A Monster Like Me by Wendy S. Swore

This was in the genre "childrens" and has a cover that looks like a picture book. Nope. This book is over 300 pages long. Over. Three. Hundred. I was not expecting that.
That being said, this is a pretty cute story about a kid with a blood tumor on her face. She's dealing with the kind of crap that happens when you look different externally. It begins to affect Sophie internally; she knows that there are monsters in the world because she herself is one, created by her tumor.
She does get to make some friends and learns that she might just be a little bit more human than she thinks.
I wouldn't have put this book in the kids category; more middle school unless it's something you read out loud with your kiddo and then talk about with them.

Three and a half stars
This book came out March 5
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Chocolate a la Murder by Kirsten Weiss

Maddie Kosloski has acquired another haunted object for her Paranormal Museum, a  (whisk) that rattles any time someone tells a lie. And it rattles a lot in this story - a lot of people in Maddie's life have stuff going on. Her ex, Mason, keeps trying to talk to her, her one best friend is deep into wedding planning and the other one seems to be hiding something.
And then there's the whole stumbling over another dead body thing. This time it's one of the new choclatiers in town. And it seems that the murderer believes Maddie might know who they are and they're after her next.
There was a LOT of telling Maddie not to investigate murders in this book. And people know now that she does it so the murderer was after her pretty fast. This makes it harder and harder to read the series because now she's just looking sort of... foolish for continuing to do things that put her in death's way.

Three stars
This book comes out March 8
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Follows Deja Moo

The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson

Fifth-grader Faith is astonished when popular eighth grader Amanda asks her to join the soccer team. She is even more surprised to find out she will be on the 'C' team. Rather than playing with pretty, popular Amanda, she will be playing with people who have nicknames like Bulldog and Warthog. As the season rolls on, Faith realizes that the coach is, at best, apathetic and the players care even less. She starts to make friends with a wide variety of people. Their team may not be the best but they are going to be friends in the end.
There are a lot of big themes in this book especially in terms of how you make friends in later grades, accepting people for who they are, and sometimes letting go of the people who are no longer your friends.

Three stars
This book comes out March 5
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

The Secret of Dinswood by Ellen Alexander

Many years ago a pirate got so much gold that he decided to retire in anonymity. He named himself Lord Dinswood and established a school. His ancestors kept up the tradition and now it is a prestigious place. One that Emma Higsby is delighted to be going to. Her father remarried and the family doesn't seem to have a place for her any more.
Dinswood school is high in the mountains and the students are rich and snobby. At least, a lot of them are. But luckily, Emma makes some friends. And she's going to need those friendships to help save the school from financial ruin. They'll need to solve the riddle of Lord Dinswood to find the treasure, outsmarting the others searching for the same thing.
This book was fun but a little long. Definitely a book for fans of epic tales about finding treasure.]

Three stars
This book came out February 26
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Miss Winthrope's Engagement: Harlequin Manga by Christine Merrill, Riho Sachimi

I've seen that Harlequin was offering manga versions of older titles but this is the first I've read. It was very interesting. This particular story has a spinster heiress whose brother is threatening to cut her off from reading (horrors!). So she decides to enter a marriage of convenience. And it's convenient that the man that she knocks down with her carriage lives to tell the tale. The two enter into marriage but it takes some time for them to find their paces.
This was definitely an interesting way to read this book but I feel like a lot of the story got left out in trying to display it through pictures instead of story.

This book came out February 1
Three stars
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Lady Notorious by Theresa Romain

Cass Benton works with her brother as private investigators. Well, her brother is the one on the books but his boss definitely knows that Cass is involved. When the book opens, Cass is posing as a maid in a ton house while her brother is a footman. While he is shtupping the lady of the house, Cass is busy saving the husband from murder. Which is pretty much their relationship. Cass is super serious while her brother takes life a lot more lightly.
They're in the house in the first place because of George, Lord Northbrook. He's the son of a duke who joined a tontine when he was a young man. Now members are dying off mysteriously and George wants to prevent both his father, and the lord of the house Cass and Charles were in, from meeting the same fate.
Romain can hit books out of the park for me but this was not one of them. I didn't see that George and Cass had the type of chemistry that would weather their class differences in this time. It was an okay read but not one of my faves.

Three stars
This book comes out February 26th
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley
Follows Lady Rogue

Secrets of Paper and Ink by Lindsay Harrel

This seemed like a catnip book for me: a woman trying to find a way out of the morass created by her past moves across an ocean to work in a bookstore. The book opens with her returning to work... and realizing she's still not ready to be there. So she answers and work in a bookstore where the owner has problems of her own.
This is a really well-written book and I liked the way the characters were developed. But-- there was a deep dive into Christianity that was NOT explained either in the synopsis of the book nor in the tags for genre. I don't mind reading books that do this but I appreciate a warning when you think that you're reading a book about women who are figuring out their own lives and then you're told that, no, actually, God has been steering them all along.

Three stars
This book comes out February 26th
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and publisher