Discovering You by Brenda Novak

Regular Novak readers are going to love this book. LOVE it. It's got the drama and the feels and just that... Novak-ness that regular readers have come to expect. Will new readers to the Whiskey Creek series enjoy this book as much? I think so. While we do get some characters from previous books, it makes sense when they come in (no shoehorning here.)
India Sommers has lost her husband in a horrifying manner. And she blames herself for what happened. It all stems from her love of bad boys. So when she comes up on Rod Amos soon after he beats a guy (the guy really had it coming), she feels the attraction, but doesn't want to act on it. Although, to be honest, she doesn't really hold out all that long. She feels like she can probably be in and out of a very physical relationship before her daughter comes back from visiting her grandparents.
Rod is a complicated guy who is a couple of sort-of-in-but-not-really-and-I'm-sure-the-girl-understands-that relationships when he meets India. He knows that he's attracted to her and he knows that she's attracted to him. So why won't she just get together with him already?
Well, when her past comes a'calling, it's Rod that India turns to for help.
I didn't love the last quarter of this book so it took it down a little but it's still three and a half stars for me.

This book comes out May 24
Follows A Winter Wedding

The Duke of Olympia Meets His Match by Juliana Gray

I somehow picked up a bunch of children's books and novellas that were all being published around the same time. This, I thought was a longer book and also somehow believed this to be a mystery. And it is, but more, it's a romance with mystery undertones.
It was an interesting story with the hero, the Duke of Olympia (first name never known) is seventy-four, and the heroine, widowed companion Mrs. Penelope Schuyler, is fifty. There was some character building but I wish there had been a bit more. I'm guessing this is the prequel to a new series and as such, it was okay but could it could definitely have been better if it had been built out to a full-length story.

Three stars
This story comes out May 17

King Garnet Stories by Marianne Parry

Based on the cover and length, I thought this was a picture book. And I probably would have given this book another star if the cover's illustrator had been invited to make such a book out of the first story only. Otherwise, the adventures of King Garnet are just fine. and will probably be amusing to young readers with his strangely growing legs, Queen Amanda's bossiness (which seems a little sexist), and the misunderstanding between he and King Grundle though the latter two are nowhere near as good as the first.
There are some relatively harder vocabulary words like "mused" that seem somewhat out of place. And there's a lot of editing that needs to be done. 

Three stars
This book came out May 9

A Pressing Engagement by Anna Lee Huber

Kiera is in love with her fiance, Sebastian Gage, but that doesn't mean that she's free of bridal jitters. Luckily, she is distracted by the arrival of her cousin Jock who comes bearing a wedding gift. Surprisingly, it is not some dead animal, but a Scottish torc. In fact, a Scottish torc that looks very much like one that Kiera and Gage have been looking for. The fact that Jock found it in a pawn shop gives Kiera the very excuse to leave the house that she's been looking for. The search brings them back into the path of Bonnie Brock Kincaid, "the head of Edinburgh's largest and most notorious gang of criminals." And it seems that Bonnie Brock is after the favor that Kiera owes him.
A lovely little novella and just a perfect bite for in between books.

Four and a half stars
This novella comes out May 17

The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book by Frank Caiafa

Okay. I have to admit that I skimmed a large part of the recipes. But the beginning of the book with the author's history and the setup of the book was interesting and well-written. The tidbits after every cocktail were also entertaining. And while I think that many of the items the author lists would be WAY to fancy for my house, I think there are many people who would enjoy setting up and creating his concoctions.

Four Stars
This book come out May 17

Regency Makeover Part III by Darcy Wilde

The story opens with a lot of information, but none of it feels like a purge of backstory. Instead, we just meet the hero and heroine as they meet each other; Lady Helene Fitzgerald barges into her host's library, ostensibly to find a book, while he, Marcus Edicott, the Duke of Windford is already there. Really, Helene is trying to find Marcus' sister Adele after she fled from her overbearing sister.
Marcus is immediately intrigued. Though Helene is supposed to be a harridan bluestocking, he rather finds her a smart conversationalist who is hiding her light under a bushel.
Helene has escorted her cripplingly shy friend Madelene to the party. Madelene's family was so grateful to have her off their hands, they didn't even mind consigning her to the care of a woman that few in society cared for. But she is tired of being a wallflower and tired of Adele and Madelene being consigned to the same fate. She has conceived of a plan to triumph in Society, but she'll need the help of a fairy godmother, a role novelist Deborah Sewell can fit to a T.
So Helene helps to save herself. And her friends. I was really enjoying this story until the last Big Misunderstanding. It was so unnecessary. And I wish I had read the other two stories. It wasn't absolutely necessary but it would have filled in some gaps.

Three Stars

This story comes out May 17

Who Broke the Teapot by Bill Slavin

A nice, rhyming story with a lovely rhythm. A little difficult to follow the flow of the dialogue sometimes because the pictures are so bright. Another thing about the pictures, some of them are dual-paged, which makes reading this as an ebook odd.
Overall, a nice story and one that I think will make younger readers chuckle as they get the joke.
This book came out April 26.