The Club by AL Brooks

I've been trying to branch out on my romance reading lately and thought this might be an interesting read. And it certainly was. Not a ton of buildup to romance even though there is a lot of sex. Instead of really getting to know a couple of characters, there is a rotating cast of women falling in love (or further in love) based around one place: a lesbian sex club. It's a safe place for women to come and enjoy anonymous sex but safely, with a lot of rules. Not my usual read but not a bad book, especially for one that essentially wove together several novellas in less than 200 pages.

Three stars

This Earl is on Fire by Vivienne Lorret

Left for dead on the doorstep of one of his properties, Liam Cavanaugh, the Earl of Wolford, is sure that he has wronged some jealous husband. And that he's definitely going to die. But his renters might have something to say about that.
The Pimm family is like no one he's ever met before. They're open, they're trusting, and they're managing to live without their servants. And their daughter Adeline is lovely. Too bad he doesn't want to marry for thirty years.
Adeline has issues. Her leg was broken when she was born, making it so that it is much shorter than her other leg. She knows how much a deformity like hers can make her a pariah, her parents used to bribe the children of their small town to come and pretend to be her friend. So she's sure that she's not going to like being in the ton; she's just in London to have adventures.
While this was a perfectly nice story, the side characters felt a bit flat, especially since at least a few of them (Julia and the Marquess of Thayne, Liam's cousin Gemma, and I'm guessing even the Earl that Thayne borrowed a horse from at the end of the story) seemed like sequel bait. The ending was also a bit rushed. Though she wasn't as well developed in this book, I remember Julia from the second book in this series and can't wait for her to get her HEA.

Three stars
This book comes out August 2

Fatal Affair by Marie Force

I got a copy of this book from NetGalley as a re-release in anticipation of the 10th book in this series being released. I have been reading her Green Mountain series and (mostly) enjoying it so I thought I'd request this book and see what's what. For me, it was three and a half stars. I honestly forgot I had read her other series so it was nice to have that change of voice. It was a little long at just over 400 pages and there was definitely some fat that could have been trimmed and the ending was a bit rushed, but I overall came away from this book with some good feelings.
Nick Cappuano is annoyed that his boss, Senator John O'Connor, is running late on the morning of an important bill. It's possible he overslept. Maybe he was up late with one of the many women that he's juggling. It's nothing new. But what Nick doesn't expect is to find is his long-time friend dead, murdered in a truly horrific manner.
Detective Samantha "Sam" Holland remembers Nick well. They went on one memorable date six years ago and she never heard from him again. But that's not the big issue in her life right now. It's the fact that she's been handed her first high-profile case after a shooting that went very, very wrong. Now she's juggling an incredibly difficult case, an old love who is a new suspect, and her own set of personal issues.

Three and a half stars

The Darkness Knows by Cheryl Honigford

I liked the cover of this book, the setting (1938 Chicago), and the description of the heroine (up-and-coming radio star) so I requested it from NetGalley. And Edelweiss. Oops.
And it is exactly the kind of cozy that I was expecting. The heroine, Vivian "Viv" Witchell, is snappy and quick on her feet. Even when she finds the network star of their most popular series dead in the radio station with a note that seems to indicate that Viv is next. While she may have grown up in the lap of luxury, Viv is more than used to doing for herself and she's not going to let someone else watch over her, even if that some <i>is</i> the handsome detective, Charlie Haverman, that her serial is based on.
Generally, I liked this book. But the way that Charlie treated Viv, though it may be time period appropriate, just made him go down in my book as a lot less likable than he had been. And the same was true of Viv, I just never completely warmed to her. She was ambitious, but not. And she liked Charlie but still felt things for her costar. She was supposed to be smart but did some really dumb things. At least, I think she was supposed to be smart. And, yes, humans are generally contradictory, but SO MUCH contradiction really made it hard for me to find her relatable.

Three stars
This book comes out August 1

Do NOT Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman

I've grabbed quite a few children's books from NetGalley and Edelweiss lately. Almost all of them (including this one) have had double-page illustrations that would make infinitely more sense if we could see both pages at once. An almost every page, the dragon is split between two pages that means that we have to knit them together.
The rhymes in this book mostly flow very nicely and this is definitely a very fun (and incredibly inclusive) story.

I highly recommend this book with the caveat that it should be read in a hard copy.

This book comes out August 1
Four stars

Die Like an Eagle by Donna Andrews

Twenty books in and I am still enjoying the Meg Lanslow mysteries. Okay, so they're slightly formulaic but that's part of the comfort of reading these cozies. I really enjoy that the books take place as time goes by with at least a year between each book. It makes it slightly easier to believe that so many people are dying in one small town.
Meg has taken on a new role in this book, Team Mom to her sons' baseball team, the Eagles. Michael is one of their coaches. They are mostly having fun except that the regular league head has cancer and his replacement is the head of the old league that everyone left (mostly to avoid Biff.)
So there are a lot of people that dislike Biff Brown. He's petty, vindictive, sexist and just pretty much adjective a good villain needs to have applied to him. And his business dealings are shady as well. It would be no surprise to have him turn up dead. Except that it's his half-brother Shep who's found in the (disgusting) port-a-potty that Biff had supplied for the baseball field.
Who killed Shep? And was he the intended victim? How can Meg do a runaround Biff to make sure her boys have fun this summer?
A nice addition to the Lanslow series. Can't wait to read the next one.

Four stars
This book comes out August 2, 2016

Follows Lord of the Wings
Followed by Gone Gull

Reread as audibook from Libby August 2023

A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen

The book opens with Elise, dressed as a (male, of course) doctor in the bowels of Bedlam. She's examining the Duchess of Ashland. The elderly woman has been declared insane and is now being held captive and kept under heavy sedation. Chegarre and Associates have been hired by the duchess's daughter to find out where her mother has gone. Elise has discovered that the woman's nephew has had her declared insane. Why? Is it perhaps that the duchess is correct when she says that her son is still alive (meaning that the nephew will be unable to inherit the duchy and the fabulous wealth that comes with it)? When the enigmatic crime lord King comes to tell Elise that he will pay for her to discover the whereabouts of the presumptive duke, she becomes even more curious.
But when she meets Noah (miraculously quickly, her own words), she finds that he is not a dimwit nor even a haughty duke but a man very much to be admired. Not only physically but because of his spirit.
Of course, there are issues. Mainly, the duke's cousin very much wants him dead. But the two work through and also manage to fall in love.
What? A heroine who isn't a virgin? And has actually enjoyed a man's bed before? Love it. A man who can admit that a woman might be better at him than something? In a manner that isn't overwhelmingly preachy from the author? Also loved. Would have liked a bit more build up to the end but overall an enjoyable book.

Four stars
This book comes out July 26