Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik

Ada von Hasenberg is a child of one of the three head houses of the High Council but, as a younger child, she is of little value unless she marries. And her father did contract a marriage for her to Richard Rockhurst. Ada decided she didn't want to get married and fled. She's got a bounty on her head and, two year later, has finally been captured by a merc ship. But she's not their only bounty. The ship also has the notorious Marcus Loch, the man who was rumored to have killed his entire troop during the Fornax Rebellion. If Ada wants to escape, she's going to need to team up with Marcus so that she can figure out why she has suddenly become so valuable to the Rockhurst house. What she uncovers will shake the entire High Council and lead to a house war.
Great world building and an introduction to a world that is just fun to read. I like the second book in the series just a little bit more but this is second in my heart.

Four stars
This book came out February 5th, 2019
Followed by Aurora Blazing
Borrowed this book from the library
Opinions are my own

Reread November 2025 as Audible audiobook

Murder at the Tea Party by Sonia Parin

While the mystery is better in this book than the first in the series, the character development is what continues to delight.
Evie Parker has returned to the estate of her husband's family. Both her mother-in-law and her grandmother-in-law are still living but have inexplicably moved to the dower house. Evie thinks that Sarah and Henrietta may be sending her a message. She's not quite figured out what it is but they are distracted by the fact that a band of local ladies seem determined to wrest the Hunt Ball from the Woodbridges who have always hosted it. During the war, Woodbridge Hall was turned into a convalescent home and the dowager countesses were busy helping so the location moved. Now, the ladies want to take it back over but a newly relocated matron has decided that the local villagers should stay in charge. Unfortunately, this is the same matron who falls dead after visiting Evie for tea.
Evie is viewed with some suspicion but it gets worse when another woman from the same committee dies after another tea party at Evie's. Working again with Tom Winchester, as well as Phillipa, an Australian motorist who has been staying at the house since her motorcar broke down right outside the house, Evie is going to solve this murder to prove her own innocence.

Four stars
Follows House Party Murder
Followed by Murder in the Cards
This book came out March 19th, 2019
Borrowed as audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

Not everyone wants to go viral. Samiah Brooks is one of those people. And yet, when she along with two other women all learn they're dating the same man and confront him, the all become famous. Samiah especially since she works in the tech industry. And as a Woman of Color, she usually tries to keep her head low and just do a stellar job.
Daniel Collins admires Samiah and the way that she is handling the situation. He also admires the way she works. And the way she looks. She's just all-around an amazing woman who anyone should be delighted to be with. Too bad that he's not exactly telling her the truth about who he is.
I cannot WAIT for Taylor and London's stories though the excerpt for Taylor's story makes me a little nervous. There is definitely some set up in this book getting ready for their stories but it isn't intrusive. I got a little checked out in the middle of the book but I can't tell if that was the story or me so I erred on the side of me since I generally enjoyed the book.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out June 9th

Followed by The Dating Playbook
ARC kindly provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

And Then One Day by Samantha Chase

Courtney Baker doesn't necessarily want to leave Magnolia Sound but there's not a lot keeping her there. Her job has been made redundant, she can't find another one, there are no good men who are looking at her, and her best friend is caught up in a whirlwind romance and pregnancy, leaving Courtney in the dust. It's at that friend's rehearsal dinner that Courtney finally gets a kiss from the man she's been dreaming of for years, her best friend's oldest brother.
Dean Jones didn't know that Courtney thought of him as anything other than a pseudo-brother. But when she lays one on him, he's all in. Her plans to leave town are stalled when her car runs through some water and her trailer comes unhitched. They're further stalled when Dean's sister asks him to take his time fixing the vehicle so Courtney will stay in town longer...
This was fast, fun, and fluffy. Not a lot of depth but nothing to slow the read.

Three stars
Follows In Case You Didn't Know

Followed by Can’t Help Falling in Love
This book came out January 28th, 2020
Borrowed as ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

Three at Wolfe's Door by Rex Stout

Poison a la Carte
One of the stories pulled for the 90s TV series, this story was not told beat by beat but the idea was there. A group of men like to eat the finest foods and they wish to borrow Fritz for this year's occasion. It's just too bad that one of the men dies. It had to be one of the twelve actresses hired as servers but which one?
  Method Three for Murder 
Archie has quit but as he's walking out of Nero's house, there's a woman walking up. She had a bet with a friend concerning women taxi drivers but wasn't expecting a dead body to show up in the cab she was driving. Especially not the woman her husband was having an affair with.
  The Rodeo Murder
This one was hard to read because of all of the "western speak." Basically, there's a rodeo in town and one of the backers, a man who was known to be handsy with the ladies, is killed.

Read this one because of the review on Classic Mysteries podcast. It was fine but not my favorite collection.

Three stars
This book came out April 29th, 1960
Bought on Nook
Opinions are my own

Dance Away with Me by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

If you like a Man Who Steps Up, this might be a book for you. It takes awhile but Ian North eventually falls in line. Tess Hartsong is emotionally brittle. Her husband died young and, two years later, she is still working through her grief (because grief really, really sucks.) But she decides that a rural area is going to be the place to heal. Also healing? 2 am dance parties. But her neighbor isn't into that. At least the male half isn't. But he ends up as a single father and Tess steps in. Well, "steps" might be a soft word for it. She is sort of barreling her way through life, undirected and decides to take on an orphan as well as teaching all of the teens in an abstinence only town all about prophylactics.
I have to admit, I was hoping for another Natural Born Charmer or Breathing Room. Both start with female characters on a journey (okay, it's a common plot device,) and we get to see them move through the book. And it took me several days to figure out why this book didn't quite hit that button for me and I finally figured out that the amount of resolution nowhere nears the amount of angst. Tess is so bottled up for most of the book, then sort of nuts, but then, poof!, she's all good. In both of the other books I mentioned, we get to see more healing and getting to see that depth of character is part of what makes those books so good. Also missing in this book? Relationship development. At least between Tess and Ian. It all felt so surface and SEP is usually so good at creating the kind of relationship that I sigh over.

Three stars
This book comes out June 9th
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers, NetGalley, and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

In Case You Didn't Know by Samantha Chase

Mason Bishop's mother has been more than a little overbearing in the first two books of this series. In this book, he's finally making his bid for freedom by moving out. What he doesn't expect to find is a woman who fascinates him.
Scarlett Jones knows all about Mason. He's the golden boy, the only son of the reigning family of Magnolia Sound. He was also her lab partner in middle school but their lives diverged quickly. She was the only daughter of a father who didn't know how to deal with her (which we are told A LOT in this fairly short story). Now she... I'm not actually sure. I think her main job is as a social media manager for several places in town but we mostly hear that she helps out at her father's garage and build houses for dogs that need to be adopted. Even though she's resentful of Mason's seemingly perfect life, she is attracted to him.
I wish there had been more about how the two start to build a relationship but there was a lot built into the story.

Three stars
Follows A Girl Like You
Followed by And Then One Day
This book came out June 23rd, 2019
Borrowed as ebook from the library
Opinions are my own