What’s better than another fabulous romance collection from Barbour Publishing? How about one that’s full of stories of one of my favorite romance threads? Second chances at first love.

There are nine (yep, you read that right, NINE) novellas in the First Love Forever Romance Collection. And yes, I could review all nine, but we’d be here a while so instead, I’ll highlight a few of my favorites.

“A Most Reluctant Bride” by Cynthia Hickey was probably my favorite out of the nine (but it was a very close race between three of these stories for that top spot. In this story, Maggie Spoonmore marries a man she had a major crush on as a girl. As Maggie and Zach spend their days together as a married couple, her feelings return. Unfortunately, Zach only married her for the ranch. Maggie and Zach are great together. Zach respects and understands where Maggie’s talents lie (which is not in the running of the house) and wants her by his side.

Jennifer Uhlarik takes a bit of a different approach with a hearing-impaired hero and heroine in “Heartfelt Echoes.” A misunderstanding has kept distance between these two but when Millie’s mother sends for Travis McCaffrey, he wastes no time in coming to Millie’s rescue. But she’s not the same girl he remembers from school and something sinister is going on at her home.

Appropriately titled “First Things First” as Susanne Dietz’s novella is the first in the collection, when Ward Harper returns to town, Georgie Bridge is both shocked and dismayed. Shocked because Ward is back, dismayed because he’s representing a man in a case against her father. With plenty of brothers and one of them in trouble, the Bridge’s turn to Ward for assistance. Can Ward crawl out of the shadows of his parents and be the man Georgie deserves?

That’s only a third of the stories in this collection. Each novella is on the longer side but still the right amount to kick back and finish in one evening. It may introduce you to a new author and it could even re-introduce you to some characters you’ve seen before (as is the case with the stories from Carrie Fancett Pagels and Erica Vetsch).