To Be Loved by You

Burns delights with her uplifting sixth Rescue Me romance (after Head over Paws), featuring yoga teacher Ava Graham, social worker Jeremy Washington, and a host of adorable four-legged friends in need of forever homes. Still recovering from a painful divorce, Ava lives with her sister, supports herself by selling real estate while building her yoga practice, and volunteers at High Grove Animal Shelter in her spare time. It’s at the shelter’s daylong “dog wash” event that Ava meets Jeremy, who runs a day program for at-risk teens, hoping to offer them the resources he lacked growing up in an abusive home. After escaping a destructive marriage to a fellow alcoholic, Jeremy considers himself too broken to be capable of a healthy relationship, despite being eight years sober. But Ava, who trusts her intuition about their compatibility, gently wends her way into Jeremy’s heart, teaching yoga to his students, helping him rescue feral kittens, and returning the doting affection of his dog, Rolo. While Burns’s plot does not shy away from life’s difficulties, the story still brims with kindness, hope, and a stalwart belief in second chances for both humans and animals. This gentle romance will please Burns’s fans and new readers alike. Agent: Jessica Watterson, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Jan.)