“TIMELESS ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY: Valentine’s Day Collection,” by Janette Rallison, Heather B. Moore, Jenny Proctor, Annette Lyon, Heather Tullis and Sarah M. Eden, Mirror Press, e-book $5.99
This collection of six Valentine’s Day-themed contemporary novellas is entertaining and fun and shares how love’s path isn’t always straight or expected.
Utah authors Heather B. Moore, Annette Lyon and Sarah M. Eden, who started the Timeless Romance Anthology, invited three authors to share novellas. In “Valentine’s Day Collection,” Janette Rallison, Jenny Proctor and Heather Tullis have also penned clean love stories.
Moore shares how Maurie, who had a rocky childhood and ended up in foster care in a different city, has moved back into her family home to set up shop for her budding business. When she reaches out to a local construction contractor, it’s her former teenage crush, now a divorced father, who shows up.
Rallison writes a story of artist Bethany, whose married friends are off on a cruise for Valentine’s Day and have set her up on a blind date. Thanks to a speeding ticket and getting locked out of the home she is painting, she ends up in a string of a comedy of errors that includes the same policeman.
Kayla is focused on training for the Olympic swimming trials and doesn’t want to be distracted by a relationship, as she was for the previous ones, in Proctor’s novella. When Kayla goes home to visit, her younger sister’s swim coach, Nate, her former crush, tests her resolve.
In Lyon’s contribution, Sam’s longtime boyfriend, Steve, is across the pond and has something special to tell her on Valentine’s Day — she thinks he’s going to propose. When a mix-up in the time difference ends up with him calling while she’s doing laundry, it’s not the question she expected.
In Tullis’ “Deal Breakers,” Colette is stranded in a snowed-in airport on her way home to her sick sister when she runs into her former college boyfriend, Drew, who's on his way to his brother’s wedding. She now realizes her mistake in breaking up with him, and being thrown together could be the chance she needed.
Eden’s “Hey, Helen!” centers around an advice columnist facing a round of Valentine’s Day questions. But she could use some advice as her feelings for her friendly next-door neighbor increase, but she’s not sure how he feels — especially when his parents come for unexpected visits.