The book was The Restorer by Amanda Stevens.
And here was the blurb that I read that made me decide to check it out:
My name is Amelia Gray. I'm a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe. . .I said to myself, this book is right up my alley! I noticed when I got home, though, that the book had a little sticker on the binding that said "ROMANCE" and I was like, what??? Because I checked it out from the adult fiction section (I usually get my books from the YA section), and I never would have checked out a romance from the adult fiction section. This is because when I have, (and not on purpose), mostly what I've ended up with isn't what I'd call romance at all. It's all like, Oh, I'm going to have an affair with my boss who is married, or Oh, I am lusting after my coworker who is so dark and mysterious, or Oh, I am going to go into lurid detail about my night with some random guy I met at the hospital. Hmmm. I'm not sure what any of those scenarios actually have to do with romance (hooking up with my boss doesn't sound very romantic to me).
Romance is supposed to deal with love and affection. And a romance story is supposed to deal with people actually falling in love. Now in defense of the blurb above, there was a little more that I didn't include, which said something about the detective's magnetism, which I either overlooked or interpreted as being a minor part of the story (since the rest of the blurb also talks about the serial killer who leaves clues in the headstones that they are trying to catch, making this now a murder mystery on top of ghost story).
Anyway, I saw that sticker and was like, now I don't know if I want to read this. But I did anyway, and the 'romance' was NOT romantic, just as I suspected.
Now, I guess I should have said that I'm not a big romance fan to begin with. I mean, I will not usually pick out a book just because it belongs to that genre. There has to be something more to it, something interesting about it. Like it is an adventure story or a mystery or a funny story that just happens to have romance thrown in, or it is clearly a romance but with a very interesting twist. Young adult novels do this quite a bit, I guess because they figure that teenage girls are all into falling in love and stuff. So they throw it in to more than half the stories just for good measure. And you know what? Those authors are usually really good at it. So if you are looking for romance that is really truly romantic, you should pick up a young adult novel for sure.
Here are a few that I've enjoyed that have romance in them, but aren't necessarily romance novels:
This is actually pretty much all about romance, but it's not at all syrupy or cliche. It has a beautiful rich girl with family issues and a quirky (possibly Asperger's) guy who decides he has to meet her. It follows their relationship as it evolves from less than nothing into something special. Really good story.
(Reading Level: 5.0/Middle Grade+)
Loved, loved, loved this trilogy! It is the story of Greek gods living in modern times who have lost their immortality and are dying. It has gods in love with mortals, mortals in love with gods, demigods in love with gods, and gods in love with demigods despite their best efforts. Oh, and reincarnated mortals not admitting that they are in love with each other. It is also full of mystery and action and adventure. Very well-rounded. (Reading Level: 4.5/Upper Grades)
This is a book about a girl who keeps seeing visions of an accident that kills a boy. A boy she has a crush on. A boy who is forbidden because his family and her family are bitter rivals. This is nothing like Romeo and Juliet, though. It is a nice thriller/suspense with plenty of witty dialogue and a budding romance that helps move the story along. Oh, and it has two follow-up books. Yea! (Reading Level: 4.9/Middle Grade+)
After the world ends things are pretty nasty, but there is still room for love. Two teenagers develop a romance while fighting mutated monster-things, and in book two their relationship is tested while they try to live in a sort of utopia in the heart of the land of the monster-things, and in book three we find out how it all pans out - their love as well as their fate in relation to the monster-things. Lots of action and adventure without the gushy stuff (in the romance, I mean, not in the blood and gore.) (Reading Level: 4.8/Middle Grade+)
I thought I was getting a love story aboard the Titanic in classic historical fiction style. Well, let me tell you, the 'secret' in the love interest's past is not at all what you would expect, placing this book firmly in the speculative fiction category. The book has a perfect balance of romance and, well, other stuff, and because it's a stand alone book, you actually get to find out what happens at the end. (Reading Level: 5.3/Upper Grades)
Don't let the confusing first couple of chapters make you toss this book aside. Once I got past the beginning, this turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read. The book is mainly about discovering secrets and figuring out what happened in the past and how it is related to the present, but it has a nice bit of a love story in there too. From what I've seen, everyone else either absolutely loved (by far the majority opinion) or absolutely hated it, so if you decide to give it a try, hopefully you end up on the love side. (Reading Level: 5.0/Upper Grades)
Dystopian. Science Fiction. Action/Adventure. Romance? You betcha. Girl falls in love with genetically engineered super soldier while trying to figure out how to save their dying world. Three books of awesomeness guys as well as girls can enjoy. (Reading Level: 6.1/Middle Grade+)
Here is another historical fantasy action/adventure romance novel. It has a sort of love triangle, but only one guy has a chance, and he's so perfect for the heroine you don't even feel sorry for the other dude. It is a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which probably a lot of you have heard of and none of you have read. It was great. Definitely on my list of favorite books. (Reading Level: 5.6/Middle Grade+)
I wrote a (kinda) detailed review about this book about a year ago (check it out here) in which I was pretty conflicted about it. But since this review is about the romance, I'll definitely recommend it, because that is one of the things I loved about it. I don't want to spoil anything, but the backstory, when you finally figure it out, is like, WHOA. Amazing. and Different. And Beautiful. And if you go back and read my earlier post, I compromised and bought the paperback version. (Reading Level: ? /Upper Grades)
This is not only historical fiction at its best, but one of the best books I've ever read. It is about the girl in the Mona Lisa painting. It is about the options available to women in 15th century Italy. And of course, it is also about love. Read it, read it, read it. (Reading Level: 4.0/Upper Grades)
I didn't care for the blurb of this one, but I love the author so I gave it a try. Using the myth of Lillith as a starting point, it has the daughter of a demon falling for a human boy, but it isn't all angely and demony and supernaturally powered and all that. It had an unexpected underlying story and a real message, not sexy guys with wings going around doing battle and stuff. Very unique and interesting. (Reading Level: 5.1/Upper Grades)
I had to include this one because I didn't really have one yet that deals with people with a power. Oh, and because the dialogue between the main character and the boy she is falling for is fantastic. I've only read the first book in the series, and I didn't care for how it ended, but I'll read the next one just to enjoy all the things the guy says. (Reading Level: 4.3/Upper Grades)
So I tried to squeeze in a horror book, which this sort of is. It does have witches and magic and a scary scene at the end. But it also has a hokey love triangle with the boy next door and a ghost. Pretty stupid, really, and kind of a mess, but I read the whole thing so I guess it wasn't too bad. You might enjoy it. (Reading Level: 4.2/Upper Grades)
Last one! I felt I needed to cover Fairytales or Fantasy, and I didn't have much for Fairytales so Fantasy it is. This has the ordinary girl and the extraordinary guy who just so happens to work for the bad guys. (But of course, nothing is really as it seems.) It is a nice love story with equal parts of fairies and brownies and other uncanny creatures from Celtic mythology, but also a rebellion so there is intrigue and fighting and all that too. A very nicely done trilogy. (Reading Level: 5.3/Middle Grade+)
Okay. So I think this is a pretty well-rounded list. You can see almost everything I've read that I remember having an aspect of romance by going to my Book List about Romance (Here's the link if it makes it easier for you!)
Just a note, many of these books are more appropriate for readers in the upper grades. If you want the specifics, (you know, is it sex or drugs or profanity or violence), you can find out by entering the title into the AR BookFinder here.
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