Cider Brook by Carla Neggers

Samantha (Sam) Bennett comes from a long line of explorers. In fact, her grandfather was well-

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known for his travels. Sam was cleaning out his Boston apartment when she discovers a picture of the Cider Brook mill among his records, along with a handwritten manuscript,The Adventures of Captain Farraday and Lady Elizabeth.
She decides to return to Knights Bridge. The last time she was there, it ended up getting her fired from her job. And Justin Sloan was one of the reasons she got fired.
This visit? He saves her from a fiery death. Sam had taken shelter in the mill during a huge thunderstorm and barely avoids being hit by lightning.
The two do a cautious, fun-to-read dance around each other. Justin's family and friends get involved, including Olivia and Duncan from the first book in this series.
A fun read. One where the majority of the story is Sam and Justin falling in love, not just falling into bed. A nice change from most of the insta-lust books that seem to be around lately.

A Christmas to Remember--Anthology

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Dream a Little Dream by Jill Shalvis
Ian O'Mallery had been hoping for a long-term relationship with Melissa Mann but she broke it off the day after he suggested they move in together. Now, the rugged firefighter is in a panic because the call that has just come in is for her apartment building, the one where she's trapped inside.
It's been six months but Melissa still thinks of Ian just as much as he thinks of her. But can she move beyond her past to hook up with a man who so clearly returns her love? And how can she show him that she really means it this time. Maybe by becoming his own, special, Christmas elf.
Every Year by Kristin Ashley
Part of the Chaos series, this story shows Tabby and Shy in their first Christmas as a real couple, spending time with her family, and getting to watch Shy and his brother start to reconnect with the Christmas spirit.
I haven't read any Kristin Ashley books but it was easy enough to connect with the characters in this light story.
"Silent Night" by Hope Ramsay
Maryanne is down on her luck. Like, no money, no gas, just had a baby down on her luck. About to find her long-lost cousin to ask if she can take Maryanne and said baby in down on her luck. But she thinks she's found the farm and decides to walk, with the practically newborn and hang out until her cousin comes home.
But her cousin doesn't live at that house. Nobody does. In fact, the owner, Daniel Jessup, is in town to try and get it on the market. He doesn't like Christmas and isn't excited to learn that there's a strange woman with a newborn in his stall.
Vaguely inspirational, which is okay, but strange coming just after a short story about a biker club. Least favorite of the four.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Molly Cannon
Lincoln Jones' mother has sent him a Christmas gift in the form of professional organizer, Dinah Mason. He falls for her, but then makes a stupid mistake. Can he win her back in time to celebrate the holiday together?
An okay story, but one I didn't really remember three days later.
"A Family for Christmas" by Marilyn Pappano
Jared Connors is from a family of wealthy doctors. No, not just doctors, surgeons and the like. They're not excited when he becomes a pediatrician and moves to a small town in Oklahoma. One where he meets the antithesis of his dream woman, Ilena Gomez, war widow. But somehow, he falls for her.
Not as polished as the first two stories. Not horrible, but not as good.

Dark Witch by Nora Roberts

Iona Sheehan has just arrived in Ireland. She knows that she's special, that her family has powers.

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She is to be the third, the witch that will help to put away and ancient Big Bad for good.
The Big Bad is delighted that she is there. He sees her as the weak chain in the chain that could take him down. Of course, Iona is tested.
At the same time, she falls into lust with her new boss, the owner of a local stables, Boyle McGrath and has to juggle her burgeoning powers with the feelings that she has starting for this rough man.
Perhaps it's not fair to judge Nora Robers against herself, but this is just not one of her most stellar books. It doesn't have as much depth as some of her other books and just seems to skim along. The bad dude isn't as well developed and neither are her characters. Of course, she is introducing six people and all of their backgrounds and that can be hard to do but I feel like we learned about them all on a superficial level and didn't really get to know our hero and heroine or their relationship.
So far, not as good as the Sisters Island trilogy but I am always willing to keep an open mind.

Love Game by Elise Sax

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I thoroughly enjoyed the first and second books in this series (four and five milers respectively), so when I got confirmation from NetGalley that I could review this book, I did a little shimmy in my seat. Literally. What? Books make me happy.
Unfortunately, the shimmy was a bit premature.
This book, like the other two, is a cross between chick-lit and a cozy. Gladie Burger is still living with her grandmother, learning how to be a matchmaker. She's still stumbling across dead bodies and mysteries with a few tweaks. One such being that there's a new matchmaker on the scenes, one who is stealing her grandmother's clients and also blocking her energy. Another is the new man on the police force, Remington Cumberbatch. A hottie UFC fighter who is incredibly attracted to Gladie. In the other two books, I enjoyed the frenetic pacing that kept the books moving. "Love Game," however, has the dial turned up to 11. Make that 15. The action really starts with Gladie's friend Lucy crashing into Ruth's tea shop (if you've read the other two books, you already know these characters) while taking Gladie to Uncle Harry's. But they can't stop so they just head on their way where Gladie learns that Harry has been "matched" by the spurious matchmaker (and Lucy's hella jealous)and Lucy's car goes over a cliff with Gladie's keys inside. And that's just the beginning. I'm going to hide the rest as spoilers, but believe me, there is WAY to much packed into 186 pages of novel. If there had been some time and care taken in expanding on some of these, it would have been a much more enjoyable book. Instead, it felt like we just hippity-hopped from plot point to plot point with no threads woven in between. Will I read the next book? I honestly don't know. The first two were so darn wonderful but this one...

There's a new cupcake shop with some suspicious characters, Bridget's number accidentally being published as a sex line (which she takes as a chance to teach some of the callers why what they're doing is wrong), the point at which Gladie and something like 10 other people are locked into two panic rooms, a bear in a car (literally. Now, I live in a place where this happens at least once every other year, so I can appreciate the scenario. But it's given about four paragraphs until the fight), a UFC fight where Spencer (one of Gladie's erstwhile love interests and the chief of police) fights his newest colleague. Two other quibbles. You can't split something between three people fifty-fifty (p. 124) and what the killers did when they pretended to be trapped in the other room wasn't gaslighting (p. 173) like Bridget says. Gaslighting involves a long con where you make someone believe they're crazy. Yes, I understand that a particular character might misuse the term but Bridget hasn't been set up to be that character and Sax equates it to smoke and mirrors. Big deal? Maybe not. But as a mystery writer, Sax should know the concept since it's pretty ubiquitous in the genre or at least her editor should have caught it.

How to Lose a Bride in One Night by Sophie Jordan

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Definitely my favorite in this series.

 We don't learn very much about Annalise except that she broke her leg and now limps and was in service until her ultra-wealthy father swooped in and picked her up out of obscurity. The story opens with her marrying marrying a duke, the dream of every girl, right? Except that, on their honeymoon cruise, he tries to kill her and then dumps her overboard. Annalise is found by Owen Crawford who is the Earl of Crawford, although he doesn't tend to bandy that about. He finds a gypsy encampment that is willing to take them in. Okay, there is some case for suspension of disbelief

Annalise's foot breaks in such a way that when the gypsy heals her, she no longer limps. Oh, and that extra weight? It drops off during her week-long coma and she is no longer very hungry so she just keeps it off. Um, why did we need all that? She had to be the Ugly Duckling and the Beggar Princess?

It's a fast book and it relies a little bit on the reader having read the previous books. While not absolutely necessary, it does help to know a little bit more about the characters.

Searching for Someday by Jennifer Probst

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It was really interesting that I kept sort of noticing things as I was reading that really annoyed me, but my overall feeling about this book was one of good will. I enjoyed it quite a bit and devoured it almost in one sitting (darn planes kept landing).
Kate Seymour is a matchmaker with some mystical powers, namely, she can sense a spark between two people who were meant to be together. Okay, yes, hokey

and even more hokey, she loses the power when she denies her own feelings.But it seemed to work.

Slade is a divorce lawyer who doesn't believe in love. He becomes a client of Kate's so that he can debunk the myth of them doing any good in the world (because he's overprotective-ly trying to save his sister from heartbreak.)
This is all very cliched and should have driven me nuts. The sex scenes were a bit more graphic than I like but you can always skim those. I was impressed that the characters were so good about protection, none of this magic hoo-ha or "I know you're a virgin so you must be pure" crap.
The worst part of this review is that I can not tell you why I enjoyed the book so much, especially since, as I noted, so many things irritated me (I didn't put them all in. Why point them <i>all</i>  out if they're  personal rather than storyline peeves? It must have been the writing. And I can't wait for the next books in the series.

Rumor Has It by Jill Shalvis

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Okay, I know this is an ARC from NetGalley and we're not supposed to ding books since it's not the final copy, but there were three, three, spelling/grammar errors in the first thirty pages. Very distracting. Luckily, I got into the flow of the story and there either weren't any more or I missed them.
Kate is a stereotypical romance heroine. She's smart, so when she gets nervous she gets verbal diarrhea (in the form of scientific facts) or clumsy (as in literally trips over her own feet.)
Griffin has just come back from the war. Not by choice. An IED caused some major damage and he's no longer active. He's back in Sunshine, Idaho for his sister's wedding (Kate's BFF.) Nobody thingks that he'll be good for Kate, including Grif, but somehow, the attraction is just to strong to deny.

One favorite quote from page 151--
Some men brought flowers.
Griffin had brought her mace.
She loved that about him.

Loved the unexpected ending to the storyline about someone watching her. Also loved that Griffin (why spell it "Grif?" It looks like a dog bark and took me out of the story every time) got to work through a lot of his issues but that Kate grew a little as well. The epilogue was unneeded and a little annoying.

It's implied that they're getting their HEA, does it explicitly have to be stated that they're getting married?