This one tells the sensual, angsty, and funny story of a young Jewish woman coming into her own and falling in love with someone who gets her as she is. The pair are home in San Francisco for Rosh Hashanah, investigating a scandal that could tear everything they know apart, but ultimately manages to bring them together (because romance!!).

The book centers on a childhood friends-to-lovers romance between a sports reporter and a football player. Get it here.Įxtra credit: Promised Land and All or Nothing.

During the course of the story, as they deal with political scandal, our two protagonists find what they need in each other: love, and the ability to choose your own destiny. In fact, he’s made his living as a con man, a decision made to protect his younger brother. She is a member of society he is decidedly not. Lemenston” series, a Jewish hero comes to the aid of a woman looking for protection in Regency England. In this, the second installment of Lerner’s popular “Lively St. Get it here.Įxtra Credit: See also Precious and Fragile Things and Switch. Her stories are as gorgeous as her language, and her backlist features women’s fiction as well as science fiction, horror, and erotica. Get it here.Ī strong Jewish heroine goes on an emotional journey, something that can easily be said about a lot of Hart’s books. Originally published in 2006, this was groundbreaking for its time, and it’s still worth the read. Yiddish becomes their love language, which they revert to when they need to speak to each other without anybody listening. The connection these characters have to Judaism is clear: our cowboy hero was raised by a Jewish goldminer in Colorado after he was orphaned our heroine’s paternal grandmother was Jewish. Our central characters help each other find a place where they belong and find love without judgement. In the meanwhile, she falls in love with a cowboy who always believed there was something more in life for him. The female protagonist of this book is a noble woman who searches for her larger purpose in life as she fights society to run a brewery left to her by her husband. When I shelved this book in 2009 at the bookstore I was working at, I cried. Let’s just say it involves a doctor, a secret baby, and a Hanukkah miracle. This is the second Jewish-themed book written by the pioneering Jewish author responsible for the first “own voices” contemporary romance featuring Jewish characters. Here’s a list of a few of my favorites, as well as a sneak peek of some exciting books being published soon. And now it was.īut don’t just take my word for what an amazing experience reading a romance novel written by Jewish authors about Jewish characters is. Before that, identifying with a character on a level beyond superficial details hadn’t been an option. Of course, the first time I read a Jewish character in a leading role of a romance novel? I cried.

True pretenses rose lerner