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Wednesday Waypoints | Three First Lines with Love in the Title

by Feb 11, 2026Wednesday Waypoints0 comments

Today’s Wednesday Waypoints features …

Three First Lines with Love in the Title

Welcome to Wednesday Waypoints, your midweek hygge inspiration. Each week, I’ll share a small collection of things to brighten your day. Whether books I’m loving, favorite blog posts, cozy shopping selections, or even a short excerpt to savor.

What is hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”)? According to Visit Denmark, “In essence, hygge means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people.”  So grab a cuppa, slow down, and enjoy.

About Today's Currated List

This week’s Wednesday Waypoints celebrates Valentine’s Day and the season of love with three first lines. I’ve gathered three historical romances that all share one thing in common: the word “Love” in the title. From the high-stakes intrigue of the Gilded Age to the courage required on the battlefields of WWI and the rugged lumber camps of the West, these stories prove that while danger may be the setting, love is the ultimate destination.

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List

The Element of Love

Mary Connealy

She mixed danger, desperation, and deception together. Love was not the expected outcome.

With their sharp engineering minds, Laura Stiles and her two sisters have been able to deal with their mother’s unfortunate choice in husband until they discovered his plans to marry each of them off to his lecherous friends. Now they must run away–far and fast–to find better matches to legally claim their portion of their father’s lumber dynasty and seize control from their stepfather.

During their escape, Laura befriends a mission group heading to serve the poor in California. She quickly volunteers herself and her sisters to join their efforts. Despite the settlement being in miserable condition, the sisters are excited by the opportunity to put their skills to good use. Laura also sees potential in Caleb, the mission’s parson, to help with gaining her inheritance. But when secrets buried in Caleb’s past and in the land around them come to light, it’ll take all the smarts the sisters have to keep trouble at bay.

May 1972
Northern California

They were running away from the threat of misery, pain, and degradation.

Counterfeit Love

Crystal Caudill

Can this undercover agent save the woman he loves–or is her heart as counterfeit as the money he’s been sent to track down?

After all that Grandfather has sacrificed to raise her, Theresa Plane owes it to him to save the family name–and that means clearing their debt with creditors before she marries Edward Greystone. But when one of the creditors’ threats leads her to stumble across a midnight meeting, she discovers that the money he owes isn’t all Grandfather was hiding. And the secrets he kept have now trapped Theresa in a life-threatening fight for her home–and the truth.

After months of undercover work, Secret Service operative Broderick Cosgrove is finally about to uncover the identity of the leader of a notorious counterfeiting ring. That moment of triumph turns to horror, however, when he finds undeniable proof that his former fiancée is connected. Can he really believe the woman he loved is a willing participant? Protecting Theresa and proving her innocence may destroy his career–but that’s better than failing her twice in one lifetime.

They must form a partnership, tentative though it is. But there’s no question they’re both still keeping secrets–and that lack of trust, along with the dangerous criminals out for their blood, threatens their hearts, their faith, and their very survival.

December 31, 1993

“I don’t understand why we can’t marry sooner.”

In Love's Time

Kate Breslin

At the height of World War I, two sweethearts face impossible odds in this powerful tale of courage, duty, and heartbreak.

In the summer of 1918, Captain Marcus Weatherford arrives in Russia on a secret mission, with a beautiful ballerina posing as his fiancée. He’s there to find the Romanov tsarina and her son and glean information about a plot to assassinate Lenin. As the danger intensifies, Marcus’s sense of duty battles with his desire to return home to Clare, the woman he truly loves, before it’s too late.

Military hospital orderly Clare Danner still suffers from Marcus’s betrayal after learning he’s engaged to another woman. Clare also fears losing her daughter, Daisy, to the heartless family who took her away once before. Only Marcus can provide the critical proof needed to save Daisy, but when an injury leaves him powerless to help, Clare’s fate–and the fate of the top-secret mission–hangs in the balance.

Whitehall, London
Monday, August 5, 1918
2130 Hours

Would the human destruction never end?

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Until next time, may your reading bring both light and encouragement.

Happy reading!
~ Danielle.

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