State of Romance: Mountains of love in the Volunteer State

Tomorrow is the 58th anniversary of the Million Dollar Quartet, an impromptu recording session with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and yet-to-breakout Jerry Lee Lewis. The tracks were finally released in 1990 as Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet. The recordings took place at the Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. The Volunteer State is also home to many "million-dollar" romances.

I was surprised to learn how many paranormal books are set in Tennessee — the Great Smoky Mountains must be an attraction for things that go bump in the night, including Charlaine Harris' Grave Surprise, Jeaniene Frost's At Grave's End, Laurell K. Hamilton's Blue Moon, Rachel Hawkins' Spell Bound, Sherrilyn Kenyon's Upon the Midnight Clear, Jennifer Estep's Spider's Bite and Bonnie Vanak's Immortal Wolf.

Romantic suspense is equally dominant in Tennessee with Maya Banks' The Darkest Hour, Catherine Coulter's Blind Side, Jo Davis' Trial by Fire, Christy Reece's Run to Me, Karen Robards' Walking After Midnight, Kay Hooper's Hostage, Beverly Barton's The Fifth Victim, Brenda Novak's Watch Me and Marliss Melton's Time to Run from her SEAL Team 12 series. Those SEALs are everywhere!

Cozy mystery fans will enjoy Laura Childs' Eggs in Purgatory (Cackleberry Club) and Delia Rosen's A Brisket, A Casket (A Deadly Deli Mystery). Both series feature food … I'm licking my lips for Southern cooking!

Tennessee's volatile history comes to life in Pamela Morsi's Garters, Maureen McKade's A Reason to Live and Rosanne Bittner's Tennessee Bride.

Contemporary romance offers a variety of heroes with a cranky cowboy in LuAnn McLane's He's No Prince Charming, a West Coast architect in Dianne Castell's Til There Was U and a fast-track attorney in Mary Lynn Baxter's Like Silk.

How about a Tennessee Waltz from Ginger Hansen? Or Man from Tennessee by Jennifer Greene? Of course, Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna.

My favorite books from Tennessee include Mark Twain's The Gilded Age, Catherine Marshall's Christy and John Grisham's The Firm.

Add to the list of romance books set in the Volunteer State by using #stateofromance on Twitter. Join us next week for a visit to Tennessee's neighbor to the south, Mississippi, the Magnolia 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.