Murder With Puffins by Donna Andrews

The second outing in this series takes place when Meg tries to take a vacation with her new beau... but her family decides to follow along.  When a sudden storm strands everyone on the island and a body is discovered, Meg has to take charge. But the mystery is complicated by the fact that her mother has a complicated history with the victim. And, of course, nobody liked him...

Andrews is building a lovely, cozy series with this book. Characters are starting to be really set in stone and subsequent books only build on this story.

Four stars

Meg Langslow #2

This book came out June 15th, 2001

Follows Murder with Peacocks

Followed by Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

Reread May 2022; As Audible book September 2024

Murder With Peacocks by Donna Andrews

I started this series in the middle, something I don't usually do.  And it is a thoroughly wonderful series.  The protagonist, Meg, is a reluctant sleuth, her real avocation being blacksmithing.  Really, she's a blacksmith.  That alone would have kept me reading the series but it's also well-written and entertaining.  Which reminds me... I just re-read the plot for this book and I think I want to read it again.

Meg is remarkably dependable and organized which probably explains why she is the maid of honor in three weddings at the same time. It means she is moving back to her mother's house for the summer to help plan all the weddings. Unfortunately, one of the guests ends up dead. And then, someone seems to be targeting Meg's Dad as the next victim.

Four stars

Meg Langslow #1

Followed by Murder with Puffins

This book came out February 7th, 2006

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Reread May 2022; as Audible book September 2024

Lord of the Wings by Donna Andrews

Meg is back and this time... it's Halloween. And Caerphilly has banded together to put together a holiday festival. Only, there's something deeper going on. First, the break-ins at the haunted house. Then the fake body parts at the zoo. And the bodies that start turning up. Once again, Meg is up to her eyebrows, trying to get her now six-year-old twins ready for Halloween, try to avoid/help the newly hired festival coordinator, and figure out what is once again going on in her small town. 
A very good addition to the Meg Langslow series. Readers definitely won't be disappointed.

Four stars

This book came out August 4, 2015

Meg Langslow #19

Follows The Nightingale Before Christmas

Followed by Die Like an Eagle

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread as Audible book October 2022, August 2023, November 2024 as Audible book

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