Sweet Magic by Donna Kauffman
Bellaluna's bakery is run by Abriana "Bree" Bellaluna O'Neill and her grandmother, Sofia. Their family has owned the shop for generations and every year at Halloween, Sofia makes special cookies that can help people find true love. Bree is ready to be the one making the cookies but she just can't get the recipe right but you have to be in love. Sofia thinks that Caleb, who is in town to run his uncle's restaurant business, might be the one. But Bree isn't sure... Caleb is a short timer. Can he really be her true love?
A typical Kauffman book. Regular readers will be satisfied.
Love Spells Disaster by Allyson Charles
Cassandra Hie wants to get married but she wants to find the "right" kind of guy. Someone like her boss, Steve. But then Chip, a local handyman, eats the cookies meant for Steve. Suddenly, blue collar's not looking so bad... plus, he loves Halloween as much as she does.
There was so much time spent on Cassandra changing her mind that not as much was spent on their relationship building.
Sweet on you by Kate Angell
Lara's rent has just gone up and she's in danger of losing her job. Plus her boyfriend recently dumped her. But, Mayor Jack needs help. So he creates a job for Lara, who he is attracted to. And she rocks it.
An okay story but I don't love boss/employee romances, especially if someone has created a job for someone else.
This is a "fine" book but I did not connect with it and am not sure children would either. The monkey could be fun but isn't well utilized. Most of this book feels like an 1800s grammar book teaching the itsy-bitsy chidwen how to do their yo-ga. Less conversational than teachy.
Once again, Lincoln Peirce gives us a great collection of Big Nate comics. I love reading these books as a bit of a palate cleanser. Clean and fun, Nate never fails to make me smile with his hijinks. And getting to see his grandparents again was a delight. Grandpa and Nate resonate on the same level and it is just so fun to see. We also get to see Teddy and Francis roll their eyes at Nate and Gina is back as his younger arch-nemesis. Older nemesis, Mrs. Godfrey is back as well.
I'm pretty sure I've never read a book that opens with a rash of seasickness, but this one does. Well, really it opens with Colin's brother, Andy, getting married to Julianne (Declan's Cross) but Colin and his marine patrol brother, Kevin, end up leaving the reception to investigate the illness. Colin is surprised to recognize one of the victims as an undercover agent.
I don't particularly love the game-changing trope in this book but I do like friends-to-lovers and Ms. Bennett in general. I think the regular Return to Haven readers won't be disappointed and new poeple won't have had to read the other books in the series to like this one.
James and Viola didn't expect to be married to one another. In fact, James was engaged to Viola's friend. But one drunken mistake (James's) and one all-to-understood-overhearing (Viola's) later and the two are married and then separated faster than you can say lickety-split.
When the Baylor family became a house, they all quickly realized that Nevada, the oldest, was not going to be a good head of house. So, Catalina stepped up. She's only 21 and her entire family is about to lose their three year stay of execution, the time when no other houses can come at them. So it's a very awkward time for her to take on the case of Runa Etterson whose mother and sister have been murdered. But Runa is a friend, of sorts, and Catalina wants to help both her and Runa's brother discover who would want to murder their mother and take out anyone else in the vicinity.