Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge by Laura Levine

Jaine Austen is spending her Christmas housesitting with her friend Lance. Prozac, though supposed to be boarded, had gotten herself kicked out. Luckily, the next door neighbor, Missy, offers up her home. Her husband Scotty, the titular Scrooge, is less impressed. He says that Jane can work off the boarding payments by helping him edit his screenplay.
It seems that Scotty played Tiny Tim in an early Christmas movie and has been riding the residuals pretty much ever since. He's a wealthy man but his mansion is empty, he has a renter (who appears to be in love with Missy), his wife is on a tight allowance, and his ex-wife comes over regularly to try and pry her alimony checks out of his fingers.
The title of the story reveals the conflict of this story; Scotty ends up dead. Turns out, in addition to being tightfisted, he was mean-spirited as well; complaining about his neighbors decorations via megaphone and blackmailing at least one person.
A nice addition to the series but nothing standout.

Three stars
This book came out on September 25
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Death of a Bachelorette by Laura Levine

I had read a few Jaine Austen books but ended up giving up on the series.  There are a lot of cozy series I really enjoyed and this one didn't really hook me. I liked the premise for this one though. Jaine becoming a writer for a TV show based on The Bachelor. Not far-fetched since shows seem to have been chasing that dream ever since the show started.
Jaine is on more of a "Bachelor in Paradise" show where the women are competing to marry a prince, er, a man who is 87th in line for the throne. She's replacing the last writer who gives her a cryptic warning about the show. Well, not so cryptic. Basically, Jane lands and is told that the job sucks and she better be prepared for the worst. Well, having packed up herself and her cat, Jaine is ready to dig in. Even if it means dealing with three bitch contestants. And a room on the third floor where there is no air conditioning. In a tropical climate. And the food is unused airline meals. Dessert is from a vending machine. Oh, and one of the contestants just got murdered. While dealing with all of that, Jaine has to also fight off the king of the island who wants to make her his twelfth wife (his first wife is none to happy about that).
This was a fun and fluffy story. Jaine is still just slightly annoying to me and the whole subplot of the island king seemed superfluous. For readers who enjoy the series, I think this will be a book they enjoy.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out June 27