The Last Eligible Billionaire by Pippa Grant

Begonia is definitely the sunshine character in this book. She is also bordering on manic pixie dream girl as the first time she meets the hero of our book, she is basically naked in his house having fallen for a fake-AirBnB-type scheme.

Hayes is sometimes a little overly grumpy and hard to get to like in this book. He is the reluctant savior of his family's Disney-type film company. His brother, a well-known actor, has always been the golden boy so he can't step in when Hayes's cousin dies leaving a seat open as heir to the throne of the business side of things. He is not at all delighted to find an intruder in his house. Especially one with a dog that he is direly allergic to. But he needs Begonia. His mother keeps throwing women at him, women that he's not particularly interested in, and having Begonia as his fake girlfriend will throw her off. 

I do enjoy Pippa Grant but this particular book was a little too silly with too much time spent on shenanigans and not enough time building a believable relationship between two such opposite characters.

Three stars

This book came out March 3, 2022

Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer

TW: Casual racism

I enjoyed some of the later Hildegarde Withers books and though I might as well start at the beginning. While she is sort of scattershot in figuring out who the killer is,  Ms. Withers does eventually win out in the end. And the final solve is also a little convoluted but it was an okay book to listen to while I drove to and from town.

Miss Withers is a teacher who has moved from Iowa to New York City. She has her class on a trip to the aquarium when a man is killed. With her hat pin, no less. For a spinster teacher, this is more than a little excitement. The police are quick to arrest the man's wife's lover. The wife remains free but is under heavy suspicion. Miss Withers is determined to find the murderer and the inspector on the case is surprisingly willing to let her.

Three stars

This book came out in 1931

Followed by Murder on Wheels

Listened to audibook I bought on Audible

Opinions are my own

Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen

The last time Alex and Eric met each other, she didn't even recognize him as her childhood playmate. To be fair, he's filled out a little bit and a professional hockey player doesn't often look like an eleven-year-old boy. 

Now, he's been asked by his brother to provide some extra protection for her in the off-season, posing as her fake boyfriend. See, Alex is the head of this huge tech firm and she HAS to attend a conference to schmooze and find a provider for an important part but her ex is also going to be there. The ex that she is currently pregnant by.

Eric reluctantly agrees but finds himself attracted to Alex and reluctant to let her go. Even when matters get more complicated (i.e. a certain foreign power trying to make sure they are the ones providing her parts). 

This was an interesting story but parts were just too much over the top for me.

Three stars

This book came out October 22, 2019

Follows Superfan

Followed by Sure Shot, Loverboy

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Murder at the Summer Fete by Victoria Walters

Nancy, her grandmother Jane, and her friend Jonathon have a new mystery to solve. Nancy is hosting author Thomas Green but someone has been defacing his promotional posters. Who has a grudge against Green? Well, it turns out that several people might. And it will be up to the mystery-solving triad to work together and figure it out.

I don't love that Nancy's ex is still hanging around. Love triangles are one of my least favorite tropes in a cozy mystery. This book was also a little predictable but that can happen in this genre. 

Three stars

This book comes out March 17, 2022

Followed by Murder at the House on the Hill 

ARC kindly provided by Hera Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Summer Getaway by Susan Mallery

As if she didn't have enough fires to put out, Robyn Caldwell is now dealing with the latest of her ex-husband's little peccadilloes. It's not like he's actually her problem to deal with but the things he does do still reflect on her children. Not that her children will notice as they are both dealing with their own lives... sort of. Not in ways that Robyn would expect anyway. But it's Cord's latest decision that has her accepting an invitation from her great-aunt Lillian to get out of town for a bit. Lillian is getting ready for her eventual demise and wants Robyn to come for a visit to finalize her last wishes. Also at the amazing house that Lillian lives in? Mason who will inherit the actual building. He is a good guy and manages to be both manly and respectful which is awesome in a contemporary hero. 

And he mostly deals well with all of the people who follow Robyn out to California from Florida including her eighteen-year-old son who has a plan but refuses to tell her, her twenty-two-year-old daughter who is engaged but Robyn fears it may be too fast, her boss who is embarking on an affair that Robyn is discouraging her from, her ex-husband and his girlfriend, and her daughter's fiance.

The boss storyline didn't need to be in there and the daughter and her fiance's storyline was a little overwrought, otherwise, this is Mallery at her best. 

Four stars

This book come out March 15, 2022

ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

The cow creamer. It is all about a silver cow creamer. "Pop" Bassett wants the creamer and steals it out from under the nose of Bertie's Uncle Tom. So his Aunt Dahlia commands him to steal the creamer. Bertie would rather not but he heads out to the estate anyway as he has been sent a series of frantic telegrams from Gussie Fink-Nottle whose engagement to Angela Bassett seems to be on the line. When Bertie arrives, he discovers that Roderick Spode, a man who is in love with Angela but Jeeves is able to spike his guns. There is also an engagement between Stephanie Bink (the niece of Pop Bassett) and an old friend of Bertie's, "Stinker" Pinker, now a curate, as well as some kerfuffle related to a policeman's hat. 

Of course, all is finished satisfactorily and Jeeves has convinced Bertie to sail off on a world-round cruise.

Three and a half stars

This book came out October 7, 1938

Follows Right Ho Jeeves

Followed by Joy in the Morning

Opinions are my own

Herring on the Nile by L.C. Tyler

The ending was a little convoluted but I overall enjoyed the story.

After the last story, Ethelred has decided that he needs a trip to Egypt. Maybe it will help him with his next story (though the only work we see in this book is him answering questions for newspaper articles, most of which have confused him with another more popular writer.) 

The noxious Annabelle is no longer with him. Perhaps that is because Ethelred is selling the ancestral home that she wants so badly. But, though wildly romantic, Ethelred is also wildly pragmatic. He believes that Annabelle will stay with him even without the property. He seems to have been wrong because he is now on the cruise with his editor.

And the cruise quickly becomes a sort of locked room mystery with a character from a previous book claiming to be protecting an unknown client. Well, he knows the client's name but not who the client is. When a man is murdered, was it the right person or was it supposed to be Ethelred. 

Then the book sort of veers wildly from the classic mystery to a seventies kidnapping mystery and then ends, as I mentioned at the beginning, sort of confusingly. But I did enjoy the ride.

Three and a half stars

This book came out in 2011

Follows The Herring in the Library

Followed by Crooked Herring

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own