The Last Chance Christmas Ball - Anthology

The Dowager Countess of Holbourne, Lady Holly, is throwing her 50th Christmas Ball (also known as The Last Chance Ball, and is determined that this year's crop of new love will be no different.

A nice Christmas anthology (three stars total), that, at almost 400 pages, will definitely be worth the price of the book.

True Love Hath My Heart by Joanna Bourne
A jewelry designer who doesn't think that she deserves to marry her nobleman lover finds out differently when he helps her carry out revenge against a customer who stiffed her.
Three and a half stars

A Scottish Carol by Susan King
A story of love-lost/love-reunited makes up the second tale. Clary and Henry were once in love when he was the student of her doctor father. But something tore them apart and he left abruptly one day and she ended up marrying her cousin. Now they're back together and exploring what exactly went wrong in their past and if there's some way to correct their future.
A quiet story but mostly enjoyable.
Three stars.

Christmas Larks Patricia Rice
Sarah Jane Langsdale is surprised to discover that Ivo, Lord Harris, has returned to the house his family used to own. At least until his father left it to the local church. But Ivo has sustained a head injury and has no idea that the hose is about to be turned into an orphanage. Luckily, as Sarah Jane nurses him back to health, the two fall in love.
A little too twee for me.
Two and a half stars

In the Bleak Midwinter by Mary Jo Putney
Captain the Honorable Kimball "Kim" Stretton was just a child when he met Roxanne "Roxie" Hayward. Kim has been horribly injured in the war against Napoleon and has been hiding in his room ever since. Roxie is ready for one last ditch effort before she gets engaged to another man.
Three stars

Old Flames Dance by Cara Elliot
Lily Tremaine has lived in India for a long time. But she's returned to England to attend her godmother's Christmas Ball. And to learn if she and her childhood love, Edward, Lord Holborne (Kim's brother and the man  (possibly) about to be betrothed to Roxie) is as handsome as she remembers.
The two have some obstacles to overcome but in the end, love conquers all.
Three and a half stars.

A Season for Marriage by Nicola Cornick
Caroline (sister to Edward and Kim) had always loved her husband Piers. But she felt so guilty about accidentally compromising him into marriage. PIers had never wanted the kind of marriage that his parents had -- where they were so wrapped up in each other that they had no time for their children. Caroline's feelings have scared him into retreating from her. So how can they work their way back to each other?
Three and a half stars

Miss Finch and the Angel by Jo Beverly
As a companion to Lady Holly, Miss Clio Finch has been a complete flop. She knows she'll have to leave soon but she does feel like she's gotten very good at fading into the background. But Gabriel, second son to a duke, notices her. And wonders what he can do to break her out of her shell.
Three stars

Mistletoe Kisses Anne Gracie
Allie is about to leave her family home. Oh, she'd be welcome to stay but she'd be the unpaid help that supervised her cousin's five children. So she's going to have one last Christmas at home, attend Lady Holly'd fiftieth Christmas Ball, and then find work as a teacher. So when an unexpected carriage ride dumps John, Lord Kelsey, and his sister at her door, she's grateful for the Christmas company. And for the chance at something more.
Could have one without the last Big Misunderstanding. Three stars.

The Name of the Game by Jennifer Dawson

I was attracted to this book because of its description on NetGalley. Uptight professor and flighty, sexpot baker are attracted to each other but can't tell because it comes out as fierce arguments. And this book delivered that. Along with a few tropes that will be very familiar to romance readers (neither is what they appear, family and friends know what's going on before the couple do and are smug about it, etc.) but with a lot more sex. A little more explicit than Shannon Stacey but I think there would be an overlap with fans. Something Jennifer Probst fans would enjoy as well. I'm going to head back to the beginning on this series and am also intrigued to see what will happen between Penelope and Evan.
Three and a half stars.

Marry Me at Christmas by Susan Mallery

Jonny Blaze, mega-super-action star, needs help arranging a wedding for his one and only sister. So who does Mayor Marsha pick? Could it possibly be the woman who proclaimed her ever-lasting love for Jonny Blaze in the last couple of books? Madeline Krug? Would it be a romance if she weren't the one? Maybe. But probably not.

Madeline seems like a decent person and so does Jonny. They are friends first which was really nice in a romance. In fact, we really see more of their friendship than of the romance. It's a quiet story (surprising since Jonny's a star. Didn't know that? Oh, well it's mentioned. A lot. So is how surprised he is not to be treated like a star. We're almost bludgeoned over the head with it.)
I may have liked this book a little more if "Thrill Me" hadn't hit such a sweet spot for me but I'm not sure. And, as always, shoehorning in past characters was just painful.

A Wedding in Truhart by Cynthia Tennent

This was an okay book. The romance was somewhat underdeveloped as were the characters. There was nothing horrifically wrong with the book, just tiny things like the plot being a little thin. And I quite frankly never warmed to the heroine. She was just... whiny. I get that she was having problems and that she loved her family but good god, it was all so unending. 

Annie is that heroine. She's back in Truhart, MI to help her mom and brother run the family inn. They're just a down-home family, pragmatic while still eccentric. But she, her mother, and her aunt are all currently in Atlanta to celebrate her sister's engagement. Annie is delighted to learn that her high school crush is going to be the best man. And, even though she keeps saying that she's going to "divorce" him from her thoughts, she keeps jumping his bones.

Nick Conrad is happy to see Annie, even if she brings up bad memories of his hometown. And the fact that his problems with the town seem to crop up so fast and get solved the same way. 

I'm guessing this is a first book for Cynthia Tennent (which Goodreads seems to uphold) and, while this book may not have tripped my trigger, I think she's just going to get better.

The Little Men by Megan Abbott

At 36 pages (according to my ereader; according to Goodreads, it's 71), this is a short, short story. But, oof, is it effective.
As part of the Bibliomysteries: Short tales about deadly books, this story has a short connection to mysteries, especially "Gaudy Night," one of my favorite Dorothy Sayers mysteries.
Penny is an ex-actress who has decided that makeup artistry will be more lucrative. But she is no innocent ingenue, our Penny. She has a past. And in 1953, this is not a good thing. But things are looking up. She's found a good apartment and she has a job. Too bad the apartment has a history. One that Peggy seems doomed to repeat...
Four stars for readability. Four Mwa-ha-has for creepiness factor
Comes out on Sept. 15

Donald Duck: Shellfish Motives by Romano Scarpa, Dick Kinney, Jonathan Gray

I honestly couldn't tell if this was a vintage story at first (the thugs, the kidnapping, the eyes on the ducks) but the copyright date says 2015 so I'm going with it. A great piece of nostalgia with the main story being about a scientist from Gourmaind coming over to the States and being kidnapped. But reporter Donald Duck is on the case. Thank goodness he's getting some help from his nephews.

Will come out on September 29, 2015.

The Scam by Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg

Evanovich and Goldberg are really hitting their stride in this book. I tore through every chapter enjoying almost every moment. The absolute craziness of the series all comes together in this story. I liked this one even better than The Chase. Would this be a good stand-alone? I don't know. I feel like the build up of the first three books is nice to have so that you can understand exactly how the utter zaniness of this book (using modified land mines to deter coyotes, Kate's dad taking on a member of the Yakuza, bringing in a driver whose last misdeed was to steal a tour bus... with the tourists on it) is central to the series.
I am also really enjoying the interplay between Kate and Nick. With some series, it's just like "Get ON with it already already!" but I tend to feel that more keenly with love triangles (I'm looking at you, Joanne Fluke). Evanovich and Goldberg have created (probably more the former, based on her other books) a great repartee between the two where the sexual tension is at a nice simmer.
This time, Kate (FBI agent) and Nick (sorta-not-really-reformed criminal) are after a casino magnate who is laundering dirty money for some really bad dudes. It's up to them to infiltrate the casino and bring the bad dudes to justice. AND doing it while meting out justice for a friend of Kate's dad and even managing to have some fun.

Four and a half stars

This book comes out September 15, 2015

Follows The Job

Followed by The Pursuit

Ebook from Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Reread as audiobook from Libby August 2023