For All Time by Jude Deveraux

I have such a hard time with Deveraux's time traveling books. They are just not as good as her other books. And this one was no different. 
Graydon is in town to watch his cousin get married. At least, that's why he's supposed to be in town. As the heir apparent to the Lanconian throne, he is most certainly not supposed to be ogling bridesmaid Toby. And yet... there's a draw. One more powerful than his mother's disapproval and even overriding his good sense to remember that he's supposed to be engaged. But he and Toby have a history. A long history. One that they're willing to go back time to make sure that at least one version of themselves can end in true love...
Oh. My. God. The push-me-pull-you lasted the whole damn book. No seriously. It only got resolved in the last... twenty pages? I mean, good God. Yes, most books have issues like this but the couple at least tries to do something. Not just sit around with an, "Oh woe is me" attitude the Entire. Freaking. Time.

Two stars

Follows True Love

Followed by Ever After

This book came out July 1st, 2014

Borrowed as ebook from CloudLibrary

Opinions are my own

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

I heard about this book on a couple of different podcasts and saw that it was available in NetGalley. I was attracted by the idea of a large and meddling family of women all working to help the youngest of them (and the only girl in her generation) after she accidentally kills a man. Also, a look at the intricacies of a now American family who came from Chinese-Indonesian roots. And those parts I really liked. I also liked the story of Meddy getting to reconnect with her college romance (which we see growing and exploding in flashback chapters; not my favorite plot device). However, my anxiety spiked just a little too high at seeing the body being moved around and the family nearly being discovered.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out April 27th, 2021

Followed by Four Aunties and a Wedding

ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

A Treacherous Performance by Lynn Messina

One remark from an heiress, Miss Brougham, sent Beatrice Hyde-Clare's tentative hopes for a good (or even semi-decent) season into a tailspin. Years later, Beatrice is now engaged to a duke. And the former Miss Brougham has brought Beatrice a perfect reason not to concentrate on the fact that she will soon be a duchess. She wants Beatrice to find a long-lost family treasure.

Unfortunately, there is more to the story than just that and it sends Beatrice and her fiance off on another adventure, one that threatens their Happily Ever After.

A decent addition to the series. I highly suggest reading them in order as the sum of the total is more than just its parts.

Three Stars

Follows A Nefarious Engagement

Followed by A Sinister Establishment

This book came out November 15th, 2019

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

A Nefarious Engagement by Lynn Messina

 Beatrice Hyde-Clare never actually expected to make a match with the Duke of Kesgrave. And suddenly, she's gone from wallflower to the center of attention in the course of an evening. She needs to distract herself. But how? Maybe by solving the mystery of her parents' deaths. It was widely accepted that it was an accident but was it really? Or was it something more sinister?

Like the rest of the series, the mystery is a little thin and most of the joy of reading this book comes from the building romance.

Three Stars

Follows An Infamous Betrayal

Followed by A Treacherous Performance

This book came out April 9th, 2019

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Follow Your Heart by Brenda Jackson

Victoria Madaris is ready to be matched. Her great-grandmother has been matching people successfully for generations but Victoria is concerned. She knows that her grandmother is setting her up with her brother's friend, Tanner because they run into each other at a bakery, each having been given gift cards by her grandmother. It's just too bad that she has no sparks with him. Not like she does with a certain senator. 

Roman Malone knows that having a wife would make him more attractive to voters but he is not interested in the kind of political marriage that his ex-girlfriend is trying to force him into. Instead, he wants a marriage where he enjoys mutual loves... like fishing. 

Their romance is actually pretty straightforward except for Victoria thinking that she is supposed to be in love with someone else. We don't get as much of their story because Tanner has a story of his own and I frankly didn't like him as a character and couldn't understand why Lyric would fall in love with him.

Three stars
Follows Finding Home Again
This book comes out April 27th, 2021
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Southern Sass and a Battered Bride by Kate Young

I hadn't read the previous books in this series and wish that I had. Young did a good job of filling in some back stories but I was really struggling with why Marygene Brown would have ever been involved with Alex Myers. 

In this book, he's marrying another woman, Lucy. And Lucy is... well, let's go with she's a jerk. And a bridezilla. When Lucy ends up dead after the wedding, Marygene becomes an obvious suspect but Alex also wildly accuses his own cousin, Betsy, who is Marygene's best friend. 

The book is a wild romp with some pretty outrageous exploits on the part of our heroine who is pulled into the mystery, not by her own curiosity, but because she seems to be part of some collateral damage.

I hope that future books don't fall into the love triangle that could result as a part of the end of this book but I think Young is sidestepping that possibility (thank goodness.) I did enjoy the fact that Marygene's ghostly mother was used lightly.

Three stars

Follows Southern Sass and a Crispy Corpse

This book comes out April 27th

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin

I highly recommend listening to this book as Ruffin is an engaging narrator and we even get to hear from other people like her sister Lacey. This book reminds me strongly of Phoebe Robinson with stories about the Black experience in America that are comedically told but nonetheless somewhat mortifying that people in this day and age still might think some of these actions are perfectly normal. Not all of the stories are about Lacey and the do span several decades. They range from the fairly ridiculous (a woman patting Amber's hair, getting her hand stuck, and then hanging from Amber after tripping) to the horrifying (an old man waving a gun at young Amber and Lacey because they were walking on his sidewalk.

Four stars

This book came out January 12th, 2021

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own