State of Romance: New York, where heroines do it their way

On this day in 1776, the Continental Army lost the Battle of Brooklyn to the British Army, ceding control of New York City. It was the first battle after the Declaration of Independence. The Patriots may have lost the battle, but they won the war. The Battle of Brooklyn symbolizes New York City's resilience to overcome adversity in our country's 238th-year history.

That resilience makes New York City a natural setting for a romance novel. Kasey Michaels' Maggie Kelly mystery series offers many laugh-out-loud moments throughout the Big Apple. The heroine, like her hometown of NYC, reinvents herself from historical author to amateur sleuth with the help of two characters — a sexy lord and his bumbling sidekick — who come to life from her historical romances. Throughout the six-book series, Maggie plays out every romance trope, including a trip to a writers' convention with her characters in tow. A must-read for die-hard defenders of the romance genre!

NYC is the shopping capital of the world, thus attracting Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. Becky Bloomwood arrives in the Big Apple, with credit card in hand, to prepare for her wedding, meet her American mother-in-law, and find the infamous bootleg designer shoe sale.

NYC native Franklin B. King reinvented himself as Lydia Adamson to pen the Alice Nettleton mystery series with a cat-sitter solving mysteries across the Big Apple and Long Island, too. I devoured the 21 books in the series when I traveled overseas with the Air Force — there is no better way to pass the time on sling-back seats on a C17.

Yet romance is not limited to NYC. Can you name romance novels set in the Empire State? Share on Twitter, using the hashtag #stateofromance.

Next week we visit Delaware, the First State.

Kim Lowe is an Air Force veteran, Air Force spouse and romance book blogger at SOS Aloha. You can reach her at sos.aloha@yahoo.com.