A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen

The book opens with Elise, dressed as a (male, of course) doctor in the bowels of Bedlam. She's examining the Duchess of Ashland. The elderly woman has been declared insane and is now being held captive and kept under heavy sedation. Chegarre and Associates have been hired by the duchess's daughter to find out where her mother has gone. Elise has discovered that the woman's nephew has had her declared insane. Why? Is it perhaps that the duchess is correct when she says that her son is still alive (meaning that the nephew will be unable to inherit the duchy and the fabulous wealth that comes with it)? When the enigmatic crime lord King comes to tell Elise that he will pay for her to discover the whereabouts of the presumptive duke, she becomes even more curious.
But when she meets Noah (miraculously quickly, her own words), she finds that he is not a dimwit nor even a haughty duke but a man very much to be admired. Not only physically but because of his spirit.
Of course, there are issues. Mainly, the duke's cousin very much wants him dead. But the two work through and also manage to fall in love.
What? A heroine who isn't a virgin? And has actually enjoyed a man's bed before? Love it. A man who can admit that a woman might be better at him than something? In a manner that isn't overwhelmingly preachy from the author? Also loved. Would have liked a bit more build up to the end but overall an enjoyable book.

Four stars
This book comes out July 26

Inspired by the National Parks by Donna Marcinkowski Desoto

If you love quilting, I think you'll like this book. The same may be true if you love national parks but I think this is more for quilters. I work in Yellowstone so this book appealed to me. I was startled to learn that I knew the woman who did the introduction part of our park. She's a wonderful person and a great writer. Though the same isn't true for every park, it is overall a nice introduction to our national parks and a look at some nice quilts.
I was disappointed that more of the quilters weren't from the parks. There is a large community of people who quilt in Yellowstone (in fact, all longtime employees get a quilt when they leave) and it would have been nice to see some of those featured.

Three stars
This book comes out July 28

The Secrets She Kept by Brenda Novak

Keith gets his story in the follow-up to The Secrets She Kept. It's five years after the first book in this series and he's moved to Los Angeles, cleaned himself up, and runs a super-successful business. When he gets the call that his mother, Josephine, has committed suicide, he's flabbergasted. Josephine just wasn't the kind of person to have done something like that. She was too self-involved for one thing.
When he gets back to the island, he's confronted with his past. Not only with his past drug habits but the people he harmed while using them. Especially Nancy.
It's been a long time but Nancy was hoping to have lost a bit more weight before Keith finally returned. He's always been the one who got away. And I didn't really love that about her story line. She was so obsessed with her weight and it never really got resolved. I guess that's more true-to-life but it was repeated so many times that I thought it would play more into the ending.
This was a really circuitous book, never really sticking to one plot point without wandering all over before it got to the end but I think regular Novak readers will enjoy it.

Three stars
This book comes out July 26

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