State of Romance: Feel the buzz of love in the Beehive State

On this day in 1945, the V Amphibious Corps landed on Iwo Jima. The five-week battle became one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater. Twenty-seven men received the Medal of Honor, including George E. Wahlen, Pharmacist's Mate Second Class. After being discharged from the Navy at the end of WWII, Wahlen later re-enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean and Vietnam wars. In honor of Wahlen, we visit his home state of Utah, the Beehive State.

Utah derives its name from the Ute Tribe, "people of the mountains." Yet the Beehive State offers more than mountains — Lake Bonneville, Colorado Plateau and Bryce Canyon — romantic landscapes that spark amorous entanglements in Rebecca Lawton's Junction, Utah, Autumn Piper's Fallen Star Trouble, Sara Zarr's Sweethearts and Carole Thayne Warburton's Just Shy of Paradise.

The same landscape inspires romantic suspense with Karen Robards' Heartbreakers, Charles Martin's The Mountain Between Us and RaeAnne Thayne's The Interpreter.

For YA fans, Lisa McKendrick explores On a Whim, Helen Conrad finds A Piece of Heaven in Utah and Kristen Chandler questions why Girls Don't Fly.

Utah's romanticism of the Wild West comes alive in Lisa Bingham's Eden Creek, Emma Lang's Ruthless Heart and Carla Kelly's My Loving Vigil Keeping.

Another "historical" novel, A Study in Scarlet, begins in Mormon Utah before traveling to Victorian England where readers first meet Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Is it a coincidence that Sherlock became a beekeeper with Doyle's debut in the Beehive State?

Add to the list of romances set in Utah by using #stateofromance on Twitter.

Next week we visit the U.S. Virgin Islands in search of sun, adventure and romance.

Kim Lowe is an Air Force veteran, Air Force spouse and romance book blogger at SOS Aloha. You can reach her at [email protected].