By turns amusing and disturbing, this collection of 1960s romance comic strips provides a provocative window into male-female power dynamics as conceived by one of mid-century America's foremost comic book artists. Ogden Whitney was one of the unsung masters of American comics. He is perhaps best remembered for co-creating the satirical superhero Herbie Popnecker, also known as the Fat Fury, but his romance comics of the late 1950s and 1960s may be even more unique. In Whitney’s hands, the standard formula of meet-cute, minor complications, and final blissful kiss becomes something very different: an unsettling vision of midcentury American romance as a devastating power struggle, a form of intimate psychological warfare dressed up in pearls and flannel suits. From suburban lawns and offices to rocket labs and factories, his men and women scheme and clash, dominate and escape. It is darkly hilarious, truly terrifying—and yes, occasionally even a bit romantic.

The Greek romance was for the Roman period what epic was for the Archaic period or drama for the Classical: the central literary vehicle for articulating ideas about the relationship between self and community. This book offers a reading of the romance both as a distinctive narrative form (using a range of narrative theories) and as a paradigmatic expression of identity (social, sexual and cultural). At the same time it emphasises the elasticity of romance narrative and its ability to accommodate both conservative and transformative models of identity. This elasticity manifests itself partly in the variation in practice between different romancers, some of whom are traditionally Hellenocentric while others are more challenging. Ultimately, however, it is argued that it reflects a tension in all romance narrative, which characteristically balances centrifugal against centripetal dynamics. This book will interest classicists, historians of the novel and students of narrative theory.

From New York Times Bestselling author Corinne Michaels comes a new second chance standalone love story. At eighteen, I walked away from Willow Creek Valley for good. I was young, scared, and stupid, and it cost me the love of my life-Grayson Parkerson. Fourteen years later, a crash sends me back home to recover. Back to where we met, fell in love, and planned a future. The one he's now living as a single dad to his daughter. Working at The Park Inn together gives us a chance to reconnect, and seeing him with his little girl makes me long for the days when he was mine. One look in his gorgeous blue-green eyes, and it's like I never left. One kiss, and my world is upside down. One night together, and I know without a doubt, in his arms is where I belong. I'm not the girl I was-intimidated by his wealthy family and desperate to escape our small town. I can imagine a new life for us here. But he's learned to guard his heart, and trust won't come easily. How can I convince him to give first love a second chance?

Three lonely people come together in this poignant, witty novel of star-crossed romance from the New York Times–bestselling author of Jane and Prudence. After being jilted by her fiancé, Dulcie Mainwaring despairs of ever finding true love. For a distraction, she goes to a publishing conference, where she meets Viola Dace, a dramatic woman who refuses to live without romance, as well as Aylwin Forbes, an editor whom Viola adores. The fact that Aylwin is married doesn’t stop Viola. When her amorous pursuit prompts Aylwin’s wife to leave him, the academic heartthrob is wide open to Viola’s romantic attentions. That is, until Dulcie’s eighteen-year-old niece moves in with Viola, and the young girl soon catches Aylwin’s roving eye. Set in London in the early 1960s, No Fond Return of Love is a delightful comedy of manners that comes full circle as Dulcie discovers a love as unexpected as it is liberating.

Amelia has worshiped Viscount Hunter Westhaven since school days. After fighting Bonaparte, the famed hero has returned to claim his bride. But war has changed him into a somber, restless man--one who feels he must leave Amelia to search for the families of his fallen comrades.

What would her life look like without her beloved island in it? Where would she go? Ellen had come back here-to the place she felt she belonged-thinking she would stay here. But was it home... or just a place to hide? 1918, Canada The First World War is over and those who have been fighting in Europe are heading for home, forever changed. Amongst the lost, the damaged and the broken, is former nurse Ellen Copley; who finds herself returning-not to her house in Glasgow, but to her childhood home on Amherst Island. There, she feels sure, in the warm embrace of the McCafferty family, with her beloved Aunt Rose and her cousins, she will feel safe and loved. She will be able to escape the ghosts of the past and her loss, and find peace. But the island is a changed place too. The war has affected life the world over, and Aunt Rose is struggling to keep their small farmstead going. The family's only hope is asking their neighbours, the Lymans, to help. But Jed Lyman is a broken man, both physically and emotionally, and his once-adoring brother Lucas is now more distant than ever. And as Ellen fights to save the farm, she has to ask: what makes somewhere a home? And-when help comes from an unexpected place-she wonders, has the man she's destined to love been waiting for her out there all along? Readers love Kate Hewitt: "So thrilling and gripping. It completely tugs at your heart strings!... It gave me all of the feels... I truly felt that the storytelling was brilliant. This is the kind of book that stays with you." Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars "Fantastic... The vivid historical details instantly transport the reader back in time. I was thoroughly captivated right from the start and couldn't put it down until I was done." Be My Book Boyfriend, 5 stars

"A beautiful and brilliant reexamination of love and its perils."—Barbara Fisher, Boston Globe Common wisdom has it that love is fragile, but leading psychoanalyst Stephen A. Mitchell argues that romance doesn't actually diminish in long-term relationships—it becomes increasingly dangerous. What we regard as the transience of love is really risk management. Mitchell shows that love can endure, if only we become aware of our self-destructive efforts to protect ourselves from its risks. "Those who read this book will love more wisely because of it."—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon "[A] work on romance that is rich and multi-layered."—Publishers Weekly "Cheerful, open, and humane—you'd definitely have wanted him as your analyst."—Judith Shulevitz, The New York Times Book Review "[T]houghtful, compassionate, and profoundly optimistic."—JoAnn Gutin, Salon.com

At Santa Cruz Central High School, they called them the misfits, the outcasts, the weirdos. But most of us knew them as the Lost Boys...Holden Parish survived his parents' horrific attempts to make him "the perfect son." After a year's stint in a Swiss sanitarium to recover, he has vowed to never let anything--or anyone--trap him again. Brilliant but broken, he seeks refuge behind alcohol, meaningless sex, and uses his wicked sense of humor to keep people away. He only has to ride out one year in the coastal town of Santa Cruz with his aunt and uncle before he inherits his billions and can make his escape. Disappear.Falling in love is not in the plans.River Whitmore. Star quarterback of the Central High football team, Prom King, Mr. Popular, ladies' man. He leads the perfect life...except it's all a lie. His father has River's future in the NFL all planned out, while River's dream is to run the family business in the town that he loves. But his mother's illness is tearing the family apart and River is becoming the glue that holds them together. How can he break his father's heart when it's already shattering?River's carefully-crafted façade explodes when he meets Holden Parish. A guy who dresses in coats and scarves year-round, drinks expensive vodka, and spends his free time breaking into houses for the fun of it. They're complete opposites. River seeks a quiet life, away from the spotlight. Holden would rather have dental surgery than settle down.Holden's demons and River's responsibilities threaten to keep them apart, while their undeniable attraction crashes them together again and again, growing into something deep and real no matter how they resist.Until one terrible night changes everything.#MMromancePlease note, this book contains spoilers for The Girl in the Love Song

Romance is a varied and fluid literary genre, notoriously difficult to define. This groundbreaking Companion surveys the many permutations of romance throughout the ages. Considers the literary and historical development of the romance genre from its classical origins to the present day Incorporates discussion of the changing readership of romance and of romance’s special relation to women readers Comprises 30 essays written by leading authorities on different periods and sub-genres Challenges the idea that the appeal of romance is exclusively escapist Draws on a wide range of specific and influential literary examples

Welcome to Crestpoint Beach, where warm sands and sea breezes bring sweet second chances, renewed family ties, and the comfort of coming home. Heartbroken and lost. That's how Annie Collins left small-town Crestpoint Beach when she was eighteen and an aspiring interior designer. And that's how she returns years later, starting over as a widow at thirty-five. Coming home to help care for her aging father while she sorts out her life, Annie moves into her grandparents' old beach house. The big, beautiful home needs a little TLC, but Annie has the support of her free-spirited younger sister, Hannah, who dreams of turning the beach house into a B&B together. If only repairing Annie's wounded heart were that easy. Complicating things even more, her high school heartbreak, Noah Davis, still lives in Crestpoint Beach. Now the town's favorite science teacher, recently divorced single dad Noah is the same handsome, charming man he was back then. Soon, that charm draws Annie back into his life with his teenage daughter, Lainey. Noah walked away from Annie once; will he stand by her this time, even when his ex-wife would like nothing better than to split them apart? BACK TO YOU is a clean contemporary romance, and Book 1 of the Turning Tides B&B series.