It was a great trip, and the flight has been uneventful, but my poor body is ready to MOVE.
So I'm going to distract myself and use this last hour of the flight to something I've been meaning to do for over a year . . . recommend a good beach-read series for your summer.
 |
| This is not the beach, but if it's too hot to ride your bike, you can always read a book. |
Laura Florand write books set in France, and her La Vie en Rose series is set in the French Riviera, around Grasse. The books are centered on the Rosier family, a major player in the fragrance industry. They grow the roses and jasmine for perfume, they design fragrances, and they run a major conglomerate. The Rosier family is big, competitive, successful, and hot.
All the books in this series are sweet, sexy, funny, and promise happily-ever-after.
Perfect for lazy summer days.
The series began with a prequel in a Christmas anthology, No Place Like Home, and I love that short story so much I think it's worth the price of the entire anthology.
Even if you never, ever read the other stories.
"A Rose in the Winter" isUIKeyInputDownArrow the Florand story in the anthology. It's about Raoul Rosier, who's recently come home to France after over a decade of working in Africa, and Allegra Caldron, an American grad student studying the old scent routes and their history. They meet one night in a bar and have instant chemistry; that's a surprise for Allegra because she invariably ends up thinking of all the men she knows as "just friends". But their hot start gets interrupted by confusion over some Rosier family heirlooms caused by meddlesome family interference. Only because both Allegra and Raoul are willing to work through their vulnerabilities does this story get its happily ever after.
I love this series because of the amazing description of family relationships, the well-developed characters, couples who seems to actually LIKE each other, and all the sexy French words. I think you'll like it to.
The three books after "A Rose in the Winter feature other Rosier cousins and are: Once Upon a Rose, A Wish Upon Jasmine, and A Crown of Bitter Orange.
But if you'd rather read a series based around chocolates and pastries and dessert, Laura Florand has that as well. You can find my favorite here.
