The Write Escape by Charish Reid

Common romance trope: heroine loses both her fiance and her job in less than 24 hours. Job wasn't that great and the fiance was definitely a dud. It sucks, the reason that they break up, but it sure underlines Antonia's nervousness about getting married. She decides that, without a job or a husband, she might as well go on her honeymoon. She could finally work on her novel. But she doesn't count on her dick of a fiancee canceling her reservations. With the local festival going on, she barely finds a room in a cottages 30 minutes away. Tired beyond all belief, she barely realizes she's flirting with the cute Irish guy in line behind her at the grocery.
Cute guy, aka Professor Aiden Byrnes, only has a year before he's up for tenure and he's behind on his publishing. So it's a good thing he's got a week at his annual cottage getaway planned. He's not expecting to see the gorgeous American from the grocery store pounding on his door in the morning telling him that his music is too loud. He's delighted that she is as smart as she is beautiful and, before the week is over, he's plotting ways to help her to stay.
The book was a little cheesy and a little too judgmental of other romance novels but a fast, fun, and fluffy read.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out September 30th
ARC kindly provided by Carina Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Tis the Season to Read Maisey Yates Sampler by Maisey Yates

A nice glimpse of two of Yates' upcoming books.

Cowboy Christmas Redemption

Caleb Dalton fell in love with Ellie Bell the day he met her. Too bad she was always fated to marry his best friend, the eminently better man. But her husband died fighting fires and now Caleb is Ellie's rock and his family is helping her to raise the daughter her husband barely knew she was carrying. Without him, Ellie would have been lost. But now she's finally starting to come back to life, to feel as if she deserves something more. She's got a new job and she's ready to start dating. Or at least have sex.

Came out September 24th

Rancher's Wild Secret

Holden McCall finally has the last piece needed for his plans and it involves Emerson Maxfield. The beauty wants nothing more than to earn her father's love but Holden thinks she should be working toward something more... 

Comes out November 5th

Stay tuned here for full reviews!

Comes out November 5th

Samplers provided by Harlequin and NetGalley

Once a Spy by Mary Jo Putney

If you've read previous books in the Rogues Redeemed series, you will remember Simon Duval, the man who has helped our other heroes find love. In "Once a Scoundrel," Susan Duval, widow of Simon's cousin, helps the heroine escape a harem, the same harem where she was held for years. It's sort of understandable that she's not real keen on sex at this point. But when Simon suggests they marry for companionship, Susan is read to do it. Shunned by the other French emigres, Susan is not sure about the marriage at first but then she meets his friends and realizes that not everyone is as close-minded. She decides that, if Simon is not serious about wanting intimacy, she's in. So they marry and Simon soon realizes that his desire is not as lost as he thought.
The two work through her issues even as they also have to deal with going to Brussels, even knowing that Napoleon has escaped and England may once again be on the brink of war. They are looking for Simon's cousin, Lucas, who disappeared from a war camp and now may be wandering the countryside as a Franciscan monk.
This is a typical Putney novel, generally fast, fun, and fluffy. There are some heavy themes in this book that aren't exactly treated lightly but they are sort of skimmed over. Readers will again experience an unusual bent into religion, something that happened at the end of the Lost Lords series. I say unusual because it doesn't happen in every Putney book but shows up unexpectedly here and there and I was surprised there wasn't anything about it in the author's note, why was this book different? This time it was a little less preachy and more in the line of miraculous. I don't mind it if it's used consistently in a series but am sort of bemused that we have several fairly straight-forward novels and then one with overt magical realism. It will be interesting to see if future books in the series continue this trend, especially if Lucas gets his own HEA.

Three stars
This book came out September 24th
Follows Once a Scoundrel

Followed by Once Dishonored
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Hardy Agency by Script by Pierre Christin / Art by Annie Goetzinger

I don't know if a book less than twenty years old can rightly be called a classic but this is certainly a reissue of a book that originally came out in 2001 -- one that has the gritty appeal of a 1950s hardboiled detective mystery with some twists that I haven't read before (though I expect they may be more common that I believe): the detective in this case is a female, a widow to be exact, and it's set in Paris.
In this book, Episode One (of three),  Edith Hardy takes on the case of of a parfumier who has lost his lead scientist. Along the way, her young assistant Vittorio, now  in France known as Victor, is caught up in a round of socialist workers. There's a run-in with the KGB, a prescient dream, and.. just a lot going on. Very French.
If you like the Inspector Maigret mysteries, this may trip your trigger.

Three stars
This book came out September 18th
ARC kindly provided by Europe Comics and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

A Golden Grave by Erin Lindsey

I hadn't read a book in this series and obviously didn't read the description very well -- I completely missed the part about the paranormal mysteries. The part about Rose Gallagher being a Pinkerton agent and, heavily implied, being in love with the man, Thomas, who brought her in to the agency when he recognized her ability to see the spirits/shades. One night, she overhears her handler and his boss seemingly implying that she is not going to be a good fit for the agency, that she's not catching up as soon as she should. So when Sergeant Chapman comes to the door of the house that she's staying at, she immediately takes on his case. It seems six delegates from the Republican Convention are now dead and the sergeant isn't sure it's typhoid as the coroner is implying. In the course of her investigation, she meets Nicola Tesla.
It was an interesting read, especially with Rose trying to figure out how to align a new life, which seemed like it was going to solve so many problems, with the old one. I didn't feel like I missed much by not having read the first book in the series but I still wished I had read it.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out September 17th
ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Wrapped Up in You by Jill Shalvis

After a lifetime of heartbreak, Ivy Snow is ready to run her (about to be permitted) taco truck and make some roots with her found family in San Francisco. She's finally found a place to stay and nothing's going to push her out, not even the uber-handsome Kel O'Donnell.  Guy's a cop anyway and Ivy knows that's no good. It's too bad he's the cousin of one of her new-found friends and it sounds like he's going to be hanging out for awhile. And the more they hang out, the hotter he gets...
Kel has been... well. He's not working as a sheriff right now for reasons and he's got some time off from his ranch so he'll help his cousin Caleb with some work for his security business. He doesn't expect to fall in lust with a woman who cooks like a dream. But when her brother comes back into town, Kel just isn't sure that Ivy is someone he can trust.
I love most of Shalvis's work but the ending often don't work for me and this one is the same. It skips too far ahead and too much has happened that I would have liked to know how they actually got to their end point, it would have made the characters a little deeper.

Three stars
This book comes out September 24th
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Christmas in Chamonix by Sasha Wagstaff

Everyone knows the story: two best friends, one a guy, one a girl. One or the other realizes that they're in love with the other and, after a a short, turbulent period, they realize that they are both in love and end up with a HEA. Except in this book.

Lily Jackson has only recently realized that she loves her friend Jamie. But when she finally gets up the courage to tell Jamie that she loves him, she discovers that he's already in a relationship. And the woman he's dating? Well, it's just going to be uncomfortable for Lily to stay in the country. Even at Christmas, her favorite time of the year. So she finally takes he friend Imogen up on her suggestion to come to France, to the Chamonix ski resort. Lily has never skied but her job as a masseuse is pretty portable so she picks up and goes. And at Chamonix, she meets ski instructor Luc, a man who hates Christmas. Can she teach him to change his mind? In a typical romance novel or a Hallmark movie, it might be a no-brainer. But this book... who know?

A charming book that actually introduced some darker themes. Maybe a little too much for a Christmas book but it's all wrapped up neatly in the end. An extra bump in the rating for how the women handled the dating situation.

Four stars
This book comes out September 24th
ARC kindly provided by Canelo and NetGalley
Opinions are my own