I’ll admit as appealing as the covers of small town romances look to me, whenever I try to read them, I always end up stopping at book 2. They just bleed into one another for me and even dramatic plots feel predictable. Historical and regency romance are more bag than the small Midwestern towns where everyone knows everyone else that is supposed to feel cozy but I feel like its clustraphobic and incestuous.

Not Jeannie Chin’s Blue Ceder Falls, NC.

Yes, it’s another small town where everyone knows your name but it feels more real to me somehow. It doesn’t feel disconnected from the rest of the world. Probably thanks to its diversity.

Chin injects some of her experiences of being Asian-American in a town filled with the usual cast of white characters with the Wu sisters. Even so, it makes it more real. Blue Ceder Falls is idyllic but can also be unwelcoming to strangers like Clay, the marine veteran wandering in the first book to open a bar in honor of his friend. Small towns can be territorial in that sense and Chin acknowledges that by tying it in with her themes of feeling like an outsider.

She also tackles the Asian-American experience in her subsequent books, breaking against the model minority myth with the flighty sister, Elizabeth and the sometimes assumption that the two Asian kids are bound together in the case of May and Han. I mean they do, they love each other but it was kinda annoying when they were insecure high schoolers.

This allows Chin to establish that while this is a wholesome, cozy series, it will also bring up tough issues with depth, balancing the lightness of romance, small town festivals, gallary openings, and family with real life issues like June’s friend coming out to her parents, PTSD, Elizabeth’s friend’s fears with motherhood, financial burden of running inns, and health issues.

The romances are distinct, sweet and charming, combined with the real life issues they face, and internal issues of miscommunication and misaligned ambitions for life, make it layered and heartwarming as everyone finds their HEA.

If you’re looking for a 21st century take on a small town with flawed characters, engaging romances and the importance of community and family over all, you’ll want to visit Blue Ceder Falls real soon.