Big Nate: Say Good-bye to Dork City by Lincoln Peirce

The cover of this book refers to the storyline where Nate joins the cool kid clique but then discovers that maybe he was better off where he was before. We also get to see favorite running themes and characters like Nate's crush on Jenny, his antipathy toward her boyfriend Artur, a (brief) return of Revenge of the Mollusk, a glimpse of school photography guy, and Nate playing sports.

A great addition to the series and one that shouldn't be missed.

Four stars

This book came out March 17th, 2015

Follows The Crowd Goes Wild

Followed by Welcome to My World

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation by Momochi, Misaki, Sando

The book opens with Lizel in an alternate world. He recognizes it very quickly and assumes that his king has sent him there for a reason. He is not naive but appears so to the people around him. So he hires a B-level adventurer, Gil. Hanging out with Gill will help Lizel figure out the world more quickly as well as keeping him safe.
The story was absolutely adorable and I loved the idea of it. Lizel is so unfailingly optimistic and blithe but, when we see his skills, we realize that he has reason to be. Loved the references to MMORPGs. Not a ton of action but made me happy to read.

Four and a half stars
This book comes out August 11th
ARC kindly provided by Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher

The Classic Mystery podcast again describes this better than I ever could. The biggest drawback was the fact that this book was written in a time where political correctness didn't exist so there are some discordant notes and the mystery is a little out there.
Sister Ursula's first mystery doesn't have her in it very much. Instead, a lot of the story is focused on Matt Duncan. Through a series of odd events, he ends up the protege of Wolfe Harrigan, a journalist who thrives on exposing cults. When the latest cult he's researching heaps the curse of nine times nine on his head, Wolfe is not worried. But then he is killed behind locked doors with Matt as one of the witnesses. The leader of the cult was distinctive in his yellow robes but was also on stage at the same time.

Three stars
This book came out 1940

Followed by Rocket to the Morgue

Borrowed as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

Sloan Monroe was introduced in "The Friend Zone." She was the best friend of the heroine and was engaged to be married. But at the end of the last book, her fiance was killed. Now, it is two years later and Sloan is still grieving the life, and the promise of a new life, that has been lost to her. She's on her way to the cemetery one day when a dog runs in front of her and then leaps into her car. The dog has a tag with a name and number. For two weeks, Sloan tries to get a hold of Tucker's owner but then decides to keep him.
Jason thought that the woman he was sort of seeing would take care of his dog. Mostly because she said she would. Instead, she took off for New York. Now Sloan has his dog. She isn't swayed that he is out of the country and won't tell him her address but she does reply back to his flirty texts.  And their conversations go back and forth with their alternating viewpoints on how the relationship is going.
Like The Friend Zone, this book starts off incredibly strong. Good relationship development is one of my catnips. Unfortunately, the slow build at the beginning of the book starts speeding up as we get to the back half. It's like going down a hill as they start moving faster and faster so, while we get to see some of the bumps in the relationship road, we miss more of the reasons that these two might make it to an HEA.

Three stars
Follows The Friend Zone
This book came out April 14th, 2020
Borrowed this as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

Kristin Petersen has just gotten some devastating news. But she's trying to keep it quiet so that she can continue to plan her best friend's wedding. Of course, driving her friend's fiance's brand new truck and then spilling coffee during a minor fender bender (maybe slightly before...) doesn't help the day. And the guy who bumps her ending up being the best man? That's just crap icing on the crap cake.
But as she gets to know Josh Copeland, she starts to fall a little bit more and more in love. Too bad she isn't really the perfect woman for her perfect man. And then a major emergency puts all wedding plans on hold.
The characters were well drawn and I generally liked the story except that it's one of those stories that could be easily solved by one conversation. And the ending just felt... wrong. Things like that can happen in real life but it didn't feel organic to the way the rest of this story was written.

Three stars
Followed by The Happy Ever After Playlist
This book came out June 11th, 2019
Borrowed this as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

A Death in Chelsea by Lynn Brittney

It's the first World War and most of the young men are off to war. That means that women are stepping into the roles traditionally held by men, even police work. There is a small group that has been authorized to work for the police. Their cases are assigned to them but so far, there's only been one and at least one person in the group is getting restless. Then, the daughter of a duchess is found dead, apparently suicide by hanging but her mother is convinced that that can't be the case. Indeed, though the woman was hated by many (she was a gossip columnist who reported on the upper classes and also stooped to blackmail), she was too self-involved to want to die.
As the group digs into the mystery, there are a lot of moving parts and they will need to pull in some outside help in order to figure out why this young woman died.
I would definitely begin this series with the first book. There is a large cast of characters in this book -- both the investigating group and the people who could have been the killers. The mystery was really involved with a lot of layers. If you are a person who likes guess the murderer, this book is not going to be the read for you; some of the clues are there but, in addition to the red herrings, some information is withheld until the end of the story.  Despite the confusing number of people and the occasional clunky sentence, this was a really fun read and I look forward to the next book in the series.

Three stars
Follows Murder in Belgravia (which I haven't read)
Followed by ????
This book came out March 14th, 2019
Borrowed as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

The Mésalliance by Stella Riley

At the beginning of the book, a young man meets an even younger woman and notes that she seems to be running wild. Eight years later, the man is the Duke of Rockcliffe and that young woman is the "spinster aunt" at her mother's sister. She isn't really any more beautiful but her acerbic wit catches his attention. So does the fact that her cousin is avidly chasing the duke. But when her cousin's schemes go horribly wrong, Adeline is the one who ends up being married to the duke.
I read a review of this book on Dear Author and thought it sounded good. And the first half was wonderful. But the second half suffered from So Much "if they had but talked to each other."

Three Stars
This book came out in 1990
Borrowed this book from Audible Escape
Opinions are my own