It was the height of the COVID pandemic, and I had lost the ability to read for pleasure.

My fiction tastes have long tended towards the dystopian — but who wants to read about the apocalypse when the end of the world seems to be happening all around you?

In desperation, I went genre-hopping and, eventually, landed on romance novels.

I found myself in the warm embrace of Abby Jimenez, a west metro resident and cupcake-bakery owner who is a New York Times best-selling romance author. Her seventh book, “Say You’ll Remember Me,” is being released Tuesday.

Her first, “The Friend Zone,” was released in 2019, the year before the pandemic began. “The Happy Ever After Playlist” came out in 2020, and “Life’s Too Short” in 2021. “Part of Your World” dropped in 2022, “Yours Truly” in 2023, and “Just For the Summer” In 2024.

I devour Jimenez’s books at roughly bi-yearly intervals. They have what I need: an aw-fer-cute opening scenario, a love-testing crisis or two to wreak havoc on Jimenez’s characters and on my fingernails, and a 100% guaranteed happy ending.

Here, I have ranked Jimenez’s books in my order of preference.

(Some might find this approach problematic since the novels are intertwined with characters and events in one book often overlapping with another. Sequential reading is recommended, many Jimenez fans insist. Jimenez doesn’t discourage cherry-picking, though, and points to her later works as good places to start.)

Life’s Too Short >> (1 in my ranking / 3 in published order). The baby next door won’t quiet down. So Adrian Copeland, who’s desperate for sleep, knocks on the door and orders the incredulous Vanessa Price to hand him the kid. “Go take a shower,” he says. While that’s happening, Adrian sleuths out why the infant won’t stop crying. He finds it: a hard plastic tag fastener still stuck to her footie pajamas.

Not every problem will be as simple to fix in this storyline. But I love the ease with which two apartments coalesce into a single living space as Adrian and Vanessa, without realizing it, begin to form a family.

The Friend Zone >> (2/1). Kristen Petersen is facing a medically required procedure that will make it impossible for her to have kids. So of course she meets Josh Copeland, who wants a whole baseball team of kids someday. She has to let him go. But how can she?

I love Kristen’s sarcastic streak and how Josh rolls with it, keeping up with her hangry stages and her need for feminine products. He’ll fight, too, if necessary. “Make a move,” he silently tells a potentially violent rival for Kristen’s affections. “Give me a reason.”

Part Of Your World >> (3/4) Road mishaps are starting points in Jimenez’s books. In “The Friend Zone,” Josh and Kristen have a fender bender. And in this one, Alexis Montgomery goes into the ditch and is rescued by Daniel Grant.

Daniel is a casual, small-town carpenter who runs an inn. That’s the opposite of big-city ER-doctor Alexis who is the heir to a medical dynasty. How can her relationship with Daniel go anywhere?

There’s a bit of Disney magic in this book, causing doors to inconveniently jam and so on. Someone or something wants Daniel and Alexis to make it.

Say You’ll Remember Me >> (4/7) Jimenez’s new novel focuses on a veterinarian, Xavier Rush, who is struggling to keep his clinic afloat. Samantha, living across the country, is caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. They fight to keep their long-distance relationship alive but have trouble scraping together the cash.

Jimenez tells me she has long wanted to put a vet in one of her books. This is a top reader request, and there were squeals when Xavier’s existence became known. Xavier has a superhero moment in a hot, wet rescue of a pug from a scorching car, his crunching abs on full display.

Yours Truly >> (5/5) Dr. Brianna Ortiz is not having a good year. Her brother is running out of time to find a kidney donor. She is working with “Dr. Death,” what Dr. Jacob Maddox is being called because deaths seemed to happen on his watch. And that big promotion she’s after? Dr. Death looks like a shoo-in.

Then Maddox goes and donates his kidney to Bri’s bro …

This book resonated with me because Jacob suffers from social anxiety, as I do, and Jimenez clearly did her homework (as she always does).

Just For the Summer >> (6/6) Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree the adorable cottage on a private Lake Minnetonka island is too good to pass up. Then there’s the local guy she’s dating, but just for the summer …

There’s a water-rescue scene in this book with a watercraft that is laugh-out-loud funny. I argued with Jimenez a little bit about whether the craft belonged on the book cover.

The Happy Ever After Playlist >> (7/2) Two years after losing her fiancé, Sloan Monroe hasn’t come close to healing. Then a whole lotta therapy comes tumbling through her sunroof, in the form of a pup with “hi, Mom” in its eyes.

The owner, Jason, doesn’t surface for weeks. By then, Sloan is determined to keep the dog. After many texts and phone calls, though, she is feeling a connection. But with Jason’s music career on the rise, how long will he stick around?

This book fell the flattest for me, as the one that has movie deal written all over it — and such a deal actually was in the works for a time. But, like Jimenez’s other novels, it’s one I will read again and again.