Off The Shelf: Arouse

I am a great reader and in particular I am a great reader of romance novels. Historical, Contemporary or even Paranormal, I will read almost any genre if they throw in just the right amount of romance! I love watching Rachael Jade's Youtube videos which she calls Book Chats and so I thought I would start my own series here on the blog called Off The Shelf, the Bookshelf that is.

This time around, I read Arouse by Nina Lane. The novel is part of a series called The Spiral of Bliss which follows the lives of a young married couple Dean and Olivia.You read that correctly, a young married couple. Usually romance novels follow the story leading to the marriage but this time around the couple is already happily married...or so it would seem.

The novel begins with Liv being fired from her job as an events coordinator for an art gallery and takes the reader through her struggle to find her identity in the shadow of her brilliant history professor husband. She takes on various jobs throughout the novel but it's when she starts a cooking class that things get complicated. Her cooking instructor appears to be more interested in Liv's cooking than that of the other students and this results in a mistake Liv has to own up to.

Dean comes from what appears to be the perfect family and has always been a source of stability for Liv whose background features more road trips than school field trips and a selfish mother to boot. He has to deal with the growing distance between him and his wife and the struggle he has with her sudden desire to have children in light of a secret he's been keeping from her.

What struck me the most about this novel was how well it was written. The story was sedate in that there weren't a lot of dramatic moments but when you read this novel you really feel everything the characters go through and are rooting for them to make it through in the end. I gave this novel 5 stars on Goodreads as it definitely deserved them.

If you're looking for something that'll make you feel all the emotions, I'd give this book a read.

Other books in the series include:

#2 Allure

#3 Awaken

#3.5 Arrive

Visit Nina's website here.

TK MAJ