DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:
On this show, we love love. If you're in the mood for reading about a meet-cute or friends who become more than friends or just some good, old-fashioned romance, we got you covered. Books We Love is NPR's list of best reads, and it has tons of recommendations, including these books about love from some of our colleagues.
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LAUREN MIGAKI, BYLINE: I'm Lauren Migaki. I'm a senior producer for NPR, and I loved courtroom drama by Neely Tubati Alexander. Some people dream of escape to white sand beaches. Others, the Eiffel Tower. Me - my wildest fantasies are of being unreachable by phone, and that's exactly what happens when Sydney Parks gets put on a sequestered jury. It's a high-profile murder case involving one of her favorite reality TV stars. So Sydney's life is put on pause as she spends her days listening to dramatic courtroom testimony. The rest of the time, she's holed up at a hotel with no access to TV, the internet, or the outside world. She has only her fellow jurors for company, one of whom just happens to be Damon, her estranged childhood best friend.
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NIA DUMAS, BYLINE: Hi. My name is Nia Dumas. I am a production assistant for NPR's Morning Edition. I first met Hendrix Barry in "Before I Let Go," the first book in Kennedy Ryan's "Skyland" series. I was recommended this series by my therapist because of the duality of the characters, especially when it comes to grief. "Can't Get Enough" is the third book in the series and focuses on Hendrix's life. She has a successful career as a talent manager and owns a venture capital firm that supports Black women. She is also an aspiring TV producer. Then she meets Maverick, a billionaire who shakes up her life. Hendrix's story captures what it's like being a curvier Black woman, learning and relearning that she can be all things, a woman, loving, sexual, spiritual, nurturing and free.
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BECK HARLAN, BYLINE: I'm Beck Harlan, the visuals editor for Life Kit. The book I'm recommending, I canceled my plans to finish this year. That's how pulled in I was. It's called "Heart The Lover" by Lily King. It's about the formative first love and friendship and the relationships that shape us and never leave us. It's a time-hopping story, and it sweeps you into the narrator's point of view with such a visceral immediacy that it's easy to lose yourself in her story. The protagonist is also a writer. So if you like books with a literary thread, this is for you. You should know that "Heart The Lover" is both a prequel and a sequel - remember, there's a time-hop - to Lily King's popular 2020 book "Writers & Lovers," but it absolutely stands on its own.
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MELISSA KUYPERS, BYLINE: The book I'm recommending is "Time Loops & Meet Cutes" by Jackie Lau.
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KUYPERS: My name is Melissa Kuypers, and I am the audio engineering and operations manager at NPR West. When we meet our main character, Noelle, she's an overly cautious workaholic who's not really, like, living her life. One Friday evening, she eats a magical dumpling from a mysterious night market vendor, and when she wakes up the next day, she slowly realized it is not, in fact, the next day, but the same Friday that she just lived. As Noelle tries to figure out what happened and how to get unstuck, she meets Avery, who is caught in the same dumpling-induced loop, though she's in a very different situation. They become fast friends and support the heck out of each other while trying to figure out how to solve their rather unique problem. Noelle's strategy involves orchestrating a meet-cute with local brewery owner Cam, who she runs into a few times before suspecting he might be part of the solution. This romance novel is sweet and charming, and the developing friendship and personal growth are just as important as the budding romance. Plus it's just fun to think about what we might try if we could do it risk-free and with infinite do-overs.
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BRITTNEY MELTON, BYLINE: Hey, my name is Brittany Melton, and I am the Up First newsletter writer at NPR. I submitted "First-Time Caller" by B.K. Borison as a top read for me this year. This is definitely a book for the hopeless romantics and those who just love a good meet-cute. The story starts off with Lucie hearing her daughter on the phone late at night. And when she goes to investigate, she gets sucked into a conversation with Aiden, the radio host of a romance hotline called Heartstrings. The daughter called in to get assistance with her mom's nonexistent dating life. So she is invited to come onto the show for a segment aimed specifically at finding her love. If I were to set the mood for this read, I would dim the lights, nestle under a blanket with a cup of hot cocoa because it is such a cozy story.
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MIGAKI: Hi there. Lauren Migaki here again to recommend "Heartbreak Hotel" by Ellen O'Clover. This one is for the folks who leaf through guest books, wondering at the lives of previous visitors. After a breakup, Louisa's scrambling to pay rent solo on her beautiful Colorado mountain home, so she convinces her landlord to turn the place into a bed and breakfast for the brokenhearted. Guests arrive and form community over cups of coffee. They have chats about grief and love around the kitchen table. And Henry, the landlord - did I mention he's cute, and he likes dogs? He keeps popping up, fixing things, joining guests on hikes and perhaps healing a heartbreak of his own. Grief so often feels like the tragic end of a story. But romance novels, and this one in particular, are a reminder that heartbreak is just the middle of your story, not the end of it.
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ESTRIN: Those books again - "Heartbreak Hotel," "First-Time Caller," "Time Loops And Meet Cutes," "Heart The Lover," "Can't Get Enough" and "Courtroom Drama." For the full list of Books We Love, check out npr.org/bestbooks.
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