A Family Reunion by Brenda Jackson

Ethan Bennett married off his children and now he's working on the younger generation. He's got four grandchildren who need to find love. In order to help pull them through, he's planning the first Bennett family reunion in fifteen years. Well, he's not, he's turning it over to a cousin or sister or some other woman (because why would he actually do the planning and she likes to do that stuff). 

We meet the grandchildren, Taye who was supposedly the smartest of them all but got pregnant young and disappointed the family (now has two daughters), Michael (adopted) who is a pilot with a teenage daughter who is running out of control, Alexia who is a rock idol, and Rae'Jean who is a doctor dating a man (who is white which is causing issues in the family.)

The first half or so of the book is at the reunion and the back half is over a series of months. This book is definitely an earlier Jackson with all sorts of racial and gender storylines that I don't think she would use now. I was honestly surprised it came out in the early 2000s. It's a fine enough book but she has better.

Three stars

This book came out September 17, 2001

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Follow Your Heart by Brenda Jackson

Victoria Madaris is ready to be matched. Her great-grandmother has been matching people successfully for generations but Victoria is concerned. She knows that her grandmother is setting her up with her brother's friend, Tanner because they run into each other at a bakery, each having been given gift cards by her grandmother. It's just too bad that she has no sparks with him. Not like she does with a certain senator. 

Roman Malone knows that having a wife would make him more attractive to voters but he is not interested in the kind of political marriage that his ex-girlfriend is trying to force him into. Instead, he wants a marriage where he enjoys mutual loves... like fishing. 

Their romance is actually pretty straightforward except for Victoria thinking that she is supposed to be in love with someone else. We don't get as much of their story because Tanner has a story of his own and I frankly didn't like him as a character and couldn't understand why Lyric would fall in love with him.

Three stars
Follows Finding Home Again
This book comes out April 27th, 2021
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

A Little Dare by Brenda Jackson

 Ten years ago, Rachelle Brockman and Alisdare Westmoreland were hot and heavy. But then he told her that he wanted to break it off so that he could go into the FBI. She loved him so she let him go even though she had news of her own. 
Now, it’s time to come home and to finally tell Dare about his son. I actually liked that he 

admitted his own culpability and worked with Rachelle to let AJ make his own choice about when to be a part of the family. Didn’t love that Dare made up his mind and decided to chase her so hard even when she said no but she actually didn’t protest hard.

Three stars

Followed by Thorn's Challenge

This book came out September 3rd, 2003

Borrowed this as an audiobook from Audible Escape

Opinions are my own

Husband Material by Brenda Jackson

Producer Matthew Birmingham and actress Carmen Akins were married. But then their differences became too great and they divorced. For Carmen, Matthew was becoming too much like her father - he loved his work more than her. And she expressed that to him. When he missed a trip she had specifically prepared for the two of them to connect, Carmen was done.
Matthew knew that he was spending a lot of time at work but he was blindsided by Carmen's wanting a divorce. Now that she's in their house in the Hamptons and not going to leave (it was part of the divorce settlement that she could be there if he wasn't), he's ready for a little revenge. But he learns that what he thought about their divorce isn't the whole  story, he changes his goals for their time together.
This would have been better as a full book. There was so little connection between the two characters other than the sex that it made it hard to connect to them or to believe in their HEA.

Two stars
This novella originally came out as a part of an anthology but was re-released as an ebook this year.
Opinions are my own

Spontaneous by Brenda Jackson

Kimani Cannon has been attracted to the brother of her best friend's fiancé for awhile. She was going

to act on it at the engagement party but he had to leave. At the wedding, she goes for it. And Duan Jeffries is not going to turn it down. But he also isn't sure that he wants it to be a one-time thing. When Kim gets a phone call that her mother is getting married for the fifth time, she's worried; none of the other husbands were particularly good and Kim's mom hasn't known this man for long.
Duan hears the man's name and is immediately on alert. He recognizes it from when he was in the Atlanta police department as being a man whose two wives disappeared under mysterious circumstances when he had an airtight alibi.
It was a fun and fluffy story. As a category romance, there's not a lot of room for development in the relationship but I did see how Kim and Duan fit together.

Three stars
This book came out April 27th, 2010
Borrowed as ebook from library
Opinions are my own

Texas Wild by Brenda Jackson

In previous Westmoreland series books, we've learned that their great-grandfather was sort of a horndog and they're thinking there might be more cousins out in the world. To that end, Megan Westmoreland has hired private investigator (and the man whose two sisters have married two of the cousins), Rico Claiborne. Rico knows they have an explosive chemistry and he doesn't want it to go anywhere so he forbids her from following him to Texas where he's going to chase down a woman who was rumored to have been involved with the great-grandfather. The two hook up and Megan, who is a virgin, somewhat mind-bogglingly most of the women in this series are, immediately captures Rico's heart. An okay addition to the series and regular readers will enjoy.

Finding Home Again by Brenda Jackson

The relationship between Bryce and Kaegen has been a thread through the other books in this series. Formerly high school sweethearts, Bryce and Kaegan had a falling out when he misinterpreted something he saw without talking to her about it. But after about fifty page, he's discovered his mistake and is ready to make it work.
That man did NOT do enough groveling in this book. Ten years of attitude and he is just like, "Oh no, I was wrong. Oh well, we should get back together."Frankly, their could have been a lot more of the two finding their way back to each other (like the last book in this series) and a lot less drama of the romance triangle.

Three and a half stars

Follows Forget Me Not

Followed by Follow Your Heart
This book came out October 29th
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin and NetGalley
Opinions are my own