8 romance books to kick back with at the tail end of July

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite

In The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, the second book in Olivia Waite‘s series Feminine Pursuits, Agatha Griffin owns a printing business that’s barely treading water.

Taxes are rising and the work of radical printers like her son are being suppressed. Add a colony of bees in her warehouse to the mix and Agatha’s got a cocktail of disaster just waiting to explode. Thank goodness for Penelope Flood, a beekeeper who knocks one thing off the pile of events attempting to topple over Agatha’s life.

Penelope walks the line between the wealthy landowners and the townsfolk who deal in trade in Melliton. She’s more than privy to the tension that has been rising in their seaside town, and things are about to get worse now that the formerly exiled Queen has returned to England.

The queen, however, isn’t the only one who’s returned. So has Penelope’s estranged husband which creates tension of a different kind between her and Agatha. They had been growing closer but with her husband’s return, Penelope isn’t sure where her loyalty should lie.

Both women have been trying to find their place as Melliton changes, perhaps it’s with each other, but safety could make them choose what’s familiar instead of what sets their hearts alight.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows will be available July 28 in print, audio, and e-book format.