Honeymoon with Death by Vivian Conroy

This story is very reminiscent of Agatha Christie's "Sleeping Murder." A newlywed comes to a faraway land and starts to recover memories of a long ago murder. And by reminiscent, this is very much a variation on the theme.
Damaris Ramsworth received a free play ticket in the mail which led to her meeting her handsome and connected husband. Hers is very much a Cinderella story and she is living it to the fullest. But then her husband chooses their honeymoon as a surprise and the more she's on this Greek island, the more she wonders what, exactly, is going on.
First are the things that she sees (skull in her room, beetles all over) that no one else seems to. Then, there's the sense that she's been to this place before. But how? And it doesn't help that her husband's friends have "accidentally" run into them in this remote place. Waking up to find herself standing over a dead body is the last straw.
At any other time, Damaris would probably immediately be indicted for murder. But, lucky for her, Inspector Jasper is vacationing on the same island and is willing to take up her cause...
This book starts with a LOT of frenetic energy. It is hard to follow the story and then becomes even worse when trying to follow the logic Jasper uses to solve the crime. An okay story but I probably won't follow the series.

Three stars
This book comes out July 1st
ARC kindly provided by Canelo and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder by Dianne Freeman

This is supposed to be the quiet time of the London season, the time when all of the aristocracy leaves to go hunting. Frances Wynn, the Dowager Countess of Harleigh, isn't interested. Her sister is almost engaged to a very nice man but Frances, burned by her own marital experience, is worried for her. But she's also distracted by the murder of her "friend" (not a close friend but one she was trying to match with her cousin Charles), Mary Archer. When Frances' ... friend... George Hazelton asks for help in his investigation, Frances is only too pleased to help. She can help get justice for Mary, clear her cousin's name (George's and Mary's relationship was recently ended, so he's suspect numero uno,) and, well, it's something to stretch her mind. It doesn't hurt that George asking her to take this on shows how much he trusts her.
I wish that there had been a little more character development, the mystery took up a lot of the book. Other than that, this was a pretty good book.

Four stars
This book comes out June 25th
Follows A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder
Followed by A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder
ARC kindly provided by Kensington and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Dearly Beloved by Mary Jo Putney

Oh dear God. I wish I had known this was a reissue before I requested an ARC from . I may have enjoyed this book if I had read it when it came out in 1990 but the romance genre and what readers find romantic has changed a LOT since then. The writing is flowery, the story breaks the bounds of belief suspension, and the book starts off with the "hero" raping the heroine and veers into child abuse. With so many recent good books by Ms. Putney, what editor thought that re-releasing this book was a good idea? It's bound to turn new readers away from ever trying her books again.
Diana Lindsay is still young and very beautiful. She struggles to make ends meet and keep her son in food. When she rescues a courtesan from a blizzard, she realizes that there may be a way to make ends meet and immediately becomes a protege, knowing that giving up her body will lead her son to a better life.
Gervase Brandelin, the Viscount St. Aubyn, knows that he is a monster. That is why he tries to contain his base urges to the members of the demimonde, women who know how to handle the darkness inside him. On the night that Diana makes her "debut," Gervase decides to claim her as his own...
I would have rated this one star if I didn't reserve it for DNFs.

One and a half stars
This book comes out June 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

Captain John Wyndham is a stranger in a strange land. After leaving home because he didn't fit in, he has landed in a new dimension and is in need of housing. Sorceress Shaharazad Hass is in need of a roommate.
Totally amoral, Hass thinks nothing of breaking the law of any land, of summoning gods too powerful to name, and of sleeping with... well it seems like everyone. She also has a quick wit and zero sense of her own mortality.
I requested this ARC when I heard that it was a fantasy retelling of Sherlock Holmes and it was fairly good. It's more touches of Holmes than an absolute homage and they were masterfully done. Not so masterful? The repetitions. Most blatant were the number of times Wyndham mentioned that he was amending the colorful language of his characters. We get it. They're cursing, you don't like it. Wyndham, Hass and the world-building were all excellent. The mystery... I'm still not sure what a third of the book had to do with solving the mystery so it was sort of a drag but overall entertaining read.

Four stars
This book came out  June 18
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries

Fletcher "Grey" Pryde, 5th Duke of Greycourt, is trying to avoid a compromising situation with his cousin Vanessa. Her mother's dearest wish is to have the two be married but neither is eager to fall in with her plans. Their excuse to avoid that fate is that Vanessa has just delivered the news to Grey that his stepfather has just died.
Grey is devastated. He may have had conflicting emotions regarding his stepfather Maurice (who sent Grey away when he was 10 to live with his uncle who was then the Duke) but he knows that he has to go be with the family.
Everyone at Armitage Hall is shocked that the Duke is dead. He had only succeeded his brother a few months ago. His son, Sheridan (Grey's half-brother), is suspicious that both deaths may not have been accidental. Sheridan asks Grey to stay and figure out if his cousin Joshua is getting rid of the people who stand before him for the dukedom. Grey is also wondering. But he has a problem. Joshua's sister Beatrice is distracting him.
At 26, Beatrice doesn't necessarily want to be presented to society but her uncle Maurice's family has embraced her and her cousin's half-sister Gwyn really would rather not debut alone. She just wants to find a nice man, maybe a priest or a doctor. Dukes are not on her list. Even though Grey kisses like a fiend. But she knows she's not the type of woman he's going to marry. And worse, he thinks her brother has killed two men.
The first three-quarters of this book were great, setting up the series as well as letting us see Grey and Beatrice falling in love but the last quarter felt rushed and not as well edited. Very loose. This may change before the book comes out but the ARC ended with a whimper.

Three stars
This book comes out June 25th
Followed by The Bachelor
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh

Six years ago, Abigail Westcott's life fell apart when she and her sibling discovered that her father had been married before; in fact, he was still married when he married their mother and they are all illegitimate. Abigail's sister Camille is now happily married, her brother Harry is in the army, and her family is really anxious that Abigail should make a good match. But Abigail wants to be married for herself rather than in spite of who she is. She's not sure what that will mean but she knows that finding someone from among the ton is not what she wants.
Gilbert Bennington has been married before. He is a lieutenant colonel and Harry's superior officer. Traveling back to England with Harry, Gil is bemused to find himself swept up into the Westcott family. His introduction? When he is trying to calm himself by chopping wood shirtless. Abigail reprimands him, not realizing that he is not a servant.
The two don't get to spend a lot of time together but a lot of it is spent in divulging secrets. Both are bastards but Gil keeps saying that they are different because Abby was raised to be a lady but he was not. I'm not entirely sure that I believe the HEA but Balogh's gentle story somehow conveys that they may be able to get past the obstacles ahead, including getting Gil's daughter back from her grandparents. I also wish we had seen more of that. Maybe if Matilda and Gil's father get together in a subsequent book, we'll see more of them.

Four stars
This book comes out July 2
ARC kindly provided by Kensington and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Bewitched and Betrothed by Juliet Blackwell

Lily Ivory is trying to plan a handfasting. She loves Sailor and would like to be married before the upcoming magical war breaks out. One thing she's not excited about is the former prisoner's shirt that has some really evil vibes. Lily is excited that the Park Service is coming to pick it up and she warns them not to put on the shirt. Both of the rangers are confused but they walk out. Too bad one of them is kidnapped, with the shirt, minutes later. The talisman to hold in the vibes is left at the scene. Oh, and the ranger? Carlos Romero, inspector for the police department and Lily's friend, it's his cousin.
Things ramp up and all of the bad vibes point to Alcatraz being the point of the issues. Lily is also juggling her grandmother and her grandmother's coven as well as Sailor's family.
A good addition to the series, I'm wondering why Amanda, Sailor's ex-wife was added to this book. It seems to be resolved but, unless she's going to be a larger part of the series later, it added nothing but extra lines to this story.

Three stars
This book comes out June 25th
Follows A Magical Match
ARC kindly provided by Berkley and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Dating by the Book by Mary Ann Marlowe

Owning a bookstore in small town Indiana is all Maddie Hanson ever wanted to do.  And she's living her dream. To bad it came at the expense of her with marriage. 6 months ago her fiance issued an ultimatum it was either him or the town. She chose the town.
Now she's struggling to pay back her ex for his part of the store's mortgage, trying to keep up on shop repairs, and emailing the guy who gave her about-to-be-published debut novel a three star rating. The last starts as a scathing reply to his review and ends up as a back and forth between two people who are starting to get to know each other.
As a woman in her late 20s, one who was going to be married just a year ago, Maddie is very obsessed with finding the hero of her story. She is a romance reader in the sense that she tends towards the classics, she discusses Jane Eeyre, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Gone with the Wind. And other readers may find it a bit much but I think there is a time in your life when you really do look at everyone you encounter as a possible romantic lead in the story of your own life. I wish there had been more with Maddie's relationship with her mother and her friend Layla.

Four stars
This book comes out June 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Clause & Effect by Kaitlyn Dunnett

After her husband died, Mikki Lincoln didn't want to stay in Maine. She discovered that her childhood home was for sale and immediately moved back. Her current pension can't support both her and her home repairs so she is taking on work editing. But she has also been roped in to helping the hamlet put on their 225th anniversary celebration complete with updating the play used at the 200th. But something is amiss. The original play used the wrong story. And then there's the body found wrapped in plastic inside the walls of the library.
Mikki also is dealing with the rift between her best friend and the friend's sister, an unexpected distant relative, and the fact that she's a known sleuth, meaning that someone is worried that she is looking into the murder.
I didn't read the first book in the series and I don't think that I missed much except maybe some character building. I got a gloss of Mikki but not much more than that. She's almost 70 and not quite crochety but maybe heading there? It's hard to tell in this story.

Three stars
This book comes out June 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James

Lady Betsy Wilde's mother ran away from her father during a scandalous affair. Gossips claim that one of her children (Betsy's sibling) may not be the Duke's child. And Betsy knows that she has her mother's blood. Before she settles into a nice, sedate marriage with no passion, she wants to rack up as many proposals as possible, just to show those snobs from her boarding school that she is better than them. Fourteen proposals later, she has snared one from a duke. But she's annoyed that he proposes in front of the family hanger-on, Lord Jeremy Roden.
Lord Jeremy doesn't have much time for Betsy. He knows what she wants and he disapproves. In his opinion, she should be living her life to the fullest extent possible and not settling for the staid Thaddeus. He is willing to indulge Betsy when she proposes a billiards match. If she wins, he will take her on an adventure. And, while this is a trope we've seen before, Jeremy is surprisingly pragmatic about it. He wants to make sure that they are properly chaperoned, even on the adventure. He is also very aware that his PTSD makes him a freak in his lifetime.
This is definitely not the normal adventure story. For one thing, Betsy's other suitor and his mother come along as well as her aunt. And I liked that twist. I did not like that there was a "villain" sort of squished into the story just so that there would be one. Other than that, I do hope that we get to see Thaddeus again because he seemed like a genuinely good guy and his mother is amazing.

Four stars
This book comes out June 25th
Follows Born to Be Wilde
Followed by Say Yes to the Duke
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins, NetGalley, and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from the library June 2024

The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis

Brooke's life isn't going great. Rather than being out in the field, shooting the travel documentaries that she loved, she's behind the scenes as a producer. Her OCD is barely contained and one of the guys she's working with is also someone she's sleeps with occasionally which is usually okay but can also cause some tensions. Next to her perfect sister, she feels like she's a mess.
Mindy's always been the one who got straight As. She married her high school sweetheart and has three beautiful children. She's living the dream. So why is she outside Brooke's door right now? And weeping in Brooke's bed while her children run around?
The sisters will learn that they need to work with each other to resolve the issues in their past that will help free up their future.
There is a trend right now for romance authors to work more in the Women's Fiction genre and that's what this book felt like to me -- more about the bond between sisters than any romance. And that made it kind of flat for me because I didn't really relate to either Brooke or Mindy. It's Shalvis, so I liked it but her strengths are usually her characters and they just weren't there.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out June 18
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Some Like It Scandalous by Maya Rodale

Daisy Swann has hated Theodore Prescott the Third since he named her Ugly Duck Daisy. She knows she's plain. She's known it since they were kids. She doesn't need people quacking at her as she walks into ballrooms to remind her. Especially since Teddy is an annoying example of male perfection.
But Teddy's life isn't all grand. He's finally landed himself in a scandal large enough for his father to finally cut him off. And Teddy knows that, other than being charming and handsome, he doesn't have a lot going for him. He's not especially good at anything except coming up with rude names for young girls.
It's too bad that their parents would like Daisy and Teddy to be married. Neither is happy about that idea but it is Daisy who suggests that they go along with it... for awhile. Hopefully she can get her cosmetics company started up to make money before her father's bankruptcy is discovered.
This is a romance, so of course their plans will go awry. But it is a lovely journey seeing how Daisy and Teddy learn to understand each other and learn to work with each other to face the world. And I really liked the author's note for this book. Rodale's explanation for how and why she developed the characters that are showing up in this series brought the characters even more to life.

Four stars
This book comes out on June 18th
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Cowboy to the Core by Maisey Yates

The youngest Dodge sibling, little sister Jamie gets her HEA in this story from the Gold Valley series. In previous books, we've gotten to see that she is restless. Growing up without a mother, she is positive that she couldn't miss what she never had. There's been nothing that has made her want to be a girly girl or become "pretty," she's just beyond ready for a change in her life. Ready to take charge of her own life and become a barrel racer. To do that, she's accepted a job taking care of retired rodeo horses at the Dalton place.
Gabe Dalton never wanted to be a bronc rider. Rather than going into the rodeo, he wanted to be a rancher. He saw how his father, also part of the rodeo scene, cheated on his mother and how unhappy it made both of them. Short-term? Sure. Can he do that with one of his employees? He's sure willing to try. Surprisingly (okay, this is a romance so maybe not SO surprising), something that's supposed to be just physical starts helping both Jamie and Gabe grow in ways they never expected.
I really wish Ms. Yates would branch out from the innocent young virgin and overly experienced older man. Like, Gold Valley is somehow populated with pristine young ladies but yet the male population has enough other women to be so practiced they probably should be getting tested even years later.  Good Time Cowboy had a woman who was previously married but that's the only one I can recall. Would be nice for more of a shake-up.

Three stars
This book comes out June 18th
Follows Unbroken Cowboy
Followed by Lone Wolf Cowboy
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin and NetGalley
Opinions expressed are my own

Reading while unemployed

Today would have been the 14th anniversary of my time with my former employer had I not quit about a month ago. It was becoming more and more clear that the company's priorities were different than they had been. And I was never going to measure up to the (unrealistic?) expectations set by a revolving door of bosses. So, I saved up my money, found a couple of contract jobs, and turned in my resignation.
During the last month, I've employed a number of self-care techniques including travel (which isn't something I normally do) and reading (which is a life-long passion.) I've also taken the time to nook-and-cranny my house and my online life. What does that mean? I'm going through everything, everything, to see whether or not it serves me. And what am I noticing? If I had been paying closer attention, I would have noticed my unhappiness a lot sooner.
When my life is going well, I never let my blog posts pile up. I had to go through almost 2,000 posts to catch up. When my life is going well, my ratings on books are inevitably higher (I'm guessing that's true for everyone). There were a lot of two and three stars reviews from me 7/8 months ago. When my life is going well, my TBR is usually at the same level or going slightly down (unless I go to book conferences... but that's another story) and it was going up and up and up and stressing me out.
Right now, I am thankful. Thankful that I am in a place where I don't have to work in a job that is so toxic just to make the rent. Thankful that I am getting to a place where I am exercising every day, even if that only means a 30 minute walk with my dog. Thankful that I can take some time to cull down my TBR as well as re-read old favorites. I am thankful that the friends who have been telling me for over a year that it is time to get out aren't saying, "I told you so" although it is well within their rights. Thankful that my therapist was able to cut through the bullshit and figure out what was really bothering me.

tl;dr Take care of yourselves -- try to use your books to figure out when you're in a life slump -- self-care is never a bad thing

Giving Done Right by Phil Buchanan

This is a really good book about noprofits and how they work. There are great tidbits of information like -- you should not judge a nonprofit by its overhead costs. Giving coherent examples, Buchanan bucks the trend that I normally dislike in my nonfiction books -- using more stories than facts.

Not just for givers, this book should be read by the people on nonprofit boards as well as the people at the top levels. I used to work in the nonprofit world and got to see firsthand what worked and what didn't and I think Buchanan has nailed almost everything.

Will this book appeal to every reader? I don't know. I feel like this is more of a labor of love than a book that is going to appeal to a wide audience but it is a valuable book nonetheless.
Four stars
This book came out April 16th
ARC kindly provided by Perseus Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys

Like so many women, English housewife Eve Forrester's fiance died in World War II. She ended up marrying a man who is a bit pompous but generally very good to her. So what if her days are unendingly boring and she doesn't have a child? She's alive and married to a good man. Her carefree days of adventure are long behind her.  At least, they are until a mysterious letter from a French solicitor comes to her doorstep. Her husband is convinced it's a scam but Eve decides to take advantage of the ticket to get away from her husband and her nagging, always unhappy mother.
On the train ride down, she starts to meet the cast of characters who will change her life. The mysterious inheritance from a man she never knew sets a number of wheels in motion including propelling Eve into the fading but still glittering world of the Riviera in the late 1940s.
Included in the cast of characters are the man's two sons from his first marriage and one of their fiancee's (who is purported to be in love with the brother she's not marrying), the second wife and her daughter, an American writer, and a famous film actress who is more hopped up on pills than not.
Rhys manages to weave together several fairly disparate plotlines into one story. The  use of present tense  made it hard for me to settle into the story. It took over half the book for me to catch on to the rhythm. I think I understand the use of it (it's sort of a Gothic novel and the present tense adds to the general creepiness) but it did almost make me quit the book.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out June 11
ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett

About fifteen, twenty years ago, Jude used to have dinner with Megan Georgeson and her husband Al Sinclair. Megan was a famous actor and Al was... well. He was handsy. Jude always managed to escape but she wasn't sure how Megan put up with him. Nor how his new wife, the paragon Persephone, is managing.
Now Al has rebranded himself as Burton St. Clair and has finally published a book worth noting. In fact, he's talking about his book at the Fethering library. There are a number of people who stand up to ask questions, then hang around to drink the wine. It's too bad that it starts raining at the end of the night and Al offers Jude a trip home. True to form, he makes a pass. Jude slaps him and walks home. Too bad no one sees her and that turns out to be a problem when Al/Burton is found in the parking lot the next morning, dead. As the last person to see him, Jude is immediately a suspect.
It doesn't help that Megan remembers Jude as a homewrecker and no one seems to believe that she wasn't, even Carole, Jude's usual amateur detecting partner.
I hadn't read any of the other books in this series but didn't feel like I was missing anything (at book 18 even!). I also didn't connect with either Jude or Carole. Jude was a little... well, after 17 other run-ins with a dead body you'd think she would've been smarter. And that Carole would have trusted her a bit more though the fact that she didn't blindly believe Jude was nice. The mystery was fairly clued and that helped make this a very readable story.

Three stars
This book comes out June 16th
ARC kindly provided by Black Thorn and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Who's Sorry Now? by Maggie Robinson

When the first book ended, Lady Adelaide had sincerely believed she would not see her dead husband again. And yet, here he is in the same New York underground club surrounded by Bright Young Things and telling Addie that the club is about to be raided. He helps get her and her sister, Cecelia "Cee", out the men's room window.
They make it back to England but Addie once again hears Rupert as Cee drinks out of her friend's glass and immediately falls over. This after a string of BYTs have been poisoned to death. Luckily, Adelaide jumps into action and saves her sister. She immediately offers to help the hunky Detective Inspector Dev Hunt in his search for the killer.
I liked this book better than the first. Robinson has built her world and now is able to work into the story a bit more.

Four stars
This book came out June 1
Follows Nobody's Sweetheart Now
Followed by Just Make Believe
ARC kindly provided by Poisoned Press, NetGalley, and Edelweiss
Opinion is my own