The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

Kristin Petersen has just gotten some devastating news. But she's trying to keep it quiet so that she can continue to plan her best friend's wedding. Of course, driving her friend's fiance's brand new truck and then spilling coffee during a minor fender bender (maybe slightly before...) doesn't help the day. And the guy who bumps her ending up being the best man? That's just crap icing on the crap cake.
But as she gets to know Josh Copeland, she starts to fall a little bit more and more in love. Too bad she isn't really the perfect woman for her perfect man. And then a major emergency puts all wedding plans on hold.
The characters were well drawn and I generally liked the story except that it's one of those stories that could be easily solved by one conversation. And the ending just felt... wrong. Things like that can happen in real life but it didn't feel organic to the way the rest of this story was written.

Three stars
Followed by The Happy Ever After Playlist
This book came out June 11th, 2019
Borrowed this as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

The book starts off with a goblin hunt and leads into complete zombie fest. Mercy originally set out with Ben and Mary Jo (the latter of whom she is still trying to figure out; she saved the woman's life but she still hates Mercy) but ends up needing the help of powerful witch Elizaveta. But, for some reason, no one at her house is answering the phone. It seems that a witch consortium is building power and if Elizaveta's family isn't with them, they are against them. And Mercy's pack? They're automatically against them. And the cute little zombie goats that begin the story have nothing on the creatures that these witches will unleash in the search for power.
This story definitely move forward the stories of a lot of the main characters as a couple of the B characters in this series. A nice addition to the series that is making look forward to the next.

Four stars
This book came out May 7th, 2019
Follows Silence Fallen
Followed by Smoke Bitten
Ebook from Library
Opinions are my own

Secret Star by Nora Roberts

Grace Fontaine just needed some time to relax so she went away. She didn't realize that doing so would lead to her cousin's death. Nor did she think that her friends might believe she was the one who died. So when she walks into her trashed home and is accosted by Detective Seth Buchanan, she reacts badly, playing right into his assumptions about her personality.
Rich girl, party girl, doesn't care about others are Buchanan's thoughts. Here, her friends are mourning her, and she's just wandering around blithely. But he is soon proved wrong. Grace is more than that. More than just her wealth and beauty. But there are others who don't see that and she may be in danger from the one who doesn't just covet her but the three giant diamonds at the heart of this series.
Definitely a 90s romance first written as a Harlequin romance. Not a lot of room for much (e.g. Character or romance development) other than the story.

Three stars
Follows Captive Star
This book came out January 1st, 1998
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

January Scaller does not live with either her mother or her father. Instead, she lives with Mr. Locke while her father travels the world, searching for treasures for the New England Archeological Society. And Mr. Locke seems to care for her. She cares for him. Her life is distressingly normal for a girl who is neither white nor black in (I think?) the early 1900s. But her life begins to change at seven when she briefly sees a blue door and goes through to another world. When her father dies, her life changes irrevocably. Her first person narration pulls us into the story, into her feelings and sense of wonder.
Her story intersects with two others whose identities are originally concealed from us by the third person narrator. All of them, explorers, trying to discover all 10,000 doors (which is actually "too many to count" but 10,000 works well.)
Great character development, awesome world building, and a happy ending. All things that make me happy. I did skim a couple of sections but not very much.

Four stars
This book came out September 10th, 2019
Borrowed as an audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own

Falling for Max by Shannon Stacey

Tori Burns loves her life. She's a part-time waitress which lets work with people and also work her first love, graphic design. When Max Crawford walks into her diner one day, she is confounded and bemused. The man who half the town believes to be an ax murderer is there to try and meet a woman. Well, it's true it is the only game in town for meeting people but Max is adorably awkward. That's why she agrees to help him practice date. If only they can keep it to practicing...

Four stars
Follows Taken with You
This book came out July 29th, 2014
March 25th, 2014
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

A Going Concern by Catherine Aird

Elderly people often have odd ideas - or so the stereotype goes. So when Octavia Garamond adds not only a precatory memorandum (wishes that the deceased would like to have happen but aren't outlined in the will itself), a very young executrix (Amelia Kennerly) who Octavia had only met once, and a request that the police be at her funeral, it adds up to something beyond just a little odd.
And the oddness continues as Octavia's house, ordered to be locked after her death and not opened by anyone but Amelia, is completely searched. Inspector Sloane works slowly to find out the answer to this mystery which has its roots in a biochemical research lab during World War II.
I heard about this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast and enjoyed it quite a bit. I am not sure I will go back to the beginning and read them all but I will probably look through and see if there are any other plots that look interesting.

Four stars
This book came out March 31st, 2020

Follows A Going Concern

Followed by After Effects
Borrowed as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

Scoring off the Field by Naima Simone

Tennyson "Tenny" Clark has been in love with her best friend/boss for decades. She even confessed it to him one drunken night but he was so horrified that she immediately played it off as being a joke. But it's time for her to step out on her own. She needs to get away from Dominic Anderson and stop letting him break her heart every time he sleeps with another woman.
But this is when Dominic realizes that Tenny might just be a woman. And he doesn't want to let her go.
And he is kind of a jerk about it. He wants to have his cake and eat it too; Tenny should be his best friend but also have sex but not ever fall in love. I liked Simone's writing but didn't really connect with the characters.

Three and a half stars
Follows Scoring With the Wrong Twin
Followed by Scoring the Player's Baby
This book came out March 12th, 2018
Ebook from Kindle
Opinions are my own

Reread March 2023