Serving Sin by Angelina M. Lopez

I really wish that I had known that there was some (mostly off-page) depiction of rape in this book; I would have saved it for another time. I had really enjoyed the first book in this series when I read it a couple years ago and thought this book would be similar. The topics in this one were weightier which I wasn't expecting. I'm also not a huge fan of time hops which this book used to fill in backstory. This will be a book enjoyed by readers who like a powerful heroine and a man who isn't afraid to let her do her thing but also by readers who are prepared for a little more grit in their romance.

Cenobia "Cen" Trujillo is her father's heir apparent. But manufacturing in Mexico isn't exactly ready for a female to be in charge. Nor for her to introduce new technology to the automotive industry and someone is sending her threats. So she seeks hep from the one man she knows can keep her safe, the same one who rescued her thirteen years ago, Roman Sheppard. 

Roman has dark secrets in his past, things that keep him from reaching for happiness. Even knowing that Cen (who he can't seem to call be the name she prefers) is the one who helped pull his adopted country out of debt just makes her more out of reach. He finds her power sexy which is pretty awesome in a hero, even one who needs to pull his head out of his own butt in order to get to an HEA.

Four stars
Follows Hate Crush

This book comes out May 25th, 2021
ARC kindly provided by Carina Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day (, #4) by Jackie Lau

Can you find love in the family planning section of the grocery store? Amber Wong and Sebastian Lam are about to find out. The two grew up in the same neighborhood but haven't seen each other in some time. Now each is just out of a bad relationship and figuring that some hooking up would be perfect for each. 

This is a short book (novella?) with a lot of on page sex so there's not a lot of room for character growth nor for relationships. It's fun and fluffy and great for a right-before-bed-read.

Three and a half stars

Follows A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year

This novella came out February 4th, 2020

Borrowed as an ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Bad Luck Club by A.R. Casella

I think I built this book up too much in my own mind so I was sort of disappointed. A lot of the story seems to be building up to another series based on the characters in the Bad Luck Club which meant that there was less time to focus on Blue and Lee. It ended up being an okay book but lost some of the fun earlier books in the series had.
Blue Combs knows from bad luck. She's been attracted to the wrong type of man and finding out her last boyfriend was married was just too much. To help herself, she answered an ad for a club that is supposed to help people clear their bad luck. Basically, they do a series of challenges assigned by a mentor in order to try to change their luck themselves. She can see that her friends' brother, Lee, is in the same sort of situation. She wants to help him, even though he threw up on her shoes in an earlier book.
Lee is definitely ready to change his luck around. He just turned his father in for a giant Ponzi scheme and is considered untouchable by the same people who used to think he had a magic touch. He is feeling brought down to have to work in his family's brewery but meeting Blue might just prove that his luck is changing for the better.

Three stars

Follows Getting Lucky

Followed by Luck of the Draw

This book came out April 8th, 2021

Ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Once Dishonored by Mary Jo Putney

Lucas Mandeville was once an officer in the Royal Navy. Then he became an apprentice to a Franciscan friar who was a bonesetter. Now, he is Lord Foxton and just reemerging into society. He is cautious because he is known as a deserter from the Navy. He was captured by the enemy and tortured but he was not supposed to escape and he finally couldn't take any more so he did. Now everyone in society looks at him askance. So he understands scandal because he sails so close to it himself. He is not afraid to approach the infamous divorcee, Lady Kendra Douglas. 

Kendra is trying to repair her reputation so that she can regain her son. She is astonished that Lucas wants to help but she accepts it readily.

We then get to see many characters from other Putney books. This book was very much in the vein of those other books but moved more quickly from meeting to bedding. This is also one of her books that leans into religion hard, like Lucas-performing-miracles hard. And I don't mind if a whole series does that but it's very disconcerting when it's every five books or so and all of the other books are so rooted in realism. 

Two stars

Follows Once a Spy

This book came out September 29th, 2020
Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

One Weekend in Aspen by Jaime Clevenger

Personal chef Emily Brookstone has been invited to a very exclusive event. Apparently something that is known throughout the lesbian community because her best friend is incredibly jealous. But she's also happy for Emily. It seems that Emily has just gotten out of a bad relationship and is on the rebound. A no-strings-attached weekend in Aspen should be a great place for her to get her mojo back. 

Alex Murphy is sort of tired of these weekends. She's been friends (and sometimes more) with Katherine, the ultra-rich hostess, for a long time but she's trying to extricate herself from the relationship. Or at least dial it back to just friendship. But Katherine doesn't want to let her go. On the other hand, Alex has just met a mysterious woman on the plane ride into Aspen. And a snowstorm diverting them to Denver gives Alex the chance to share a car with the woman and find out more about her.

I actually liked broad swaths of this story and it was hard to put down (but I needed to sleep). However, I didn't like all the sturm and drang caused by the weekend. Or, I would have liked it better had it a) been a smaller part of the story and b) not been smack in the middle of the real relationship development of the story. Clevenger is a good writer and I look forward to more of their stories.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 18th, 2021

Ebook from Netgalley

Opinions are my own

Independent Bones by Carolyn Haines

Sarah Booth is back again. Her partner in their investigative agency, Tinkie is about to give birth and there's a professor of Greek studies with a decidedly feminist bent in town who is stirring up... everyone. At a talk that Alala Diakos is giving, the local prototypical wife abuser calls her out and it causes a scene. Then Sarah Booth finds a gun that was pointed at Alala while she was speaking. But the professor is not the one to die, instead, she becomes the prime suspect in the abuser's murder. It doesn't help that she's been linked to at least two other murders where the man was similarly of the mind that women belonged in the kitchen. 

Sarah Booth will have to be careful because it seems that there is a group getting together who aren't afraid to use any means possible to make sure that their idealized vision of history becomes everyone else's present. And she is setting herself right in their sights.

I think these books have always been a little preachy but this one is even more so. It's a topic that I agree with but was fairly heavy-handed. I am happy that Tinkie had her baby and look forward to seeing how this changes (or maybe doesn't) the dynamic between our protagonist and one of her best friends.

 

Three stars

This book comes out May 18, 2021

Follows Garland of Bones

Followed by Lady of Bones

ARC kindly provided by St Martin's Press and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Crazy for Loving You by Pippa Grant

Daisy Imogen Carter-Kincaid is known in the tabloids as a billionaire party girl. She is footloose and fancy-free. Except that her cousin, famous for giving people one star reviews, has died and left Daisy her child. But Daisy isn't the only person left in charge of the child, so is West Jaeger, former Marine, current contractor. 

West thinks that this is one big joke. His brother Tyler is a hockey player and his team is known for their pranks. But then he figures out someone (who fired him by the way) has really left him a child. And that he needs to stick around so that the child doesn't go to his even worse paternal grandparents.

This may be one of Grant's earlier books because, while it has the absolute crazy-pants parts of the plot that she includes in all of her books, there are plot points that are thin to the point of invisibility and the character development is lacking. We hear that West and Daisy work but there isn't much explanation out of that. 

Two and a half stars

Follows Wild Open Hearts

Bluewater Billionairs #4

This book came out November 8th, 2019 (oof, not as early as I had thought)

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle

Opinions are my own

Reread as Kindle ebook October 2024