A Murderous Marriage by Alyssa Maxwell

Lady Phoebe Renshaw is worried about her sister. She knows Julia is in love with Leo but she is marrying Gilbet Townsend who is wealthy, but decades older than her. Gilbert's sister Phoebe doesn't seem to like either Golbert or Julia and his secretary is weirdly possessive.  Phoebe was surprised that the honey.oon was to be aboard a yacht and is aghast that Gilbert's best friend is slated to accompany the newlyweds on their honeymoon. There are many things that are off about the scenario. It gets worse when Julia has a spat with her husband that evening and flees the boat. But she decides that she has to return. The next morning, her husband is found dead in the water and Julia is the main suspect. It will be up to Phoebe and the family maid cum surrogate mother Eva to figure out what is going on.
This was a good book by Maxwell but I am enjoying her other series just a little bit more.

Three stars
This book comes out January 29
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Fifty Scams and Hoaxes by Martin Fone

A short and sweet book. The stories are often less than a page which I was not expecting. I was thinking there would be more extensive research and longer chapters. If you are looking for a gift for middle-schoolers, this might not be a bad book though there are definitely some adult ideas.

Three stars
This book comes out January 28
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley; Opinion is my own

Illegally Yours by Kate Meader

Lucas Wright loves being a fancy-free divorce lawyer. Yeah, some of his clients aren't the best but he really, really likes his life. Well, most of it.
Trinity Jones likes her work. She's like a sommelier but for whiskey. And she is good at her job. Her personal life is... more complicated. Especially when she meets Lucas and sparks immediately fly. But he's the man who is representing her sister's soon-to-be-ex-husband. And that relationship is already complicated. So how is this going to play out.
I liked Lucas. He was generally an adult and was trying to do the right thing. Mostly. Trinity was a bit of an enabler and I had a harder time connecting with her because it was frustrating to see what she was doing. Overall, an okay book -- didn't love the middle-endish but the ending felt like they might have a chance at HEA.

Three stars
This book comes out January 22
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley

The last Flavia De Luce book felt a bit flat but this one was a return to form.
Flavia and Dogger have opened a detective agency and have their first customer. But she ends up dead. And it seems that her death may be connected to the object found in Ophelia's wedding cake. Add in two missionaries and you have connected mysteries.
Undine is starting to get more involved but she is feeling an awful lot like a plot moppet. And I'm not sure that this book was fairly clued though it felt like it was supposed to be.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out January 19

Follows The Grave's a Fine and Quiet Place

Followed by What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust 
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

The Ashford Place by Jean Copeland

When her aunt died, Isabelle Ashford inherited her house. She's a teacher with the summer off so she decides to fix what she can in the house and then flip it. It's a small town so she quickly gets to recognize the major players including Deputy Sheriff Ally Yates. While the two begin a romance, they also start to investigate why a baby's skull was found on the house's property.

I did like that Isabelle didn't go completely off on her own but the story was somewhat awkward and there was rather a lot going on.

Three stars
This book comes out January 15
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Now or Never by Victoria Denault

Told in alternating first person, we get the story of Winnie and Holden. It starts when they are both teens and she decks him for saying something about her brother. We then come to the present day and Winnie's father has passed away and she's grieving. His death has opened her eyes to many things, including the fact that her relationship with her boyfriend has been over for some time. She just wants to stay at the family's summer home and lick her wounds. Little does she suspect that her brother has hired Holden to renovate the house while the family  is supposed to be gone.
Holden is shocked to discover Winnie in the house. While they have a past (and his is certainly dark), he is still attracted to her. They embark on a relationship that is just going to be physical. But this is a romance novel so...
This was an okay story but I didn't get a real sense of an HEA in their future and the last Big Misunderstanding wasn't really needed.

Three stars
This book comes out January 15
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Live and Let Pie by Ellie Alexander

Julie Capshaw is helping her mother look for a home when she hears shouting from the lake below. Two girls were swimming in an abandoned town that was flooded and one of them found a skull. Julie immediately calls her stepfather. This mystery overlaps with the current day where a lot on Julie's block is up for sale and there are a lot of sharks circling to take the land.
I thought this was one of Alexander's other series and was surprised to find myself in the middle of a series but read it anyway. While it was good, I'll probably stick to the other series.

Three stars
This book came out December 18
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley