The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick

Like the other heroines of this series (only one other so far, but we're given the pattern), Adelaide Bankcroft has a reason to hide her past. She's in Burning Cove after escaping from an insane asylum; the place her husband consigned her to in order to get control of her inheritance. Now she's working as a tea shop waitress who also creates specific teas for the shop's customers - the tea can do things like create calm or help with insomnia.
Jake Truett is in Burning Cove ostensibly to relax his overworked nerves. But he has an ulterior motive, one that perfectly aligns with keeping Adelaide safe.
I quite enjoyed this book and hope that we get to see the full story of what happens between Raina and Luther.

Four Stars
This book comes out May 8, 2018

Follows The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Followed by Tightrope
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Reread August 2022 as audiobook from Audible

Until There Was Us by Samantha Chase

Two years ago, Megan Montgomery and Alex Rebat hooked up at her cousin's wedding. But then they were torn apart by living on opposite sides of the country and by the fact that Megan was working long hours. Now she's in the same city and their connection isn't any less strong. But can they make it work on the second time around.
Okay. I like Chase's writing and she has pretty great characters... usually. I just couldn't figure out why Megan fell in love with Alex. He was sort of an asshat. She doesn't like the outdoors -- but he's going to force her. Sure, he says he's going to go to museums with her, but we never actually see it happening. He thinks she works to much and doesn't share with her. But he hides that he is seeing his best friend every week and then runs off when there's a traumatic event. Other than the fact that Megan and her cousins think he's super hot, I don't see any reason to fall in love with this person.

Two stars
This book comes out May 1
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

The Theory of Happily Ever After by Kristin Billerbeck

I really liked the premise of this book. Self-help author falls apart, gets forced on a cruise by her friends, finds love hate with the man of her dreams who has Big Secrets. Seemed very similar to Breathing Room which is a favorite I reread fairly often.
I wish the description of the book had been a little more explicit that it had Christian overtones. It's fine to read when it's done well but the religious themes were wedged in with a fairly heavy hand (jamming a Bible into a character's hand then prolonged wondering about why it's there... really?) that became distracting. It was neither this though nor the first-person-narrative that dropped this down a star for me. It was a fairly pleasant if unexciting read except that it pitted the narrator against her friend for the interest of a man. Just, no. And, ew, can we just get rid of that trope already?
For those that don't mind that trope or spots of Christianity or first-person narrative, this is generally a light and fluffy read that you would probably enjoy.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out May 1
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Falling for You by Becky Wade

Model and a football player? Yes please. Christian themes? Hm. Not my favorite. But I'm going to try it. I'm not a practicing Christian but I've read books with religious undertones that I have enjoyed (as long as I'm warned about it ahead of time)
And the book starts off well. I generally like Willow Bradford and Corbin Stewart. They were a couple a few years ago but broke up. Now they're both in Washington and his "niece" wants help. Specifically, she wants help from Willow. And this was a bit of a stretch for me. Why her? Just because she's nearby? But I enjoyed Wade's writing and kept going. Then we're told over and over that Willow's ashamed because she's illegitimate. Um, in this day and age that seems odd -- and why would she feel ashamed? Okay... still reading. Then we find out that Willow always thought God would break them up because they were having sex outside of marriage. That... is an incredibly narrow view but I'm still liking Wade's writing. The thing that made me DNF this book? That Corbin told Willow that she HAD to forgive him because Jesus told her to. Um. No. That is not how forgiveness works, you do not get forced into it.
I definitely enjoyed Wade's writing but the narrow view of Christianity really turned me off.

DNF
This book comes out May 1
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Ask a Manager by Alison Green

I read the Ask a Manager blog pretty religiously. Like, every new post, going back and reading old posts, following comments. I was really excited to get this book. And it really is a good book with practical details for everyday working life (more geared toward office work.) There are sections based on your role in the office (boss, employee, etc.) and they include bullets of practical advice, scripts for difficult situations, and stories taken right from Green's blog. It is a little dry in points but it's a nonfiction advice book. I liked the stories pulled right from the blog, they injected some life into the book.
If you are already an Ask a Manager reader, it's all the advice you've read but organized into neat lists. Nothing new really so longtime (years) readers probably won't gain much. For people just entering the workplace, just becoming mangers, or conducting interviews, this would be an invaluable book.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out May 1
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Someone to Care by Mary Balogh

Viola Kingsley's world came crashing down when, after her husband's death, she found out that she wasn't actually his wife and her children were now considered illegitimate. It turned her world upside down. And now in her forties, she's trying to put her life back together. Hard at any time but especially in Victorian England when many people look down on her even though none of what happened was her fault. It's no wonder that one day, she feels like she needs to get away.
Many years ago, Marcel Lamarr, Earl of Riverdale, had tried to seduce Viola. Being a good wife, she had rebuffed his efforts. He was married once and has twins that are being raised by a very stodgy relative. His life is... boring. So when he runs into Viola at a country inn (her carriage broke down), he takes the opportunity to spend more time with her. Even if that only means spending the day at the local fair and then saying their goodbyes and parting for the evening. When Viola decides to take him up on his offer for a very good night, Marcel is shocked but still behaves honorably, giving her the space to change her mind. She doesn't. And it sets them down the road to eventually being discovered... and engaged.
Another book that Balogh lovers will enjoy.

Four stars
This book comes out May 1
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

The Good Luck Sister by Jill Shalvis

Tilly Adams hasn't exactly reached the heights that her teenage self had imagined (who does?). Instead of being a famous artist, she's an art teacher. And who's in the front row of her first class? Dylan Scott, her teenage best friend, her first boyfriend, and they guy who walked away without looking back.
Dylan did what he thought was best, in order to give Tilly a better life. And he's pretty sure it worked out. If only he can get Tilly to agree.
Man, I was really hoping for a better story for Tilly. And one for Quinn's (Tilly's sister and heroine of the first book in this series) best friend Skye. As novella's go, this one has the same problems of making you believe that the characters can fall in love in less than 100 pages. And this one has the added pressure of doing it in even fewer since the "current day" story is interspersed with what happened ten years ago.

Three stars
This book comes out May 1st
ARC kindly provided by Edelweiss
Followed by Rainy Day Friends

Murder on the Flying Scotsman by Carola Dunn

I had never read a Daisy Dalrymple before and I'm so excited to have found a new series.
Daisy, a magazine writer, is on the train to Scotland when her potential beau's nine-year-old daughter, having run away from home, finds her. The train has already pulled away from the station so it's too late to send her home. Also on the train? One of Daisy's schoolmates whose entire extended family is also on the train in a last ditch effort to get the family's notoriously pinch-penny, misogynistic patriarch to change his will. It seems that Alistair McGowen believes that the family money should only go to someone in the direct male line. Right now, the only one that meets that description is his scapegrace twin brother. The older man spent a large portion of his life in India and (according to the rest of the family) now has some strange ideas. Like leaving his money to a young Indian doctor.
Amazingly, it's not the usual person (Alistair) who gets murdered. Instead, it's his brother Alistair. Belinda (the nine-year-old) is the one who discovers the body. Daisy takes a look at the scene and immediately deduces that this is not a natural death.
There is some terms used in this book that are firmly in the "racist" category these days. The overall tone was that everyone should be accepted because of who they are, not what they look like, but there were a couple of cringeworthy moments.

Four stars
This book comes out April 24 (originally published 1996)

Follows Requiem for a Mezzo

Followed by Damsel in Distress

Reread in May 2022

Lady Rogue by Theresa Romain

Callum Jenks and Lady Isabel Morrow had a short affair months ago. And now she's asking to see him again. This time it's not for romance; she needs help. Her deceased husband, it appears, was selling forgeries. And she needs to make things right before anyone finds out and her ward is ruined.
As they start investigating, it opens questions about how Isabel's husband died. Was it really a suicide?
This was a good book for some world building. While it didn't hold my attention for long periods of time, I don't think regular Romain readers will be disappointed.

Three stars
This book comes out April 24
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Followed by Lady Notorious

Hot Response by Shannon Stacey

Gavin Boudreau isn't sure why Cait Tasker is so prickly around him. As a firefighter, he generally gets along pretty well with the EMTs he works with. But Cait stymies him. She doesn't seem susceptible to his usual charms.
Cait had toyed with asking Gavin out. But then he Ma'amed her. She assumed that it was his way of letting her know (rather rudely) that she was too old for him. But, after an intense call, the two bond and Cait takes Gavin to breakfast. And then she spends the night at his apartment (he's not there; she just needs to get away from her family for a little while). And then... well.
I liked that Gavin and Cait actually talked to each other (for the most part). I didn't like that Gavin was such a jerk but it was nice to see his family talk to him and tell him when he's stepping out of line.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out April 24
Follows Fully Ignited

The Marmalade Murders by Elizabeth J. Duncan

It's fair time and Penny Brannigan has been roped in to helping out. She's going to judge the children's pet contest (where everyone wins) and also help log the entries in the cooking competition. Like any small town, the competition is fierce. Penny's friend Florence, an incredible cook, gets a call telling her that the deadline is the day after the actual deadline but she gets her jam, her cake, and her marmalade in on time. Gaynor Lewis, another top contender, wasn't as lucky and her entries are not turned in by the deadline. Yet, her marmalade wins the competition while Florence's is nowhere to be found. Then, Penny finds the marmalade... along with Gaynor Lewis. Is the competition stiff enough for someone to kill in order to win?
There were some lovely twists and turns but I didn't love the ending; the murderer wasn't exactly fairly clued (at least in my mind) but it didn't turn me off the series. I really like the way Duncan deals with Penny's "romance" with Gavin. It's a bit easy to shuffle him off scene but at least he doesn't remain creating yet another cozy series with a love triangle.

Three stars
This book comes out April 24
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Follows Murder is for Keeps
Followed by Remembering the Dead

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green

When an older gentleman dies under mysterious circumstances, suspicion falls on one of the two nieces that lives with him. For some reason, one of the nieces is set to inherit the bulk of his fortune while the other niece is not entirely excluded from the will but she is certainly slighted. The body of Horatio Leavenworth is found with a bullet in the head in the library of his mansion. The house was locked but filled with not only his nieces but also various servants (including one who has come up missing).
Our first person narrator, Mr. Raymond, works with Ebeneezer Gryce (who will become a regular in Green's mysteries) to find out whether, as the evidence seems, niece Eleanor really killed her uncle out of spite.
An interesting story. Definitely a good mystery within the Victorian writing -- a little meandering but worth reading if you like the classics.

Three stars
This book comes out April 18
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

The Boss of Her -- anthology

Lead Counsel by Aurora Rey
My favorite of this anthology, Elisa Gonzalez is startled to learn that the lead attorney her firm is bringing in is the same woman she had a crush on in law school, Parker Jones. They had had one night of heavy making out but Parker burned her the next day. Now they're both powerful women who are better able to deal with their emotions as well as the pressures of life.

Four stars

For Your Eyes Only by Julie Cannon
Riley Stephenson is a powerful CFO but she's awkward. Like, super shy and awkward. So she's astonished to find herself making the first move and ordering a stripper for herself after meeting her at a friend's birthday party where Jessie, the stripper, performs. I liked this story because the two were able to meet outside of work and Cannon really worked to make Jessie have her own agency in the romance. I wish we had had a better/softer ending to the story.

Three stars

Opportunity of a Lifetime by M. Ullrich
Luca Garner is a stellar intern who is assigned to work under VP Stephanie Austin, known as the office ice queen. She works hard and eventually the two find that they appreciate each other both for their good working rapport and their mutual attraction.
This was the story that worked least for me. I'm not sure how we're supposed to connect to either character nor how we're supposed to believe they work as a couple. There was so much packed into this short story that I felt a little whiplashed from how fast emotions went from love to hate.

Two and a half stars

Four stars overall
This book comes out April 17
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

I chose this book because I thought it would be about the work that a cleaner does. This book is more the portrait of one particular cleaner. That threw me off as did the fact that the "Present Day" chapters of this book is told in the present tense. For some reason, that just grates on me as a reader. Another thing that grates, the author is clearly a good friend/in deep awe of her subject and that ruins her objectivity. While I agree that Sandra Pankhurst is a pretty amazing woman, this book shows only a shining light on Sandra. I like to see a little more grit, more of the dark side of a biography's main topic. And we know for sure that Sandra herself is an unreliable narrator, so how much can we trust the historical chapters interspersed with the present day?

Two and a half stars
This book comes out April 10

The Sixth Day by Catherine Coulter; J.T. Ellison

The book opens in the 1400s during a battle with Vlad Dracul. We find out that his twin half-brothers have some book with magic powers and he sends them away during the battle that takes his live in order to save the book.
Now present day, there is another set of twins who are about to sell an army of drones to the highest bidder. Then we jump to Nick and Michaela who are on vacation in London. Nick is supposed to help his grandfather solve a problem with ransomware that has taken over his company but then they get pulled in to this bigger mystery. And it's possible that the book we read about in the beginning is going to play a part.
I think I'm going to have to stop reading this series. It just keeps feeling more and more disjointed. There were so many things going on in this book, Ellison and Coulter had a hard time weaving it all together.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out April 10
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark

Told in first person, the reader follows along with Charlemagne (Charlee) Russo as she is trying to get to a review meeting with her book group. We learn that she is very klutzy.  We also learn that she is one of the few published authors in her group. But that doesn't make her life all sunshine and roses. She's in an ironclad contract with her agent and her latest royalty checks have been going downhill rapidly. So it's just too bad that her agent turns up dead, killed by the very specific manner outlined in Charlee's book. Guess who ends up being the number one suspect? Charlee doesn't hesitate, she decides to investigate the murder herself.
This might be a good book for some other readers. I just have a klutzy, female, decides-to-look-into-murder-and-almost-dies main character burnout. Not to mention that I've read two other books recently with the "author's book coming to life" theme recently. And the ending came out of left field.

Three stars
This book comes out April 8
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith

If you've read any story set in a mid-1800s house where there is an old man who controls the family's wealth with an iron fist and it's Christmas, you can probably predict what is going to happen. This book is notable in that we not only get to see who the murderer is, we get to see how he puts together his cover up, and then how it all goes wrong.
This was an interesting book, especially since it was first published in 1933. It was a little slow in many places and I didn't get into it completely but the idea was a good one.

Three stars
This book comes out April 3
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and Edelweiss (apparently I liked the premise so much I requested it twice)

In the Eye of the Storm / Catering to the CEO by Samantha Chase

In the Eye of the Storm
It's 2 a.m. and Holly Abrams is on her way to pick up her overly demanding boss, Stephen Ballinger. First he demands 12-14 hour days, then he steals her weekend mornings, now this? Holly lets loose, giving Stephen a piece of her mind. He's shocked that she feels that way; he thought that they had a great working relationship. This makes Holly even madder. Then downed trees make it impossible for her to get back to her house and she has to stay with Stephen at his giant mansion. Somehow, seeing Holly wet, in sweatpants, and without makeup makes Stephen wake up to how truly beautiful she really is.
I would hope that if this book were written today, the Big Misunderstanding would be greatly changed. As it was, it made me very aware that this was a re-issue.

Three stars

Catering to the CEO
Adam Lawrence didn't become a millionaire CEO by letting people walk all over him. Cassie Jacobs, caterer, doesn't seem to care. She has a contract that says that he can't make changes two weeks before his event, so when he tries to do so 11 days in advance, she walks out. That would be the end except that they see each other again that night when they discover that her dad is dating his mom. It is seeing Cassie outside of work that makes Adam really discover that she's a beautiful woman underneath. Too bad I can't say the same about him. Adam is a real alphahole. Like, think late 80s alphahole only concerned with his problems and only wanting Cassie when he can't have her. I actively disliked him and wouldn't have finished this had it been a full book.

Two stars.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out April 3
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Meaty by Samantha Irby

I listened to We Will Never Meet in Real Life and loved it so when this book came up on NetGalley, I requested it immediately. And I have to say, I really, really think that this would be better "read" as an audiobook. Part of the charm of the first book was listening to Irby's cadence and hearing the stories in her own voice. While the essays in this book are similar to those in her first, I just didn't connect as well as I did with her voice in my ears.

Three stars
This book comes out April 3
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley