My Romantic Adventures #81

Ella Mazzini works the counter at a local dime store, content with her job and her easygoing boyfriend Joe—until the store gets a new manager, Nicholas Burns, who seems determined to make her life difficult. When Joe's eye wanders at an employees' picnic, Ella finds herself unexpectedly swept up in a magical day with the very man she thought she couldn't stand, complete with dancing, laughter, and a kiss under the moonlight. But the morning after brings a shock that forces Ella to reckon with what she really wants.

Betty Lou boards a transcontinental train to California nervous about how to conduct herself, but her anxiety melts away when she strikes up a conversation with a fellow passenger named Andrew Green—a charming man also headed west on the same connection. As the journey unfolds across dining cars and club cars, the two find themselves increasingly drawn to each other, and what begins as polite train-travel etiquette blossoms into something far more meaningful.

Jean Thorne spent her college years prioritizing education over romance, but when she begins coaching the charming football captain Tom Jordan in biology, she discovers that her resolve to avoid love may not be as strong as she thought. As their study sessions deepen into something more personal, Jean must confront the ghosts of her impoverished past and decide whether a future with Tom is worth the risk of repeating her family's struggles. "Love of a Love Counselor" explores what happens when a young woman who has mastered the art of giving relationship advice to others must finally take her own counsel.

Amid the chaos of the Hungarian Revolution, Magda and her fiancé Ian Lazlo are caught between love and the struggle for freedom—as Ian joins the underground fight against Communist rule while their wedding day approaches. When Russian tanks roll into Budapest, the couple is torn apart, and Magda must flee to America, believing Ian lost forever. A chance encounter at a refugee camp in their new country may offer an unexpected second chance at the life they dreamed of together.