Love Burns Brightly

by Colleen LaQuay Urbaniuk from the January 13, 2025 issue

Tagline: Peter knows a thing or two about putting out fires, but a surprise visit from Angela reveals the one fire he never quite extinguished.

Observations: First of all, I loved the tagline. It was extra clever this week.

There was a lot I liked about this story. I loved all the banter amongst the firefighters. If you love that type of thing too, I highly recommend the book Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. It really goes deep into the world of firefighting. Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors.

I noticed this story had an omniscient POV, which isn't seen as much but was worth noting, if you like writing that POV.

I also really liked how much time was spent with the main characters interacting and exploring their past feelings and setting the record straight. Everything that happened back then sounded very plausible. When the story ended, I felt confident these two had a real chance at love.

A Perfect Beginning

by Marcella Robinson from the January 6, 2025 issue

Tagline: Looking to evade her family's matchmaking scheme, Elaine enlists a friend as a faux date that leads to real feelings on New Year's Eve.

Observations: This was a cute fake boyfriend story and it just goes to show you/me that you can take romance novel tropes and apply them to a Woman's World story! Fake relationships are all the rage in full length romances, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more of them in the pages of the magazine we all want to publish with.

Favorite line: Seriously, no man should ever look that good in flannel.