Exquisite romance novellas are gems. They introduce you to an author you may not have otherwise tried, the format is the right length to read in about a day, and you can just sink into a tightly plotted and highly focused romance arc. Swoon.

Well welcome Sing Anyway to my perfect romance novella pantheon. I would like to put on a Celine Dion song and sing with Sam & Lily and their friends at Moonies.

Kelly immediately sets the scene at Moonies, bringing both the place, and the people within it, alive. You feel like you *know* Sam in just a few paragraphs, and once you meet Lily, the same. For being a fairly short read, you are left completely satisfied with their courtship arc.

I especially especially loved the details of Lily's love of making clothes and fashion becoming one of her love languages to Sam, and Sam loving Lily's body exactly how it is, and her outfits, too. Just so lovely. Both Sam and Lily are also, despite being thirty and forty something, a little lost. And you know what, I appreciate seeing that as a little lost almost 40yo too.

What more can I say, this is exquisite and give it a go. I said exquisite a lot, but I mean it!

I read a paperback gifted to me from a friend (and it is signed yay)!

Content notes: Sam is a white, nonbinary history professor (loves maps yay!!!!) and uses they/them pronouns. Lily is a white cis woman and works as a front office manager/secretary at a veterinary office, using she/her pronouns

Some discussion of fatphobia, homophobia, misgendering, and fear is discussed