50 Shades of Erik: "A Rose in Winter" by Catherine Miller

In this Bizarro Phantom world... Christine is an urchin out on her own in the pitiless streets of Paris and being sexually abused by various louts until she is rescued by the passing Erik, who at first mistakes her for a whore!
So, this is indeed an unusual take on our favorite characters. Erik makes quick work of the current offender and rescues the little stray. He takes her home with him until he decides what to do and as she is both starving and scruffy, he covers his furniture to keep her rags from the fabric and fetches her some food which she devours. Is this the beginning to one of the great love stories of all time? It is, just quite, quite different.
I am already a fan of Destruction of Obsession by Ms. Miller, and this one doesn't disappoint as we watch these two circle round each other and learn to trust, each with their own scars and issues, and slowly allow one another to see what lies inside their hearts, their secret hopes and dreams. Erik is his brooding, tempestuous self... but driven to bake biscuits to keep his adorable Christine content. And as they become closer, and let their guards down... let's just say those guards are really, really let down...  much love is expressed in many and varied ways. Oh, those two!
Ms. Miller's Erik and Christine, in both of her books, have a delightful Victorian air about them and the way they speak, which is charming. Will Christine become an opera star in this story? Is there a Raoul waiting in the wings? Or will Erik win out and have his happy ending? You will just have to read it and see!

Don't You Need Somebody to Love: "The Seventh Mother" by Sherri Wood Emmons

When eleven year old Jenny Bohner and her handsome father, Brannon, set up their camper at an Idaho campground where he's found work for the season, she has no reason to suspect this summer would be any different than any other. They move from camp to camp and sometimes he works at a factory over the winter months. Jenny is home schooled and occasionally makes friends with other kids who live the same sort of nomadic existence they do.
Her mother died when she was three, or so her father told her. She can hardly remember her. So it's been just the two of them ever since. Except when he finds a new girlfriend. And then, none of the past girlfriends ever stuck around for very long.
Now, there's Emma. Emma with her red hair and her friendliness towards Jenny, she even lets her come help her with the camp's horses, one of her jobs. Emma can't resist Brannon's  rugged good looks. Not many women can, it seems. Even Zella Fay, who owns the diner near the campground comments on it, but she also warns Emma not to leave a job and place she loves for a man she hardly knows. Emma, running from a mysterious past, is ready to make a leap into the unknown and risk everything by going with Brannon... and Jenny.
The chapters alternate between Jenny's and Emma's viewpoints, Jenny hoping Emma will stay and become the mother she's longed for, and Emma, who is looking for a home and someone to love her. She may get more than she bargained for in this riveting, unputdownable story that draws us into Jenny and Emma's lives on the road  with Brannon, the perfect Daddy, and so handsome it's easy to overlook his darker side. Will he be the man of Emma's dreams? Or her nightmares? Buy, borrow or download a copy of  Sherri Wood Emmon's The Seventh Mother and discover their secrets, yourself! The Recommender highly recommends this one! Thanks to NetGalley for the DRC!

Once again, pairing a great book with a fitting great song!