Virtual Unicorn Experience by Dana Simpson

Marigold Heavenly Nostrils and Phoebe have been friends for a number of books but their adventures are still fun and fresh. In this book, Marigold gives Phoebe a little bit of unicorn magic to help prove that Phoebe is worth being a unicorn's friend. Phoebe also goes to a meaningless trial but is disappointed with the results. We get to learn more about unicorn traditions and get to see some of our favorite characters like Lord Splendid Humility and Dakota (but no Max or the goblins.)
As always, a book worth reading: fun, fluffy, and with unicorns! Can there be anything more magnificent?

Four and a half stars
This book comes out September 1st
Follows Camping with Unicorns

Followed by Virtual Unicorn Experience
ARC kindly provided by Andrew McMeel Publishing and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews

Catalina and Alessandro are thrown together again when, once again, powerful Primes threaten to destroy the city. Her new job as a Warden of Texas earns her (and her family) some protection as a new house but that also means that she is being thrown into situations that would endanger the lives of anyone less powerful than herself. That also means that she sometimes needs to rely on others that she'd rather not, including Alessandro.
The Big Bad in this one just isn't as well developed as it has been in other stories. And the revelation of the power behind the big bad was sort of a deflation. I really hope that we get to learn more about Alessandro soon. He is still a little too much of a mystery to really care about. But you still have an amazing family and their stories do let them grow more and the epilogue definitely made me immediately want to jump right into the next book.

Four stars
This book came out August 25, 2020
Follows Sapphire Flames

Followed by Ruby Fever
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread July 2022 as an Audible book I own

Yoga Myths by Judith Lassater

If you've been in yoga for any length of time, you've heard of Judith Hanson Lasater. In a recent podcast I listened to, she mentioned that she will have been teaching for 50 years next year. So she should know what she's talking about. And this book is a definite exploration into what has changed in yoga and our understanding of the human body.  Of course, the biggest one is "tuck the tailbone." When I started practicing in 1999, I very much remember my teacher demonstrating how/why tucking the tailbone would serve you in your poses as well as in the rest of your life. But that has slowly evolved as have other ways we do poses. Well, depending on the type of yoga you practice. The book has lots of great pictures with variations for each pose and long descriptions of why each might serve better than a "traditional" pose.

Four stars
This book came out August 25th
ARC kindly provided by Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Opinions are my own

The Switch by Beth O'Leary

Another lovely story from the Author of "The Flatshare." And this is a different sort of lovely. Still with the great character building and the people with very real problems but still a happy ending. Yes, that includes some love interests but you just know that Elaine and Leena would be fine without them.  A little dramatic and definitely a trigger warning for sibling death (ufda -- if I had read this a year ago it would have been MUCH worse.)
Leena has an amazing job with an even better mentor. So good that her mentor tells her that she is NOT dealing well with her sister's death and that Leena now has a two month paid sabbatical. Of course, Leena does not believe she needs one. But when she talks to her grandmother, the original Elaine, they both discover that they could use a little vacation from their lives. And that the town mouse switching with the country mouse might mean they each appreciate their own lives a little more.
Also, major props for Elaine having a thriving sex life at seventy-nine.

Four stars
This book came out August 18th
ARC kindly provided by Macmillan and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

On the Square by Brenda Murphy

Going home is rarely fun for people in romance novels but for Mai Li it is particularly sharp. She left at nineteen (or twenty, I can't remember now) after coming out to her mother meant that her mother no longer acknowledged her existence. Growing up she was mocked for not being white as well as for being gay. She wouldn't have come back if her relationship and her cooking show hadn't imploded. Now she has nowhere to live except her family's old house which is in more disrepair than she expected. And she can only get one contractor who is willing to meet her.
Dale is a single mom to three sons, only one still at home. She's been barely holding it together financially since one of her exes wiped her out. Getting Mai's job will definitely help keep the wolf away from the door. When the roof at Mai's place collapses, Dale invites Mai to move in. They are both fighting their feelings (for somewhat ridiculous reasons but people in real life are often ridiculous) but finally admit that they might have a chance at an HEA.
There was just a little too much sturm and drang in this story for me to really fall in love with either character but I have a feeling that Brenda Murphy will become an author I keep an eye out for because both Dale and Mai were fairly well-rounded and I did like much of their relationship building.

Three and a half stars
This book came out August 17th
ARC kindly provided by NineStar Press, LLC and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Gay All Year by Richard May

I am trying to expand my reading horizons so, when I saw this book of short stories from NetGalley, I requested them. And, from a literary standpoint, most of these stories were good but some gaps in stories and things left unfinished. I am very much a reader who likes character development and relationship building (which is possible in short stories) but there wasn’t much of that in this volume. And one story also had a main character who sort of cheated on his partner who wasn’t technically his partner... But if you are one-true-pairing kind of reader, at least one story will not be your cup of tea.

Within the page constraints, these author did a fairly good job of giving an idea of how he could stretch his wings. I very much appreciated the range of characters and the celebration of holidays outside of Christmas and Valentine’s Day. I was surprised by the touches of Christianity added in the first couple of stories. If the author writes longer stories at some point, I would be tentatively interested.

Three stars

This book came out August 17th

ARC kindly provided by NineStar Press, LLC and NetGalley

Opnions are my own

Who Wants to Marry a Duke Sabrina Jeffries

Miss Olivia Norley is happy being a wallflower. She loves chemistry and wants nothing more than to work with her great-uncle on his experiments. When she meets Marlowe Drake, the Duke of Thornstock at a ball, she is more bemused by him than anything else. They share a passionate kiss that gets interrupted. And though he doesn't want to actually marry Olivia, Thorn is affronted when she turns down his proposal.
Nine years later, Thorn has become a cynic (after one kiss? Really?) who is astonished to learn that Olivia is going to be the chemist who proves whether or not his half-brother's father was killed by arsenic. He decides that he is going tag along on this research. Even if he is behind on delivering his latest play, the sixth in a series whose most popular and comedic characters are based off of Olivia and her stepmother. Or at least the twisted version he created of them in his own mind.
As he gets to know more about Olivia, Thorn starts to realize that the story he created in his own mind might not actually have been the truth. And when someone starts targeting Olivia for death, Thorn realizes that she actually means quite a bit to him.
The action in this book was a little more dramatic than others in the series. And Thorn was sort of a jerk for a lot of the story but it was a book that most Jeffries readers will find incredibly enjoyable.

Three and a half stars
Follows The Bachelor

Followed by Undercover Duke
This book comes out August 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own