Surprising Lord Jack by Sally MacKenzie

Frances Hadley's aunt is trying to sell her into marriage. But... the guy is a scumbag. So she does the only rational thing - dress like a boy and run away. Only, she doesn't get very far. Her horse comes up lame and with the rain... she ends up in a room at an inn. It's a very full inn and the room is generally reserved for the Valentine family. But there's a big party at their house so they probably won't need it.
Except... that Jack Valentine, the youngest son, is trying to escape his mother's machinations. So, he ends up sleeping with someone he thinks is a young boy. No problem. It happens during this time period.
Except... someone recognizes that Frances is not a Francis and, when Jack realizes that, he realizes that she is compromised. Apparently, not so much for sleeping with him but for sure being dressed in boy's clothes. But, she's not really traveling in their circles so Frances doesn't see this as an issue.
Except... there's a slasher in town and he's killing "unchaste" women, a category into which Frances seemingly now falls.
A fun romp and a cute love story. I'm really enjoying this series and can't wait for the next book, Loving Lord Ash.

Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl

So much better than the previous book in this series (Close Enough to Touch) but still not up to the level of my favorite Victoria Dahl book. Merry, the heroine of this book, is the best friend of Grace, the heroine from the previous book. She is definitely easier to connect to although she still wasn't completely likeable. A lot of this is personal prejudice about an inexpert people trying to do restoration. If she really loves this ghost town, she should be trying to get an expert in to save it. #Reallifeintruding
Merry is supposedly a "good girl" and Shade, the hero, is supposedly a cad. But, we don't really see either of those qualities in these two. Merry is the one who is trying to keep the relationship light and the worst thing Shane does is hide that he's the actual owner of the ghost town Merry is trying to restore. And he doesn't want it to be fixed. She, on the other hand, is sneaky (the mailbox, trying to get "secret" work done on the town) and vacillates between wanting and not wanting him, then hiding the relationship from her friends.
And on top of all that, the condom use is only... okay. Used in the first encounter and not thereafter.
And yet, I liked the book. A HUGE step up from the last one, as I mentioned before. I think most readers won't have the issues I had with the conservation and therefore will be more willing to suspend disbelief.

Headed for Trouble by Suzanne Brockmann

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...<quick pause for breath> ...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Okay, my perception of this book may have been colored by the fact that I got it for free from NetGalley. The description of the book is rather misleading (i.e., doesn't mention that a lot of the stories are repub) and I don't always remember to check stories before I buy books, my own fault I know, but it doesn't lessen the disappointment.  If I had paid for it and not known that a lot of the stories were repeats from the end of other books, I may have been less favorable, like, maybe only three stars instead of five.
But this is Suzanne Brockmann. One of my go-to-authors and there was a lot of added content like author commentary about how she wrote stories or where ideas came from. There were quite a few new stories including one I particularly enjoyed about Sam, Robin, and Gina being stuck with three kids and the flu in a country that has been hit by a terrorist event.
A great collection of stories and a must read that sent me back to my library to re-read the entire Troubleshooters from "The Unsung Hero" (Troubleshooters 1).

Five stars

This book came out April 28, 2013

Follows Breaking the Rules

Followed by Some Kind of Hero

Opinions are my own

Reread in June 2022

Seven mile

2 mile lunch run