State of Romance: Where love grows tall by the Fourth of July

I know two things about Nebraska — it is nicknamed the Cornhusker State and it is home to Strategic Command at Offutt AFB. Nebraska's treeless plains are perfect for growing corn and grazing cattle, attracting German and Czech immigrants who now represent the largest ancestry groups in the state. Military families at Offutt enjoy family life on and off base. The agricultural economy and military presence in Nebraska create the perfect backdrop for romances of all genres.

Paranormal romance haunts the prairieland with Shannon K. Butcher's Finding the Lost and Holly Hook's Twisted. Molly Harper brings her Half Moon Hollow series to Nebraska with Driving Mr. Dead.

Western expansion sets the stage for historical romance, including Lynna Banning's The Ranger and the Redhead, Lisa Page's Mail Order Mistake, Cheryl St. John's Land of Dreams, Kim Vogel Sawyer's Courting Miss Amstel, Hilda Stahl's Blossoming Love and Stephanie Grace Whitson's Sixteen Brides.

There is nothing plain about contemporary romances in the Cornhusker State, including Lorelei James' Miss Firecracker, Genevieve Dewey's The Good Life, Phyllis Halldorson's Return to Raindance, Sydney Logan's Force of Nature, Erin Nicholas' Just Right and Ruth Ann Nordin's Just Good Friends.

Even YA finds adventure in Nebraska with Andrea Portes' Anatomy of a Misfit.

Add to the list of romance novels set in Nebraska by using #StateOfRomance on Twitter. Next week we visit Idaho, the Gem 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.