Beyond Seduction by Stephanie Laurens

In previous books in the series, Gervase keeps being called home. Finally, we, the readers, find out what it's all about.
His sisters, having seen what happened when one of their neighbors got married, are terrified. They do not want to be shipped off to some boarding school. Instead, they wreak havoc around Gervase's estate in order to keep an eye on him and who he is dating. In a moment of pique, Gervase promises to marry the next woman he sees (who fulfills a list of criteria, including him liking her (he's not stupid)) .
This is a romance novel so a woman shows up pretty darn quick. He doesn't exactly believe that she'd fit his requirements having known Madeline Gascoigne in the past but now he's at least looking at her with new eyes.
Madeline needs Gervase's help. She's not looking for a husband; she's her brother's guardian and she has to keep that estate together. But there is an electricity between them that she wants to explore.
There are the same basic beats as the rest of the books in the series: Man wants to get married, woman doesn't, they get married, but with its own little twists.

Three and a half stars

This book came out in 2007

Follows To Distraction

Followed by The Edge of Desire

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Murder at the Seaside Hotel by Sonia Parin

Oh. My. Lanta. This book was SOOOOOO slow. I'd estimate that half the book is just Evie coming up with wild theories about the death of a maid in a seaside hotel. And we're never really given a reason she's so involved other than the fact that the police never interviewed her (seemed like this was tongue-in-cheek) and that she didn't like that the police weren't giving this maid respect. We never really do find out why the police didn't look into the death but luckily Evie has an old friend (Inspector O'Neill) who is
willing to come down and take a look. Also involved? Evie's maid, chauffeur, and "good friend," Tom. 

Two and a half stars

This book came out July 28, 2019

Follows Murder in the Cards

Followed by Murder in the Third Act

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

To Distraction by Stephanie Laurens

Deverell, Viscount Paignton, would like to find a wife. He seeks counsel from his aunt Audrey. Born several years after her brothers, she is closer to him in age and knows him well. Her recommendation is one of her many goddaughters. The woman's name? Phoebe Malleson. She is a little older than some of the current crop of unwed ladies and the reasons she is unmarried, according to Audrey, are what makes her perfect for Deverell. 

For her part, Phoebe has decided that she would rather not wed. Deverell's interest is therefore not welcome, especially since she's heard that he was involved in the government somehow and some of her pursuits are not quite... legal. 

Deverell is determined to make Phoebe trust him. He is anxious to start his future, one that includes the woman he was instantly entranced with.

Three and a half stars

This book came out August 29, 2006

Follows A Fine Passion

Followed by Beyond Seduction

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

A Fine Passion by Stephanie Laurens

Jack Warnefleet is trying to escape the matchmaking mamas of London by escaping to his country manor. There, he finds that in his absence as a spy for the Crown, Clarice Altwood, a marquess' daughter who escaped London after she refused to play by society's rules, has been acting in his place. After getting over their initial opinions of each other, they realize that they are actually very attracted to each other. But they still have to work with each other to try and overcome a recurring character from the Bastion Series who is trying to paint Clarice's cousin as a traitor.

One of the better Stephanie Laurens (possibly my favorite in this series) before she really starts getting into character's "true selves."

Four stars

This book came out in 2005

Follows A Lady of His Own

Followed by To Distraction

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

A Lady of His Own by Stephanie Laurens

Probably my favorite in the series (though the next book in the series is up there as well), Charles St. Austell goes home to help find a spy and ends up falling in love. Penelope Selborne was his one-time lover twelve years ago but he has never really gotten over her. Now, she is sneaking around his house in the dead of night and he's wondering why. And why won't she tell him more about what she is doing? Is she protecting herself, or someone else?

Spies, murder, intrigue and romance. Who could ask for more?

Four stars

This book came out January 1, 2004

Follows A Gentleman's Honor

Followed by A Fine Passion

Borrowed as hard copy from the library

Opinions are my own

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

Alice Asher of Andover has been murdered. It seems to be an open-and-shut case of a woman killed by her brute of an ex-husband. So why is Hercule Poirot interested? Well, he received an anonymous letter about the murder. And when Elizabeth "Betty" Bernard is murdered in Bexhill, the stakes are definitely raised.
Poirot gathers some of the people affected by the murders, especially when the victim of 'C' turns out to be a well-known gentleman. It is in talking to these people that Poirot discovers the insidious reason for this series of murders.

Hercule Poirot #13

Four stars

This book came out January 6, 1936

Follows Death in the Clouds 

Followed by Murder in Mesopotamia

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot, famously not good at river travel, takes to the air in this book. And it's a lovely glimpse into history as we see stewards serving full teas with actual tea cups. Unfortunately, not everyone completes the trip alive. An older woman is discovered to be dead, potentially from a wasp sting (one was flying around the cabin) but Poirot thinks it's something different. 

A large part of this book is other characters, Jean Dupont and Norman Gale, trying to solve the murder themselves. The overall solution is similar to other twists in Christie stories but the story (minus the casual racism that occurred in the '30s) is overall a fine read.

Four stars

This book came out March 10, 1935

Follows Three Act Tragedy

Followed by The ABC Murders

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

A Gentleman's Honor by Stephanie Laurens

Alicia and her sister, Adriana, have made a desperate bid to save their family. After their parents died, they were left with their three brothers. So they're using the last of their fortune for Alicia, masquerading as a widow, to bring her sister out into society. Hopefully Adriana's good looks will allow her to marry well (and  hopefully for love) and support the rest of them. 

Too bad Mr. Ruskin has attached himself to Alicia. And especially bad that, after a somewhat public argument, Alicia is found over his dead body.

Luckily, Tony Blake, Viscount Torrington, is the first to find her. He can immediately tell that she is not the killer in this situation. He is also immediately intrigued by Alicia. So now she has to balance the fact that she is falling in love with this man with the fact that she is supposed to be a widow in the know about how live (and physical love) work. Oh, and there's the tiny matter that someone seems to be working behind the scenes to make society believe that Alicia is a murderer.

Not my favorite in this series but not a bad book at all. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out in 2003

Follows The Lady Chosen

Followed by A Lady of His Own

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie

The stage is set in the first chapter. We meet some of the main players: Sir Charles Cartwright who owns the Crow's Nest in Loomouth, Cornwall; Sir Bartholomew Strange, neurological physician; and Mr. Satterthwaite, our stand-in for Hastings but who is so much more perceptive about human nature than Poirot's usual sidekick.
A dinner party is to be held but an unlucky number of people have been invited. And one dies. The Reverend Stephen Babbington who is fairly innocuous. Though Sir Charles loudly proclaims "Murder!", no one else agrees. Even Hercule Poirot who is present at the party.
However, there is later another dinner party, one where many of the same people gather. This time, it is Sir Bartholomew who dies. It is discovered that he died by nicotine poisoning. Suddenly, it seems that Babbington may have been murdered as well. 
THough this is a Poirot book, we don't see much of him until 54% of the way through the story. However, we do get a lot of third person omniscient from Sir Charles Cartwright, Mr. Satterthwaite, and the young Miss Lytton Gore who are investigating the mystery. The ending is masterfully crafted and there are clues planted along the way that make sense once the murderer is revealed.  

Four stars

This book came out June 1, 1934

Follows Murder on the Orient Express

Followed by Death in the Clouds

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Her Favorite Rebound by Jackie Lau

Ufda. I wasn't sure about the premise of this book but a) this series has been really fun and b) Lau is an amazing writer, if anyone could pull off a heroine dating a billionaire at the start of the book but ending up with someone different, it would be Lau. But... well. I finished the book and Lau's writing was still good but we have a good dash of insta-love tossed with a side of the hero being creep (and acknowledging it!) with just a dash of a flat villain caricature and this book fell pretty flat.

Sierra Wu is a divorced woman who doesn't want children and her mother berates her about it every time they meet. But Sierra has a secret in her back pocket, she's dating a billionaire. And at the beginning of the book, she lets this news drop. Sierra's friends have secrets as well (which we know from previous books in the series); they don't like her billionaire. And Jake Tong doesn't like him either.

Jake worked for Colton Sanders and knows just what a bad guy he is. When he sees a woman in a restaurant one night and falls immediately in love with her, he has to let her know that Colton is bad news. And then Jake has to track her down at her workplace. Thankfully, he backs off after that but he still jumps in with both feet and railroads Sierra when she does end up calling him later because... plot reasons. 

Two stars

This book came out March 29, 2022

Follows A Very Beery New Year

Followed by https://themeanderingreader.blogspot.com/2023/02/her-unexpected-roommate-by-jackie-lau.htmlHer Unexpected Roommate

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Murder in the Cards by Sonia Parin

Evie is hosting a gaggle of playwrights in her house. It's too bad they want to use her house as a setting. Well, it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't a murder. With her recent history, it's better to avoid being associated with that particular crime. It becomes especially bad when a local busybody turns up dead. Right after having an argument with Evie's mother-in-law. 

It seems that the late Mrs. Sheffield wasn't particularly mourned but the lengths that someone went to make sure she was no longer on this plane were pretty great. There ended up being several folds in the eventual solution but it was a good ride along the way. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out June 23, 2019

Follows Murder at the Car Rally

Followed by Murder at the Seaside Hotel

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Professor Next Door by Jackie Lau

All she wants is someone with no strings to stay no strings but also just stay. Nicole Louie-Edwards is about to turn thirty-four and she can't seem to find the kind of life she wants. But she's having a lot of fun while she waits. 

David Cho is Nicole's next-door-neighbor. And, as he notes to himself, they share a very thin wall. He is very aware of how she spends her nights and it... affects him. 

The two of them meet when the elevator to their apartment stops while they are both in it. But that is a small part of the book and the two begin a more adult relationship. But, it's very possible that it will turn into something more. 

Four stars

This book came out June 8, 2021

Follows Her Pretend Christmas Date

Followed by A Very Beery New Year

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Foes, Friends, and Lovers by Stephanie Laurens

Gregory Cynster is the last of a certain set of his cousins to remain unmarried. He knows that it's in his future but it's not imperative. Except that he's just inherited an estate. A really good estate. He's not sure exactly how the estate is producing so much money.

Caitlin Fergusson knows exactly how and why the estate is doing so well. In fact, she's running it as the chatelaine. And doing it well. No one really needs to know how or why she ended up there. But Gregory's arrival is putting them all on teneerhooks, not knowing what he will do. 

It actually turns out that both are thoughtful, intelligent people who are attracted to each other though each has some secrets. And there is some external conflict from a neighbor who is overly enthusiastic about trying to buy the property.

Three stars

This book came out March 17, 2022

Follows The Secrets of Lord Grayson Child 

Followed by The Time for Love

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau

Younger sister Julie Tam has always felt inferior to her sister Charlotte. No fault of Charlotte's but she is an engineer with a job that their parents understand. Now, Charlotte's dating a perfect guy and Julie is... well... she's making jewelry and waiting tables. She's not ashamed of either but neither does she enjoy getting into fights with her parents over what she's doing with her life. She needs something and the perfect fix might be the right man. Too bad the blind date she's been set up with, Tom Yeung, isn't going to be that man. But she decides to tell her parents he is anyway. And when her mom asks if Tom wants to come for Christmas, Julie throws caution to the wind and asks the man who's unknowingly been her fake boyfriend for months if he'd like to go with her. When he says yes, she's absolutely floored. But grateful.

Through tribulations (sleeping on the floor) and trials (couples gingerbread house bakeoff), the two start to get to know and appreciate each other.

Four stars

This book came out December 8, 2020

Follows His Grumpy Childhood Friend

Followed by The Professor Next Door

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

His Grumpy Childhood Friend by Jackie Lau

The book opens in the middle of Charlotte Tam's worst nightmare, her boyfriend proposing to her at a Toronto Blue Jays game on the big screen. She loves the Jays, hates the public. So why didn't her boyfriend get that? 

Years later and Charlotte is generally happy in her job that lets her work from home without having to put on real pants (we hear about that a lot; since I agree with her sentiment, it didn't bother me) and generally not going out except to occasionally meet her friends at a cider bar. One night, she recognizes the boy who used to live next door, Mike Guo. He left suddenly one night and she never heard from her best friend again. But now he's all kinds of grown up and hot. Surely he must have women crawling all over him. He'd be the perfect person to get her back into the dating game!

Mike isn't exactly the stud that Charlotte thinks he is but he has missed his old friend and is delighted  to spend more time with her. The fact that he now has grown up feelings for her is just icing on top of the cake. 

I loved that the fake relationship didn't last too long. I loved that most of the conflict from these two was external to their relationship because they talked to each other. The timeline was maybe a little fast but I really enjoyed this book.

Four stars

This book came out October 27, 2020

Follows Her Big City Neighbor

Followed by Her Pretend Christmas Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

Ruth Kettering is unhappy. She didn't marry her first love, her millionaire father ran him off. But her current husband seems to be no better, flaunting his affairs, running through her money. Even the fabulous, though possibly cursed, necklace that her father gifts her doesn't make her happy. She boards a train to the Riviera anyway but doesn't survive the trip. Her father hires Hercule Poirot to figure out what, exactly, happened.
A lot of the story is told from the third person limited narration focusing on Katherine Grey. Miss Grey has long been a companion and has inherited a tidy sum from her last employer. She is on the same train and actually interacts with Ruth.
An interesting story but not as fairly clued as many in the Christie ouvre. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out March 29, 1928

Follows The Big Four

Followed by The Underdog and Other Stories

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Pushing Up Daisies by Katherine Hayton

This was a very short story about Willow Foxglove and her "gentleman caller." So far, they had just met and sipped tea but Willow did enjoy his company. "Did" because the man has just been found dead in her garden. 

Willow is not considered a suspect though the police do look at her for a little while. It was only a short while but she is also concerned that the man's secretary is a suspect as well. The town gossip has it that the secretary and the man were involved but Willow bonds with her over their shared love of a TV show.

Three stars

This book came out May 25, 2018

Followed by Berry Murderous

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Southern Magic by Amy Boyles

Pepper Dunn's mother died when she was very young and her father more recently. That means she has no family when she gets fired from her day job as a waitress and then her roommate kicks her out. Peppers new-ish boyfriend didn't deposit the cash she paid him for her rent, the check bounced, and he's too busy watching football to help her mourn the way her life is going. 

To add icing to the suck-cake, there is a goth-looking guy hanging out around her car who seems to want to kidnap her. But the talking cat whose come to tell her about her inheritance helps her get away. And yes, that last bit is completely weird. But the cat does get her to town. And it does seem that Pepper finally has some family. Ones that believe that they are witches - in a witch town. 

That, along with learning that the highly-allergic to animals Pepper has inherited a pet shop. The man down the street offers to buy it off her but he is murdered before she can take him up on the offer. 

There was a LOT of world building and not much mystery. A little on the sweet side for me but an okay book.

Three stars

This book came out April 15, 2018

Followed by Southern Spells

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Meaning of Love by Stephanie Laurens

We saw when Melissa and Julian met, she was fifteen and he was twenty-two. They recognized that they were meant for each other but they were both so young and the age gap was... ew. Now Melissa is twenty-three, about to be on the shelf, and Julian is thirty and has succeeded his father as earl. Neither believes the other to be unmarried. But they are. And they meet again at a ball. Well, Melissa is trying to avoid Julian by going out into the garden with a man she doesn't realize is his cousin, Gordon. Gordon, who needs money, decides that will be the time to try and take advantage of her but she saves herself and then Julian intervenes. When he intervenes, a torrid embrace occurs and the two are discovered. Well, an engagement is announced. But the two do something startling in a romance book and talk about it and decide to take the time of their engagement to decide whether they should actually suit. And that would be fine except someone just keeps trying to kill Julian. And trying to kill Julian. Then a little trying to kill Melissa. And then trying to kill Julian. There is Just So Much Attempted Killing. it was overly wrought. Otherwise, a normal story in the Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Chronicles series, fast, fun, and fluffy.

Three stars

This book came out October 14, 2022

Follows Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Intrigue

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu

I had read about this book on a blog site but I forgot to pin which one it was. I do remember the article

was about ways for women to succeed. I don't know if the author described exactly how much this book skews toward assuming that the reader is in a hetero-normative relationship. There is good advice but it won't work if you are single or same sex because so much of it skews on assuming that the partners align along stereotypes. 

I also wasn't expecting dropping the ball to be so much work. Work that still needs to be initiated by the woman.

One thing I did like was the idea of thinking about, "Is what I am working on the highest and best use of my time?"

Three stars

This book came out February 5, 2017

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own