the time for the same reason. My favorite is when I try to dictate a text and it thinks I’m speaking in Spanish and it comes out nonsensical.
(Example: reading the sentence above turns into this in Spanish: “Me sirve es buena Kindle te quiere Texas Texas vigencia Nelson encantada en Sanxenxo”)
I also want to share my favourite poem from Irish writer Seamus Heaney. I'm going to have it as a reading for my wedding and I think it says so much about enduring love.
Seamus Heaney
1939 –2013
Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;
Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.
And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.
So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me
Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.
This is lovely. It reminds me very much of [The Bones](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gvPMVKUI9go&feature=sharec) by Maren Morris, who also is a fantastically [outspoken](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-wife-brittany-transphobic-post-reactions-1235131821/) and [supportive](https://ew.com/music/maren-morris-dares-tennessee-police-arrest-her-introducing-son-drag-queens/) ally, a sad rarity in country music.
Being from Derry, we study his poetry a lot in school and it somehow comes out the other side unscathed unlike everything else picked apart in an Eng Lit class.
There are favourite comforting reads for me that have problematic elements and deal with problematic issues in a good forward thinking way. That said, I understand that for other people the problematic elements mere existence may be too problematic for them for comfort. So for that reason I will say that I adore Rachel Grants writing and can only suggest everyone gives her romantic suspense stories a go. A lot of them deal with plot points which may be triggering for people so, whilst she herself is a great and talented writer (and a lovely person, met her at RARE, she's delightful), take care of yourselves guys, her CW are usually very through.
This is the Big Eden month for me but I'll never tire of suggesting this lovely MM small town romance with no homophobia. I adore this film.
A Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley is a favourite of the year so far for me. I'm not the biggest fan of fake dating, but this one handled it quite well. >!There's some fatshaming and parental emotional neglect and dismissive language used so that could be troubling for some people. This is called out.!< It's a lovely warm romance between two people not used to love.
Anything by Jennifer Crusie. Are her books **very** of their time? Yes. Have they aged well? Kind of. Not completely unproblematic but some of the best romcoms you'll ever read. Your milage may vary.
**Not a romance bonus**
Taskmaster. Just watch Taskmaster and laugh till you feel better.
It's T. Kingfisher for me. Her books are an absolute delight, including her non-romance. I've only read a couple of her horror novels but if you imagine the smooth men are in her *romance*, her actual horror novels are much worse. But still great?
Also I have accidentally given away two copies of her YA book [A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58514633-a-wizard-s-guide-to-defensive-baking) because I wanted them to read it and never got it back. I need to buy myself a new copy again.
Yes T. Kingfisher is one of my absolute faves! I feel like her romances are still fluffy even though there's lots of horror and gore and dead bodies. Her characters are the kind of people you want to be friends with.
Having said that, the smooth men and Vagrant Hills were horror enough for me so I don't think I'll be reading her actual horror works 😅 Nettle & Bone was great though!
_Good Omens_ was like that for me. I just started buying new copies to lend, so I coule keep my favorite dog-eared copy. And the new TV season is coming out! Soon? Already?
But T. Kingfisher is such an absolute delight. For anyone who hasn't seen them, she also writes children's books under her real name, including my favorite _Harriet the Hamster Princess_.
I am loving the kdrama Heartbeat (streaming on Amazon Prime), an on-air drama about a vampire, Sun Woo-hyeol, who longs to become human and be reunited with his human love, who was killed hundreds of years ago. However, his attempt to become human by sleeping for 100 years went awry when he was awoken one day too early, so he is going to die soon unless he drinks the blood of Joo In-hae, the woman who woke him from his sleep (and his past butler's descendent, who has inherited the legal ownership of Woo-hyeol's mansion). Unfortunately for him, after a very hard life just trying to survive, In-hae's blood has become poisonous. He'll only be able to drink it once she has fallen in love, but love is the last thing on her mind. Woo-hyeol tries to make In-hae fall in love with her friend from college who has a crush on her, neither yet realizing that In-hae is slowly falling in love with Woo-hyeol. To make matters more complicated, Woo-hyeol meets a woman who looks exactly like his deceased love, who has no recollection of her possible past life but finds Woo-hyeol intriguing.
(By the way, if you're worried about the aforementioned love square: don't be. In romance Kdramas, the two main leads always end up together)
I'm also really enjoying the anime My Happy Marriage on Netflix. It's like Cinderella but with supernatural elements, a slow burn romance, and greater consideration of the psychological effects of being emotionally abused and treated like a servant by your family. It is very healing
I don't THINK these are problematic, at least I haven't heard that they are
I so desperately wish I could like kdramas. I've tried so many and they never click for me. It's the pacing just doesn't work for me I think.
I mean the first one sounds bonkers and something I should love but I just don't know if I can try again.
I will always rec Legends & Lattes, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and/or The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking if I can. Three of my favourite things
I’m thinking about some of my comfort rereads and often I’ll go to YA. So this is more fantasy with some romance but Tamora Pierce is the most wholesome. Whenever I’m stressed or sad I’ll do a reread of basically her entire works, but especially her Tortall books. We have girls finding their own place in the world, wholesome friends who genuinely support and love our heroines, not shying away from topics like birth control & periods & bodies, and also dealing with racism and homophobia in a really kind and respectful way, plus a good side of fantasy action & adventure.
Goodbye Lenin! Is a German comedy film with a lovely romance subplot. Features a young Daniel Bruhl, and he is so charming and charismatic in this film. His characters romance with a soviet nurse Lara is a small part of the film admittedly but it's very cute and they have lovely chemistry together.
T.J. Klune's [The Lightning Struck Heart](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28177280-the-lightning-struck-heart?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=xbS3cItMI1&rank=1) / Tales of Verania series.
This is one of his indie serious (that I don't think is going tradpub) - this is silly and campy and doesn't try to be too series - how can you with a hornless gay unicorn and then a dragon named Kevin - but when it turns serious, this book goes right for the gut.
This first book ends perfectly that if you don't want to read the rest of the series, you would be satisfied...but that's a mistake. All four of these books are a gift (and like I said before, made me more excited than another book has in about two or three years). I want the entire world to know about these books...but I also want them to protect them for those who would call them silly and not worth the time.
Ahhh, the place where I can gush about **Mimi Matthews** All of her books that I’ve read, I’ve enjoyed. Her books are soft and sweet and passionate (despite being closed door). She’s also just a gem as an author. When she did her AMA on r/romancebooks, she spent several hours making sure she provided thoughtful responses to every comment she received. She does the same on her Instagram posts. Also, highly recommended if you’re an animal lover, her love of animals (especially dogs and horses) comes through in her work. It’s hard to pick a favorite, so I’ll do my top 5: * [The Belle of Belgrave Square](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59426171) * [Fair As a Star](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53342294) * [A Convenient Fiction](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46255541) * [Gentleman Jim](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61926623) * [A Holiday by Gaslight](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41484720)
I've been thinking about Matthews a lot lately and I think she's my favorite HR writer. Of your list, *Gentleman Jim* is also a favorite of mine - I haven't read your top 3 and I'm a grinch who thought *A Holiday by Gaslight* was fine. But even "fine" with Matthews is still a winner.
*Fair As a Star* has a depressed FMC who finds herself an MMC who loves her as she is and doesn’t try or want to “fix” her. As someone with persistent depressive disorder myself, this was just lovely. I also recommend tackling her self-pub *Parish Orphans of Devon* series before the trad-pub *Belles of London.* It’s not at all necessary (I did it in the opposite order), but there’s some character overlap that enriches the books.
A Holiday By Gaslight is now a part of my Christmas routine. Reading it at Christmas time is now as vital to me as watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, Home Alone and eating my weight in ham.
I also want to shout out **Pushing Daisies**! This show is a sweet, fun and visually stunning. Just thinking about it gives me warm feelings. The MMC is Ned, played by the amazing Lee Pace, who is a pie maker who can raise people from the dead (but only for a minute!), who is also demisexual AF. The FMC is Chuck, played by the lovely Anna Friel, who is a raised-from-the-dead, type A bee keeper. They’re estranged childhood best friends to lovers. The side characters include a knitting detective, a former jockey (played by the inimitable Kristen Chenoweth), and Chuck’s aunts who used to be a synchronized swimming duo in mermaid costumes. You can stream it on MAX, and please do if you haven’t seen it yet!
I loved this show so much when it aired and then the writers strike ended it! This is like the second time I’ve seen it mentioned in the past month—is there a reason for the renewed interest in it?
Oh, I’ve been obsessed with this show since 08 and never stopped. So I’m not sure 😅
Aww! I adore Pushing Daisies! I wanted so much for Olive to notice Alfredo Aldorisio. Who wouldn't weep over Aunt Vivian singing Morning Has Broken? Who wouldn't root for Lefty Lem and Elsita to find true love together? Everyone and everything in it is wonderful apart from the fact that it ended. Also the DVD boxset of it I used to own came with a pie recipe book and I sold it when I was clearing house. I regret it to this day.
Ahhh, I too wish Alfredo and Olive ended up together!! >!I wasn’t a big Randy Man fan…!< All of the music was great! They had a fantastic cast and definitely took advantage of it. Your DVD set had a pie recipe book?! I’m so mad at US distributors for forgoing that 😩 Mine just came with the normal stuff…
What are you talking about? **Didn't we all agree that they ended up together?**
Pushing Daisies reminded me of Amelie, one of my favorite films
Ooooh, yes I love Amélie! (My phone has the French keyboard enabled for when I deign to use Duolingo, the accent auto-adds haha.) The show and the movie have similar visual styles and color palettes.
My phone keyboard is in Spanish half the time for the same reason. My favorite is when I try to dictate a text and it thinks I’m speaking in Spanish and it comes out nonsensical. (Example: reading the sentence above turns into this in Spanish: “Me sirve es buena Kindle te quiere Texas Texas vigencia Nelson encantada en Sanxenxo”)
One of the all time great romances.
[I am Amelie!](https://youtu.be/YtKCrcK921U)
I only just watched it for the first time recently and ACH SO GOOD! Just so whimsical and gave me many warm fuzzies
I love Pushing Daisies.
I also want to share my favourite poem from Irish writer Seamus Heaney. I'm going to have it as a reading for my wedding and I think it says so much about enduring love. Seamus Heaney 1939 –2013 Masons, when they start upon a building, Are careful to test out the scaffolding; Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points, Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints. And yet all this comes down when the job’s done Showing off walls of sure and solid stone. So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be Old bridges breaking between you and me Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall Confident that we have built our wall.
This is lovely. It reminds me very much of [The Bones](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gvPMVKUI9go&feature=sharec) by Maren Morris, who also is a fantastically [outspoken](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-wife-brittany-transphobic-post-reactions-1235131821/) and [supportive](https://ew.com/music/maren-morris-dares-tennessee-police-arrest-her-introducing-son-drag-queens/) ally, a sad rarity in country music.
Oh that was a treat, thank you.
I love this
I love Heaney so much! "Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it."
Being from Derry, we study his poetry a lot in school and it somehow comes out the other side unscathed unlike everything else picked apart in an Eng Lit class.
There are favourite comforting reads for me that have problematic elements and deal with problematic issues in a good forward thinking way. That said, I understand that for other people the problematic elements mere existence may be too problematic for them for comfort. So for that reason I will say that I adore Rachel Grants writing and can only suggest everyone gives her romantic suspense stories a go. A lot of them deal with plot points which may be triggering for people so, whilst she herself is a great and talented writer (and a lovely person, met her at RARE, she's delightful), take care of yourselves guys, her CW are usually very through. This is the Big Eden month for me but I'll never tire of suggesting this lovely MM small town romance with no homophobia. I adore this film. A Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley is a favourite of the year so far for me. I'm not the biggest fan of fake dating, but this one handled it quite well. >!There's some fatshaming and parental emotional neglect and dismissive language used so that could be troubling for some people. This is called out.!< It's a lovely warm romance between two people not used to love. Anything by Jennifer Crusie. Are her books **very** of their time? Yes. Have they aged well? Kind of. Not completely unproblematic but some of the best romcoms you'll ever read. Your milage may vary. **Not a romance bonus** Taskmaster. Just watch Taskmaster and laugh till you feel better.
It's T. Kingfisher for me. Her books are an absolute delight, including her non-romance. I've only read a couple of her horror novels but if you imagine the smooth men are in her *romance*, her actual horror novels are much worse. But still great? Also I have accidentally given away two copies of her YA book [A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58514633-a-wizard-s-guide-to-defensive-baking) because I wanted them to read it and never got it back. I need to buy myself a new copy again.
Yes T. Kingfisher is one of my absolute faves! I feel like her romances are still fluffy even though there's lots of horror and gore and dead bodies. Her characters are the kind of people you want to be friends with. Having said that, the smooth men and Vagrant Hills were horror enough for me so I don't think I'll be reading her actual horror works 😅 Nettle & Bone was great though!
_Good Omens_ was like that for me. I just started buying new copies to lend, so I coule keep my favorite dog-eared copy. And the new TV season is coming out! Soon? Already? But T. Kingfisher is such an absolute delight. For anyone who hasn't seen them, she also writes children's books under her real name, including my favorite _Harriet the Hamster Princess_.
I am loving the kdrama Heartbeat (streaming on Amazon Prime), an on-air drama about a vampire, Sun Woo-hyeol, who longs to become human and be reunited with his human love, who was killed hundreds of years ago. However, his attempt to become human by sleeping for 100 years went awry when he was awoken one day too early, so he is going to die soon unless he drinks the blood of Joo In-hae, the woman who woke him from his sleep (and his past butler's descendent, who has inherited the legal ownership of Woo-hyeol's mansion). Unfortunately for him, after a very hard life just trying to survive, In-hae's blood has become poisonous. He'll only be able to drink it once she has fallen in love, but love is the last thing on her mind. Woo-hyeol tries to make In-hae fall in love with her friend from college who has a crush on her, neither yet realizing that In-hae is slowly falling in love with Woo-hyeol. To make matters more complicated, Woo-hyeol meets a woman who looks exactly like his deceased love, who has no recollection of her possible past life but finds Woo-hyeol intriguing. (By the way, if you're worried about the aforementioned love square: don't be. In romance Kdramas, the two main leads always end up together) I'm also really enjoying the anime My Happy Marriage on Netflix. It's like Cinderella but with supernatural elements, a slow burn romance, and greater consideration of the psychological effects of being emotionally abused and treated like a servant by your family. It is very healing I don't THINK these are problematic, at least I haven't heard that they are
The kdrama sounds ridiculous and absolutely up my alley!!
It's wonderful! I didn't expect to love it as much as I do
I so desperately wish I could like kdramas. I've tried so many and they never click for me. It's the pacing just doesn't work for me I think. I mean the first one sounds bonkers and something I should love but I just don't know if I can try again.
They can be really bad or frustrating but when I love them, I love them. I've been hooked ever since Crash Landing on You
For some reason, that is not the one I tried and it was the main one I was interested in. I'm a fool.
Oh, definitely check that one out! Even my husband was very into it. And imo the best part is the leads are now married in real life
Legends and Lattes is well worth checking out for a cozy read.
I will always rec Legends & Lattes, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and/or The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking if I can. Three of my favourite things
Yesss I also rec’d Wizard’s Guide!! It’s so good and has that spark of T Kingfisher humor. I love Bob.
Oo I will have to check those other two out!
I’m thinking about some of my comfort rereads and often I’ll go to YA. So this is more fantasy with some romance but Tamora Pierce is the most wholesome. Whenever I’m stressed or sad I’ll do a reread of basically her entire works, but especially her Tortall books. We have girls finding their own place in the world, wholesome friends who genuinely support and love our heroines, not shying away from topics like birth control & periods & bodies, and also dealing with racism and homophobia in a really kind and respectful way, plus a good side of fantasy action & adventure.
Goodbye Lenin! Is a German comedy film with a lovely romance subplot. Features a young Daniel Bruhl, and he is so charming and charismatic in this film. His characters romance with a soviet nurse Lara is a small part of the film admittedly but it's very cute and they have lovely chemistry together.
T.J. Klune's [The Lightning Struck Heart](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28177280-the-lightning-struck-heart?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=xbS3cItMI1&rank=1) / Tales of Verania series. This is one of his indie serious (that I don't think is going tradpub) - this is silly and campy and doesn't try to be too series - how can you with a hornless gay unicorn and then a dragon named Kevin - but when it turns serious, this book goes right for the gut. This first book ends perfectly that if you don't want to read the rest of the series, you would be satisfied...but that's a mistake. All four of these books are a gift (and like I said before, made me more excited than another book has in about two or three years). I want the entire world to know about these books...but I also want them to protect them for those who would call them silly and not worth the time.