Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries

Fletcher "Grey" Pryde, 5th Duke of Greycourt, is trying to avoid a compromising situation with his cousin Vanessa. Her mother's dearest wish is to have the two be married but neither is eager to fall in with her plans. Their excuse to avoid that fate is that Vanessa has just delivered the news to Grey that his stepfather has just died.
Grey is devastated. He may have had conflicting emotions regarding his stepfather Maurice (who sent Grey away when he was 10 to live with his uncle who was then the Duke) but he knows that he has to go be with the family.
Everyone at Armitage Hall is shocked that the Duke is dead. He had only succeeded his brother a few months ago. His son, Sheridan (Grey's half-brother), is suspicious that both deaths may not have been accidental. Sheridan asks Grey to stay and figure out if his cousin Joshua is getting rid of the people who stand before him for the dukedom. Grey is also wondering. But he has a problem. Joshua's sister Beatrice is distracting him.
At 26, Beatrice doesn't necessarily want to be presented to society but her uncle Maurice's family has embraced her and her cousin's half-sister Gwyn really would rather not debut alone. She just wants to find a nice man, maybe a priest or a doctor. Dukes are not on her list. Even though Grey kisses like a fiend. But she knows she's not the type of woman he's going to marry. And worse, he thinks her brother has killed two men.
The first three-quarters of this book were great, setting up the series as well as letting us see Grey and Beatrice falling in love but the last quarter felt rushed and not as well edited. Very loose. This may change before the book comes out but the ARC ended with a whimper.

Three stars
This book comes out June 25th
Followed by The Bachelor
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh

Six years ago, Abigail Westcott's life fell apart when she and her sibling discovered that her father had been married before; in fact, he was still married when he married their mother and they are all illegitimate. Abigail's sister Camille is now happily married, her brother Harry is in the army, and her family is really anxious that Abigail should make a good match. But Abigail wants to be married for herself rather than in spite of who she is. She's not sure what that will mean but she knows that finding someone from among the ton is not what she wants.
Gilbert Bennington has been married before. He is a lieutenant colonel and Harry's superior officer. Traveling back to England with Harry, Gil is bemused to find himself swept up into the Westcott family. His introduction? When he is trying to calm himself by chopping wood shirtless. Abigail reprimands him, not realizing that he is not a servant.
The two don't get to spend a lot of time together but a lot of it is spent in divulging secrets. Both are bastards but Gil keeps saying that they are different because Abby was raised to be a lady but he was not. I'm not entirely sure that I believe the HEA but Balogh's gentle story somehow conveys that they may be able to get past the obstacles ahead, including getting Gil's daughter back from her grandparents. I also wish we had seen more of that. Maybe if Matilda and Gil's father get together in a subsequent book, we'll see more of them.

Four stars
This book comes out July 2
ARC kindly provided by Kensington and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Bewitched and Betrothed by Juliet Blackwell

Lily Ivory is trying to plan a handfasting. She loves Sailor and would like to be married before the upcoming magical war breaks out. One thing she's not excited about is the former prisoner's shirt that has some really evil vibes. Lily is excited that the Park Service is coming to pick it up and she warns them not to put on the shirt. Both of the rangers are confused but they walk out. Too bad one of them is kidnapped, with the shirt, minutes later. The talisman to hold in the vibes is left at the scene. Oh, and the ranger? Carlos Romero, inspector for the police department and Lily's friend, it's his cousin.
Things ramp up and all of the bad vibes point to Alcatraz being the point of the issues. Lily is also juggling her grandmother and her grandmother's coven as well as Sailor's family.
A good addition to the series, I'm wondering why Amanda, Sailor's ex-wife was added to this book. It seems to be resolved but, unless she's going to be a larger part of the series later, it added nothing but extra lines to this story.

Three stars
This book comes out June 25th
Follows A Magical Match
ARC kindly provided by Berkley and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Dating by the Book by Mary Ann Marlowe

Owning a bookstore in small town Indiana is all Maddie Hanson ever wanted to do.  And she's living her dream. To bad it came at the expense of her with marriage. 6 months ago her fiance issued an ultimatum it was either him or the town. She chose the town.
Now she's struggling to pay back her ex for his part of the store's mortgage, trying to keep up on shop repairs, and emailing the guy who gave her about-to-be-published debut novel a three star rating. The last starts as a scathing reply to his review and ends up as a back and forth between two people who are starting to get to know each other.
As a woman in her late 20s, one who was going to be married just a year ago, Maddie is very obsessed with finding the hero of her story. She is a romance reader in the sense that she tends towards the classics, she discusses Jane Eeyre, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Gone with the Wind. And other readers may find it a bit much but I think there is a time in your life when you really do look at everyone you encounter as a possible romantic lead in the story of your own life. I wish there had been more with Maddie's relationship with her mother and her friend Layla.

Four stars
This book comes out June 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Clause & Effect by Kaitlyn Dunnett

After her husband died, Mikki Lincoln didn't want to stay in Maine. She discovered that her childhood home was for sale and immediately moved back. Her current pension can't support both her and her home repairs so she is taking on work editing. But she has also been roped in to helping the hamlet put on their 225th anniversary celebration complete with updating the play used at the 200th. But something is amiss. The original play used the wrong story. And then there's the body found wrapped in plastic inside the walls of the library.
Mikki also is dealing with the rift between her best friend and the friend's sister, an unexpected distant relative, and the fact that she's a known sleuth, meaning that someone is worried that she is looking into the murder.
I didn't read the first book in the series and I don't think that I missed much except maybe some character building. I got a gloss of Mikki but not much more than that. She's almost 70 and not quite crochety but maybe heading there? It's hard to tell in this story.

Three stars
This book comes out June 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James

Lady Betsy Wilde's mother ran away from her father during a scandalous affair. Gossips claim that one of her children (Betsy's sibling) may not be the Duke's child. And Betsy knows that she has her mother's blood. Before she settles into a nice, sedate marriage with no passion, she wants to rack up as many proposals as possible, just to show those snobs from her boarding school that she is better than them. Fourteen proposals later, she has snared one from a duke. But she's annoyed that he proposes in front of the family hanger-on, Lord Jeremy Roden.
Lord Jeremy doesn't have much time for Betsy. He knows what she wants and he disapproves. In his opinion, she should be living her life to the fullest extent possible and not settling for the staid Thaddeus. He is willing to indulge Betsy when she proposes a billiards match. If she wins, he will take her on an adventure. And, while this is a trope we've seen before, Jeremy is surprisingly pragmatic about it. He wants to make sure that they are properly chaperoned, even on the adventure. He is also very aware that his PTSD makes him a freak in his lifetime.
This is definitely not the normal adventure story. For one thing, Betsy's other suitor and his mother come along as well as her aunt. And I liked that twist. I did not like that there was a "villain" sort of squished into the story just so that there would be one. Other than that, I do hope that we get to see Thaddeus again because he seemed like a genuinely good guy and his mother is amazing.

Four stars
This book comes out June 25th
Follows Born to Be Wilde
Followed by Say Yes to the Duke
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins, NetGalley, and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from the library June 2024

The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis

Brooke's life isn't going great. Rather than being out in the field, shooting the travel documentaries that she loved, she's behind the scenes as a producer. Her OCD is barely contained and one of the guys she's working with is also someone she's sleeps with occasionally which is usually okay but can also cause some tensions. Next to her perfect sister, she feels like she's a mess.
Mindy's always been the one who got straight As. She married her high school sweetheart and has three beautiful children. She's living the dream. So why is she outside Brooke's door right now? And weeping in Brooke's bed while her children run around?
The sisters will learn that they need to work with each other to resolve the issues in their past that will help free up their future.
There is a trend right now for romance authors to work more in the Women's Fiction genre and that's what this book felt like to me -- more about the bond between sisters than any romance. And that made it kind of flat for me because I didn't really relate to either Brooke or Mindy. It's Shalvis, so I liked it but her strengths are usually her characters and they just weren't there.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out June 18
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and NetGalley
Opinions are my own