The Darkness Knows by Cheryl Honigford

I liked the cover of this book, the setting (1938 Chicago), and the description of the heroine (up-and-coming radio star) so I requested it from NetGalley. And Edelweiss. Oops.
And it is exactly the kind of cozy that I was expecting. The heroine, Vivian "Viv" Witchell, is snappy and quick on her feet. Even when she finds the network star of their most popular series dead in the radio station with a note that seems to indicate that Viv is next. While she may have grown up in the lap of luxury, Viv is more than used to doing for herself and she's not going to let someone else watch over her, even if that some <i>is</i> the handsome detective, Charlie Haverman, that her serial is based on.
Generally, I liked this book. But the way that Charlie treated Viv, though it may be time period appropriate, just made him go down in my book as a lot less likable than he had been. And the same was true of Viv, I just never completely warmed to her. She was ambitious, but not. And she liked Charlie but still felt things for her costar. She was supposed to be smart but did some really dumb things. At least, I think she was supposed to be smart. And, yes, humans are generally contradictory, but SO MUCH contradiction really made it hard for me to find her relatable.

Three stars
This book comes out August 1

Do NOT Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman

I've grabbed quite a few children's books from NetGalley and Edelweiss lately. Almost all of them (including this one) have had double-page illustrations that would make infinitely more sense if we could see both pages at once. An almost every page, the dragon is split between two pages that means that we have to knit them together.
The rhymes in this book mostly flow very nicely and this is definitely a very fun (and incredibly inclusive) story.

I highly recommend this book with the caveat that it should be read in a hard copy.

This book comes out August 1
Four stars

Die Like an Eagle by Donna Andrews

Twenty books in and I am still enjoying the Meg Lanslow mysteries. Okay, so they're slightly formulaic but that's part of the comfort of reading these cozies. I really enjoy that the books take place as time goes by with at least a year between each book. It makes it slightly easier to believe that so many people are dying in one small town.
Meg has taken on a new role in this book, Team Mom to her sons' baseball team, the Eagles. Michael is one of their coaches. They are mostly having fun except that the regular league head has cancer and his replacement is the head of the old league that everyone left (mostly to avoid Biff.)
So there are a lot of people that dislike Biff Brown. He's petty, vindictive, sexist and just pretty much adjective a good villain needs to have applied to him. And his business dealings are shady as well. It would be no surprise to have him turn up dead. Except that it's his half-brother Shep who's found in the (disgusting) port-a-potty that Biff had supplied for the baseball field.
Who killed Shep? And was he the intended victim? How can Meg do a runaround Biff to make sure her boys have fun this summer?
A nice addition to the Lanslow series. Can't wait to read the next one.

Four stars
This book came out August 2, 2016

Meg Langlsow #20

Follows Lord of the Wings
Followed by Gone Gull

Reread as audiobook from Libby August 2023, November 2024 as Audible book

A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen

The book opens with Elise, dressed as a (male, of course) doctor in the bowels of Bedlam. She's examining the Duchess of Ashland. The elderly woman has been declared insane and is now being held captive and kept under heavy sedation. Chegarre and Associates have been hired by the duchess's daughter to find out where her mother has gone. Elise has discovered that the woman's nephew has had her declared insane. Why? Is it perhaps that the duchess is correct when she says that her son is still alive (meaning that the nephew will be unable to inherit the duchy and the fabulous wealth that comes with it)? When the enigmatic crime lord King comes to tell Elise that he will pay for her to discover the whereabouts of the presumptive duke, she becomes even more curious.
But when she meets Noah (miraculously quickly, her own words), she finds that he is not a dimwit nor even a haughty duke but a man very much to be admired. Not only physically but because of his spirit.
Of course, there are issues. Mainly, the duke's cousin very much wants him dead. But the two work through and also manage to fall in love.
What? A heroine who isn't a virgin? And has actually enjoyed a man's bed before? Love it. A man who can admit that a woman might be better at him than something? In a manner that isn't overwhelmingly preachy from the author? Also loved. Would have liked a bit more build up to the end but overall an enjoyable book.

Four stars
This book comes out July 26

Inspired by the National Parks by Donna Marcinkowski Desoto

If you love quilting, I think you'll like this book. The same may be true if you love national parks but I think this is more for quilters. I work in Yellowstone so this book appealed to me. I was startled to learn that I knew the woman who did the introduction part of our park. She's a wonderful person and a great writer. Though the same isn't true for every park, it is overall a nice introduction to our national parks and a look at some nice quilts.
I was disappointed that more of the quilters weren't from the parks. There is a large community of people who quilt in Yellowstone (in fact, all longtime employees get a quilt when they leave) and it would have been nice to see some of those featured.

Three stars
This book comes out July 28

The Secrets She Kept by Brenda Novak

Keith gets his story in the follow-up to The Secrets She Kept. It's five years after the first book in this series and he's moved to Los Angeles, cleaned himself up, and runs a super-successful business. When he gets the call that his mother, Josephine, has committed suicide, he's flabbergasted. Josephine just wasn't the kind of person to have done something like that. She was too self-involved for one thing.
When he gets back to the island, he's confronted with his past. Not only with his past drug habits but the people he harmed while using them. Especially Nancy.
It's been a long time but Nancy was hoping to have lost a bit more weight before Keith finally returned. He's always been the one who got away. And I didn't really love that about her story line. She was so obsessed with her weight and it never really got resolved. I guess that's more true-to-life but it was repeated so many times that I thought it would play more into the ending.
This was a really circuitous book, never really sticking to one plot point without wandering all over before it got to the end but I think regular Novak readers will enjoy it.

Three stars
This book comes out July 26

A Reckless Promise by Kasey Michaels

Another romance where someone (Darby Travers, Viscount Nailbourne) makes a battlefield promise to become his friend's guardian if something happens to the friend. But, while a lot of romances have the guardian falling in love with his new ward, Michaels instead has Darby falling into a convenient marriage with his ward's aunt. At first, Darby is bemused to find that seven-year-old Marley comes with a fearsome protector, Sadie Grace Boxer, but then he finds that it may be easiest just to marry her. He's a viscount of a certain age and the mamas of some young ladies are looking at him with a certain gleam in their eye. Sadie is fairly good-looking and seems reasonably intelligent, so Darby decides to go for it.
Some of the story lines are a bit thin but regular Michaels fans will be thrilled.

Four stars
This book comes out July 26
Follows A Scandalous Proposal