The Debutante Is Mine by Vivienne Lorret

It's been awhile since I read a story with a dastardly cousin. And while Lilah's cousin mainly wanders into the periphery of this story, he's still there, all greasy and evil.

Yeah, so Ms. Lorret does a good job of explaining why Lilah has to be dictated by her father's will. Even though this is a trope we've seen often, there's at least some better explanation in this book other than just "Yep. This is the way it is." In order to fulfill her father's wishes, she has to marry a nobleman within three years or be forced to marry her cousin. The issue? This is her third season and  as a certified wallflower who most men don't remember, it's looking like marrying her cousin is a foregone conclusion. Then her eyes meet those of a dashing man on a large horse.
Jack Marlowe is the bastard (but acknowledged!) son of an earl who has had to fight for his opportunities in life, up to and including building his own massive personal fortune. At the end of the last book, his friend asked him to send flowers to Lilah in the hopes that it will help make her more popular and thus help her find a husband. Once Jack meets her though, he suspects that the duke, especially with his last warning away from Lilah, was really pushing them together. Especially since the duke is said to have developed a theorem to help people find their one true love.
There were some themes that I thought were underdeveloped in this book, like why Lilah felt so attached to the tenants on her family's land and what even happened to them. Also, what might keep Lilah and Jack together in the end. And the last Jack "twist" felt a little unnecessary. However, overall, the book built nicely on the first in the series and I'm looking forward to seeing what the backstory is for their friends' feud and how it's going to be resolved.

Sex in the Museum by Sarah Forbes

With a nice mix of autobiography and museum history, this book lays out how Sarah Forbes went from anthropology grad student to a museum curator. I like sex, learning about the history of sex, and work fairly closely with our curator so this book was pretty much catnip for me. This book had lovely drops of the history of sex interspersed nicely with the story of both Ms. Forbes and the Museum of Sex (MoSex) in NYC. A nice, interesting book and an easy read.
Four stars.
Comes out April 5

Good Dukes Wear Black by Manda Collins

Piers Hamilton, the Duke of Trent, inherited a mess when he became the new leader of the Lords of Anarchy. He's working hard to bring in new members to help supplant the ones who were somewhat less than... salubrious. But his club still has a fairly bad name among the gossips. And that is driven home to him once again when Ophelia Dauntry comes to him for help, accusing his club of assigning her friend to an asylum.
Ophelia is terrified. She's a writer for the Ladies Gazette (she writes about needlework but would like to concentrate on more meaningful stories) as is her friend Maggie. Ophelia knows that Maggie's husband isn't thrilled with their work but she didn't think that the man would consign Maggie to a place as horrible as Dr. Hayes' Clinic.
I didn't love the subplot of Ophelia's mother and didn't quite feel like I got to know Ophelia or Piers but I did like the book overall.

This book comes out April 5
Follows Good Earl Gone Bad

A Scandalous Proposal by Kasey Michaels

In the first book, An Improper Arrangement, we met Cooper Townsend who was recently given the title of Baron for work he did at a battle outside Quatre Bras. According to the pamphlets currently flooding London, Cooper is a hero who saved a pack of children who had wandered onto the field of battle. A blonde-headed, green-eyed hero. Too bad that's not quite the truth. And too bad he's being blackmailed.
Three Stars

Also being blackmailed? Miss Daniella "Dany" (what's with that spelling? SO distracting) Foster's sister, a countess. Who's going to help them? Well, a bona fide hero of course.
I did NOT like the initial description of Dany. It made her sound like she was twelve years old. She's twenty-one but good God, she sound like a child. Which makes the romance in this just super ooky.

Three stars
This book came out today
Followed by A Reckless Promise

Love Walks In by Samantha Chase

For me, Samantha Chase can be uneven. Some of her stories I really enjoy, others I can barely finish. The book before this one, Made for You, I didn't enjoy so much. This one, I liked.
When we meet Hugh Shaughnessy, he's a rebellious teenager whose biggest act coincides with the night his mother dies. That completely changes him and he swings to the other extreme, becoming very rigid.
When we meet him again as an adult, he's the owner of twelve resorts and in a panic because his events planner (the same person for all twelve) has just left. No two weeks notice. Just gone. And Hugh does NOT deal well with change. He is definitely not amused to find pink luggage not attached to a person on the resort's immaculate lawn. Nor is he later amused to see a woman with a proclivity for tiny underwear.
Aubrey is a Runaway Bride who has just had the luck to meet the man who is about to make Hugh a LOT of money. The man, an eccentric, immediately decides he loves Aubrey and he demands that she be the new point person for the events he is having at Hugh's resorts. An immediate reason for Aubrey and Hugh to spend more time together without being gross because he's not really her boss.
I wish we had seen Hugh open up to Aubrey about his OCD (though we didn't really see any evidence of actual OCD except with the dinners, mostly he just talks about having it). It was almost like love magically cured him of all his issues with the past. So, either his issues were overstated or we have a magic hoo-ha situation here.
There were issues, as I've noted, but the pacing was nice, I liked both Aubrey and Hugh and this was a sold "OK" book for me.

This book comes out April 5, 2016
Three stars

Followed by Always My Girl

The Semester of our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn

Lila Maclean is a new professor at Stonedale University. Specializing in American Literature, she is one of two first-year teachers, the other one being Simone who doesn't seem to like Lila very much. Another person who doesn't like Lila? Roland Higgins, the chair of the department. He's a martinet, very much against any author who isn't white, male, and long-dead. Unfortunately for Lila, who is studying a female mystery novelist from the 1970s, this puts her firmly in his "does not like it" category which she finds out to her dismay on her first day of work. It's too bad that that day coincides with his murder. And Lila (along with her advisor Judith) is first on the scene. And then another body turns up. Then her cousin is arrested for murder. And it's up to Lila to get her out.
A nice first book in a series. There were some issues but overall a very good book and one for which I can't wait to read the next in the series.

Followed by The Art of Vanishing

The Bitchy Waiter: Life on the Other Side of the Menu by Darron Cardosa

I had not read this blog before but I was a server so I thought I'd give this book a chance. Having been a blog, it took some getting used to reading. Almost 30 pages in, I was seriously considering DNF'ing this book. It was just too choppy. But I'm glad that I stuck it out. It was a good book. I could have done without the fiction section but I have definitely had those afternoons where no one comes in and your mind wanders.
If you've been a server, you'll enjoy this book. If you've never been a server, welcome to the world of food service.



This book will be published on April 5th