I took the photo above from Jamie Brenner's website shortly after I finished her novel, Blush. Some of you who've read it might argue that I'm going off-script again because it's not a traditional romance novel, but as I've asserted, my website, my rules. Plus, this novel creates three romance plots in one. Double bonus.
Brenner's three protagonists are a grandmother, mother, and daughter, each of whom gets TWO of her own happily ever afters, earning the romantic one only as a result of asserting her need for the non-romantic one.
The grandmother Vivian has to right a long-held wrong and expose herself to the dangers of revealing an embarrassing secret that might ruin her marriage. In coming clean, she earns a happier sense of self and therefore progresses into a better relationship with her husband.
The mother Leah grows up on her family's vineyard, loving everything about the art and science of making wine. When her father asserts that her older brother will take over the family business because winemaking is for men, she leaves Long Island and open a cheese store in Manhattan. Though she maintains a successful cheese shop for almost two decades, it is only when she learns to step into her family's vineyard's business that she realizes her life's ambition...and by asserting herself as the rightful heir to the family business she loves, she renews and improves the relationship she has with her husband.
The daughter Sadie believes herself incapable of deep love. An academic at heart, she struggles with her boyfriend and her thesis. By discovering and nurturing a love for trashy books–yes, you read that right!!–she becomes capable of passion. Once she decides that romance novels merit academic attention, she earns the capacity to fall in love, which she does. (As an aside, my sister–Hi, V!– wrote her college thesis on romance novels, so Sadie's not alone in her realization that there's more going on than a bunch of heaving bosoms.)
Have you read Blush yet? If not, I highly recommend it both for what you'll learn about wine and cheese and for how you can enjoy this triple-decker, double-wide romance that offers six romance structures for the pages of one. Whether you've read it or not, I welcome your thoughts in the comments.