Relativity Books in Order

Relativity is a family comedy disguised as a romance series, or maybe it is the other way around. Either way, the main attraction is not just the couples. It is the wonderfully unruly orbit of relatives, exes, neighbors, and townspeople who keep making normal life almost impossible.

Normal is not the house style here.

The first two books focus on Catriona Masterton. In Relatively Normal, Cat brings her deeply sensible fiancé into the path of her gloriously odd family and watches the collision unfold. In Relatively Sane, she leaves New York, returns to her small hometown outside Chicago, buys her parents' farm, and tries to turn it into a wedding venue. That plan would be a lot simpler if her family were easier, if television crews stayed away, and if her romantic life were less complicated.

Then Relatively Happy shifts attention to Sarah Hastings, who brings a different flavor to the same broad comic universe. Sarah is running an organic farm, a yurt bed-and-breakfast, and a vegan café while wondering which man, if any, belongs in her future. The tone stays loose and funny, but the book still fits the series because it cares about personality more than polish. The people in these stories are trying to hold their lives together while everyone around them cheerfully pulls at the seams.

Setting matters here. Small-town Illinois gives the series a close-knit feel, but Dineen avoids making it too cozy or too precious. Families interrupt. Secrets leak. Old dynamics survive long past the point when they should have died. That is where most of the comedy lives, and it is also where the books find their emotional bite.

If you like romances where the family is practically a character on its own, Relativity delivers. Start with Cat for the fullest payoff, and expect eccentric parents, grandmother chaos, romantic confusion, and a lot of affection underneath the noise.