Cooking Up Trouble by Judi Lynn

I honestly can’t remember why I asked for this book from NetGalley, I think I've been trying to branch out and try new authors. If I hadn’t wanted this review to be honest about the whole book, this would have been a DNF for me. The heroine is a definite Mary Sue. In fact, the whole book is. Tessa is supposed to be this sweet heroine who has locked her emotions away after her fiancé cheated on her. Even he can’t be a totally bad guy, stopping around to tell Tessa that she still deserves love. I think it’s supposed to be kind or something but comes off as smug and patronizing. And speaking of smug and patronizing, Tessa’s a romance writer. But she doesn’t write books with sex in them. She writes sweet romances and is aghast at the suggestion. (There is a sex scene in this book though).
Ian is from the “Big City” but has bought the land next to Tessa’s in order to start a vacation lodge. He fits the city slicker stereotype to a T, not being able to change a tire, buying the wrong kind of car, etc.
Everything is wrapped up so quickly and neatly, it’s eerie. Problem-solved, problem-solved. It’s like stack ‘em up and knock up down one at a time. And, good lord, we know Indiana is in the Midwest and that the people in this book have "Midwestern values," but repeating it 8 times in the first 80 pages is a bit overkill.
This book really reminded me of reading Trixie Belden. It was sort of blandly good. I know there are readers out there for whom this kind of romance is a nice read, but definitely not to my tastes.

Two Stars
This book comes out April 12

Murder on the Hour by Elizabeth J. Duncan

I hadn't read the other books in this series but I only felt a little lost. People were introduced smoothly without too much fanfare. The mystery was interesting and there were some parts of the story that I suspect regular series readers will enjoy.
Penny Brannigan is helping the Welsh version of Antiques Roadshow visit her small village. I have actually had the chance to go to bring some items to the American version when they were in my area and the description is very similar. Unfortunately, something happens during the show and a woman whose life was just starting to open up gets murdered.
A cute little story that was a fast read. There were some B plots that seemed superfluous to this particular book. Not having read the series, they may actually be an overarching story but having read only this book, I wasn't sure why they were there.

This book comes out April 12, 2016.
Three and a half stars

Obsession by Nora Roberts

Oh man. Oh man, oh man, oh man. This. Is. An AWESOME book. I had a couple of issues (no use of condoms, and other spoiler-ish reasons) but this really is a four-and-a-half-star book for me. Even two days later.
When she was twelve, Naomi Bowers followed her father out to the woods and discovered a horrible secret. Setting the girl free led to her father's imprisonment and her own notoriety, something that affects her again and again in the story. (I also wish we had seen more of Ashley but that may have over-bloated the book).
She ends up becoming a photographer and traveling around the world but, for reasons she doesn't entirely understand, she's just bought a house. A huge house. A huge dilapidated house. A house that needs a lot of work. And it's a place for her to start putting down roots. Even meeting a great guy.
Xander Keaton (Buffy fans, unite!) owns a garage in Sunrise Cove. He's not school-educated but he loves books. And it's through his love that we get passages dedicated to the love of reading. Happy sigh. Oh. And he's in a band. A smokin' hot band.
The problem being that, of course, Naomi tends to wall off her own heart because of her past and Xander can't help chipping away at it. Also, there's a serial murderer who has started killing in their town. Small detail.
I just re-read Blue Smoke and can see a LOT Of parallels with this story, but I liked this one so much more. There is less time in the past and more on the present. I also liked Xander so much better.
Roberts fans will be in love. People new to Roberts will love this book as well.

The Debutante Is Mine by Vivienne Lorret

It's been awhile since I read a story with a dastardly cousin. And while Lilah's cousin mainly wanders into the periphery of this story, he's still there, all greasy and evil.

Yeah, so Ms. Lorret does a good job of explaining why Lilah has to be dictated by her father's will. Even though this is a trope we've seen often, there's at least some better explanation in this book other than just "Yep. This is the way it is." In order to fulfill her father's wishes, she has to marry a nobleman within three years or be forced to marry her cousin. The issue? This is her third season and  as a certified wallflower who most men don't remember, it's looking like marrying her cousin is a foregone conclusion. Then her eyes meet those of a dashing man on a large horse.
Jack Marlowe is the bastard (but acknowledged!) son of an earl who has had to fight for his opportunities in life, up to and including building his own massive personal fortune. At the end of the last book, his friend asked him to send flowers to Lilah in the hopes that it will help make her more popular and thus help her find a husband. Once Jack meets her though, he suspects that the duke, especially with his last warning away from Lilah, was really pushing them together. Especially since the duke is said to have developed a theorem to help people find their one true love.
There were some themes that I thought were underdeveloped in this book, like why Lilah felt so attached to the tenants on her family's land and what even happened to them. Also, what might keep Lilah and Jack together in the end. And the last Jack "twist" felt a little unnecessary. However, overall, the book built nicely on the first in the series and I'm looking forward to seeing what the backstory is for their friends' feud and how it's going to be resolved.

Sex in the Museum by Sarah Forbes

With a nice mix of autobiography and museum history, this book lays out how Sarah Forbes went from anthropology grad student to a museum curator. I like sex, learning about the history of sex, and work fairly closely with our curator so this book was pretty much catnip for me. This book had lovely drops of the history of sex interspersed nicely with the story of both Ms. Forbes and the Museum of Sex (MoSex) in NYC. A nice, interesting book and an easy read.
Four stars.
Comes out April 5

Good Dukes Wear Black by Manda Collins

Piers Hamilton, the Duke of Trent, inherited a mess when he became the new leader of the Lords of Anarchy. He's working hard to bring in new members to help supplant the ones who were somewhat less than... salubrious. But his club still has a fairly bad name among the gossips. And that is driven home to him once again when Ophelia Dauntry comes to him for help, accusing his club of assigning her friend to an asylum.
Ophelia is terrified. She's a writer for the Ladies Gazette (she writes about needlework but would like to concentrate on more meaningful stories) as is her friend Maggie. Ophelia knows that Maggie's husband isn't thrilled with their work but she didn't think that the man would consign Maggie to a place as horrible as Dr. Hayes' Clinic.
I didn't love the subplot of Ophelia's mother and didn't quite feel like I got to know Ophelia or Piers but I did like the book overall.

This book comes out April 5
Follows Good Earl Gone Bad

A Scandalous Proposal by Kasey Michaels

In the first book, An Improper Arrangement, we met Cooper Townsend who was recently given the title of Baron for work he did at a battle outside Quatre Bras. According to the pamphlets currently flooding London, Cooper is a hero who saved a pack of children who had wandered onto the field of battle. A blonde-headed, green-eyed hero. Too bad that's not quite the truth. And too bad he's being blackmailed.
Three Stars

Also being blackmailed? Miss Daniella "Dany" (what's with that spelling? SO distracting) Foster's sister, a countess. Who's going to help them? Well, a bona fide hero of course.
I did NOT like the initial description of Dany. It made her sound like she was twelve years old. She's twenty-one but good God, she sound like a child. Which makes the romance in this just super ooky.

Three stars
This book came out today
Followed by A Reckless Promise