He spoke low and sexy in her ear. “So you’re a good girl. That’s what I thought. On Santa’s nice list,” he added with a chuckle.
“Not tonight,” she promised him.

Christmas in Destiny was an absolutely charming, heartfelt–and surprisingly sexy–small town romance. Toni Blake always spins a tale that makes me chuckle and cheer on the down-to-earth characters she creates and this holiday-themed book did exactly that.

I have to say that I really loved the time I got to spend in Destiny, Ohio, in this book and of course with all of the offbeat people who reside there. I’m fairly new to the series (although I’ve read other books by Blake) but I found it quite easy to fall into the story. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but Blake did a great job of weaving them in and explaining how they related to Candice and Shane’s journey.

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A rugged loner and ex-biker-gang member, Duke Dawson is looking for some peace and quiet while recovering from an accident. But when Anna Romo comes wandering through his woods and into his cabin, she completely rocks his world. The last thing he expected or wanted was to find himself hungering after a woman whose eyes held hurt even deeper than his own . . .

Running from a troubled past, Anna is building a new life in Destiny. When she first meets Duke, she's terrified—but something about him calls to her very soul. The hard-bodied rebel is soon helping her turn her new home into a bed and breakfast, and close quarters quickly lead them into her bed. Their passion is palpable, but can she convince a man who has turned his back on life to take the biggest leap of faith of all and fall in love?

As Fall settles in, it is apple season around here. 

It is easy to see a love story play out in the orchard. 

Here are some wonderful Romances set in Orchards.

1. The Fig Orchard by Layla Fiske

In an isolated, tradition-bound village high above the Jordan River, balancing delicately amidst age-old superstitions and religious orthodoxy, Nisrina Huniah, a fifteen-year-old girl, is torn between innocent imaginings and looming apprehensions as she marries a man she has never met – only to fall in love on the night they are wed. 

Her joy, short-lived, takes a heart-wrenching turn when the encroaching World War fiercely shatters her reality, propelling her on an unexpected journey where she develops unlikely friendships that ultimately alter her perception of herself and the world around her.

2. A Season for Tending by Cindy Woodsmall

Old Order Amish Rhoda Byler’s unusual gift and her remarkable abilities to grow herbs and berries have caused many to think her odd. As rumors mount that Rhoda’s “gift” is a detriment to the community, she chooses isolation, spending her time in her fruit garden and on her thriving canning business.  
 
Miles away in Harvest Mills, Samuel King struggles to keep his family’s apple orchard profitable. As the eldest son, Samuel farms with his brothers, the irrepressible Jacob and brash Eli, while his longtime girlfriend Catherine remains hopeful that Samuel will marry her when he feels financially stable.  

3. The Charmer by C.J. Archer

andsome. Charming. Devastating. He was the last man she needed, but the only one she wanted. 

Orlando Holt has never assassinated a woman before. The lovely, feisty Lady Lynden will be his first. She's supposed to be a vicious murderess, but when Orlando begins to have doubts, he sets out to discover the identity of the person who hired him. What he learns will turn his world upside down, and propel him headlong into love with a woman who's immune to his charms. 

Twice widowed by the age of twenty-four, Lady Susanna Lynden has had enough of charming men. Her last husband knew all the right things to say to get her to the marriage bed…then made her life miserable. Money may be scarce and her house falling down around her, but the exotic fruit from her orange trees will keep poverty away. Except someone is thwarting her at every turn. Someone who may even want her dead. 

4. Conor's Way by Laura Lee Guhrke

Olivia Maitland needs a man. Determined to hang onto her family’s Louisiana farm no matter what, Olivia knows she needs a big, strong man to help her, a man who’s not afraid of hard work. But in the aftermath of the Civil War, men like that are hard to come by, and when she finds ex-boxer Conor Branigan lying unconscious in the road, Olivia takes him in, even though the hard, brawling Irishman isn’t exactly what she had in mind, especially when he ignites a passion in her she’s never felt before.
Conor knows what it’s like to pour all your hopes, dreams, and sweat into a piece of land only to have it come to nothing. He’d already seen his family destroyed and their lands taken during the Irish famine when he was a boy, and he has no intention of sticking around long enough to watch a corrupt man with power do the same thing to Olivia. But she and her three adopted daughters touch dreams in Conor he thought he’d forgotten long ago. Can he let go of the bitterness of his past and make a new future with Olivia? Can he believe in love again, or is it just too late for his cynical heart?

5. Sugar Creek by Toni Blake

10. Sweet Hush by Deborah Smith

Her Harvard-student son just eloped with the First Daughter. CNN is parked on the road to her apple orchards. Secret Service agents have commandeered her country kitchen. The irate First Parents are threatening to have her taxes audited. The President's handsome, tough, ex-military nephew is setting up camp in her guest room. Hush McGillan's quiet Appalachian world of heirloom apples, country festivals, and carefully guarded family secrets has just been flipped like one of her famous Sweet Hush Apple Turnovers. What do you do when your brand-new-in-laws are the First Family, and they don't like you any more than you like them? And what happens next when you find yourself falling in love with the man they sent to unearth all your secrets?

Have more? Vote on my Goodreads list! Orchards in Romance Novels 

It should come as no surprise that I love cats. 

Cats in romance novels are wonderful too. There should be more of them. I especially love it when the hero has a cat. Real men love cats. 

Here are some wonderful Contemporary Romance Novels with Cats!

My lists are never in any particular order. Enjoy!

1. Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley Hero (big tough biker) has a kitty. 

Lauren Grahame has spent her whole life thinking something special was going to happen. She didn’t know what it was, she just knew it would one day be hers. But she learned the hard way that special wasn’t on offer.

So, after divorcing her cheating husband, Lauren searched for nothing special and she thought she found it when she landed a job as a waitress in a biker bar in Carnal. It was perfect: a nothing job in a nowhere bar in Nowheresville.

Then Tatum Jackson walked in. Part-owner of the bar, he took one look at high-class Lauren and wanted nothing to do with her. And he made this known, loudly.

Tate’s angry insults seared in her brain, Lauren decides the feeling is mutual and she doesn’t want anything to do with the gloriously handsome Tate Jackson. The clash of the bartender and barmaid begins but, even though Tate makes his change of mind clear (in biker-speak, a language Lauren is not fluent in), Lauren is intent on going her own way.

Until a serial killer hits Carnal and Lauren finds out Tate isn’t a bartender, he’s a bounty hunter. He stakes his claim for Lauren before he goes on the hunt for a killer but Laurie doesn’t speak biker nor does she understand bounty hunters and Tate comes back from the hunt to find his old lady has moved on.

Life throws curveball after curveball at Laurie and Tate as secrets are revealed, women are brutally murdered, Tate leads Lauren to special and Laurie tries to find her inner biker babe.

2. The Nerd's Pocket Pets by D.R. Grady Tiny Kitty

Shelby Conroy has always had this thing for Mr. Clean and now she’s met his look-a-like. Sam Welby is an oncology pediatrician, former Navy SEAL, and all around yummy man. Except she’s supposed to be working for him, not drooling over him. Sam has managed to fight his attraction to Shelby so far, but he’s a little confused as to why her lab coat pockets wriggle.

3. Geek with the Cat Tattoo by Theresa Weir 

Beauty and the geek… 

Shy music geek Emerson Foshay breaks into a cold sweat and is rendered speechless whenever Lola Brown, the girl of his dreams, steps into his guitar shop. But once a stray cat named Sam follows him home, everything changes and Emerson becomes the coolest guy in town. 

4. BEAST by Pepper Pace

Interracial fairytale is the story of Beast; a marine with a destroyed face and a plus sized beauty who has identity issues. A lesson learned is that beauty is not what is on the outside...In this romance that is taken from the Beauty and the Beasts' fairytale, it will leave you questioning 'who is the beauty and who is the Beast?' 

5. Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a Kitchen Aid mixer to die for, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O. Adding insult to O-less, she also has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Every moan, spank, and—was that a meow?—punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has—yep, you guessed it—no O. Enter Simon Parker. When the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. Their late-night hallway encounter has…well…mixed results. Because with walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick. A delicious mix of silly and steamy, this is an irresistible tale of exasperation at first sight.

6. Night Magic by Karen Robards Hero is allergic and they are on the run. 

Romance writer Clara Winston dedicates her newest book to her cat, Puff, without knowing what havoc she is about to unloose on her placid (boring?) life. Because there’s a rogue CIA agent out there whose code name is Puff, and some very bad guys want to kill him. When the bad guys show up at mild-mannered Clara’s house, thinking that she can lead them to the man they’re hunting, she is rescued by that man, disgraced CIA agent Jack McClain. Jack is green-eyed, black-haired, infuriatingly macho—and every bit as sexy as the romantic heroes she’s always writing about. Clara hates him on sight, but if she wants to survive he is the only game in town. With Puff very reluctantly in tow, they go on the run for their lives, battling each other until the sizzling chemistry between them explodes into red-hot passion.

7. Long Time Gone by Meg Benjamin

Erik Toleffson wasn’t looking to become Chief of Police. He’s got enough trouble trying to rebuild his relationship with his three brothers who, until just recently, ran the other way when he approached. He’s not the bully they grew up with, but bad memories are tough to overcome. 

Morgan Barrett is as worn out as a vat full of crushed grape skins. She never planned to run Cedar Creek Winery, but there’s no one else to shoulder the load as her father recovers from an injury. All she needs is a little sleep. Just a five-minute nap in the booth at the Dew Drop Inn…if that guy across the bar would stop staring at her as if putting her head down on the table is a crime.

After Morgan yawns in Erik’s face, there’s nowhere to go but up. With time, though, their relationship warms like a perfectly blended Bordeaux. Until the shady mayor digs into Erik’s past and dredges up information that could drive a permanent wedge between him and his brothers—and sour any chance of a future with Morgan.

8. Whisper Falls by Toni Blake

Tessa Sheridan came crawling back to her quaint hometown of Destiny after her big-city interior design career crumbled. Now not only must she struggle to make ends meet, but she has to contend with a biker next door and the roar of Harleys shattering the serenity of her cabin in the woods by Whisper Falls.

Worse still, her sexy, bad boy neighbor makes her feel breathless and weak—and shy, petite Tessa knows what a major mistake it would be to get involved with someone so . . . dangerous. 

They say that former teen rebel Lucky Romo has a dark, secret past—that he’s trouble with a capital "T." Still, Tessa feels all tingly when she sees how well he fills out a pair of tight jeans. And when Lucky invites her into his world, she knows the intense heat sparking between them could lead her somewhere wild and wonderful . . . and, yes, dangerous!

9. Back in Black by Lori Foster

Gillian is a PR expert hired to smooth out the rough edges on hot- headed sports club president Drew Black. He's rough, raw and ready for any challenge Gillian throws his way. But which one's going to end up on top?

10. Purrfect Voyage by Ruth J. Hartman

Kitty Carter is used to getting into strange situations when she chases her cat, Arthur. But this latest escapade is just too much! When Arthur chases a mouse at the marina while she's doing research for her book, she follows him down the dock and onto a yacht. Not entirely her plan, since she falls down some stairs and hits her head, and wakes to find herself out to sea. And she and Arthur aren’t the only ones on board!

Did I miss your favorite? Let me know! Vote for the best kitty in Contemporary Romance on my Goodreads list: Cats in Contemporary Romance