Love and Life with Lisa 🌹

Come, come sit with me… I’ve been thinking about the kinds of men we meet in romance books — the ones who make us blush, laugh, cry, or fall a little in love ourselves. Every romance reader has a type, but in these stories? We get to explore them all. Some sweep us away, some break our hearts, and some remind us what love can look like when it finally finds us. So today, let’s talk about the men who stay with us long after the last page — the Grumpy/Sunshine, the Morally Gray Hero, the Possessive Protector, the Single Father, the Bodyguard, the Alpha Hero, the Golden Retriever sweetheart, the Slow Burn Best Friend, the Reformed Playboy, and of course… the Cowboy or Rancher who can melt us with a glance. 🌹 1. The Grumpy/Sunshine Duo There is something irresistible about a man who claims he doesn’t need anyone — until one woman walks in with warmth he didn’t know he was starving for. He’ll grumble, roll his eyes, act unimpressed… but the moment she laughs? He’s done. Undern...

Come, come sit with me. I’ve been struggling this week. I’ve struggled with going back to work — with slipping back into routine after having space to just be . And I’ve struggled with family too… not in the way you might think, because truthfully, I have a great family. Over the Christmas holiday, I read a series of books by Kristen Granata, the East Coast Hockey Series . While reading, I found myself reflecting on families — what they look like, how they function, and what really holds them together. If you’re curious: Start with Book One of the East Coast Hockey Series by Kristen Granata We all know about the families we’re born into… but what about the families we choose? Yes — you can choose your family. I have the boys, and you all know how much I love them. But I have a chosen family too — the ones I choose to love, to share space with, and to just have laughs with. The kind of laughs that reset your whole spirit. In the series, you see different couples, but you...

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for Heated Rivalry . If you haven’t read the book or watched the series yet and want to experience it fresh, you may want to come back after. Come, come sit with me… Oh child, I have to tell you about this series that’s been living rent-free in my head for three days. And let me be honest right from the start — I’m not even a TV person. I usually don’t get into the hype of shows everyone is raving about. I’ll watch here and there, but binge-watching? That’s not really my thing. But this one? This one pulled me in. I binged it. All of it. And it hit me hard — really hard . My bad… the series was Heated Rivalry . What surprised me wasn’t just the story, but how deeply it stayed with me. It wasn’t background noise. It wasn’t entertainment I forgot once the screen went dark. It lingered — in the quiet moments, in my thoughts, in my heart. While the series powerfully explores coming out as gay, wha...

Come, come… sit with me. 2025 is coming to an end, and a new season is about to begin. Before I look ahead to 2026, I want to pause and reflect — because this year changed me. 2025 was a year of courage. A year of stepping out of my comfort zone. A year of being seen. And this… this is my truth. For a long time, I lived in the shadows — and if I’m being honest, I was very comfortable there. But I kept feeling this gentle nudge to come out… to do something more. I laughed and said, “Nope. Not happening.” And yet… it did happen. I once wrote about listening to the nudge in my November 12 blog but I never shared what that nudge actually was. So here it is. The nudge was this blog. Starting it was one of the best things I have ever done for me. I’m no longer hiding in the shadows, but the nudges haven’t stopped. It tells me there are so many people who feel unseen. But I see you. And when I say, “Come, come… sit with me,...

Come, come sit with me… All week this memory has been sitting quietly in my soul. I kept asking myself, why? Why now? Why this moment? I can remember it so clearly. I was in my twenties, talking to my mom about being lonely. I told her that when I felt lonely, I would hug my pillow at night and talk to the four walls but the walls never answered back. I said it almost casually, but it wasn’t casual at all. Then I told her she was lucky. Lucky because she was married. Lucky because she had someone to roll over and hug at night. Lucky because she wasn’t alone. She was quiet for a moment. Then she said softly, “Baby, you can be married and still be lonely.” I laughed and said, “No you can’t.” That was me — naive in my twenties, certain I understood loneliness because I had felt it one way. I understand now what she was trying to tell me. I believe that at one point in her marriage to my dad, my mom felt that kind of loneliness. But like so many things, she didn’t c...

Come, come sit with me… Today is Christmas Eve, and I thought I would share another one of my memories. As a child, I loved Christmas. I would get so excited I could hardly sleep. My parents used to say, “If you don’t go to sleep, Santa can’t come.” And I believed them… sort of. 😄 I was so excited that I woke the whole house up at 5 a.m. so we could open gifts. I’m sure my parents were not impressed, but they laughed and we all got up anyway. My face lit up at everything. And if I’m being honest, my parents didn’t have a lot of money. But Christmas was still so special — because we were together. Every year, they always made sure there was a family gift , something we could all play with together. That was the real gift. Family time. And then let me tell you about the food — oh my God, the food . This is probably where I first became a foodie… 😂 My mother, bless her heart, could cook . Mmm, child. We had turkey, stuffing (which was always my favorite), ham, ...