Most people think of romance novels as a bit of light reading while sitting on the beach or while snuggled up in a nice comfy chair. For others, it’s simply one of the many forms of entertainment they enjoy and sometimes take for granted. For me, these books are those things too, but they have come to mean something so much more.

In the short span of two years, I began to lose count of the number of friends and loved ones who were suddenly stripped away from my life and into the after life. The words cancer, heart attack, suicide and stroke were no longer just something they talked about in those annoying pharmaceutical commercials with a million side effects; they were real, painful and swarming around me. The most decisive blow to my psyche and soul was the passing of a man who had always been the cornerstone of my life and who from a child’s point of view was supposed to be immortal—my Dad.

Read the rest of this entry »