Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose by T.A. Willberg

Marion Lane is only just recovering from the events of the first story when there is a mysterious death caused by an assassin known only as The Florist. But there are also new inquirers coming to Miss Brickett's and someone has slipped Marion a note that one of them is not what they seem. This is on top of the fact that there are mysterious flyers being distributed around the company and a secret subgroup that is intent on changing the way Miss Brickett's fundamentally works. Unfortunately, one of Marion's cohort will not be alive by the end of the book.

Three stars

This book comes out February 1st, 2022

Follows Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder

ARC kindly provided by Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Cherish Hard by Nalini Singh

Though only twenty-three years old, Sailor knows what he wants out of life. Right now, he's working on building a successful landscaping company. Unlike his brothers, rugby isn't his life. He likes it well enough but it's not going to be what he shoots for every day. So, when he finally sees the woman that has been haunting his dreams for the past seven years, he's excited to finally get his chance but worried he's not going to be able to make room for her in his life when he's got so much going on.

Isa knows what she wants in her life. She wants to teach. But both her mother and her father are trying to get her to take over as the Vice President of one of their companies (yes, they each have one.) In fact, Isa's mother has blackmailed her into working at her mother's company for the summer. Someone she's going to be working closely with? The five-years-younger Sailor. 

This was a nice story for Isa and Sailor but there was a lot of world building going on that pulled back from their love story.

Hard Play #1

Three stars

This book came out November 14, 2017

Connected to Rock Hard 

Followed by Rebel Hard

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread as ebook from Libby February 2024

Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews

Part of an elite group that works (and sometimes kills) by hopping onto a biological computer network and then romping around Hackers style, Claire Shannon knows that she is a powerful psycher. It surprises her that her side loses the war but doesn't surprise her that the man next in line above her kills her team and tries to kill her as well. Now she is part of the refugee group sent to a new planet that is vividly colorful and filled with kind people, she is understandably shaken to be sent to the company owned by Venturo Escana, the one place where her skill might be uncovered.

For his part, Venturo is delighted to have someone climb the ranks so quickly that she becomes an indispensable right-hand. Too bad she works for him. And that he is so intrigued by the woman that he's met online.

Like the first book in this series, there are great leaps in time and gaps in the story but it is still worth reading. We see a woman who knows her own worth but is just trying to survive but who grows to care about other people as well. 

Three stars

This book came out September 14, 2011

Follows Silent Blade

Followed by Fated Blades

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Rock Wedding by Nalini Singh

Sarah and Abe were married young. But he was still mourning the loss of his sister and then his father and couldn't explain that to Sarah. Instead, he buried his feelings in drugs and alcohol until the day he chased her off. 

It has been two years since then. Sarah has just gotten out of a bad relationship (that we read about in the last book) but she has also built up herself and her business. Now that she's available, Abe is ready to grab onto the chance to get her back with both hands. 

I like the (generally) good use of condoms in this series and how Singh covers a significant amount of time in each relationship. It's not like "Oops, we just met and now we're getting married." I liked both Abe and Sarah in this book. They both admitted their mistakes and have matured in a way that makes them truly compatible.

Rock Kiss #4

Three and a half stars

This book came out July 19, 2016

Follows Rock Redemption

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread as Audible audiobook February 2024

Partners by Nora Roberts

Matthew Bates and Laurel Armand work on the New Orleans Herald together. He's on the police beat and Laurel writes politics. The two sit across from each other and Matt enjoys antagonizing Laurel when he can. Even if they are at her family's house for dinner (since he is a good friend of her brother's). She isn't interested (or tells herself she isn't) but the two get pulled into the story of Anne Trulane, a woman who supposedly died of a copperhead bite but her sister is trying to get anyone to believe her that it couldn't be true.

This is very much a book of its time with a virginal heroine who succumbs to the unceasing attention of the alpha male who wants her. Early glimpses of a woman who is good at her profession and the competence porn that Roberts will give us with many of her later characters.

Three stars

This book came out in May 1985

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass

I do love reading a book about a close-knit family and Gwen Engle and her two cousins, Trudy and Milo, would certainly qualify. Their family is well-known in the witching community because of a great-great-grandfather who created a magical catastrophe that affected most of the United States. Because of his work, the whole family is forbidden from practicing magic for 150 years. Gwen's parents have always warned her and her cousin Tannith about the Watchers who might be keeping an eye on their family. Tannith was a distant cousin who was housed with Gwen's family since they were both young but she was never actually adopted. And my least favorite part of this book is the way that Gwen feels about Tannith, seemingly rejecting her for no reason. And that feeling was never really resolved for me. Other than that, I really enjoyed seeing Gwen and her family trying to NOT do magic but it keeps slipping out anyway. I have a feeling that, given another book in the series, the world-building will even out a bit as some things felt left undone but those were fairly minor but having some of the chapters being from the point of view of Tannith's familiar was really fun.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out January 25th, 2022

Cupcake Coven Romance #1

Followed by The Witch Hitch

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews

This is a very short story with a lot of gaping holes and yet the Andrews pair makes it work. I can see why other people say this is one of their weaker series but it's like the authors sort of decided to just leave out wide swathes of the story in these books. But it is Andrews and thus still worth reading.

Meli Glades is an assassin. On a planet, in a world, where there are people with enhanced powers, she is one of the very few that has innate powers. Except that Meli is doing one last job and then retiring. And that job is finished in the first chapter of the book. But her family has pulled her back in for another kill, one that would be more personal since it is the man she was once engaged to but who rejected her before they even truly met. 

Celino Carvana meets a mysterious woman who makes him fall in love over the course of a few days. But then she disappears and he discovers that she was closer than he ever knew...

Three stars

This novella came out June 2, 2009

Followed by Silver Shark

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own