The Lost Property Office by James R. Hannibal

Jack Buckles, American, is in London with his mother and sister trying to find out what happened to his father, a man who was reported dead but now they can't seem to find his body. While Jack's mother goes out to search the hospitals and morgues, Jack is supposed to stay in the hotel with his eight-year-old sister. But when she sees a man that looks like their father and runs out of the hotel. Jack finally finds her but a sinister man rushes them into a nearby building, the Lost Property Office. There he meets Mrs. Hudson, who is in charge of helping people find lost items and people and she seems to be really in love with forms and making sure they're filled out. Jack is about to leave but it stopped by Gwen Kincaid who introduces him to the real Lost Property Office, the one that his father is part of, a world where Jack's apparent ADHD is really a superpower.
This is a great book for world-building -- explaining Jack's role as the 13th Jack Buckle, combining history and current day, showing how Gwen and Jack would work together in the future. I've been reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations and this one really worked for me. Sally, the sister, was WAY too plot-moppet-y but there are signs that she may grow some character in later books.

Four stars
This book comes out November 8

The Lord’s Persuasion of Lady Lydia by Raven McAllan

Lady Lydia has worked hard to make herself known as a wallflower. At twenty-five, she only has a couple more weeks until she inherits her own money and can finally leave London to live in the country on her own. Unfortunately, she's lately come under the notice of Lord Harry Birnham.
What brings her into his notice is first an encounter where one of his friends accidentally clocks her and he realizes that she may be hiding more fire than is shown by her outer mask. Secondly, his heir declares that he is going to marry Lady Lydia without ever having talked to her. This makes Harry rather suspicious since he is also getting reports that his heir has run up big debts and is currently telling everyone that he's about to come into some money which means he's either going to marry or that he's planning to bump Harry off.
I liked the beginning of this story but the back half fell off for me. It felt like it just wasn't as tightly edited as the start of the story. Suddenly Lydia and Harry are engaged after incredible lengths not to get engaged and there's no real reason for Lydia to have changed her mind. The denouement with the nephew is a bit squirrelly and it just felt unfinished. But it was an overall an okay book.

Three stars
This book came out Oct. 27

A Whole Latte Murder by Caroline Fardig

Juliet and the Java Jive crew are back. After the events of the last book, Juliet's best friend, boss, and probably the man she'll end up with, Pete, is surly. Super surly. It's a good thing there's a serial killer on campus who is helping to shake things up. Well, maybe it's not that good since Juliet's boyfriend has just been promoted to the homicide division which means that he's going to be chasing someone really dangerous. Oh. And Juliet, along with her friend Trevor, discovers the first body. And the body is of a girl who Trevor adored and he was the last person seen with her. More and more stress is heaped on Juliet as one of her employees is the next woman to disappear and one of her old friends gets dragged into the case.
I said this in the last book but I have to repeat it. Caroline Fardig is somehow magic. She took a character that I really, really, really don't like (Juliet) and made a book that was worth reading. I mean, Juliet really is TSTL. I barely made it through the first third of the book as Juliet yelled at her POLICE DETECTIVE boyfriend for... doing his job, she helped with a B and E, vacillated between doormat-ship and being a "red-headed she-devil", and basically proved that she is in love with Pete but dating someone else. I am just so irritated by this will they/won't they that has invaded so many contemporary cozies. Frankly, I hope that she takes the job offered at the end of the book and gets out of the Java Jive so she can finally get over Pete and go to just being friends. I am glad that I finished this book but hope that Juliet starts to get a bit smarter in all areas of her life.

Three stars
This book comes out November 8
Follows Mug Shot
Followed by Brew or Die

Haunted Is Always in Fashion by Rose Pressey

Cookie Chanel, proprietress of It's Vintage Y'all and a psychic who sees ghosts, is back with another mystery. The book opens with the death of a young woman that Cookie was supposed to be meeting, Julianna. She is a ghost who immediately gets picked up by Cookie and her rather permanent ghost, Charlotte.
The story of this book is figuring out why Julianna got killed as much as who killed her. We also get to learn a bit more about Wind Song, the cat that Cookie has picked up.
I really hate that this series is starting to fall into the "if this is a cozy, there must be a love triangle" trap. It really felt like Ken was being shoehorned into the story, it really didn't make sense that he was there most of the time. In fact, there was a lot of making characters fit into the story which made for a lot of "coincidences" that got a bit annoying.
Overall a good book. I just hope they dump one of the love interests soon so we can get back to the mysteries with just a sprinkle of romance.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out November 29
Follows Haunt Couture and Ghosts Galore

Hold Me, Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Madison West made a mistake when she was seventeen; she had an affair with a married man. He, of course, turned it around on her and made her a pariah among the horse community. It's been  a long time since she's had sex with anyone else and she's ready. She's made plans for a no-strings-attached weekend with a sales rep in a cabin far out of town. Too bad it's snowing so hard. And now her cabin has lost power. And the person in the other cabin is none other than Sam McCormack.
Sam doesn't like Madison. He's dated women like her before and it didn't end well. Too bad he's so attracted to her.
They make an agreement for one night. An agreement that leads to twelve nights. They'll break up at Christmas. But what if they both want more?
There was a Big Misunderstanding that was disappointing and I'm not a huge fan of the fast and furious romance but I mostly liked both Madison and Sam and their growth in this book.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out November 8

One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis

Rory Andrews doesn't remember Max Stranton from high school but he sure remembers her. In a gender reversal from The Trouble with Mistletoe, this time, the girl done the guy wrong. It seems that Rory's high school home life wasn't great and she was being picked on at school. Her attempt at retaliation accidentally included taking out the life Max Stranton had planned for himself. And then she ran, leaving Max to face the fallout, and she never even knew. Now, she needs his help to get back to Lake Tahoe in time for her first Christmas with her family in six years. She's disappointed them before so she doesn't want to be late. Too bad there's a blizzard that is leaving them trapped with Max's dog, Carl along for the ride.

This was okay but, as a novella, not enough time to really get to know or fall in love with the characters. Both Rory and Max felt a little stock to me with not enough time to explore how they got from their teenage selves to their nowadays selves.

Three Stars
This novella comes out November 8
Follows The Trouble with Mistletoe
Followed by Accidentally on Purpose

Fatal Passion by Adrian Vincent

A collection of true-crime stories ripped from the headlines across time and place. The author has re-written the stories so they have more of a fictional flavor but with true story realness. I wish we had been given a list of footnotes or even just a bibliography so that we could know what kind of research went into these stories. There was a LOT of details to these stories but no clue about how much the author knew and how much was artistic license. The writing was okay but was rather repetitive after awhile. Stories that should have been SO interesting got lost under too much detail.

Three stars

This book came out October 14