Katherine D. Morgan's Reading List

"First, I want to say that Guillory writes such fun romances, and although Royal Holiday is the fourth in her first series, it’s one of my favorites of all time. It was actually the first romance I’d ever read where the main character, Vivian, is an older Black woman. Guillory admits to being obsessed with the royals , so of course, when Maddie, Vivian’s daughter, gets a chance to style a member of the royal family, her mom tags along. Hijinks ensue, especially when Vivian meets Malcolm, the Queen’s private secretary. Even though their fling is only supposed to last until New Year’s Eve, there are enough sparks in this book to last a whole season."

"I love a punny title, and this one is brilliant. One of my favorite tropes is the ‘found family’ trope, especially when it’s about one character—in this case, Matthew—who realizes that even though he is privileged in so many ways, it doesn’t beat finding people who care for you and love you, whether you have a couple of millions in the bank or barely two cents to rub together. The found family trope is especially evident in the LGBTQ+ community, since folks can be ostracized by their own loved ones for being who they are, so I love seeing stories like this where it all ends happily ever after."

"I won’t lie: this one is very unconventional, so it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but maybe it will be yours. It’s about an adult film star who manages to get semi-accidentally hired to appear in a family-friendly Christmas movie. I know, I know: talk about naughty or nice! The film star, Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey), may be hesitant at first, but when she realizes that her co-star is none other than her childhood crush, well, things take a steamy but festive dive. I think that this one is a fun read, one to get people talking, and well, who doesn’t like to talk? Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount ."

"I’m not entirely sure how I found out about this charming series (most likely Bookstagram ), but if you enjoy a Christmas romance with all of the bells and whistles, then I have exactly what you’re looking for. Do you love the ‘fake dating’ trope? Do you also appreciate the friends-to-lovers pipeline? Oh, and do you also enjoy a well-rounded cast, a whole bunch of Christmas cheer, and a little steam? If you answer ‘yes’ to all three of these questions, then look no further. I love championing indie authors, and if I can do that around Christmas, well, then, you bet that I’m going to!"

"Since I work at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, I would be a fool if I didn’t mention Kiss Her Once for Me which takes place during the Christmas holidays, and all starts with a meet-cute in the famous bookstore. There’s so lovely about seeing a place where you work become a main character in a romantic comedy . Sure, there’s the fake dating trope again—it’s one of my favorite tropes, and I will not apologize for loving it so much—but there’s also so much heart in this book. I loved the cast of characters and watching them each get their own happily ever after made me want to run outside and play in the snow. There’s nothing better than a Christmas romance. I’m going to be reading a few holiday romances where the leads are actually Jewish. As someone who prides herself on reading mostly in the romance genre, I want to be able to make sure that I can recommend at least one book to anyone who walks through the doors at Powell’s. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter I’ll be enjoying The Matzah Bal l by Jean Meltzer, which stars a Jewish woman who secretly writes Christmas romances as she falls in love with her childhood nemesis and realizes that maybe Hanukkah can be pretty magical too. I’ll also be looking at Season of Love by Helena Greer, which takes place at a Jewish-run Christmas tree farm, and features a cast of LGBTQ+ characters; and lastly, How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow, a young adult novel that offers a sapphic Jewish twist to the whole ‘enemies to lovers’ trope during the Christmas season. But when it comes time to decorate the tree and kiss my boyfriend under the mistletoe, I’ll be making sure that In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae, and Whiteout , a young adult linked short story collection written by the same cast of all-star writers of Blackout , will be tucked away in my Christmas stocking."

"I read this book when it came out in April, and it has been one of the easiest books for me to recommend to customers. Do you love sapphic romances? Fiancée Farce . Do you enjoy the ‘fake dating’ or ‘marriage of convenience’ trope? Fiancée Farce . Do you want to be wooed but also dream of getting frisky in a library? Well, well, I have the book for you! As soon as I finished this book, I knew that it was going to be one of my favorite books of the year. I immediately bought the rest of Bellefleur’s books. I smile whenever I think of this one, and sometimes, when I see a customer picking it up, I simply walk over and say: ‘Buy it.’ Once I told a customer, ‘It’s so romantic and so sexy,’ and she said, ‘Say no more,’ and slipped it into her cart. Am I that good? Absolutely, but it does make my job easier when writers like Bellefleur exist."

"I have loved Bryant’s books since her debut, Happily Ever Afters , which you should also read. I know, I know, people might judge me for reading young adult novels when my 30th birthday is in a few months, but I can’t help it. Being an adult is hard and expensive and frustrating, and sometimes, you want to go back to a time that was a bit simpler and you were a little less bitter. Reggie and Delilah seem to always bump into each other on holidays: New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, et cetera. Over the course of a year, the reader follows them as a friendship develops into something more. Both characters have their own issues: Delilah is shy and worries about being liked, and she has a crush on a guy who is so frustratingly annoying that you want him to walk around in wet socks for the rest of his life. Reggie believes that his family is embarrassed by him because he enjoys all things Dungeons & Dragons , including writing essays criticizing the game and the issues behind it. Both of them are putting on a front, which leads to the two of them admiring each other for the wrong reasons. I truly loved this one. That cover design is adorable and all three of Bryant’s books look very pretty on my bookshelves. If you need another reason to enjoy this title, then I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m the Katherine that Bryant thanks in the acknowledgments. I had zero chill and told all of my coworkers about it!"

"I think that this year, I am required to put You, Again by Kate Goldbeck on the list. I saw this one everywhere, and I am nothing if not easily influenced—and thank God, I was. I am a big Nora Ephron fan, so getting the chance to read a romance that reminded me of When Harry Met Sally pleased me. It was a serious ode to New York. It was funny and refreshing, even when Josh and Ari got on my nerves, which they did…frequently. They were so frustrating, Ari especially, but it only made me root for their happily ever after more. Actually, it even made me love Ari more, because I know what it’s like to be scared to put my heart on the line, especially when I’ve been alone for a long time or had my heart broken by someone that I thought that I could go the distance with. These two were messy and I loved it. It was wonderful to watch them grow up and develop a real friendship. The countless text messages. The scenes where they watched movies over the phone together (yes, that really did happen in When Harry Met Sally ). The Strand ’s guest appearance in the book. It all worked. It was a delicious little treat and I need Goldbeck to write something again soon."

"I the first book in the series, Witchful Thinking , last month because I wanted a fall, witchy vibe, without realising that it’s set in the summer in New Jersey. The timeframe didn’t matter, however, because it was a perfect treat. That book focused on Lucy. Martin’s new book, Kiss and Spell , focused on Lucy’s type-A cousin, Ursula, who I didn’t really like in the first book. However, by the time I finished this one, Ursula and I were two peas in a pod. It’s a charming paranormal romance about a Black witch who falls in love with a sexy prince who needs a perfect kiss to break an enchantment. I don’t know why, but Martin’s dialogue reminds me of historical romances. Perhaps because the main male characters say things that make your heart beat fast and your legs shake. I shared a screenshot of what Prince Xavier says to Ursula when he finds out that her last boyfriend broke her heart and I had so many women direct messaging me to find out the name of the book. It made me chuckle! I finished Kiss and Spell on a solo brunch date last week, and it was the perfect side to my biscuits and gravy."

"When I think about the romances that I loved this year, I knew that I had to talk about New Adult by Timothy Janovsky. It’s billed as 13 Going on 30 meets One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, but I’d argue that this one is in a class of its own. It was so charming, and it made me cry. It follows 23-year-old Nolan, who wants to be a famous comedian and will do anything to get there, including missing important moments of his sister’s wedding and hurting his best friend-slash-love interest in the process. With the help of some magic crystals and a wish, Nolan wakes up living the lifestyle that showcases everything that he has ever wanted: Fame! Fortune! A cute dog named Milkshake! However, none of his family and family will talk to him, and Nolan has no idea why. He turns to Drew, his former roommate and best friend to get to the bottom of everything, and, well, let’s just say that feelings can only be buried for so long. I think that so many of us feel pressured to dream bigger and brighter, and we don’t always open our eyes to see that sometimes, we’re right where we should be. I loved the romance in this one—and the life lessons. Oh, boy, where do I begin? From #BookTok alone, I discovered Only for the Week by Natasha Bishop, which I have been handselling as: “If you’ve ever wanted to sleep with his best friend! #NoRegrets.” It was so fun and sexy and people are loving it! I also discovered S. J. Tilly and her romance novels. I finished Nero , which is the first book in her Alliance series. I then immediately bought book two, King , which I plan to take on a trip with me to Seattle this week. My favorite thing about working in a bookstore and being great at my job—am I tooting my own horn? Probably, but others have said the same thing to me, so well, I’m right about this—is that I can email the woman who buys for my section and simply say: “Can I get copies of this book?” There’s no second-guessing me, and it’s why I love buying for this section. It’s been an honor to bring in new books and authors into a famous bookstore like Powell’s. Oh, and I also enjoyed Dealbreakers by Lauren Forsythe! I think that people can be so quick to reject others instead of getting to know them, and this book made me reflect on my own time spent in the online dating trenches. Lucky for me, I’ve been dating a great guy for over two years—hi Evan!—so have fun out there. I’ve talked about Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters before, but I adored that one too. Finally, if you haven’t read Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola, then you need to. It was so funny! Well, Megan Bannen, the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, is releasing a new book next year on my sister’s birthday, but I have joked that it’s really a gift for me. It’s called The Undermining of Twyla and Frank . Funny enough, her first book, Undertaking , had a You’ve Got Mail twist. This one? When Harry Met Sally ! And how can I forget Kennedy Ryan’s new book, This Could Be Us ? It’s the second in her Skyland series, the first of which was Before I Let Go , which took #BookTok by storm. I read that book this year, and I loved it so much, but since it came out in 2022, I didn’t get the chance to highlight it. In my opinion, it is a perfect second-chance romance. I pre-ordered This Could Be Us with the quickness. Amy Lea is another writer that I’ve grown fond of, and her fourth book, The Catch , will finish out her Influencers trilogy that I’ve truly enjoyed. Also, the main love interest is named Evan, so I have to buy it for that alone. Most rom-com men named Evan please!"

"This is the first fantasy romance I’ve ever read, and whew, it will be hard to beat this one. Any book that uses You’ve Got Mail as a comp title to me needed to be in my hands yesterday. It has all of my favorite romantic tropes too: enemies to lovers, found family, a misunderstanding that threatens everything, and a tall man who has some emotional baggage that he needs to deal with promptly before he loses the only one that he’s ever loved. I finished this book and felt my heart swell. Actually, it just swelled again because I thought of the ending once more. It’s just so good."

"Vanessa Jared’s Got a Man by LaQuette made me realize how I often don’t see romance novels about women in their forties, especially Black women in their forties. It also made me realize how nice it was to see two people of color fall in love too—the love interest, Michael, is Koren American—since you usually only see a person of color falling for someone who is white. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter This book made me so happy. Maybe it’s because they’re older, but these two knew how to communicate and had really great boundaries that they held. Oh, and the spicy scenes were nice too!"

"This was one of my favorite books in February, and it’s still on my list of favorite romances today. I loved reading about Delilah and Claire, watching their relationship develop over Delilah’s estranged stepsister’s wedding weekend. I laughed, I cried—yes, real tears—and I swooned. While this is a gorgeous queer romance, it also brings up a lot of family issues and I think that Herring did it in a great way."

"Do You Take this Man by Denise Williams is perfect. There, I said it. It’s such a sensitive look at two people who believe that they aren’t worthy of love because of past experiences finding that love with each other. The only issue? They can’t stand each other…at first. I rooted for these two, staying up until 4am to see them get together. RJ and Lear were frustrating but I wouldn’t want them any other way."

"This is one of my favorite books that I brought into Powell’s. I checked out a copy from my public library and asked our book-buying team to bring it in. From the way that it’s been selling, I’m not the only one who enjoyed watching the romance between a baker and a paleontologist develop. I actually found myself giggling along to their banter, which felt fresh and new. It won me over immediately. Oh, and that grand gesture that Quentin did for Alisha at the end? I died…happily. But of course! Jasmine Guillory came out with Drunk on Love , and I have read and bought her entire backlist, so she’s always worth a buy. I did really enjoy Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood, although I have heard that it’s a lot like her first one, which is fine by me—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Emily Henry’s Book Lovers came out, and fans and my colleagues swarmed the shelves to get her newest title. Kwana Jackson, the author of the Real Men Knit series, officially introduced readers to Lucas Strong, one of the men who took over a knitting shop after his adoptive mother passed, in Knot Again . There are truly so many books, and so little time. Oh, yes, let me tell you about them! I mean, from my list alone, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Digging Up Love are both debuts. But others include Set On You by Amy Lea, which I hand-sold a lot of this summer. It’s so good, and you have to read it for the bathtub scene alone. The second book in that series, Exes & O’s , comes out in January, and I am very excited to read it. Fixer Upper by Lauren Forsythe is an unique romance novel where the premise is that Aly and her friends will ‘fix up’ (change for the better) your man for you. It’s all fun and games until Aly is tasked with fixing up her former best friend, who she was in love with and has resentment towards. I adored it. Finally, I’ll talk your ear off about Lease on Love by Falon Ballard, which has really great mental health representation, and talks frankly about how healing from trauma isn’t linear. Now that the year is almost over, I want to include some 2023 books in this list. I’m looking forward to A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan; Not Here to Stay Friends by Kaitlyn Hill (Bachelor fans, this one’s for you!); The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest (also with You’ve Got Mail vibes); Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elise Bryant, which is a young adult book, but I will literally read anything that Bryant writes; and last but certainly not least, Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters, who is a local Portland author. My coworker and I talked to her about how we loved her first book, Satisfaction Guaranteed for so long that she included Powell’s in her acknowledgments for her newest book. She’s probably thanking the company as a whole, but I like to think that it was meant for the two of us especially. Part of our best books of 2022 series."

"I remember reading this book earlier this spring, and was so excited to discover that this was Kumar’s debut. There’s nothing like discovering an author at the beginning of their publishing journey because you really can’t wait to see where they go next. Say You’ll Be Mine is so charming. I love the ‘fake dating’ trope—in this case, a fake engagement of convenience—and I especially loved getting to learn about another culture that still values arranged marriages. This debut had me chuckling and I kept going, ‘shut up, you love her!’ while reading it, which is my favorite reaction to have an ‘opposites attract’ romance, or one where the feelings begin to turn just slightly too real. Read this one. And yes, the cover is just so beautiful! We need more romance covers like this."

"My second pick would have to be This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan, which is a great book for anyone who ever been scorned by a cheating partner. It basically riffs on the phrase, ‘when they go low, we go high.’ This book is an interconnected standalone—so while you should definitely read the first book in the series, This Could Be Us , it isn’t necessary per se . I loved getting the chance to see Soledad rise up from the ashes of her ruined marriage and learn to trust herself, and to determine what she believes that her worth is. Also, Judah is an absolute dreamboat. I loved getting to read about a Black man having a healthy co-parenting relationship with his ex-wife as they parent their autistic twin boys. Everyone was so respectful. I think that more of this representation needs to appear in romance novels."

"I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to read different sub-genres of romance because I found myself only reading contemporary and it was starting to all blend together into one big glob. Plus, now that I own a romance bookstore, I figure that it would be a good idea to start dipping my toes into different types of romances. One of the members of my book club (hi Jenny!) is a Cat Sebastian superfan, so we read We Could Be So Good for one of our meetings. I liked it a lot, so I decided to read the second one in the interconnected series, which is You Should Be So Lucky , and I loved it! It’s a bit of a heavier read, because Mark is dealing with the grief of losing his long-term partner who led a closeted life. This is New York in the 1960s. He finds friendship and love with Eddie, a queer baseball player who is in a slump and having a hard time adjusting to a new city and team. It was so wonderful. It was funny, warm, insightful, devastating, and just plain beautiful. I truly loved it and it has become one of my favorites to sell. I am so happy that this book is now one of my main personality traits."

"This book offers such an actual portrayal of mental health and how to care for your loved ones when they’re going through it. It was such a sensitive and vulnerable read, and I highlighted and sticky tabbed my copy like you wouldn’t believe. There are even handwritten notes in my margins, which many would consider blasphemy, but I felt like Dade’s work deserved that kind of care. As someone who has dealt with depression most of her life and has a wonderful partner who tries his best to care for me, I think of this book as a kind of blueprint that I can hand to male customers to tell them how to act. There’s a scene that makes everyone sob, which is lovingly called ‘the bathtub scene,’ which I did love and felt was very romantic, but my heart ached most at the scene where Matthew cleans Athena’s house for her during a bout of depression. That’s the kind of romance that I can get behind. Also, the main character being plus size but not having that be her personality or what her man loves the most about her in a fetishizing way? Say less."

"You know, I like most sports a lot. Not enough to, say, follow them all the time or tell you the names of players, but enough to sit down and watch a game. So I was excited to get my hands on Kelly’s newest sport-based, sapphic romance because my coworker Antonoa read it and told me that she cried. I love crying at anything and everything in a romance book, so I happily dove in. This is the book I credit for making me realize that I was queer. Julie—the sister of a main character in Something Wild and Wonderful , the second book in this interconnected series; notice that I read a lot of those—is really going through it in the book because she has never dated anyone before and she’s trying to figure out her sexuality. She’s a late bloomer; I want more late bloomers in romances as well! She’s also trying to figure out what her role in her friends’ lives are. She feels like she’s stuck doing the same things day in and day out, while all of her friends seem to be moving on. I felt so seen by this book, and if you’ve ever felt a similar way then know that this book is for you. I’ve been hearing great things about Alicia Thompson’s The Art of Catching Feelings . (I’m in my sports era now.) Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings came out a few months ago and the cover is so charming I keep stopping to look at it as I walk by. I was a big fan of Alexandria Bellefleur’s The Fiancée Farce , which came out last year . Now she has a new one out called Truly, Madly, Deeply , and both characters are bi. She calls it her ‘horniest novel yet,’ so I immediately bought a copy. I know you only asked me about new books that I haven’t read yet, but I also want to tell people that they should read Only For the Week by Natasha Bishop if they want a sexy short romance to bring to the beach. It’s such a fun romp. And lastly, I consider any book that I bring to the beach a beach read, and I’ve recently gotten into Beverly Jenkins, so I’m bringing a copy of her 2016 book Forbidden with me because man, I am so excited to get to know her work. Her book, Wild Rain , changed something in my DNA. I think that it has made me appreciate it a lot more. It’s more than just talking about my favorite reads with customers in the aisle. It’s figuring out why some books sell better than others. It’s appreciating how much romance readers love stickers and merchandise that highlights their love for the genre. It’s figuring out how to make smaller authors in the field stand out. While my store, Grand Gesture Books, doesn’t have a physical storefront yet—we’re actually supposed to sign a lease sometime in the next week!—I’ve been doing pop-ups and the like for the past six months or so, and the romance community in Portland, Oregon is wonderful, loud, affectionate, and excited. We’ve been fundraising for the past couple of weeks and I’m really proud of how much money we’ve raised so far. They’re so very excited, which makes me excited. It’s also something that I have to romanticize a little bit—because, otherwise, thinking about doing business taxes and hiring people makes me anxious and I don’t love being anxious. It’s all good though. Being anxious makes me feel like I care. If you’d like to help Katherine in her efforts to open a Grand Gesture Books storefront in Portland, Oregon, you can find more information here ."

"I am such a big fan of the ‘marriage of convenience’ trope in romance novels . Like, between that and a ‘second chance romance,’ I’m set. Also, any romance that also has a love interest that also works as a bookseller speaks to my soul. I think that bookstores can be such a romantic place—yes, as a bookseller at Powell’s Books , I will admit that I’m a little bit biased—so whenever a bookseller manages to find love in the stacks, it’s a win-win. In The Fiancée Farce , opposites attract when Tansy, a quiet and reserved bookseller, pretends she is dating a woman on the cover of a romance novel. The only problem? The woman is real, and she’s a wild child named Gemma, who happens to be the heir to a publishing powerhouse. She’s well on her way to inherit the family fortune, until she hits a snag: she must marry to inherit. So what does Gemma do? Announce her engagement to the stranger that has been apparently fake dating her and then fall in love with said stranger. It’s a great romance for those that like a slow burn, but also, like to be wooed. Who wouldn’t like to be wooed?"

"Karelia Stetz-Waters may have my whole heart as a writer. Her characters are always so well-rounded and the banter is top-notch. In her newest romance, you have characters who are trying their best to heal from their respective traumas and manage to find love in the process. (One character, Rose, lost her parents in a plane crash and has spent her entire adulthood making choices that would benefit her younger siblings; her love interest, Ash, is healing from a failed marriage, psychological and sexual issues—and faces a rough patch in her career that might bury her.) “The idea of a summer romance makes my heart sing” It has so much heart. I melted when I read it. I know, I know: we tend to read lighter romance during the summer months. But life happens when it happens, and boy, am I glad that I read this one when I did. In fact, I loved it so much that the author came into Powell’s, where I work, and placed a signed copy in my mailbox for me to keep. It’s one of my most prized possessions. It’s an honor to get to love her books as much as I do."

"As a child, I only went to camp once because we couldn’t afford it, but I remember having a lot of fun and developing a lot of crushes on the people around me. From counselors to the other day campers, if you were cute and somewhat nice to me, then I loved you. Even though That Summer Feeling focuses on a woman named Garland, who is still reeling from an unexpected divorce, you get to witness her believe in hope and magic again when—instead of rekindling her feelings with her old flame—she find a new match in his sister. Summer is all about taking chances and creating a fresh start, and it was wonderful seeing someone relearn what it’s like to believe again."

"See, now this book is wonderful because it’s about what happens after the original happily ever after. Eliza and Graham are supposed to be excitedly celebrating their five-year wedding anniversary, and instead, they are feeling so disconnected that they don’t know which way is up and which way is down. As they check into their hotel, Eliza has the brilliant idea to stay in separate rooms. Furthermore, Graham meets a new friend, David, who manages to introduce him to his wife, Eliza, over dinner one evening, and Eliza pretends not to know her husband as a way to spark a new line of intimacy between the two of them. It works until, well, it doesn’t, but that’s the interesting part of the journey. I feel like so many relationships end because the couple will hit a wall and with these two, you get to see what happens afterwards. I found that I became really invested in them as a couple, but also the two of them as people. It was wonderful."

"Okay, maybe, just maybe, I’m still a little miffed about not being able to get tickets to the Eras tour, but I will say that this book is perfect for fans of Taylor Swift. Actually, I think that it’s perfect for any woman who has asked herself if she is asking too much of her partner when in reality, she is asking for the absolute bare minimum. I am a highly emotional person—and I’m proud of myself for being the way that I am—and whenever I feel like I’m being too much, I reflect on Amy’s latest book and think: Was I really being needy or were my needs not being met? It’s a roommate-to-lovers romance, and it’s a slow burn for sure, but it made me laugh and I really rooted for Tara and Trevor to find their footing as friends but also as a couple. Plus, Tara is a Bookstagrammer and known for making videos about her love of books, so I root for her regardless. We book influencers have got to stick together. I am impatiently waiting for the publicist of Role Playing by Cathy Yardley to send an advance reading copy (an ‘ARC’, for those not in the publishing industry) my way? I love romances where the main female character is mid-life, and I feel like there should be more of them. I consume as many as I can, so I keep my eye out for them. I also think that this year will finally be my Emily Henry year, so while everyone is finishing Happy Place , I will be starting with her first book, Beach Read , which came out a few years ago. Oh, and of course, Ali Hazelwood’s Love, Theoretically is the next title on my list because I enjoy reading about women in STEM falling in love. Finally, I managed to get an ARC of Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane and I’m so excited for small-town love and a wedding that brings a community together. We need more of that these days."