Oliviate

{Disclosure: Rose and I are friends in non-internet life and often meet for happy hour in a spot with a lake view.}

This is one of those books where every character gives you the feelings. Mostly you want to hug people -- hard-pressed heroine Phoebe Sparks, for instance, or war-wounded and election-weary hero Nicholas Dymond. Some people you want to punch quite hard in the face -- like Nicholas' brother Tom, the Orange-and-Purple candidate and the apple of his high-pressure mother's eye. Other people transform from possible villains to unexpected heroes as the book goes on, which is one of the most delightful things a secondary character can do.

The world of Lively St. Lemeston is vivid and grounded and dazzlingly real, but also charming and inviting and sweet. Phoebe's worry about her sister and her future fights with her desire for Nick and oh, it's so lovely to find a historical heroine who's unabashedly in touch with her sexual self, even if she doesn't always let that side out to play like she wants to. As for our hero, Nick has to rediscover himself in the wake of his war experience -- not only in terms of his disability, but in terms of how his experience reframes his feelings for his family, and what he wants to do with his own life. Small moments build and build into layered feelings, and then the author just pulls characters together and twists just so...

Recommended if you want to get sucked into a romance, and if you're looking for historical romance not swamped by dukes and earls and debutantes.