Seven Dead by J. Jefferson Farjeon

I quite enjoyed Thirteen Guests and was excited when another Farjeon book came up on Edelweiss as an an ARC of the re-release of this book by Poison Pen Press. Thomas Hazeldean is back again to help solve a mystery when he is, conveniently in the right place to see a burglar tearing out of a house after discovering seven bodies in a room. There is a note that points towards a mass suicide but both the inspector and Hazeldean are suspicious.
The burglar is almost immediately cleared of suspicion but this is a case that will take Hazeldean across the sea. He’ll also get to meet a young girl who may or may not (probably not) have something to do with the deaths. Or maybe her uncle. Or perhaps even the truculent woman who owns the pension where the girl and her uncle fled to after a mysterious cricket ball was lobbed through the living room of their house. The same house where the bodies were found.
The ending was a bit... out of left field. 2/3 of the book was really good and the ending wasn't bad, just weird.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 6

The Yoga of Leadership by Tarra Mitchell

I requested this book because it was an intersection of two things that I am very interested in lately. However, this wasn't really a book on leadership in the workplace which I was disappointed about. It took a long time for the author to find her rhythm and it ended up being more of a book on yoga themes than about leadership. It was okay but not anything I haven't read before.

Two and a half stars
This book came out December 12
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Unraveled by Lauren Dane

For over a year Maybe Dolan has been cutting hair at the barbershop (just off a bar) owned by Alexsei Petrov and has been denying her attraction to him the whole time. But Alexsei, out of a serious relationship and tired of chasing women, is ready to step into a relationship with Maybe.
He's a family-oriented man (even his ex is still a part) while her family is pretty broken up. Her parents never treated her like she was an accepted part while doting all their attention on her sister. After her sister went through a fairly horrific experience, Maybe's parents wanted to wrap her up in cotton while Maybe wanted to help her live life. Her parents hate her for that.
This was a three-star book except for Maybe's name. Oh good god. This is a cute name when you hear it but when you have to read it and then try to figure out every sentence and that it doesn't start with "Maybe today she would." The process smoothed out for me about 2/3 of the way through the book but that is a long time to wait.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out January 30th
Followed by Jagged

The Phantom of Oz by Cindy Brown

Ivy Winters is worried about her friend Candy MoonPie (now going by Candace Moon). The once
pleasingly plump and vivacious actor is but a wisp of her former self, in size and in personality. Ivy goes to meet Candy at her new production, the Phantom of Oz, and barely misses getting hit by the heavy, antique chandelier that goes crashing to the floor. Is it just an unfortunate accident or an escalation in the series of unfortunate events that have been plaguing the production? When the issues end in the death of an incredibly toxic Hollywood-type and Candy's disappearance, Ivy is on the case.
I think regular readers will be happy to continue the series. I would suggest newer readers start earlier in the series.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out January 30
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Follows Ivy Get Your Gun

The Trouble with True Love by Laura Lee Guhrke

Clara isn’t sure if she’s ready for this. Her perfect sister is on her honeymoon and their brother is still in America leaving Clara to run the family paper and to take the place of Lady Truelove, the advice columnist her sister created. She’s absolutely stumped on what advice to offer; she’s always been the plain sister, the shy one. But then she overhears a conversation in a tea shop.

The man looks like Adonis but has the manners of Hermes.

Rex Galbraith, future Earl of Leyland doesn’t think highly of love. He’s seen what it’s done to his parents after all. Absolutely nothing good came from their marriage. Rex has made it his goal in life to be as free and unfettered as possible. Too bad he seems to be uncontrollably attracted to an innocent. So he decides that lust is an acceptable reason to wed. Unfortunately, Clara doesn’t feel the same.

It will take some back and forth between the two to figure out how to get to their HEA. I’m not sure Rex groveled enough but I’m pretty sure regular Guhrke fans will not be too disappointed in this book.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out January 30

Match Made in Manhattan by Amanda Stauffer

Alison opens the book in a monogamous relationship that, even if a little slow and a little boring, seems to be working out just fine. At least until she breaks up. Suddenly, she's dating in New York in the 21st century. But she's always met her boyfriends in person. How will she go on? With social media, of course! We follow Alison through her adventures with dating through Match.com and the many men she meets along the way.
This was an okay book. Alison seems like a decent person (why didn't we get to hear more about her on the job?) if sort of one who is willing to let the tides take her where they will. If this book had been written 5 years ago, it might have been more interesting, exploring the new world of internet dating, but it just seems like old hat now.

Three stars
This book comes out January 23
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Sisters Like Us by Susan Mallery

I really, really like Ms. Mallery's (somewhat) standalone novels. She's able to inject more emotion and deeper characterization into these longer stories. We really get to know Harper Szymanski, an overworked divorcee, and her teenage daughter. Harper is just trying to keep herself together. After working for years to get her husband through podiatry school, he dumped her. Now she lives in the house with Becca. Harper's mother, Bunny, lives in a garage apartment and seems to just hang around shaming both Harper and her sister, Stacey, because neither are 1950s housewives.
Stacey is an amazing scientist working on helping people with MS. She's a fully-confident woman who just turned forty. And, oh yeah, she's sort of pregnang. And mostly in denial. See, she's got this perfect mother and this perfect sister who both know instintively how to mother the people around them. Stacey, just doesn't feel it.
Harper doesn't really feel perfect either. Her business isn't what she planned and she can't even pick out an assistant who can actually help her (cameos from the previous book!). Because she's spending so much time with trying to keep food in the house and a roof over her daughter's head, she's losing track of what her daughter's actually doing. And Becca has her own set of problems...
I really liked this book. I didn't completely buy that Becca turned around so fast and didn't really get her connection with Ashton but I mostly liked the Lucas/Harper story line (except for the Big Misunderstanding which seemed just sort of stuck in so it wouldn't be super-smooth.)

Four stars
This book comes out January 23
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Follows A Million Little Things

The Mutts Spring Diaries by Patrick McDonnell

Spring is here (at least in the Mutts universe)! The birds are back and even the turtles. Easter is just around the corner and there are lots of bunnies to ask about eggs. Of course, there are also spring showers to contend with. Earl and Mooch also meet a caterpillar and hang out waiting for him to turn into a butterfly. A series of animal sounds puns ensue and the various animals take their turns trying to write their own comics.
Regular Mutts readers will not be disappointed.

This book comes out January 16
Four stars
ARC provided by NetGalley

How to Get Sh*t Done by Erin Falconer

I like Ms. Falconer’s approach. She adds some ideas to the regular productivity books I’ve read in the
past - including our own personalities. She uses the acronym POP ; Personality, Opportunity, Pepsi
She suggests that you get rid of all your To-Do lists and concentrate on just 3 things. Why three? Because it’s an easy number and one that we’re programmed to do. Then, cut the fat and concentrate on those things. Realize that there will be setbacks.

Three stars
This book came out January 2
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Howl for It by Shelly Laurenston; Cynthia Eden

Like A Wolf With A Bone by Shelly Laurenston
Darla Mae Lewis left the South for a reason. Mostly to get away from her argumentative sisters. They
tend to fight not only with each other, but with the Smith boys whom most of them are hooked up with. The last (I think) Smith standing? Egbert "Eggie" Ray. He's the scariest of the Smith boys but he'd rather be left alone than be the Alpha of the clan. When he sees Darla, he doesn't immediately know that she's his One, but it happens pretty quickly. Of course, they'll have to figure out why there's a horde of humans after Darla.

A nice start to a new shapeshifter series from Laurenston. The repetitious rhyming of the middle names was a little weird and it was a little over the top but a nice world-building for a novel.

Wed Or Dead by Cynthia Eden
I like novellas where the h/h have known each other for awhile, they're much more believable. In this case, , they've known each other long enough to be getting married as the story opens. But there's a problem; he's a shapeshifter and she's part of an elite group of hunters who have been put together to kill the "monsters."
Well, the wedding night goes well... until it doesn't . And it starts both groups toward a final battle and a crisis of conscience for at least one of our characters.
This was definitely darker than the first sorry. Good, but in a different way.

Four stars
This book comes out January 30, 2018

Pride #0.5
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Reread as audiobook from Audible Premium Plus May 2024

Wallflower Most Wanted by Manda Collins

Opening scene: our heroine falls while painting and sprains her ankle. As the hero strides over to help
her, they overhear a murder being discussed. There is also contained in this book the problem of vast amounts of forged art coming out of their village and an unscrupulous man running for local council.
Luckily, Sophia and Benedict are positioned to help (she's an artist, his family is part of the government entity trying to shut the forgeries down).
Sophia actually seemed believable; a female artist with talent who might not be appreciated because of her sex - somewhat resigned but accepting. Benedick is a nice guy. There could be more to their connection but I don't think regular Collins readers won't be disappointed.

Three stars
This book comes out January 30
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Follows Duke with Benefits

The Uncanny Express by Kara LaReau

Jaundice and Kale are (reluctantly) off on another adventure. This time, their (still absent) parents have arranged for the girls to meet their Aunt Shallot at the railroad station. Still recovering from their adventures of the first book, Kale and Jaundice are not ecstatic when the woman who shows up is a magician who immediately whisks them off onto the Uncanny Express. Magique (as she prefers to be called) is trying to break into the mainly male milieu of magicians. Her first show went horribly and she is heading to the Uncanny Valley to show what she can do. Unfortunately, after practicing her show on the train, Magique disappears. It is up to the two girls to help world famous detective, Hugo Fromage, solve the case of the missing magician.
A light play on the Orient Express that I quite enjoyed and I think kids will too. Definitely better than the first book.

Four stars
This book comes out January 9
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys

A chance for a new life in a far away country? With free passage on an ocean liner? Lily Shepherd is apprehensive but open to change. She just didn't realize it was going to be exciting so fast. On board, Lily gets to mingle with the sort of people she might never have otherwise met. Even... well. Maybe a little romance. But, the veneer of wealth hides some dark secrets and Lilly gets caught up in webs she never thought she'd be a part of.
I have to admit that the present-tense-writing is not my jam and made it really hard to get into the book. I wish this book hadn't been billed as a mystery because nothing really happens until the end of the book. It's more a character study of flawed people but set among historical fiction.

Two stars
This book comes out January 9
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Deadly Summer by Denise Grover Swank

This was an interesting beginning to a new series.
Summer played a beloved girl-next-door character on a popular television series. But that was a long
time ago. Lately, she's been having trouble finding work. And she needs the money because her mother long ago took off with all of Summer's money and a balloon payment on a mortgage for the family farm is coming due. So, in a fit of temperament, Summer signs up for a reality television show wherein she will become a private investigator. Too bad the producer doesn't want the show to succeed and Summer is having to go back to the hometown and a family that doesn't really want to see her again (at least, her grandmother; her cousins welcome her with open arms).
The "Southern language" is a little hard to read sometimes. There also seemed to be a lot of back story that didn't get covered in this book. I'm definitely interested in the second book in this series.

Three stars
This book comes out January 9
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Followed by Blazing Summer Darling Investigations