Murder in the Reading Room by Ellery Adams

Wow. When I requested this book from NetGalley, I thought it was from one of Adams' other series. So when the book opened in the middle of a car chase with characters I didn't remember, I was lost. Even when I finally figured out what was going on, I was still sort of lost.
Jane Stewart is battling the Templars in a race to uncover the Hemingway manuscript that was lost in 1922 (this is the second book I've read this year with this conceit). In fact, her number one enemy has kidnapped hehr boyfriend and is holding him at the Biltmore manor. After the guy kidnapped her kids in a previous book, she's (rightly) pretty pissed. She's just about to figure out what's going on from a gardener when said gardener turns up dead in the library with a book in his lap. And even more revelations are coming Jane's way.
This book is not to be read without reading other books in the series. I have a feeling that the crazy pants aspects of it may build up more slowly and therefore be easier to take. As a first time reader, this was a bad place to start and made it not as enjoyable as I usually find Adams' books.

Two and a half stars
This book came out April 30
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Tightrope by Amanda Quick

Opening with our heroine, Amalie Vaughn, literally on the edge of death, Then it slips into a confusing third person omniscient overlook overlook of almost everyone in the book. It smooths out when Amalie gets to Burning Cove. She's picked up a mansion for a song. Too bad it's because a phony psychic was murdered there. And now that her first paying guest has also been murdered (on stage, by his own robot), she's not very hopeful that the profile of her hotel will improve. And now, Matthias Jones, a known associate of Luther Pell (night club owner and mob affiliate), is in her hotel. She just knows that the gossip is going to go wild.
Add in an enigma machine, a man intent on revenge, a star willing to do anything to reclaim his fading star, and a gossip columnist and this is a wild ride. There is a lot, a LOT going on in this book and it could have been pared down a bit but it was still a fun read.

Three and a half stars
This book came out May 7, 2019

Follows The Other Lady Vanishes
Followed by Close Up 
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread June 2022 as audible-owned audiobook

Then Came You by Kate Meader

If you've read other books in this series, you know Aubrey and Grant. Once married, they've been divorced for about a year but the air still sizzles when they're together. At the end of "Illegally Yours," Aubrey showed up to a wedding with her arm in a cast refusing to explain what had happened to her. Grant is understandably worried about how she's going to get back to her parents for Thanksgiving. She can't drive, she doesn't like to fly, and the aging cat Aubrey refuses to leave behind won't be allowed on the train. So he does what any sane person would do, he offers to drive her over to Boston himself and then pretend to still be married for her nearly ninety-year-old grandmother's benefit. It works... a little too well.

This book would have benefitted a LOT from more growth on Grant's part. Dude was unbending and uncompromising the entire book. Everything that happened was Aubrey's fault and they couldn't get back together until she was "healed." He was the white knight there to rescue her rather than helping her figure it out on her own and he wasn't really able to step back enough to allow her to figure it out her way, it all had to be his.

I really like Meader's books in general but this one was just okay. Only the writing saved it from being a two star book for me.

Three stars

This book comes out May 7

ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Sitting Still Like a Frog Activity book by Eline Snel

Get this as a physical book. I got it as an ebook ARC from NetGalley and loading the pages was So Slow. It took up to 5 minutes to load a page and it crashed by reading app several times.
Other than that, this was an okay book. The stories were fairly preachy. It reminded me more of an 1800s primer more than anything else.

Three stars
This book came out April 9
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

I Want You Back by Lorelei James

In a previous book in this series, Jaxson Lund had described his daughter's mother, Lucy Quade, as someone barely better than Lucifer himself. At the end of the story, we learned that Lucy may not really be as bad as she seemed. And now that Jaxson has retired from hockey and pulled himself out of the grips of alcoholism, he can admit to himself that she is a really good mother. And a really good woman. In fact, he wants her back.
But Lucy isn't so sure. Mimi was an unexpected baby. She and Jaxson had supposedly been in love but he cheated on her and then dragged her name through the mud. She's dating and looking for something better. Even though that park is still there...
I liked that Jaxson had some consequences from his sleeping around. I did not so much like the flashbacks. I'm not sure why it's so popular right now to flip back and forth between the present and the past in romances but I find it very distracting. Not distracting enough not to read the next book in the series though; I'm really hoping it's the romance between ice skater Gabri and Jaxson's brother.

Three and a half stars
Followed by Want to Want you
This book came out April 2nd
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

A Justified Murder by Jude Deveraux

Sara, Kate, and Jack are back in a new mystery. When Janet Beeson is stabbed, shot, and poisoned, everyone in town looks to the trio that solved the last big murder. But they aren't interested in helping. That's not what they do. But somehow, they are dragged into the story of a woman who was seemingly the most liked person in town. So who would want to kill her that bad?
This was a completely scattered book with parts of the story stuck in here and there and things said about characters that weren't backed up in the story... and yet Deveraux manages to charm. Sentence structure is odd and unnecessary asides are plentiful but I think people who enjoyed the first book will like this one as well.

Three stars
This book came out February 26th
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis

Ms. Ellis gives us a series of biographical essays. Some touch on her own life, some are a list of instructions, all are highly entertaining. She gives young girls instructions on what to look for in a man (hint: nothing from the Bachelor), she talks about living in New York (it is definitely a privileged life but she doesn't hide that), and talks about aging.
I wish it had been longer but I don't regret reading it.

Four stars
This book came out April 16th
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Opinions are my own