California Girls by Susan Mallery

Three sisters: the youngest, Ali, who is about to get married, those oldest, Finola, who has the perfect marriage, and the middle, Zennie, who is not really interested in dating. All of them are dealing with personal crises and milestone. Ali's fiancé's brother shows up. The fiancé doesn't especially want to get married but he's not going to tell her himself. Finola's, who is a TV personality, husband shows up half an hour before she's going on air to tell her that he's been having an affair. Zennie has a best friend who can't get pregnant, would she mind being the surrogate?

I generally like Ms. Mallery's non-series books. This had some really big themes that I thought were handled sensitively and well. But there were a couple of things that brought the book down for me. One was the views on Finola's marriage. We were just told that she accepted blame for it going south but we never really saw how she played into it. A big part of her ending was that she realized what part she played but... it felt forced; more tell than show. And I wish we had seen more of Zennie's romance. It was just tacked on at the end.

Three stars

This book comes out February 26 

ARC kindly provided by Harlequin-Mira and NetGalley

Sorry Not Sorry by Sophie Ranald

Charlotte is a good girl. But that hasn't really gotten her where she wants in life. Her job is incredibly hard (though it did help her get out of a dead-end relationship), her best friend is moving to the suburbs AND getting married, and she's depressingly single.
One night, she gets quite down and semi-drunk and starts listening to a podcast about how to break out of her rut. There are some quite lovely suggestions that she sometimes follows, sometimes not. On the way, she meets a romantic-interest-architect, makes a new friend, resettles her relationship with old friends, and figures out what is going to be her number one priority in life.
This book was a little rough in parts - like the story didn't really flow. But it was a nice story overall and I would try this author again.

Three stars
This book comes out February 13
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Testament to Murder by Vivian Conroy

This is set up as a quintessential English country house (or vacation house) murder. A cranky, old, very wealthy, dying man invites nine potential heirs and tells them that he is going to be choosing one person every night at midnight to be the beneficiary of his will. No one will know who it is but each day, someone might end up being his sole heir, or being written out of the will. He is setting up the perfect scenario for someone to be murdered.
And someone is, but it's not the old man. Through a series of winding expositions, we learn the true solution. Or do we?
It is a short read but is one that starts slow until it careens toward an ending that was interesting but very convoluted.

Three stars
This book comes out February 18
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and publisher

The Gun Also Rises by Sherry Harris

Belle Winthrop Granville is a grande dame who is selling off her massive book collection. Her first editions and books in the library are being sold by a local dealer. Her paperbacks and popular fiction, she's asked garage sale whiz Sarah Winston to deal with. Too bad Sarah is once again having to dodge bullets. It might just have something to do with the bundle of papers that Sarah discovered that seem to be the papers Hemingway's first wife lost on a trip to Paris.
There is, as usual, a lot going on in this story. There is also a first edition Hemingway, a group of treasure hunters going after the same thing, a murder, rivalries, and an old army friend and his wife who are having some problems. It makes the book a bit disconnected in places but regular Harris readers won't be deterred.

Three stars
This book came out January 29
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Follows I Know What You Bid Last Summer
Followed by Let's Fake a Deal

How to Be Better at Almost Everything by Pat Flynn

I've always liked the idea of Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none so the title of this book really spoke to me. You read books like Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" that talk about the merits of becoming an expert at something but there aren't a lot of books (at least that I've seen) about the idea of generalism. So this was something I was excited about reading.
I have a feeling that regular readers of Pat Flynn will like the style of writing for this. It did not resonate with me at all. The vast majority of the story examples of how these principles work were about him and how it worked for him. Well, how does skill-stacking work in general? Where are the studies that show it works for the general populace? And why is there a mixture of "we" and "you" in the instructional part of the series?  If the book focused less on the author and more on how these skills could help the reader, I would have liked it more.

Two stars
This book came out January 29
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Narwhal's Otter Friend by Ben Clanton

I adore the Narwhal and Jelly stories and this is no different.  A new creature come into the life of the two friends and captivates Narehal's attention. Otter even seems to like waffles as much as Narwhal. Jelly begins to feel a bit left out and tries to find a new best friend but it is hard work.
Another lovely addition to the series. I didn't love the inset story and wish this had been longer but otherwise a great read.

Four stars

Followed by Happy Narwhalidays
This book comes out February 5
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Corned Beef and Casualties by Lynn Cahoon

Jill Gardner's small touristy town is holding a St. Patrick's Day festival. She is overwhelmed and not really loving the number of people who are walking around drunk in the middle of the day. But she is charmed by one young woman. Too bad the young lady later ends up dead and Jill wants to know why.
I really like the full-length Tourist Trap mysteries but the novellas are just too short. Jill is not as likeable in these stories as her ruminations about not linking how much her boyfriend has to work get annoying. And we don't get to see as much development in the other characters meaning that everyone is just sort of stagnant. Then there are the touches of magic that happen only in the novellas. Why only the novellas? If magic is part of the series, make it part of the series. It was cheeky in the Christmas novella but felt really last-minute wedged in to this story.

Two and a half stars
This story comes out February 5
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley