A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber

Six months into her pregnancy, Lady Kiera Darby has been invited to Duchess of Bowmontʼs Twelfth Night party. She and her husband Sebastian Gage are looking forward to relaxing and having some fun. But some of the relationships among the Bowmont family seem strained and it only gets worse when a body is discovered in the catacombs below the house.
No one can identify the corpse but suspicion is quick that it is that of the Duchess's son-in-law who has supposedly been in France for almost a month. But is that really who it is? And why is somebody stealing the evidence that points to that being the case?
The mystery was a little convoluted but I enjoyed getting to know Kiera a little better in this book and seeing how her husband respects what it is that she does.

Three stars
Follows an Artless Demise

Followed by A Wicked Deceit
This book comes out April 7, 2020
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

One Perfect Summer by Brenda Novak

23andMe is uncovering a lot of long-held family secrets. Serenity, Reagan, and Lorelei have discovered they are half-sisters and have decided to spend a weekend together in Lake Tahoe to try and get to know each other. Serenity is dealing with the fall-out of her eight-year marriage ending; Reagan had and affair with a married man; Lorelei's husband has just admitted that he cheated on her with her best friend. The three ladies spend enough time together to realize they need more than just the weekend they originally planned for.
I liked the depiction of Lucy, Lorelei's four-year-old, in this book. She wasn't a plot moppet at all. However, I did not like the fact that all of the characters felt a little flat. This is a long book but there was So Much going on that none of it felt like the kind of in-depth story that Novak can do. I actually would have liked it much better had every romantic interest been edited out and the ladies had just had time to grow from the bonds with each other.

Three stars
This book comes out April 7th
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin Mira and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Naomi and Nicholas are supposed to get married in three months but neither of them especially likes the other. Naomi wants out but she can't afford to help out with any of the money that's already gone into the wedding planning (mostly done by his mother) since her job is currently precarious at best. She also has no family and her best friend hates Naomi after having been set up on a date with a friend of Nicholas's who turned out to be a scumbag. The more she thinks about it, the more Naomi realizes that she really doesn't like Nicholas and she really hates his overbearing and controlling mother. So she decides to sabotage the marriage. While doing that, she starts to notice that he may have been ahead of her.
The whole first part of the book is really Naomi and Nicholas kind of being horrible people. And I did not like it (yes, it was part of the description- I just didn't think I'd dislike them SO much.) However, the second half of the book, after all of their horrible things finally make them realize they might still like each other was absolutely delightful.

Three stars
This book comes out April 7th
ARC kindly provided by Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Haunted Lady by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Hilda Adams has just gotten home from her last job when the phone rings again. She doesn't want to take the case but she knows the name Eliza Fairbanks and she remembers seeing the wedding of Fairbanks' daughter (though the marriage eventually ended in divorce.) So Hilda packs up herself and puts a cover on her birdcage and heads over to the Fairbanks mansion.
It seems that Eliza has reported a high number of animals entering her room, bats and rats, as well as mysterious happenings like her closet door opening when no one is there. The only one who believes her is her granddaughter, Jan.
But then Eliza is murdered and Hilda is left in the house. Possibly with a killer. For sure with a lot of people, all of whom are lying to her for one reason or another.
A decent story but some parts to slog through. Hilda was pretty kick ass (especially for the time she was written in) even though she made some missteps in this story.

Three and a half stars
This book will be reissued on April 7th
ARC kindly provided by American Mystery Classics and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Camping with Unicorns by Dana Simpson

Phoebe and Marigold are back and at their best. For most of the book, the timing is summer vacation. Phoebe re-learns how to manage her own time. Marigold learns about camping. Everyone gets to meet a unicorn who lives in the forest so he can be "away from it all" (not including video games).  And Phoebe starts to be something like friends with Dakota (since Phoebe is the only person she can talk to about the goblins).
It's impressive how much growth these characters can still have in book 11 yet stay true to themselves (little girl and narcissistic not-so-fictional character.) I thought it was really interesting that, while Dakota seems to have no one to talk to about unicorns, Phoebe and her parents as well as Max and his parents all accept unicorns with equanimity.

Five stars
This book comes out April 7th
Follows The Unicorn Whisperer
Followed by Virtual Unicorn Experience
ARC kindly provided by Andrew McMeel Publishing and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston

Gah. This book gave me so many feelings. Mostly a lot of confusion. Because there are so many things about this book that usually annoy me and... they just didn't. They might on a re-read but not this time. The first and most egregious was not enough focus on Max and Zé even though this is supposed toe their book. And this may sound odd but I'm not even sure that this was a romance because it seemed like it was on the back burner. Great character development and in depth relationship development are my numbers one and two catnip and we just didn't get either in this book. Second thing that usually bothers me is the introduction (and focus on) characters who are clearly sequel bait. Max's teammates? The shifter team that tries to recruit them? All sequel bait. And their introduction (their are, what, like 7 or 8 people total for all of them so there's a LOT of introducing) takes up most of the book that would be used for relationship development.  Third, parts of people being introduced that weren't present in any other book in the series just to fit a plot point in this book.
And yet. And YET. Even though all of these things were present (or not), I still finished the book wanting more pages. Laurenston is the queen of the screwball shifter comedy and this book just continues in that vein. Max needs a group of friends who are her ride or die but we've never seen them before? Well, we'll just throw it into the story! Make it a fault of another character who never remembers them but scares the hell out of them.
Do you love Laurenston and the Honey Badger Chronicles? Pre-order this book. Right now. Haven't read them? Start from the beginning and just own them all. I fully plan on re-reading this book soon and will see if my feelings change.

Four stars
This book comes out March 31st, 2020
Follows In a Badger Way

Followed by Breaking Badger
ARC kindly provided by Kensington and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread May 2022, January 2024

Anton (Chicago Blaze, #1) by Brenda Rothert (

A hockey player hero who's been celibate for a year (or two?) A heroine who is married for most of the book? To one of his teammates? Can Rothert make them work? Mostly.
I really enjoyed seeing Anton and Mia fall in love. He accidentally finds her working one night and realizes that her still waters might run even deeper than he originally thought. He slowly discovers that she might not be as attached to her husband as he thought. That does not make him automatically leap to the assumption that she is available or even going to be his but it does give him hope. And the more time he can get her to spend with him, the more she might see how perfect they are for each other.
This was definitely a slow burn book which I enjoyed but I actually wish it had been a bit longer so we could have seen more of their relationship after they were together.

Three stars
This book came out January 29th, 2019
Borrowed this from Kindle Unlimited
Opinions are my own