The Second Summer of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashears

This book was such an emotional rollercoaster. Brashears does an excellent job of capturing teen turmoil and it left me crying throughout half the book.

Eloisa James

This is currently my favorite romance author- I am trying to read all her backlist. Her novels are set in the Regency period, and they are quite amusing, which is very rare for me to say about a romance. Each of the books I have read so far has characters that are linked in some way to previous characters, so it is super easy for me to get caught up in the world she has created. I'm not entirely convinced that her characters behave entirely realistically for the period, but I don't really care- they are entertaining and personable, and have personalities and characteristics that are their own. Most of the females that James writes use some kind of makeup, which I absolutely love, whether they darken their lashes or brows or color their lips. I know obvious painting was frowned upon, but I have always found it difficult to reconcile women's insecurities of today with the images of the flawless heroines in historical romances. I also enjoy James' literary allusions; as an English professor and Shakespearean scholar, she certainly knows what she's talking about and always has the right quote for the occasion.