January Rereads 2021

As always, all opinions are my own

Naked Once More
Jacqueline Kirby #4
Five Stars
Follows Die for Love
This book came out August 1st, 2989
Borrowed from Audible Premium Plus






Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston
Honey Badger Chronicles #1
Three stars
Follows Bite Me
Followed by In a Badger Way
This book comes out March 27, 2018
Hard copy I own  

In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston
Honey Badger Chronicles #2
Three and a half stars
Follows Hot and Badgered
Followed by Badger to the Bone
This book came out March 26, 2019
Ebook borrowed from Libby

Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston
Honey Badger Chronicles #3
Follows In a Badger Way
eBook borrowed from Hoopla



Appleby Talks Again by Michael Innes
Sir John Appleby #15
Three stars
This book came out November 19th, 2019
Hard copy I didn't keep

Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews

Hidden Legacy #3

Follows novella Diamond Fire

Followed by Emerald Blaze
This book comes out August 27th, 2019

Ebook borrowed from CloudLibrary

Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews

Hidden Legacy #4

Four stars
Follows Sapphire Flames

This book came out August 25th, 2020
Ebook borrowed from CloudLibrary

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews

 This book was a little easier to follow as an audiobook than the first one. Kate is trying to retrieve some maps for the Pack when her colleague is killed. That leads her into an investigation of trying to find the mother of a 13-year-old girl who has a rare power and the coven of witches that disappeared with her mother. She'll have to face the Oracles, deal with The Shepherd, and defeat Morrigan herself in order to survive. Also involved, Ghastek, the man who controls vampires, Derek, Kate's blood-bound werewolf friend, and Curran, the leader of the Pack. All while the magic seems to be heading for a flare...
Favorite line? "Asshole innocent bystanders" Ha!

Three and a half stars

Follows Magic Bites

Followed by Magic Strikes

This book came out April 1st, 2008

Borrowed as a hard copy from the library

Opinions are my own

Faithless in Death : An Eve Dallas Novel by J. D. Robb

I loved this return to normal. The last book was fine but there was too much trying to bring back every character ever. The "bad guys" were a little two-dimensional but not horribly so. It was more building off of stereotypes to create a shortcut so that each person could get a little more depth. We also got more about our favorite characters with Mavis and Leonardo taking a pretty big life step that is just so true to their family.

The case starts out with the murder of a young artist. A wealthy, engaged socialite discovered the body and made a frantic 911 call. She claims that she was just visiting a friend but Eve and even Peabody are seeing cracks in the story. As they dig, they begin to find that the case might not be as simple as they originally thought and that finding the killer might mean having to take down a giant cult at the same time.

Four stars

This book comes out February 2nd, 2021  
Follows Shadows in Death

Followed byForgotten in Death
ARC kindly provided by Macmillan and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Reread August 2023 as audiobook from Libby

Convincing Alex by Nora Roberts

Bess McNee just wants to do a little research for the soap opera that she is a writer on. Dressing up like a prostitute seems like a good idea to create some realism in her characters. She doesn't realize that she might get pushed into picking up a couple of guys. Or that they might be cops. When she ends up at the police station, she is delighted. 
The arresting officer, Alexi Stanislaski, is not so delighted. There have been several women killed lately and he doesn't need some... writer... out making it worse. But she just keeps putting herself in his way. And she might seem a little ditzy but she has a sharper mind than he first sees.
A nice addition to the series. Maybe doesn't age as well as a couple of the other books but isn't egregious.

Three stars
This book came out March 1st, 1994
Follows Falling for Rachel
Followed by Waiting for Nick
Borrowed as ebook from Libby
Opinions are my own

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

The Smart Bitches podcast recommended this book as being better than the Dresden Files.
Kate Daniels doesn't belong to the Order but when her guardian is killed, she's pulled into the investigation. She's not official but at least she's involved. She'll encounter vampires, shifters, and an "Unpire" (maybe, not sure on spelling since I was listening) before the book is over.
This was a little hard to keep up with on audio but I enjoyed it as much the second time I listened.

Kate Daniels #1

Three stars
This book came out March 29th, 2009
Followed by Magic Burns
Borrowed as an audiobook from Libby
Opinions are my own

Reread March 2024

Lady Osbaldestone’s Plum Puddings by Stephanie Laurens

For the third year, Lady Osbaldestone's grandchildren have decided they want to come visit her before going to the larger family gathering. This year, the original three and their cousin Melissa are joined by her sister Amanda (Mandy). They come to the village in a propitious year. Lady Osbaldestone's plum trees have cast off an abundance of fruit. Her cook has offered to make everyone in the village a plum pudding in order to have something to do with them all. The village has been taking up a collection of pennies in order to have something to put in the plum pudding and that is the children's first task, to sort the coins and clean them up so they can be put into the food. But when they find three coins that are obviously older than the currently used currency, it's time to call in reinforcements. A professor and his amanuensis niece are called in and a mysterious gentleman with ties to the professor show up. The stories of love and mystery don't twine as well in this book but still a fast, fun, and fluffy that would be good to pick up when you just need a palate cleanser.

Three stars

This book came out October 17th, 2019

Follows Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols

Followed by Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Intrigue

Borrowed as an audiobook from Audible

Opinions are my own 

Die for Love by Elizabeth Peters

 Ah, Jacqueline Kirby, I love you. An older, sexually-liberated female who solves mysteries? Um, yes please. It's a little disconcerting to read how romances are described in this book but this was written in a different time so...
Jackie is going to a Romance Novel convention, just to get out of Dodge. Her current love is getting a little clingy and this librarian (!) needs her space. So it's off to New York and some down-time with authors. Except that it's not really less stressful. Backbiting authors, conniving agents, and sneaky reporters all add up for a scintillating time for Jackie, until one of the reporters gets murdered. And there is a surfeit of suspects so, while it took a while to get into the book, the solution was not what I expected.

Four stars
Follows The Murders of Richard III
Followed by Naked Once More
This book came out January 1st, 1974
Audiobook from Audible Premium Plus
Opinions are my own

Reread October 2022

Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age by Eric Homberger

I can't remember why I picked this book up. There is something very intriguing about the 400 and the woman who ran them. Homberger excels when he writes about the neighborhoods of New York. Unfortunately, that is a small portion of the book. Well-researched, this book is mainly a litany of names with stories here and there to highlight... well, that's where I got lost. While each chapter had a theme (only six chapters but they are LONG chapters), some of the stories fit more loosely than others. An interesting read but definitely took some time to get through.

Three stars

This book came out

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols by Stephanie Laurens

Once again, Lady Osbaldestone's three grandchildren are joining her for a village Christmas. They had so much fun last year that they begged to come back. This year, her granddaughter Melissa (a cousin of the original three) is also there. Her older sister was invited to a house party but Melissa has hit her teen years hard and her mother is scared to take her. Therese decides to do what she does best. Meddle but only from a distance and only when she should.

This year, there is a new organist who has a mysterious past. There is also a female visitor to the village. One who knows her own worth and is ready to wait for the right husband. 

Again, Laurens-light. Not super-complicated but not a lot of depth either.

Three stars

This book came out October 18th, 2018

Follows Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Goose

Followed by Lady Osbaldestone’s Plum Puddings

Borrowed as an audiobook from Audible

Opinions are my own

Falling for Rachel by Nora Roberts

When Zack Muldoon rushes down to get his stepbrother out of jail, he doesn't expect the kid's public defender to be so arrestingly gorgeous. Rachel Stanislaski isn't impressed by the big blond man. He might be magnetic but he is also rude. However, the two are tied together with an eccentric judge demanding that Rachel and Zack both be concerned with keeping Nick out of trouble for the next two months. Two months that Nick will be living with Zack and Rachel will be keeping a close eye on the pair. Time they spend together is enough to get them over their initial prejudices toward each other and allow that heat to shine through.
I read these books much closer to the time they came out so I'm not sure what a first time reader would think. There were some thing that were somewhat dated (alpha male, but not an alphahole thank goodness) but overall it is still a good read.

Three stars
This book came out April 1st, 1993
Follows Luring a Lady
Followed by Convincing Alex
Borrowed as ebook from Libby
Opinions are my own

Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Goose by Stephanie Laurens

Light romance, light mystery -- this book was a fun introduction to Lady Osbaldestone with her own stories. Now widowed but still a grand dame of the ton, she is connecting (somewhat warily) with three of her grandchildren while their parents are dealing with an illness. Definitely, the children are a little more precocious than might be believable but, if you can suspend your disbelief, this is just a fun story.
Therese is trying to figure out how to entertain her grandchildren in her small village but there is a built-in mystery of where all of the geese, raised for Christmas dinner, have disappeared to. While they are doing that, helping a local injured hero to realize that he might be worth love is a secondary task. 
Very Laurens-light with a rather whimsical romance.

Three stars
This book came out October 19th, 2017
Followed by Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols
Borrowed as an audiobook from Audible
Opinions are my own

Bite Me by Shelly Laurenston

I can't believe I haven't found Shelly Laurenston before this.  I've been enjoying her books -- fast, fun, and fluffy. And the character building is fantastic. Livy, our heroine, is a honey badger shifter. And like her animal counterpart, she has a fairly bad attitude about life in general. It doesn't help that her family likes to steal things -- that part doesn't bother her, but the fact that they refuse to acknowledge her prowess as a photographer does. 
Vic is a half-bear-half-tiger shifter. Apparently he's generally strong and patient but easily startled. He and Livy have been friends for awhile (yes! one of my favorite tropes!) but he is only just now starting to realize that he might feel more for her than just little sister vibes. And Livy feels the same. But she's also distracted by the fact that she's just found her father -- her supposedly dead and buried father, in another woman's apartment. So there's that.
I hadn't read any of the other books in this series the first time I read this book but I was able to catch on fast to the world building. There were a LOT of extra characters that I assumed were from previous books and they were but there are pretty much always this many characters in the books of this series. 

Four stars
This book came out March 25th, 2014
This book follows Wolf with Benefits 
Followed by Hot and Badgered (new series but closely connected with this one)
Ebook I borrowed from Overdrive
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

The Nine Types of Leader by James Ashton

The introduction is sort of interesting. It is usually used to set the premise of a book, to set context for a story, or to give history as to why the author is an expert on the subject. And oftentimes an introduction is written by someone who is not the author because heaping praise on the following material can come across as somewhat... well, as bragging. And this introduction sure did. There is a LOT of name-dropping in this intro and in the rest of the book. The author has certainly interviewed and been in contact with a lot of people whose names are recognizable. 
I wish there had been more about why these 9 types had been chosen. Usually, with nonfiction, I enjoy seeing the scientific reasoning behind why specific categories were chosen and this book definitely doesn't have that. It is interesting that the author actually makes a point of saying that he didn't want to write "another academic study of leadership." And Ashton even admits that at least one of his analyses is very subjective Aside from the name-dropping, the author is a good writer and people may enjoy thinking about their own immediate (and not-so-immediate) leaders and categorizing them.  

Three stars
This book comes out January 26th
Ebook from Kogan Page Ltd and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths

I haven't read the other books in this series but really didn't feel like I needed to. Yes, there was some back story but I felt like most of what we needed to know was filled in. An interesting story that had some hints as to who was the final villain but some things were left in the dark.
Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby are starting to make a name for themselves. Now they are paired up with several acts including a living tableau of nearly naked women (it's not lewd as long as they don't move). Then one of the girls is murdered and Max is pulled into the investigation. Ruby's fiance and Max's old friend Inspector Edgar Stephens is officially on the case but finds himself torn as the clues start to point at Max.

Three stars
This book came out November 2nd, 2017
Follows The Blood Card
Followed by Now You See Them
Borrowed as an ebook from Libby
Opinions are my own

             

Luring a Lady by Nora Roberts

Mikhail Stanislski is not impressed by Hayward. He's been letting the company know that his apartment building is run down but no one has been responding. So he barges in to the office and is shocked to find that Hayward is not an old man but a young woman. A beautiful woman.
Sydney Hayward is trying to defy expectations. Everyone believes that she will run Hayward for a few months and then tire of it. But this is her legacy and she's not going to let it go. Nor is she going to let it be tarnished by a run down building. When Mikhail says he works with wood, Sydney immediately hires him not realizing that he is actually an artist of some renown. Having Mikhail work for her means that they are thrown into close proximity, especially when one of her tenants gets hurt. 
Mikhail is sort of an alphahole. He's not that way the whole story but he is definitely starts out that way. Sydney on the other hand is an introduction in competence-porn. We don't get a sense of what in her background allows her to step into her family's business and there are some instances of show not tell but we do get to see her excel in dealing with the building, dealing with Mikhail, and even routing a baddie.

Three and a half stars
This book came out December 1st, 1991
Follows Taming Natasha
Followed by Falling for Rachel
Borrowed from Libby
Opinions are my own

Wolf with Benefits by Shelly Laurenston

Antonella "Toni" Jean-Louis Parker has pretty much given up her life so that she can care for her parents and her ten siblings. See, they're all geniuses while she's the "normal" one who can cope with the day-to-day but her friends and some of her family (mostly her father) have decided that she needs to get her own life so they've conspired to get her a job.
Ricky Lee Reed works for his brother's security agency. He meets Toni one day and is interested, until she turns him down. But their paths keep crossing and he is consistent in his interest.
I liked this one. Toni didn't get on my nerves as much as come of the other heroines in this series and was actually pretty good at her job once she figured out that she could do it.

Four stars
This book came out March 25th, 2014

Follows Bear Meets Girl
Followed by Bite Me
Hard copy I own
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

The Estate of the Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham

Whew. This book has a heck of a lot going on and the ending was... a little odd. I didn't read all of the books ahead of it in the series but I have read a few. I was still a little lost. There was a lot of backstory that was assumed and a lot of characters that we probably already knew. 
Campion and Amanda are visiting her old homestead along with Lugg and their son. There promises to be a fantastical weekend party but the lead up is marred by the death of a friend, the local tax collector known as Little Doom. While it seemed his death would be fairly imminent, someone may have hurried him along and Albert Campion needs to figure out who.

Three stars
This book came out January 1st, 1955
Follows The Tiger in the Smoke
Followed by Tether's End
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own

An Unexpected Pleasure by Candace Camp

American Megan Mulcahey is convinced that English nobleman Theo Moreland killed her brother ten years ago. And now her sister is having dreams that her family believes that they should take revenge. Megan gets taken on as a tutor for the two youngest of the Moreland children, twin boys who get into mischief in every book of this series. She doesn't actually know as much as them in some subjects but she only needs to hang on long enough to find proof that Theo murdered Dennis. Unfortunately, she finds herself charmed by the family and falling in love with Theo.
The Moreland family is unusual and that means that Theo doesn't necessarily think that finding the tutor in his father's study means anything malicious. He is more amused than alarmed. It doesn't hurt that said tutor is beautiful. 
It took me a little bit to get into this book because the beginning was just a little slow. I was pretty much considering a DNF at around the 80 page mark but read the last 30 pages and decided to wade through. And it was worth it. Most of the real story action starts about three-quarters of the way in but you need a lot of the slog to really understand what is going on. Like all of the books in the Mad Moreland series, there is a lot of mystical-type stuff going on but bringing that in is when the book really started to get good.

Three stars
This book came out August 29th, 2006
Follows Winterset
Followed by His Sinful Touch
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own

Taming Natasha by Nora Roberts

 I know I read this book much closer to the publication date and I think I even carried the series around with me for a few years so it is hard to say how well it holds up but I think overall pretty well. Spencer Kimball, composer and professor, is a little much sometimes but Natasha "Tash" Stanislaski deals with him quite well. She does run a bit from her own past but her family is there to bolster her back to where she belongs. 
Spencer is tired of New York. He grew up there, was a spoiled playboy there, almost missed out on his daughter's life there. He lost his music there. So he moves to West Virginia. And it's there that he meets toy store owner Natasha Stanislaski. First drawn to her by her looks, he soon find out that she is much more than than just her face. She is a vibrant, caring woman who might just change his life.

Three stars
This book came out March 1990
Followed by Luring a Lady
Ebook borrowed from Libby
Opinions are my own

Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston

Lou Crushek is a bear shifter who doesn't like change. At all. So when he's transferred with no notice from his police unit to the one containing all shifters, he's not happy. Who cares if his former foster mother, the head of the Bears Protection Agency, has basically doxxed him? He's also not excited to have picked up a female who seems to relish teasing him about their "dating" life.
Marcella Malone knows that Lou isn't her boyfriend. But he's so fun to tease. And it turns out that her work with the feline protection agency overlaps an investigation that he is very much an important part of. 
The more I read this book the more I enjoy it. Cella has a sly humor that makes her a great character for the series.

Four stars

This book came out March 27th, 2012

Follows Big Bad Beast
Followed by Wolf with Benefits
Hard copy I own
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters

Jacqueline Kirby is visiting and old friend in England. While there, she is invited to go with him too a country manor where a group of current day Richard III sympathizers will reenact his life before a letter is unveiled proving that Richard did not kill the princes in the tower.
But someone begins playing malicious pranks on the guests portraying Richard's rivals in the same order that Richard supposedly killed them. 
Not my favorite Kirby novel but still shows Jacqueline's amazing sense of humor. And is amazingly better as an audiobook.

Three stars
Follows The Seventh Sinner
Followed by Die for Love
This book came out January 1st, 1974

Audiobook from Audible Premium Plus
Opinions are my own

Scandal in the VIP Suite by Nadine Gonzalez

 I loved the cover of this book and the premise seemed interesting so I requested it from NetGalley. I'm not a huge Harlequin reader these days but this book reminded me why I used to be. A great story, well-developed, with a happy ending in a short format. I didn't love the ending because it was telegraphed so clearly and I wasn't sure I really believed it because up until that point, Nina and Julian had been communicating so well with each other, the Big Misunderstanding seemed out of character. I also don't love public declarations and, whoo baby, this one was public. Otherwise, Nina was a great character whose flaws we got to see as well as her journey getting past some of her fears. Julian also has a past and I loved that, even though she could have been, his ex wasn't vilified but was instead shown to be a human. 
When Nina Taylor arrives at the luxurious Sand Castle hotel (which, even the author notes is sort of a ridiculous name for a hotel), she is expecting to honor her mother's legacy by getting to stay in The Oasis, their most opulent suite. But, instead, she's been kicked out so that a movie star can stay instead.
Julian Knight doesn't feel much like a movie star. His shine has been tarnished with a bad film and even worse press. Staying at the Sand Castle means he'll get a respite from all the press. He's not expecting to find someone sleeping in his bed. Nor that he'll impulsively offer to let him stay. Even more shocking is that she accepts...

Four stars
This book comes out January 12th
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Big Bad Beast by Shelly Laurenston

Dee Ann Smith, the feared wolf-shifter who's not afraid to kill, gets her HEA with Ulrich "Ric" Van Holtz in this book. He's loved her since they were children and, despite the admonitions of all of those around them, the two have finally started moving toward love. 
Of course, we get to see many of the shifters from previous books and there is more going on with the overarching story of people using hybrids as fight dogs. A wonderful book in the series since we get to see so much of their relationship growing.

Four stars

This book came out May 25th, 2010

Follows Beast Behaving Badly
Followed by Bear Meets Girl
Hard copy I own
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

A Hundred Thousand Dragons by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Jack Haldean has met Durant Craig before. That's why he's not surprised when the man confronts him in Claridge's Hotel. Also present are Jack's friend and a lawyer named Vaughn. They are all also present at a costume party when a car accident ends the life of... someone. It all harkens back to the war and when Craig and Haldean had crossed paths before. And the poem that leads them on the hunt for a hundred thousand dragons.
This book just didn't keep my attention like some of the others have. It was a nice enough book in the series but nothing spectacular. When I reread it as an audiobook, it definitely improved.

Three stars
This book came out May 27th, 2010
Follows As if by Magic
Followed by Off the Record
Borrowed from Hoopla and Audible Premium Plus
Opinions are my own

The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Shearer, Joanna Teplin

If you've seen The Home Edit show on Netflix, you've basically ready this book. There is a little more information on how Joanna and Clea became a team but other than that it is a lot of pretty pictures with tips on the opposite side. 
I would suggest buying this as as physical book since it would be nice to see the tips next to the pictures which you don't get to do on an ereader.

Three stars

This book came out March 19th, 2019

Borrowed as ebook from the OverDrive

Opinions are my own

Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly Laurenston

I like the Pride books. I like Laurenston. I did NOT like Blayne. I think Laurenston really brought through the fact that Blayne, as a wild dog, was frenetic, unfiltered, and erratic and it made for some hard reading and an unlikable character. I never really got why she and Bo were supposed to be together. No one's going to like every book in a series and this one is going to be one that I dislike.
It is better when you skim the Blayne parts. Bumped it up to three stars on the re-reads (I do re-read it often though because I can't stand to skip books in series...) because Bo is really growing on me. He doesn't try to change Blayne and her annoyingness, he loves her as she is and plans to work around her.

Three stars

This book came out May 1st, 2011
Follows The Mane Squeeze
Followed by Big Bad Beast
Hard copy I own
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis

One moment can change a number of lives. And that moment happened for three foster siblings and two blood siblings almost a decade ago. Now there are four of them. Caitlin, the steady heart of the group; Maze, the de facto leader who is skeptical of love; Walker, the loner who lurks in the background; and Heather, the youngest of them all. 

The four of them haven't been in one place in years but now they are gathering for Cat's wedding to Dillon. Unfortunately, none of them seem to actually like Dillon. Which is going to be a problem since Cat has actually inveigled them all out to the family lodge a week before her actual wedding date and is asking them to stay. They each have their own reasons for not wanting to spend a week together but the family ties are too strong.

Most of the story focuses on Maze and Walker. Even though Maze brings a fake boyfriend, their attraction is strong and she finds herself drawn to the man she walked out on years ago. We also get glimpses of Cat and Dillon's relationship but, because their parts in the story are so brief, Dillon is more of a two-dimensional character. Heather, we see least of all though her story seems like it could have been interesting. 

Three stars

Follows The Summer Deal

Followed by Love for Beginners
This book comes out January 12th
ARC kindly provided by William Morrow Paperbacks and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

You'd think that all of the parallel universe/alternate timelines stories had been told but Haig manages to create a new one with Nora Seed. We learn in the first story that one day, Nora will decide to take her own life. We get a few chapters of prelude where we discover that the once promising Nora (she was a champion swimmer, an intelligent child, and a gifted pianist and songwriter) has hit her nadir. But before she actually dies, she has a chance to experience many different lives. We don't know all of them but she is afforded this opportunity through a library of books with the many options of the way that her life might have been written. Would she have been an iceberg researcher? Or a famous rock star? Perhaps the mother of a small child. Or a writer in Paris. While we do not get to see all of the lives, they lead Nora to a (perhaps expected) conclusion that will shake the foundations of the library itself.
It took me awhile to get into this book but then I finished it in my second sitting. A new take on an old idea and Haig seeds just enough to create a connected series of books with perhaps other characters.

Four stars
This book came out September 29th, 2020
Book borrowed from Libby
Opinions are my own

The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens

Frederick, Marquess of Albury, is renown for his skill at the piano but he is equally well known for not playing in public. Lady Eustacia "Stacey" Cavanaugh would like to change that. She feels like the musicians of England are in the shadow of the great names from the continent. Her plan is to have Frederick come and play in a series of musical evenings to inveigle the ton to also come and listen to her proteges. 
He isn't easily persuaded. But Stacey is a master manipulator (which has a negative connotation for me so it made the story an interesting one to listen to) so she bides her time and finally convinces him to play for her. But while thanking him, they have an accident putting them in a compromising position and Frederick gallantly proposes. He soon wants to make their fake engagement real but will have to work to convince Stacey that she's nothing like her mother.
I was actually enjoying this story quite a bit. There was A Woman in Frederick's past and she doesn't (gasp!) actually come back to haunt him. But then there was a murderer thrown in? For Reasons. It wasn't a story woven throughout the whole book and made little sense to me since Laurens is such a good writer there could have a different way to convince Stacey she could love.

Three stars
This book came out July 18th, 2019
Follows The Pursuits of Lord Kit Cavanaugh
Followed by The Obsessions of Lord Godfrey Cavanuagh

Borrowed as an audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Mane Squeeze by Shelly Laurenston

We meet Gwen O'Neill and Lochlan "Lock" McRyrie in this book. She is a tigon shifter, a hybrid, never really accepted and sometimes outright despised by other shifters. Lock, a grizzly shifter doesn't care, he just thinks she's hot. The two will have to battle her brothers, deal with a long-time feud with a lion pride, and even take part in a roller derby battle, quite nearly to the death.
Blayne is not nearly as annoying in this book but she and Jessie together can be... over enthusiastic. And the annoyingness of that comes through in every interaction.

Three stars
This book came out November 1st, 2009

Follows The Mane Attraction
Followed by Big Bad Beast
Hard copy I own
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

Mask of Silver by Rosemary Jones

Can the hubris of one man cause pain down through generations? Yes. Yes it can. And the book opens with just such a man who, even as his house is burning down around him, asks the maid to save his portrait rather than his children. It is a stunning opening to a book I had mixed thoughts about. During my reading, I was rather thrown off by abrupt changes in pacing. But It may be that Jones was using that to create an ambiance of reading. 

Three stars
This book comes out January 5th
ARC kindly provided by Aconyte Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

All the Colors of Night by Jayne Ann Krentz

Sierra Raines is making a living as a go-between. She helps find rare items for collectors and then delivers them. But the life of a go-between isn't always easy. Sometimes people don't want to pay for the objects that have been found as happens to her in the opening scene. But that is okay, she has her own means of protecting herself that aren't as obvious as something like a gun. It is her skills as a finder that have her being called in to help North Chastain find out what happened to his father. 

North is a monster-hunter. He finds the people with psychic powers that are using them to harm others. At least, he is at the moment. Unfortunately, there is something going wrong with his powers and he is slowly losing them. But that isn't as big a concern as the fact that his father was attacked and left in a psychic coma. 

The attack seems linked to an incident that happened in Fogg Lake in the '50s. Psychic research was occurring there and an explosion caused the lab to be shut down but left a lingering residue of psychical powers in the residents. Sierra's family is from Fogg Lake and North's grandfather was a researcher there so they both have ties.

A nice addition to the series with characters that are well drawn and a story that is new but fits in with the series.

Four stars

This book comes out January 7th

Follows The Vanishing

Followed by Lightning in a Mirror
ARC kindly provided by Berkley and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread November 2021 as hard copy from library; August 2022 and January 2024 as audiobook from libby