Then Came You by Jill Shalvis

Image linked from Goodreads

This book had so many tropes that I hate in books. The heroine is all, "I can't do this - but I want to - but you're my boss - but you're so hot." So annoying. And the hero was all, "I am amused man who wants you and will have you." And, yet... I really liked this story. Really, really. I tore through it in a couple of hours, even laughing out loud a couple of times.
p. 38 "Calories." Emily said on a sigh. "The evil tiny creatures that live in my closet and sew my clothes a little tighter every night."
Emily Stevens has her life figured out. She's going to finish vet school and then continue taking care of her father and her sister while simultaneously getting her college study partner to fall in love with her. She just has to get through this internship, which is not in L.A. like she had planned. Nope, it's in Sunshine, Idaho. Well, at least it looks like it's going to be interesting, since she just walked in to the waiting room and saw "a golden retriever, a collie mix, two pissed off cats in carriers, and... a Shetland pony." (p. 9)
Too bad the guy she's going to be reporting to is her hot one-night stand from the veterinarian's conference in Reno, Dr. Wyatt Stone. He of the glasses and T-shirts with funny sayings.
Wyatt has his own issues. He lives with both his sisters and they're trying to drive him insane. Well, they're trying to help him fix up their grandparents house but it seems like they want to drop him off at Insanity along the way. It doesn't help that his hot new intern is helping him as well.
Jill Shalvis fans, rejoice. This is an excellent addition to her canon and a book not to be missed.This book had so many tropes that I hate in books. The heroine is all, "I can't do this - but I want to - but you're my boss - but you're so hot." So annoying. And the hero was all, "I am amused man who wants you and will have you." And, yet... I really liked this story. Really, really. I tore through it in a couple of hours, even laughing out loud a couple of times.
p. 38 "Calories." Emily said on a sigh. "The evil tiny creatures that live in my closet and sew my clothes a little tighter every night."
Emily Stevens has her life figured out. She's going to finish vet school and then continue taking care of her father and her sister while simultaneously getting her college study partner to fall in love with her. She just has to get through this internship, which is not in L.A. like she had planned. Nope, it's in Sunshine, Idaho. Well, at least it looks like it's going to be interesting, since she just walked in to the waiting room and saw "a golden retriever, a collie mix, two pissed off cats in carriers, and... a Shetland pony." (p. 9)
Too bad the guy she's going to be reporting to is her hot one-night stand from the veterinarian's conference in Reno, Dr. Wyatt Stone. He of the glasses and T-shirts with funny sayings.
Wyatt has his own issues. He lives with both his sisters and they're trying to drive him insane. Well, they're trying to help him fix up their grandparents house but it seems like they want to drop him off at Insanity along the way. It doesn't help that his hot new intern is helping him as well.
Jill Shalvis fans, rejoice. This is an excellent addition to her canon and a book not to be missed.

The Trouble with Harry by Katie MacAlister

Image linked from Goodreads

Harry, Marquise Rosse, is in a bit of a pickle. He has five children (including a daughter on the brink of womanhood.) So, he decides to advertise for a wife. And, ooo, does he get a woman.
Plum, Fredericka Pelham, has a rather scandalous past. Now forty, she is anxious to create a family of her own. She seizes the chance not realizing exactly what she's getting herself into.
Are the children plot moppets? Yes. Yes they are. Sometimes annoying and occasionally adorable but plot moppets.
While I liked Plum, I hated that she and Harry never talked (common Romance trope, right?). More than one of their conflicts wouldn't have been conflicting

if she had just asked Harry how he thought she was doing

. I did like that Harry was so accepting of Plum's "secrets."
Not as good as the first book in the series but worth a read for the unconventional heroine.

Until we Touch by Susan Mallery

Image linked from Goodreads

I have been waiting to read this story. Larissa Owens and Jack McGarry have been features in the Fool's Gold series for so long with their relationship that is obviously more than just friends, that I couldn't wait to see how it resolved.
Well, it starts out with Larissa's mother telling both that Larissa is in love with Jack. Something neither of them had acknowledged. Mostly because neither Larissa nor Jack believe it to be true. 
Larissa is a bleeding heart. In earlier books she's rescued snakes (poisonous, buy hero of that book), puppies, and any number of other animals. In this book, she's adopted a cat. A very fancy cat that probably would have been her last choice for when she adopted an animal of her own. 
Working for the guys and Taryn at PR firm Score as their private masseuse/Jack's personal assistant has been the perfect job. She was nervous about their move from LA but it's turned out to be a good thing. She's got her friends on the job and is making friends in town as well. Friends that are quick to back up her mother's assertion. 
Again, I have to wonder how small this town is supposed to be. Small enough that everyone knows everyone but large enough to have a university? Not just a college. And one that's big enough to have football team at that. I know I should suspend my disbelief, but living in a small mountain town makes it really hard to read about "small mountain towns" that seem to grow exponentially for plot points. Granted, the characters do talk about the town expanding but this seems awfully fast. 
But, if you like Susan Mallery's books, especially the ones in this series, I think that you will enjoy this one as well.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Image linked from Goodreads

This book scared me. There is just so much love for it out there and I often don't like books with just so much love. And then I get scared of people coming after me with pitchforks. I know it's never happened but even metaphorical pitchforks can hurt, people.
But, no, this is a lovely, lovely book about two teens who have faced, and still have to face, their own mortality at a time of life where most people feel immortal.
Oh, the feels that this book pulled out of me. I'm a little scared to see the movie (see how the pattern perpetuates?) but I'll probably wait for some night when I need to cry and pull it up for a weep-fest.

Why not five stars? Because, while the book was very, very good, I kept getting pulled out of the narration. Some of it was maybe the editor's fault more than the author's but that doesn't change my review. A few times it was because of word choice.
Reclusive - is an adjective. The noun is recluse. Or reclusiveness depending on what you're going for.
p. 51 Isaac was still throttling the wall with the pillow. -- Um, how would that work?
Other points it was the narrative arc that seemed a bit far-fetched, even for a reader who is soooo ready to suspend her disbelief.

One last note, it's funny to me that An Imperial Affliction ends in the middle of a sentence from the female narrator because, before Hazel even read the book, that's how I assumed that this book would end.

The Scandalous Adventures of the Sister of the Bride by Victoria Alexander

Image linked from Goodreads

When I clicked on this book and realized I was auto-approved through NetGalley, I squeed so long and high that my dog started barking.
Long story short, this book was not as good as the first two in the series but still quite enjoyable.
Delilah, Lady Hargate, is enjoying getting to know her sisters. When they were younger, her twin sisters tended to leave her out of things but they're trying to rectify that now. In defense, Delilah became the "good sister," able to look down her nose at her sisters. But, recently, she's slipped. Just a little. While in New York, Delilah pretended to be someone she wasn't and spent the night with a handsome stranger. A handsome stranger who has just shown up for her sister's wedding. It turns out the man, the American, Samuel Russel, is the groom's best friend.
While Delilah tries to hide a number of secrets (she's not as perfect as everyone thinks, she's not as rich as everyone thinks) she also tries not fall in love with a man who is so completely wrong for her. So what if she wants to jump right back into bed with him? So what if she's feeling something a lot like love?

The Unexpected Duchess by Valerie Bowman

Lucy and her friend Cass are on the verge of being labeled old maids. They are dangerously too close to being put on the shelf. But Cass has a suitor. A very... determined... suitor. A newly minted Duke, a war hero, has set his eyes on her. Derek Hunt, the Duke of Claringdon, has promised his (dying) best friend that he will come back and marry Cass. Ever since he was young, Derek has been taught that the only way to live life is to make a decision and then follow through. So he's going to marry Cass. And, hello, he's a duke so her parents aren't letting him get away.

However, Cass and her friend Jane both think that Derek would be much happier with Lucy and they're going to be working to see if they can't help the two warriors find their HEA.
Okay, issues. Lucy is supposed to have this sharp tongue. We're told that over and over. But it's not really demonstrated in her conversation. And the ploys, would a twenty-three-year-old former deb really stand behind her friend and try to imitate her voice. And I think the author was trying to draw a parallel between Lucy and Derek and Beatrice and Benedick. But the slap-slap-kiss relationship would better describe Lucy's brother and her friend, Jane (can't wait for that story). Great use of Shakespearean themes (butler named Shakespierre?) though; I do see Lucy and Derek as Kate and Petruchio. But in an ending where Petruchio realizes that he doesn't especially want to change the woman with whom he first fell in love.

Followed by Playful Brides #3 (I DNF'd the second book) The Unlikely Lady

Suddenly last Summer by Sarah Morgan

Image linked from Goodreads

I'm quite enjoying Sarah Morgan's (SM) books. It's always lovely to find a new contemporary author that you can enjoy. Especially one who hasn't jumped on the BDSM bandwagon. The sex in this one is hot, but not super-explicit.
We are re-introduced to two characters from the first book, Elise and Sean. Elise is a French chef, both by nationality and cuisine She's had a hard life, including losing the only person who was her real family, her mother while they were in the midst of an argument. But she was rescued from a bad situation by Sean's twin, Jackson, and has created a new family for herself at Snow Crystal Resort.
When Walter, the family patriarch (Sean's grandfather), collapses from a heart attack, Sean is called home, to the place he hates most to go. Even with the promise of returning to Elise with whim he had a torrid one night stand last summer, Sean does not want to go back. The place his grandfather loves was a burden to Sean's father and the place Sean only wanted to escape from. Even becoming a well-known surgeon hasn't lessened the disappointment Sean sees in his grandfather ever time he returns to Snow Crystal.
This is a great story where Sean and Elise are going to have to meet halfway in order to find their HEA. And I liked that SM was really able to get them to that point in a believable and fun manner.

Previous Books in the Series: Sleigh Bells in the Snow
Next Book in the Series: Maybe this Christmas