The Darkling Bride by Laura Andersen

Switching between the present day and the late 1800s, Laura Andersen brings to life the story of the Darkling Bride (who we don't actually learn that much about), a woman who very much identified with her, and the contemporary researcher who is learning more about them both.
When Carragh Ryan gets the chance to help catalog the library of the Gallaghers before the current lord gives the castle to a public trust, she jumps. Though she is not Irish by blood, her adoptive and incredibly loving family was, her grandmother even leaving her Dublin house to Carragh. But the castle is dark and creepy and the family is not exactly welcoming. Great-aunt Nessa hires Carragh but continually looks down on her, the present lord's sister seems high-strung and passionately unhappy, and then there's the lord himself, Aidan. At ten, Aidan was the one who discovered his father dead in the library. And, though ruled a murder-suicide (his mother being found dead soon after), the investigation seemed rushed, to say the least.
This story is interspersed with that of Jenny Gallagher and the handsome writer, Evan Chase. Though Evan and Jenny seemed to have a great love, he never wrote another book after her death.
An interesting story that kept me reading. The romance between Carragh and Aidan didn't need to be there. It was almost tucked in at the end as if someone told the author it needed to be a love story. I didn't get a sense of them truly being in love.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out March 6

Undone By You by Kate Meader

Dante Moretti is an out gay man. That is generally hard enough but he's the GM of a a pro hockey team, specifically, the Chicago Rebels. So he's not about to make his life any harder by going after any of his players. Especially not Cade "Alamo" Burnett, a young player who's not even out. But then he sees Cade at a gay bar. And then Cade makes the moves on him. Soon, they're in a steamy relationship. But Dante just can't believe that love might be part of the equation. Maybe Cade can.

This is supposedly the third book in the series but, at just over a hundred pages, I thought this was a novella, not a whole book. And that was part of my problem with it. I was really hoping that the "#3" meant that Dante and Cade were going to have a fuller story. This was fine but not what I was hoping for.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out March 5th
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

The Woman Left Behind by Linda Howard

Jina Modell works in Communications. She's not a field agent... until Axel MacNamara decides that ten people from various deparments are going to be assigned to specific teams. Jina's team?  The one led by Levi "Ace" Butcher. She is not excited; that team usually gets the worst assignments. And that's before her training starts.  Jina is the only one who ends up training with her team -- all of the rest of the new "recruits" get to train together. She eventually considers herself lucky because she gets to bond with her group before they get out into the field. It's hard. The guys on her team aren't exactly excited to be working with a woman but Jina is stubborn and decides that she's going to make it, no matter what.
Ace really doesn't want a rookie on his team. Even worse, he's highly attracted to this person who is most definitely off-limits. But what is he supposed to do when they're on a mission and she gets left behind?
The title of this book was incredibly deceptive as was the description. Both make it sound like this is going to be the story of Jina fighting her way back to the teams but it is mainly about her journey joining the team. Less than 50 pages are about the mission where she gets "left behind." While I really liked the journey of Jina and Ace, I am confused by the ending.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out March 6
ARC kindly provided by Edelweiss

One and Only by Jenny Holiday

Jane Denning is the responsible one in her friend group. It's probably the reason that she's been chosen to babysit the younger brother of her bridezilla friend's fiance. She's not thrilled by that assignment but at least it gets her out of the rest of her bridesmaid's duties.
Cameron MacKinnon is not surprised that his brother's fiancee wants to set Jane on him. He had a pretty wild reputation growing up. But it doesn't mean that he has to sit down and take it. Especially since his list of things to do after being dismissed from the army includes getting laid and Jane keeps preventing that from happening. So, maybe he should focus on her instead...
I liked the building of this relationship. Yes, there were some one dimensional aspects (especially with Cameron) but, overall, we got to know both Jane and Cameron pretty well. We got to see just enough of her friends that there might be more of them in later series (worker girl Wendy and super model Gia) but it wasn't overly heavy in trying to build them up.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 27
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Followed by It Takes Two

Color Me Murder by Krista Davis

Florrie Fox loves her job at Color Me Read, a bookstore in Georgetown. It allows her to be around books and to help others find something to read as well. In her off time, she makes intricate drawings for her series of adult coloring books. She's not exactly happy to be living with her parents which is why she jumps at the chance to live in her boss's carriage house. He needs an occupant in order to make sure his sister's spoiled son doesn't move in. Florrie is slightly worried about the nephew, especially when the man shows up at the bookstore and threatens to fire her. But Professor Maxwell, her world-traveling boss says that he'll take care of his nephew that weekend. So when Florine finds the nephew dead in the book store, run through with a spear, she is not surprised that her quiet boss is a suspect but she is shocked when he's actually arrested as the murderer.
With Professor Maxwell depending on her, Florine works with a variety of people (his butler, his friends, and his ex-wife (who has some pretty big issues of her own) to solve the issue of what really happened to the professor's nephew.
I didn't love the ending. The solution to the story was a bit convoluted and came mostly out of left field and the absolute ending was just a little too twee. Florrie was an okay character but unless she develops some flaws (at least a little more depth) she's going to become annoying very quickly.

Three stars
This book comes out February 27
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Want You by Stacy Finz

Deb Bennett has loved TJ Garner since she was a child but she knew that she would never measure up to the Garner's golden boy so she settled for his brother, Win. The two of them got along quite well since Win is sort of the family black sheep, the one least likely to succeed (though that's not hard in a family of overachievers.) But Win isn't coming back to Deb and she knows that it's for the best. For TJ, that means it's an opportunity to win the woman he's always loved, first by wooing her with a marketing job.
And Deb ends up being amazing at the job even though she's only worked as a server and never went to college (or only went for a little while... I don't remember). While I'm sure there are many people who can do this, I didn't get any sense that Deb was going to be that person. And I have to admit that there was so little time between Deb and TJ on the slopes. We're told over and over that Deb is this amazing sports-woman but we never actually get to see it. And TJ's story of angst is... a little disappointing. I didn't love this story but am definitely still looking forward to the next.

Three stars
This book comes out February 27
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Followed by Love You

Deja Moo by Kirsten Weiss

San Benedetto has an interesting tradition, they build a thirty-foot star cow in the middle of the town square for Christmas. And for many years, the cow has gone down in a fire blaze. Maddie Kosloski would like to get to the cow to help her mother guard it, but her usually reliable truck has suddenly decided not to run. And that turns out to be a problem when one of the guards, a dairy farmer who has been pissing a number of people off, turns up dead, an arrow in his chest.
It's up to Maddie to find out what is going on. Mostly because her mother seems to be in danger even though she saw nothing the night of the murder.
I liked that Maddie doesn't seem to be one of those cozy-heroines who is perpetually caught up in a love triangle. There was a lot of wackiness in this book like Weiss felt like she had to make zanier and zanier characters. It was sort of overwhelming at points but I think this book would hit the spot for most contemporary mystery fans and all Kirsten Weiss readers.

Three stars
This books comes out February 27
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Followed by Chocolate a la Murder