How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole

Another great addition to the Runaway Royals series, this book has a nice twist ending that falls in line with both characters.

Makeda Hicks's life isn't going exactly the way she had planned. She's a helper, always wanting the best for other people and working to make their lives easier. However, that has made her something of a doormat. And that is coming back to bite her. Her girlfriend is now and ex because Makeda helped her a little too much. Makeda is out of a job because she wasn't able to stand up for herself and prove that she deserved a promotion so, while a coworker got the job, Makeda got the boot. Now, an old story of her grandmother's is coming back once again, the fiction that Makeda's mother was conceived with the king of Ibarania. That story is what caused Makeda's mother to live in a fairy tale all of Makeda's life. 

Beznari Chetchevaliere just wants to prove that her grandmother didn't kill the old queen and that means finding the lost heir of Ibarania. Makeda seems like a good fit since she is in a picture (sent by her grandmother) wearing a ring that looks like it could have come from the kingdom.

The two are immediately attracted to each other but are diametrically opposed to what the end of the heir search should look like.

Four stars

Follows How to Catch a Queen

This book comes out May 25th, 2021

Opinions are my own

A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver

Electra McDonnell knows that her upbringing wasn't exactly traditional. Raised by her uncle with her three male cousins, she is nearly the last one left at home since the boys have gone off or are soon leaving to fight in WWII. So she and her uncle are carrying on the family business. It's just too bad that their latest job has them caught for thievery. Except that very handsome man, Major Gabriel Ramsey, offers them a way out of jail. Electra will have to help him retrieve a set of blueprints that will help them win the war. She's not expecting to stumble across a dead body. Nor can she believe the deeper plot that she is being drawn into.

This was a good start to a mystery series. Electra is coming into her own as women's roles are changing rapidly. I do like the Amory Ames series a little bit better but mostly because I dislike the love triangle trope so very much and Weaver is definitely teasing it here.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 25th, 2021

ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Legacy by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts weaves together tropes she's worked with before to make a story that is unique. Like many of her contemporary one-offs, Legacy is three parts - when the main character(s) are children with a glimpse of when life first changes for them, the near-present and who they are about to become with another defining moment, and then the present where they find happiness. 

This book brings out all the feels with the deaths of many characters, each of which create a turning point for either our hero or our heroine but brought out a lot of snot and tears in this reader. I liked Adrian but didn't feel like we got to know Raylan very well and their romance didn't really hit until midway through part three which means that there's not a lot of time for the reader trust that they will get an HEA (though, really, it couldn't've been different unless the book got to be unwieldy). Raylan's kids were well developed and escaped being plot moppets since they had their own personalities outside of being there to get the h/h together.

I loved that Raylan's first marriage was a good one but his first wife wasn't held up as a paragon therefore ruining him for all other women. The relationship building of Adrian's family, both blood and found family, was stellar. The progression of her relationships with those people and then the relationships they had with each other was more satisfying than the romance. One of my catnips is seeing how characters connect and this book piled it on in spades.

Adrian Rizzo grew up with a mother who forged a name for herself in the world of video workouts. But that doesn't mean that she's going to shy away from that world nor does it mean she's going to ride her mother's coattails. However, stepping into the spotlight means that she's attracted the interest of people who might not want the best for her. In fact, a stalker looms in the shadows who doesn't even want Adrian to live. 

Four and a half stars

This book come out May 25th

ARC kindly provided by Macmillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Undercover Duke by Sabrina Jeffries

Sheridan Wolfe, Duke of Armitage, is asked by his half-brother, Grey, to start making into the death of his brother's father. The whole family is worried that it may have been a murder since their mother's second and third husbands died young as well with Sheridan's own father was poisoned. With his brother's wife in labor, Sheridan has been tasked with questioning Lady Cora Eustace who was at the party for Grey's christening the weekend his father died. She is also Grey's aunt who Sheridan barely knows. Besides, she has a daughter, Vanessa, who Sheridan is... well.. prickly about. Sheridan knows that he needs to marry an heiress and doesn't want to drag Vanessa into his quagmire. Besides, she's enamored of a poet, Juncker.

Vanessa has been using Juncker as a reason to make Sheridan jealous. He doesn't seem to realize that she is full grown and she'll use any means she can to make him realize that she is perfect for him.

The ending wrapped up rather quicker than I had hoped especially since it closed out an arc that has been going on for several books. I was at 80% done and it didn't seem like it was getting close. There was also sort of a rush to the "I love you"s that could have been a little longer to feel more like a real HEA, especially after there was so much deception (some of it from themselves) in the rest of the book. I really do like Jeffries' writing though and up to that end was a lovely story.

Three and a half stars
Follows Who Wants to Marry a Duke

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

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