A Reckless Promise by Kasey Michaels

Another romance where someone (Darby Travers, Viscount Nailbourne) makes a battlefield promise to become his friend's guardian if something happens to the friend. But, while a lot of romances have the guardian falling in love with his new ward, Michaels instead has Darby falling into a convenient marriage with his ward's aunt. At first, Darby is bemused to find that seven-year-old Marley comes with a fearsome protector, Sadie Grace Boxer, but then he finds that it may be easiest just to marry her. He's a viscount of a certain age and the mamas of some young ladies are looking at him with a certain gleam in their eye. Sadie is fairly good-looking and seems reasonably intelligent, so Darby decides to go for it.
Some of the story lines are a bit thin but regular Michaels fans will be thrilled.

Four stars
This book comes out July 26
Follows A Scandalous Proposal

To Have and to Hold by Lauren Layne

Brooke is a wedding planner whose own wedding got canceled when the FBI showed up to take her husband-to-be away in handcuffs for putting together some Ponzi schemes.
Seth is a multi-billionaire hotel owner whose girlfriend told him he was a mean and heartless jerk and now he has no feels. Except that's only because he actually has all the feels. Or so we are told.
Their paths cross when Seth's little sister wants to get married to a guy she's been dating for three months. And, newly crossed the country, Brooke is their bridal consultant. But Seth wants input since a) he'll be paying for the wedding and b) he's never even met the guy.
This book was the low end of three stars for me. Brooke was kind of a wimp and Seth was really, really domineering which was a sticking point for both his sister and Brooke but it was never resolved. He was still the same asshat that he was in the beginning. Which is fine if other people come to terms with it but Brooke didn't. Not really. And to have him do a big gesture six weeks after they essentially broke up and they're immediately moving in? It just doesn't seem like an HEA, more like a happily-for-the-next-six-months.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out July 26
Followed by For Better or Worse

The Color of Love by Radclyffe

I heard about this author on a podcast and when I saw this book cross my NetGalley read, I grabbed the ARC. And enjoyed it. I liked the character development and the love story. I haven't really read a lot of w/w romance but if they are all this sweet, I think I will read more.
Derien Winfield is living the high life, coasting around the world, avoiding her controlling father. But when her aunt has a heart attack, Dare has to come home to protect her aunt's legacy.
Emily May is there when Dare's aunt goes down. She's the top in line to run HW's company, but she's not family. And there is a problem with her visa (I didn't really get this part, where was her passport for? Aren't American's born someplace else still given at least a dual citizenship?) so she might have to leave the States anyway.
Dare and Emily are immediately attracted to each other and their falling in love is very sweet. I felt like there were some story arcs left unresolved but overall had happy feels about the way that Dare and Emily finally came together in the end.
Four stars
This book comes out July 12

Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery

Fans of Susan Mallery's one-off books will enjoy this one as well. While it doesn't have the complicated feels of Blackberry Island or Three Sisters, it does have the fun characters and good story lines that regular readers will enjoy. There is one tiny reference to another one-off book that seemed a little out of place but was only mildly irritating.
The sisters are somewhat pigeonholed. Courtney is the awkward, stupid one, Sienna is the pretty, successful one and Rachel is the overweight divorced mother. But each of them has their scars and secrets, especially after being raised by a mother who had leaned on their father and was sort of lost when he died. It's the regular Malley sort of story and mostly okay.
Except. The mother. I think we were supposed to somehow see her as someone to sympathize over but she came off as wholly self-concerned. I didn't feel like she ever sat down and recognized her own culpability in why her girls each turned out the way they did. Which would have been fine, except that other characters seemed to want to make that recognition for her. We were told that she had changed but never really shown it.

Three stars
This book comes out July 12

Arsenic with Austen by Katherine Bolger Hyde

I wish there had been some mention of the Christian undertones of this book in the description. It threw me off to be expecting a regular cozy and then to have religion tossed into the mix.
It's an otherwise unremarkable book. A college English teacher inherits a fortune from her aunt who, though eighty-seven, appears to have been murdered. She returns to the seaside town where she once spent her summers and encounters her childhood love as well as more bodies.
The book was a bit frenetic with a lot of storylines and characters and the ending was a little bit odd but it was an overall okay read.

Three stars
This book comes out July 5

Nine Women, One Dress by Jane L. Rosen

I definitely think that this book of entwined novellas is going to be compared to Love Actually. And this works just as well. The book opens with a southern girl who has just moved to New York to become a model and gets to wear THE dress of the season. It's a dress that touches the lives of many people whose stories are all told in the first person (not all of them women, despite the title of the book.) We get to meet the designer of THE dress, several people who work at Bloomingdale's, a Muslim girl visiting New York, a widower lawyer who is dating a much younger woman even though his loyal assistant has loved him for years, a private detective and a host of others.
Did we get to really learn about the characters? No. It's too hard to do in a book like this though I wish there had been a little more.
Overall, a fast, fun, and fluffy read that's perfect for the beach.

Four stars
This book comes out July 12

The Duke of Daring by Darcy Burke

This was a good book. Not exceptional and the story was a bit surface (even for me) but Darcy Burke fans will enjoy the story and I think new readers will as well. There is absolutely no need to have read the first book in this series.
Miss Lucinda Parnell had the misfortune to be born to a man who, mourning the lost of his wife, squandered all of his money, leaving her penniless. So now, she's decided to walk into a man's world, gambling to make enough money to support herself and her grandmother. Her grandmother is hoping that Lucy will get married but she's had four seasons and no one has looked at Lucy twice.
The Earl of Dartford is startled to realize that the young man who's been winning all evening is actually a woman. He's also intrigued. What could cause a woman to do something so unusual? And why has he never met her before?
I wish this book had been a little bit longer so we could have gotten to know Lucy and Andrew a bit better. Or to see more of their adventures. Also to see more of the interaction between Lucy and her friends. I often complain that too much time is spent on the sequel-bait but in this book we barely get to know chatterbox Aquilla and the icy Ivy.

Three stars
This book came out July 5
Followed by The Duke of Deception