If the Duke Demands by Anna Harrington

Miranda Hodgkins is an orphan, living with her aunt and uncle in a small village. She grew up alongside the Carlisle boys, knowing them even before their family was elevated to an earldom and eventually a dukedom. For the past 15 years, she has loved the middle brother, Robert. But lately, he's been paying particular attention to another girl, Miranda is invisible to him. So she's come up with a plan to get him to notice her; sneak into his bed and seduce him. It's all going well until she moans his name... and discovers that the man she's in bed with is his brother Sebastian, the Duke.
Sebastian is astonished that the seductive masked woman who introduced herself as Rose is actually his brother's childhood friend. He's even more astonished when he finds himself agreeing to bring her to London with the family so that she can have a Season. And making a deal with her that, if he can help her land Robert, she will help him find a wife. Of course, fate has different plans in store for them.
There is always a lot of world building in the first of a series and that can take away from some of the story. I also didn't love either the ending of this book nor Sebastian's interminable brooding (dear God, there was so much brooding) but am very excited to read Quint's book when it comes out.

Three stars
This book comes out February 28

The Art of Vanishing by Cynthia Kuhn

Lila Maclean is just trying to regroup after discovering a dead body last semester. The chancellor still seems to have it out for her and sends her off on an errand to interview Damon Von Tussel, the famous author who will be headlining their Arts Week. Too bad the man disappears right after his talk. Unfortunately, Lila's artist mother used to date Damon so it's up to her to track him down and drag him back for his campus appearance. Lila is successful but is somewhat worried when a vague threat is emailed to everyone on the Arts Week committee to cancel Von Tussel "or else." It doesn't help that Lila's mother rushes into town putting herself in harm's way.
This is a nice series but somehow I'm just not connecting. I'm not sure if it's the writing or the story, I feel bad because I can't put my finger on it. I really hope there's not a love triangle in the offing though. That is one of my biggest pet peeves with cozy mysteries, that they start focusing more on the madcap romance than the story.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 28
Follows The Semester of Our Discontent

Fatality by Firelight by Lynn Cahoon

I wish I had read the first book in this series because there were a lot of call backs to the other story in this series. Otherwise, this was a perfectly fine book, though a bit convoluted in areas. A LOT of red herrings in this book.
This is the second writer's retreat that Cat Latimer is hosting in the house she lived in with her ex-husband, the house he surprisingly willed to her. During the last retreat, one of the writers (I'm guessing from the references) ended up dead. This retreat has its own share of problems, a famous Hemingway book being stolen from the library, one participant who has a stalker and is almost kidnapped, participants who don't seem fully invested in their writing, Cat finding out that her home town is a supposed "safe zone" for mob families to send their college-aged kids, a big mob guy hitting on her... There's a lot going on.
I would probably read the next book in this series if some of the "over-arching" stories start moving a little faster.

Three stars
This book comes out February 28
Followed by Of Murder and Men

Big Nate: What's a Little Noogie Between Friends? by Lincoln Peirce

** spoiler alert ** If you love Big Nate, this book will be right up your alley. The usual stints with soccer and basketball. Photo Day is a compound threat with School Picture Guy being his usual self but then Coach John shows up as well. We also see more with Jenny and Nate when we all get the news that she is moving to Seattle.

Four stars
This book comes out February 28

What It Takes: A Kowalski Reunion Novel by Shannon Stacey

Up front, in the subtitle in fact, we're told that this is a Kowalski Reunion novel and are thus forewarned that there will be a LOT of catch up with the Kowalski family. Normally this really bugs me in a story because that means that the main story will suffer. However, Ms. Stacey manages to make the "main story" about a new Kowalski employee and a local boy-returned-home feel like a fully formed novella in amongst a rather extended epilogue for almost every other of the nine previous Kowalski books. As long as you go in expecting that this will not be a fully developed story, you won't be disappointed.
Laney Caswell just got out of a marriage where she was deeply unhappy because she sublimated her own needs for those of her husband. Now, she's spending the summer at the Kowalski camp trying to figure out who she is without a man. She definitely is not interested in getting involved with anyone. When she sees Ben Rivers and electricity strikes but Laney wants to make sure that she finds herself before she gets involved with anyone else.
Ben Rivers is thirty-eight and ready to settle down. His work as a paramedic has been hard and so he played hard too. Now that he's moved home, he's realizing exactly how much he's missed. He is incredibly attracted to Laney but is willing to step back in order to give her room to make her own decisions.
And that's why this book is so good. Both Ben and Laney have adult conversations about what they want and each respects the other. I wish we had gotten some more background on both and the myriad updates about the Kowalskis and their friends got confusing, even to someone who read all the stories, but it was overall a very nice story for regular Kowalski readers.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 28

A Million Little Things by Susan Mallery

I really do adore Ms. Mallery's trilogies. There's a depth to both the characters and their stores that you don't get from the average Fool's Gold romance novel (not knocking those books, I love them too, they just fulfill a different reading niche.)
We met Pam earlier in the series. Her husband died unexpectedly and it has now been a couple of years and, while she's not moving on per se, she has settled into a routine. One of the things that she has to cope with now is her daughter Jennifer.
Jen has an 18-month-old who isn't speaking and she's terrified. She's also terrified about toxins, about germs, and about her husband's new job and new partner. Just to get down to it, she's anxious, tired, and unable to sleep. Her whole world revolves around her son and the people around her are beginning to feel shut out.
One of those people, Jen's best friend Zoe, contacts Pam to see if they can maybe figure something out. It's this incident that leads Pam to very subtly set Zoe up with her son, Steven and it's going very well. Unfortunately, partway through the book, Zoe find out she's pregnant by her ex and it throws Pam off course disrupting her relationships with Zoe, with Jen, with Steven, and even the burgeoning romance with Zoe's father Miguel.
This book has a nice balance between the three main protagonists. Pam is a jumping off point but we get to see the fears behind just starting to have a family and what that can mean in today's world, a mother who is concerned for her young son, and even a mother who has grown children and is worried about them as well.
A wonderful book for those who have read the rest of the Mischief Bay series but also for those new to Susan Mallery as well.

Four and a half stars
This book comes out February 28
Follows The Friends We Keep
Followed by Sisters Like Us

Future Quest Vol. 1 by Jeff Parker

I think this may be a fun series but this book has to deal with a lot of the set up.
Jonny Quest and Hadji are testing out some sort of jet packs in Florida trying to get ahead of energy vortexes (vortices?) that are opening up all over the world. Dr. Quest is studying these as is his nemesis Dr. Zin. What they don't know is that these vortexes are actually part of an energy being that is trying to take over the world. Or all the worlds. Because not only do we see Birdman, Frankenstein Jr., and the Impossibles in this series, we get travelers from other dimensions like Space Ghost, the Herculoids, and Mightor. In other words, if you were a child of the 80s, this book is worth at least a look.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 21