Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas

Tom Severin, will you please by my book boyfriend?  You start the book only having five emotions (having long ago decided that the rest were superfluous) and end up with all the feels. The last possible Big Misunderstanding is circumvented because you are so in love with your bride and so aware of needing to be a decent human being in order to keep her.
Was this book perfect? I can't remember much about Cassandra other than that she's gorgeous but has a heart of gold so... maybe not. But it was damn near.
Cassandra Ravenel is stoked for her twin. Of course she is. Pandora is marrying the love of her life and he's a good man. Cassandra just wishes she could find her own oyster. Nothing shocks her more than, after confessing that feeling to West, Tom stands up from the chair he was sitting in (not hiding, just not able to get out without it being awkward) and offers to be that man for her. Her family is against the match (at least the men are; the women are willing to wait and see.) But Kelypas takes us through their relationship over the course of several months as Tom learns to have all the feels because Cassandra convinces his to read fiction. I'm not crying; you're crying.

Four and a half stars

The Ravenels #6
This book comes out February 18th, 2020

Follows Devil's Daughter

Followed by Devil in Disguise
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers
Opinions are my own

Reread as audiobook from Libby February 2023, March 2025

The Detection Club by Jean Harambat

The premise of this book is quite lovely. Six authors from the Golden Age of Detection form a club and create rules of mystery stories - this is something that happened. Then, they are all invited to an island and a murder occurs.
I almost requested both the first and second volumes at the same time but am glad that I didn't. This was a quick read but was flattering to none of the authors with the three women getting the brunt the bad characterizations. I finished the book but just barely. The text is hard to read on my e-reader and there is a LOT of exposition from the narrator that slows down the story.

Two stars
This book came out January 12th
ARC kindly provided by Europe Comics and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Speakeasy by Sarina Bowen

May Shipley isn't really all that old but she could already be assigned many labels: lawyer, alcoholic, bisexual. But she really is sick and tired of her family  treating her like fragile glass. It doesn't exactly help that the book opens as she stops by a bar. She sees her girlfriend's car and decides to stop by and say hello. Too bad she walks in to see her girlfriend kissing the woman she dated before May. Before May can do anything physical, Alec Rossi, the bar's owner hustles over and carries her out.
Alec had only just put together that May's girlfriend was cheating on her and was debating whether or not to let her know when she walks into the bar. Helping her out that night leads to helping her out at her law school reunion (which her ex is also attending) which leads to sex. And somehow that all leads to an HEA.
There was so much going on in this book. There were the people from previous books and all of that history crowding this one as well as all of the possible sequel bait. I didn't think you needed to have read the previous books but there was an overabundance of info-dumping. And there was so much going on with Alec, I'm going to be brutally honest, I just got sick of hearing about it. I wish we had heard more from May because I never got to connect with her.

Three stars
This book came out in May 29th, 2018
Borrowed this book from Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

The Kissing Game by Marie Harte

Rena Jackson has saved up enough money to open her own beauty salon so she's leaving her  job at, well, a dive bar. Of course, that means that she's going to be leaving behind the Viking hunk, Axel Heller. It's just too bad she never could connect with him.
Axel is ready to step up and finally ask Rena out. Eventually. There is a LOT of thinking about it. But the two finally get together but still have obstacles to overcome, including Rena's dreams going up in smoke.
Oh man. I usually like Marie Harte but the pacing in this book was just... weird. Scenes didn't follow each other well and it just got choppy.  I didn't mind the German insertions at first but, wow, they got to be a lot. Harte is a good author but this book does not prove it.

Two stars
This book came out February 4th
ARC kindly provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Twice the Witch by Danielle Garrett

Well. I spoke too soon. I noted in my review of the first book in this series that I was happy there were no love triangles as that is an overused trope. This book... ufda. So many.
Holly wonders what is going on with her boyfriend Adam and the new witch in the house, supernatural TV star Evangeline Loren. Adam is wondering what is going on with Holly and her private investigator friend, Nick. Holly is sure that her friend/boss at the coffee shop has a crush on Nick.
Adding into her personal drama is the fact that her coworker Paisley's cousin, Katarina, is missing. Holly gets Katarina's mom in touch with Nick but it ends up being Holly who stumbles across her first. Too bad it's because Katarina is a ghost and no one else (except the other supernaturals) can see her.

Three stars
Follows Murder's a Witch
Followed by Witch Slapped
This book came out September 19th, 2016
Borrowed this as an audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own

Murder's a Witch by Danielle Garrett

When Holly Boldt's boss is killed, she's worried that all of her own secrets will be revealed. The fact that she's an exiled witch working in the human world already makes her life fraught with danger. She's still allowed to practice some magic but making potions... well, that's kept on the sly. But she generally likes her life and Beechwood Harbor is starting to feel like home. So she's trying to stay on the DL, living her life at the manor with other supernaturals including a vampire and a shifter while working at a coffee shop. The day that she ports in behind and finds a body surrounded by broken peppermint bottles is the day that she starts to worry about her place. She's not a suspect, but her close friend is.
A nice start to a new series. I'm glad that it doesn't seem like there will be a love triangle.

Four stars
Followed by Twice the Witch
This book came out August 9th, 2016
Borrowed this as an audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own

Mermaid Inn by Jenny Holiday

I have enjoyed other books by Ms. Holiday but this one just didn't resonate as well. I think part of the problem was that this took place over a year which should have been great for the relationship development but, instead, we just dipped in and out of different days making it feel a little bit more shallow. And I wish Eve hadn't let Sawyer off so easy for making life decisions for her even if it was "better in the end." That's a BS reason to make decisions for somebody else and that seems to be a theme in romance novels I'm reading lately, men making sweeping life decisions for women because they "know" best. In at least one other book the guy figured out his mistake and I guess Sawyer sort of did but I wish we had seen more.

Two and a half stars
Followed by Paradise Cove
This book came out January 28th, 2020
Borrowed this book from the library
Opinions are my own