Reading · Going My Own Pace

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, and I’m super excited to finally share it.

I’ve brought my three contemporary romances together into one collection: Sweetly Ours: 3 Sweet Contemporary Romances.

Ta da!

These are stories about people living ordinary, complicated lives — including lives shaped by chronic illness — who still get to fall in love, build relationships, have adventures, make mistakes, laugh, and ultimately get their happy endings.

Because that’s something I always wanted to find more of in books.

I wanted to see myself represented in literature.

Not just occasionally. Not just in a story where illness was the entire plot. And not as the inspirational side character whose existence made someone else’s story more meaningful.

I wanted authentic representation.

I wanted characters who had bodies and lives that sometimes made things harder, but who were still whole people.

People who wanted things and fell in love. Who had ordinary Tuesday mornings, ridiculous conversations, and hopes for the future.

And, importantly, people who got to have happily-ever-afters.

So eventually I thought: if I can’t find quite the stories I’m looking for, and I’ve always wanted to write fiction, perhaps I should write these?

And that’s what these books became.

Mindfully Yours, Ella, released last April, follows Ella, whose carefully paced life is complicated by the arrival of someone who makes her wonder whether there might be room for love after all.

Beautifully Ours is a Christmas story, after the happily ever after, released last November. What happened after they got together? A lot is happening for the whole friend group, and especially Ella.

Definitely Yours, Keira, released a few months ago, shares Ella’s best friends’ story. Keira had a carefully planned life, and it didn’t involve falling in love with a determined new addition to the friend group.

They are sweet, cozy, contemporary romances where people don’t have to become a different version of themselves to deserve love.

And now you can read all three together in Sweetly Ours.

Read now

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And if you already have one of these books, thank you. Truly.

Every time someone reads one of my stories, recommends it, reviews it, tells a friend about it, or asks their library to stock it, you’re helping these books find the people I originally wrote them for.

I keep thinking about the person who walks into a library looking for a story where someone like them gets to be the main character.

Maybe they have chronic illness.

Perhaps their life doesn’t look like the lives they most often see represented.

Or, maybe, they’re tired of stories where illness means tragedy, or where representation means the character’s entire identity revolves around being ill.

Maybe they just want a lovely romance where someone with a complicated body gets to fall in love and have a happy ending.

I’d like that person to be able to walk into their local library and find one of my books.

And I can’t do that on my own.

But you can help.

If you’d like to be part of this, I’d love it if you asked your local library to consider stocking this book.

You just need to be willing to say to your library:

“I’d love to see this book in your collection.”

And if enough of us do that, perhaps we can get these stories onto shelves in places I could never reach by myself.

Title: Sweetly Ours: 3 Sweet Contemporary Romances

Author: Melissa Reynolds

ASIN: ‎ B0HFH551D6

Genre: Contemporary romance, sweet, clean and wholesome, disability representation

Universal URL: https://books2read.com/sweetlyours

Sweetly Ours is the collection I’m introducing today.

But what I’m really hoping to build is a body of work where people can consistently find stories that say:

We belong here too.

We get to fall in love.

We get to have a messy, ordinary, wonderful life.

And we absolutely get to have a happy ending. At least on paper, haha.

So if you’ve ever read a book and thought, “I wish there were more stories about people like me,” I’d love you to join me in putting more of those stories into the world.

Let’s see how many libraries we can get them into.

Let me know in the comments if you’re able to recommend it to your local library. Also, let me know if you have any other ideas for getting the word out about these stories! I’d love to hear from you.

The Stories I Wanted To Find

If you’d like to be part of this, I’d love it if you asked your local library to consider stocking this book.

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