Hot Asset by Lauren Layne

Lara McKenzie has one goal in life. She wants to work for the FBI putting white collar criminals away. And the SEC is a stepping stone to get there. If she can get one big case, she's guaranteed entry.
Ian Bradley made a killing on a stock that everyone else lost their shirts on. Lara's boss has a tip that it's because of insider trading. Just because the man is super-hot doesn't mean that Lara is going to fall under his spell like so many other women.
This was an okay start to a new series. I didn't love that Lara and Ian were supposedly falling in love during such a stressful situation. We didn't get to see much of the relationship.

Three stars
This book comes out May 22
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Fowl of the House of Usher by J.R. Ripley

Amy Simms' ex is in town. Along with the young and gorgeous psychologist he dumped Amy for. The young and gorgeous psychologist who has invited Amy (and her beau) to a dinner party. A dinner party at the Usher House, known in local parts for its... rather eerie atmosphere. Amy's boyfriend can't come and neither can her best friend Kim's. So it's the two of them, headed up the mountain at the start of a snow storm for the most awkward dinner party. Besides the ex and the redhead, there are two couples that Craig is trying to woo into a business proposal and then the caretaker couple that is at the house. The snow builds up, everyone is trapped in the house, and then there's a murder. And another. It's up to Amy to try to figure it out. As long as she's not next on the list.
I didn't love the resolution of the book, it was a little outside what was fairly clued and didn't make much sense. But as locked room mysteries go,  it wasn't bad and I'll keep an eye out for the next in the series.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out May 15
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Charmed Bones by Carolyn Haines

Cozy at home, Sarah Booth Delaney is not happy to called out to the Sunflower County Board of Education meeting by Tinkie. It seems that three sisters are applying for state recognition for a boarding school they're opening. The reason people are upset? It's going to be a Wiccan school.
The Harrington sisters have bought a load of property from Trevor Musgrove, a local artist who will be allowed to live on the property until his death. And this isn't a problem until people start dying and the sisters get blamed.
A decent story. The ending was a bit overwrought but I don't think that regular reader's in this series will mind at all.

Three stars
This book comes out May 15th
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Happiness Hacks by Alex Palmer

This is an attractive repackaging of ideas I've read elsewhere. There are nice breakdowns of chapters like Happiness at Home, Happiness in Love, etc. with subsections underneath each. They include some simple hacks like creating creativity by working in the room with the highest ceiling or journaling or taking an eight day vacation. There is also a lovely chapter on the downside of happiness that you don't usually see in most books. For the most part, it is just a repackaging of ideas that you've probably read if you're a self-help junkie but that last chapter brought it up a star for me.

Three stars
This book comes out May 15
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Pairing a Deception by Nadine Nettmann

Though this is the third book in the series, it's the first one I've read. I didn't feel like I needed to have read the first two. There was enough backstory without an info dump to know what was going on with the series. Katie Stillwell is volunteering at a wine and food festival the weekend ahead of her advanced sommelier exam. Her beau John Dean is with her as well, taking well the fact that he was signed up as "Dean Stillwell" and generally proving himself to be a really, really good boyfriend. Too bad the rest of the weekend is moving as smooth. There's a young woman chasing down the emcee. He's avoiding her for most of the day but Katie leaves them at a table together at the end of the evening. Too bad the young woman ends up dead outside his door the next day.
The ending didn't make a lot of sense to me but it was overall a pretty good book.

Four stars
This book comes out May 8
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

The First Time at Firelight Falls by Julie Anne Long

Eden Harwood - florist, harried single mother, ardent admirer of the elementary school principal, Gabe Caldera. Luckily, he's a big admirer of her too. I loved the way Long portrayed real life; snatches of flirting lived between moments of parenting/principal-ing. I didn't love the way that a whole bunch of drama was dropped into the middle of the book after a pretty steady romance. But it was resolved in a fairly grow-up way that you don't often get in romance novels.
While the second half of the book was way more tangled than the first half, regular readers of Hellcat Canyon won't be disappointed.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out May 8
Follows Dirty Dancing at Devil's Leap
ARC kindly provided by Edelweiss

Down the Aisle with Murder by Auralee Wallace

A return to the Wallace that I enjoy reading.
The book opens with Erica Bloom attending Candace's bachelorette party. Is it weird to celebrate the wedding of the woman who dated Erica's one true love? Not in a small town. The big hit of the party though is the maid of honor, Lyssa. That would be the same Lyssa who turns up dead the next day.
Erica and Freddie would normally insert themselves into the case but Freddie is acting strangely; in fact, he has told Erica that they need to have a break.
And there are a lot of strange things going on at Otter Lake. Erica's mom has brought in a new guru, Zaki, and there is... something strange about his seminar. Like, the fact that it's for singles but Erica's mom isn't forcing her to go. Grady, Erica's erstwhile love of her life, is taking a vacation; something he's never done before. Sheriff Bigly is there in his place and she's not amused by Erica and Freddie.
I liked this book so much better than the last one. Yes, Erica is still a little immature but she seems to be getting better. I wish that the murder victim had been better fleshed out.

Four stars
This book comes out May 1
Follows Ring In the Year with Murder
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley