Start Off the School Year RIGHT, Folks.

With little intrigue, a little affair of the heart. Amour. I'm talking about love, people, or lust. I'm talking about romancey pants swoonytimes books. We've got a lot of new ones to go along with our still-as-good-as-ever old ones. A little something for everyone, I think.

Sweet and Innocent

I'm not sure why there is a cookie on the cover of this book, because Hudson, our heroine is a cupcake gourmet. That aside, what you see is what you get -- a sweet (BITTERSWEET!) story about a former competitive ice skater, who hangs up her skates for good after her parent's divorce. Totally done. Never again. She spends her time helping out in her mom's diner, and trying to forget the almost-a-star life she left behind.

Lately, though, she's been sneaking to the pond and skating a little. Just a little. It's her little secret until she smacks into the captain of the school's hockey team out on the ice. Then everything changes. Talked into using her mad ice skills to get the hockey team ready for the season (like this!), Hudson goes from quiet days spent baking to juggling her new life, her old life, two boys, her mother's failing diner, and a best friend who is getting lost in the shuffle. It's swoony and sweet and will make you want a cupcake.

Sexytimes, Holy Smokes

Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman is a different kind of book. Angel lives with her swinging single mom and two little siblings, their beach-kissed life spread over three houses on the Jersey shore. In the summer they make serious bank renting out two of the houses and all cram into the one. In the off season, though, Angel lives on her own in one of the houses, and let me tell you, trouble ensues. By trouble I mean sexytimes. Whoa.

Angel can't quite stay away from the boyfriend she keeps breaking up with, but he's had it with her shenanigans. She cares about him, or wants to care about him, but the truth of the matter is she just really likes to have sex and doesn't think she should have to apologize for it. She's comfortable with her philosophy until she trysts with her good-girl best friend's boyfriend, setting off a chain of events that make her wonder if she's gone too far. Short, steamy, and thought provoking, this is the perfect book to transport you back to the beach as the weather starts to get cooler.

The Tearjerker

A family spends one last summer at their lake house together. For sad reasons. This is one of those love stories that you don't even want to get fluttery about, because everything else happening in the book is so heartbreaking. If you like to have a good cry once in a while, and need a little swoon to go with it so you don't choke on those tears, this book is for you.