Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Five: The Romance Reader's Guide to Life

The Romance Reader's Guide to Life by Sharon Pywell is a novel that combines several genres: while historical fiction is dominant, aspects of suspense, mild romance, and the paranormal are present.  (For those of my readers also in the Boston area, this novel is set in Lynn, MA, adding some fun local flavor, too.)  But sisters Neave and Lilly are the main focus of the story, which follows them as, after losing their jobs to soldiers returning after WWII, they start their own very successful cosmetics business together, each complementing the other.  But Lilly, as you discover in the first chapter, is going to wind up dead, and Neave will be in danger as a result (hence the suspense aspect of the story).  Excerpts from Neave's favorite teenage romance novel, The Pirate Lover, are interspersed with the main narrative, connecting with Neave's life in interesting, if not always subtle, ways.  This was a darker novel than I'd expected based on its title and cover, but it certainly held my interest!  If you're looking for something a little different, you might consider The Romance Reader's Guide to Life.