I am on a romance kick right now. If it has something that warms my heart, I want it. Happily ever afters are cozy, reassuring, safe. I love the promise and surety that the romance genre offers. I love that, like clockwork, I can predict when they will kiss, when they will fight, when they will make up, when they will wed. Yes, there are surprises and growth and depth, but the routine and sappy, saccharine tropes of the genre are what are so reassuring. Yes, I have a love for deep, intellectual prose, but I just as often crave lightness and escape. Plus, romance doesn’t always make me choose! I’ve read romance books with neurodiverse characters, characters exploring grief and loss, and characters pursuing higher education degrees and careers that deeply matter to them.
In the spirit of romance, I’ll be opening this blog with a list of 5 things I love about my new home, Guam. I moved here in late July to follow my boyfriend who has been stationed here for the next three years as a surgeon. The only times I’ve left the States have been a short cruise to Bermuda and a visit to Saint Croix, both of which only gave me the smallest glimpses into island life.
Vacationing on an island is one thing. It’s romantic and escapist and always sunny and postcard perfect. Living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is also romantic and escapist, but there is a reality to it that brings its own worries and hardships. I will not focus on those points today. Today, I am focusing on a few of the things that I love.
Things I love about Guam:
Sunsets
The sky is alive with color when the sun goes down, and the light playing among the clouds is such a delight when I get home from work. It’s easy to take the beauty of the water for granted when I see it every day, but it’s a whole new kind of magic when the oranges, pinks, and reds appear.
Fiestas
I had been told that people are really welcoming and kind on Guam and that sense of hospitality has been true in our encounters with strangers. As a Catholic, it was important for me to find a church that could become a community for me. I was really excited that the church in our village has the same order of friars that I grew up with on Long Island and that our pastor knew one of the priests that worked at my church when I was young. What a small world! During our first time attending the church, it was announced that there would be a fiesta the following weekend to celebrate the church’s patron saint. Tom and I signed ourselves up to donate and were excited to see for ourselves what a fiesta was like. I was truly blown away. The parking lot was decorated with huge displays of fake flowers, and the procession of parishioners was huge. We began to chat with a woman who was walking beside us, and she and her friend immediately welcomed us as their friends for the rest of the night. They explained the different foods at the giant buffet of donated appetizers, entrees, and desserts that spanned multiple tables. We were able to sample so many different local foods, and as we got ready to leave, we were kindly urged to fill bags with leftover food to take home. In a time when many families don’t regularly attend church or practice their faith, it was amazing to see the faith community come together for this celebration.
Po Tarts
Guam does not have Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, so if you want to pick up your morning coffee, you can stop at one of the many local chains or independent coffee shops. Infusion Coffee has quickly become one of my favorites because of their Portuguese egg tarts (po tarts). These custardy eggs with a puff pastry crust are only available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so they have become my much anticipated “Fun Friday breakfast.” Paired with a cold brew coffee, they are an indulgent treat I wish I could savor more often.
Donki
On my first full day in Guam, my boss and his wife took me to Don Don Donki (a Japanese grocery store) for dinner. When they said we were getting sushi in a grocery store food court, I thought I could expect a pre-packaged California Roll. Boy was I wrong! This Japanese grocery store has a full sushi restaurant with fresh fish, tempura, and wagyu that are delivered on a conveyor belt to your table. The food court has diverse options and the store itself is an overwhelming display of colors and sound. The penguin mascot excitedly highlights in countless signs the new and exciting offerings. After Tom’s 2 days of sleepless travel, I brought him to Don Don Donki for a late dinner. Note to self: the sensory overload of Don Don Donki probably isn’t the best for someone who hasn’t slept in 48 hours. Walking around Donki is always an adventure for me, and while I say I’m just going to buy rice and canned tuna, I always end up with a few surprises.
Snorkeling
If you know me well, you know that I am not an adventurous person. While Tom is excited to get scuba certified, I am very happy to just stick to swimming. However, he didn’t want me to miss out on seeing the reef fish, so he taught me how to snorkel. We’ve gone a couple of times now, and I’m truly blown away each time. The water is so shallow and warm and clear. Without going deeper than my knees or waist, I can already see fish swimming around, and when we start to swim, there’s an entirely new world of coral and colorful fish. I worked retail at the Long Island Aquarium as my summer job for years, and one of my favorite parts was selling tickets for the snorkel tank adventure and watching the kids explore this new watery world up close. To actually get to experience the real thing for myself and to see real parrot fish and tangs and even a small shark was such a thrilling moment. I used to learn as much as I could about the fish, and now I’m actually able to see them in their own habitat.
On to the books! In the past few months, here are a few of the romance books that I’ve enjoyed!
Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto
I had read Forget Me Not months ago, and I have a special love for characters who support each other’s passions and careers. Working together in a creative business and seeing your dreams come true together…swoon! Forget Me Not followed the tension-filled romance between a wedding planner and florist, and Not Another Love Song follows the enemies to lovers romance between a famous rock-star cellist (who used to be a famous violinist) and a young, naive, overly trusting violinist. Gwen and Alex are both taken advantage of time and time again by people who say they have their best interests at heart, and their story is a much-needed warning to young professionals that they can’t always blindly trust their mentors and that the dreams they once had may not be the dreams that they keep. Told mostly through Gwen’s perspective, we have the chance to see her very relatable dilemmas around her passion and career: do something you love that isn’t financially secure or do something you are okay with that has a sense of financial security? When do you risk standing up for your best interests and when do you leave an unsupportive workplace? When multiple people say they are working for your best interest, who do you trust? Her romance with Alex is definitely steamy, and I wish that we had more chapters narrated from his perspective, especially during their argument and time apart. If you liked Ali Hazelwood’s books or the drama of Taylor Swift rerecording her own music or listening to the Vitamin String Quartet, there’s a lot you’ll like about this one! I listened to it on audio and enjoyed the narration, especially the clear attempts to give the main characters their own voices and personality.
The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
I have a love/meh relationship with Abby Jimenez’s books. Some of her stories had me hooked and engaged from beginning to end with characters I loved to love. A couple of her books had me frustrated with the choices her characters made, and I couldn’t connect as well with them throughout the story. I listened to the first book in the trilogy when I was driving to my friend’s wedding last fall, and I had been frustrated that cheating was such a major part of the plot. I hate to say it, but I really couldn’t root for the happily ever after. So I came to The Happily Ever After Playlist with low expectations. I read it while I traveled to Guam, and let me tell you, the twists and turns of the second half are perfect for a long trip. The Happily Ever After Playlist follows Sloan (the best friend of the main character of the first book), whose fiancé had recently died after a motorcycle accident. The Friend Zone showed Sloan’s crushing grief and loss, and the author has shared that she was inspired by her own friend losing her husband. At the beginning of the book, Sloan is still mourning the loss of the life she had planned for and was not looking for love when a lost dog found his way into her life. It turns out that the lost dog belongs to her favorite musician, and the two begin a flirtatious friendship that turns into a relationship. Everything is sunshine and roses and very Hallmark-movie until Sloan’s life is turned upside down by Jason’s tour. There’s secrets and celebrity drama and spirals into disaster and the toll of fame and living on the road and losing yourself. Sloan’s grief stays with her, and while there is a lot of loss and fear and sadness, there is also a lot of wholesome love and care and finding yourself and finding joy. If you like Hallmark movies, meet-cutes, and reading TMZ, this is a fun book for you.
Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez
The sequel to The Happily Ever Playlist cranks up the drama from the very beginning while keeping tender friendship and selfless love a focal point. The connecting character between the two books is Adrian, who shows up briefly as a date for Sloan while she and Jason are split up. He was a forgettable character in his first appearance, but wow does he get to shine in his own story. Adrian is fresh out of a breakup when he meets his sleep-deprived neighbor, Vanessa. She is a traveler vlogger with a celebrity-level following, but her life has been put on hold because her drug-addict sister abandoned her infant daughter and her hoarding father and irresponsible brother are of no help in this crisis. And, to make matters worse, Vanessa is convinced that she has ALS, which her other sister also died from and she is sure would have killed her mother if she hadn’t died in a car accident. Oh, and Vanessa refuses to see a doctor for a diagnosis or for treatment because she wants to live and die on her own terms. If that isn’t a dramatic, tension-filled start to a book, I don’t know what is! Adrian is a lawyer whose life is his work. Vanessa encourages him to be more spontaneous, more fun, and more balanced in his life. Together, they adorably decorate his apartment for Christmas, cook dinner together, and help her family. They themselves become their own family as they care for Vanessa’s niece. However, as must always happen, reality comes crashing in upon them, and fear and lack of communication drive a wedge between the happy couple. Their banter is dynamic and Adrian’s selfless care for Vanessa is cozy and sweet. Of the three books in the series, this one is my favorite, and the Christmas decorating scene made me stop and gush to Tom about its cuteness.
Eating: While the seasons don’t change and we’re in a state of perpetual summer, I long for my favorite season: fall. I miss crunching leaves, burning fires, a horizon full of color, apple flavored everything, corn mazes, and pumpkin patches. I miss wearing sweaters and eating hearty comfort foods. Seeing my parents making pecan pie bars, pumpkin whoopie pies, and apple crisp for the farmers market makes me especially homesick for the fall. To try to get a taste of fall, I made homemade apple cider on Halloween. It took about 3 hours to make on the stovetop, but it was a pretty simple process. I will definitely add more spices to it next time to capture those fall flavors and not forget to add the sweetener at the end! I also cooked a new favorite dinner to add to our rotation: spaghetti squash. After roasting the squash, I added it to a pan of sauteed shallots, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and chicken sausage with a generous pour of olive oil and parmesan cheese. It was much lighter than spaghetti but was still filling and satisfying. It also made a ton of leftovers with minimal active cooking time (the bulk of the recipe’s time was having the squash roast in the oven), so that’s a win in my book! When in doubt, I always turn to Love and Lemons when I’m looking for tips on cooking vegetables, and their guide to spaghetti squash was helpful for me.
Watching: Tom came home to me binging Nobody Wants This, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite shows this year. The chemistry is so strong, and I love seeing religion being represented in a positive way. The episodes are short with perfectly timed conflict and tender resolutions that kept me clicking the next episode. Adam Brody saying “I can handle you” deserved all of the Internet swooning it received and speaks to every self-sabotaging girl who ever felt like her emotions and her baggage were too much. I finished my binge watch on Halloween while the cider simmered on the stove, and I was a rollercoaster of emotions in the final episode. Thank goodness there’s a second season coming; I need more of this unexpected love story.
Listening to: Instrumental music comes in handy for giving me some noise without distracting me. The Outlander soundtrack has the perfect work vibes for me, and the first season’s theme song is going to end up high on my repeat list.
Wearing: Nansi Strickland owns When Pigs Fly, Magic Happens in Smithfield, and her art shop has many delightful surprises. Her jewelry is both beautiful and reasonably priced. She gifted me a pair of pearl earrings before I moved, and they have been my go-to accessory.
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