Tag Archives: Rom-Com

#BookFaceFriday “Birding with Benefits” by Sarah T. Dubb

Is that a #BookFaceFriday I see?

The sun is shining and the birds are flying! If the springtime weather has you in the mood for romance then this #BookFace has you covered! “Birding with Benefits”, Sarah T. Dubb’s debut novel (Gallery Books, 2024), follows divorcee Celeste on her “year of yes” which leads her to John, the shy but sensitive birdwatcher.

It’s available as an eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, and if you’re looking for more contemporary rom-coms the featured “You Turn My Pages” curated collection available on OverDrive is the perfect place to look!

“The slowly simmering romance that blossoms between plucky heroine and heart-of-gold hero results in some love scenes that are as hot as the desert sun in July.”

Booklist (starred review)

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Business Casual” by B.K. Borison

We’re head over heels for #BookFaceFriday!

Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’re in the mood for love, you’ve come to the right #BookFaceFriday! “Business Casual” by B.K. Borison (Berkley, 2024), is the fourth book in the Lovelight series of contemporary romantic comedies.

It’s available as an eBook and Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, along with the first 3 books in the series as eBooks. They are currently featured in the “You Turn My Pages” curated collection available on OverDrive.

“The way Borison softly weaves together a friends-with-benefits and opposites-attract romance, while also incorporating Charlie’s ADHD and people-pleasing and Nova’s perfectionism, will keep readers starry-eyed as they imagine visiting the beloved small town of Inglewild…This final and fourth book in the “Lovelight” series, after Mixed Signals, is a knockout.”

Library Journal (starred review)

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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Friday Reads: Crosstalk, by Connie Willis

Crosstalk by Connie Willis

In Crosstalk by Connie Willis, a simple surgery to promote empathy between romantic partners goes hilariously wrong. It shows how constant, complete, personal connection is anything but desirable.  Briddey Flannigan should have known, since the cell phone company, (COMMSPAN) she works for in a  US city, is very nearly a model of what will come, with gossip seemingly carried on the breezes! And avoiding telling her family the news that she and her perfect boyfriend, Trent Worth will be having the implantation of a devise which will result in empathy,( if they are truly in love), before she tells her friends at work is, well, a lost cause.

The entire novel moves at a breakneck pace from one situation to another. Just as soon as Bridey has settled her family, her boyfriend Trent springs a speeded up surgery schedual on her, so she’s off to the hospital. And avoiding gossip and her family, by hiding her car. After seeing that her family has no boundaries where it comes to Bridey’s privacy one begins to see why she’s so secretive. And why she settles on the up and coming executive Mr. Worth,  and his push to get the EED (the empathy device) before they marry. Which her family and CB Schwarz think is a really bad idea–and they all email, call, or text her. She argues it’s been tested before, and that even celebrities have had it done, and that they are even having the Dr. who invented the device doing the surgery. The surgery goes well. The aftereffects are, well, telepathy.  And of course, the first person she hears  is not Trent, but CB Schwarz, who is naturally telepathic. 

Ms. Willis brings the claustrophobic and confusing experience that we imagine to be telepathy to a print page well. It can be confusing  for the reader as well, but having a sense of the harried life of Briddey, makes it worth a little push just to get through those passages. It also gives her new relationship with CB a understandably difficult start. And exposes the real reasons behind Trent’s wanting to get the EED before getting married, like other couples.

This is the perfect introduction to Connie Willis and her comic timing, her patter, and infectious humor and sense of irony. If you enjoy Crosstalk, you’ll enjoy, To Say Nothing About the Dog, and Bellwether.

Crosstalk, by Connie Willis, Del Rey, 978-0-34554067-6

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