The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

You'd think that all of the parallel universe/alternate timelines stories had been told but Haig manages to create a new one with Nora Seed. We learn in the first story that one day, Nora will decide to take her own life. We get a few chapters of prelude where we discover that the once promising Nora (she was a champion swimmer, an intelligent child, and a gifted pianist and songwriter) has hit her nadir. But before she actually dies, she has a chance to experience many different lives. We don't know all of them but she is afforded this opportunity through a library of books with the many options of the way that her life might have been written. Would she have been an iceberg researcher? Or a famous rock star? Perhaps the mother of a small child. Or a writer in Paris. While we do not get to see all of the lives, they lead Nora to a (perhaps expected) conclusion that will shake the foundations of the library itself.
It took me awhile to get into this book but then I finished it in my second sitting. A new take on an old idea and Haig seeds just enough to create a connected series of books with perhaps other characters.

Four stars
This book came out September 29th, 2020
Book borrowed from Libby
Opinions are my own

The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens

Frederick, Marquess of Albury, is renown for his skill at the piano but he is equally well known for not playing in public. Lady Eustacia "Stacey" Cavanaugh would like to change that. She feels like the musicians of England are in the shadow of the great names from the continent. Her plan is to have Frederick come and play in a series of musical evenings to inveigle the ton to also come and listen to her proteges. 
He isn't easily persuaded. But Stacey is a master manipulator (which has a negative connotation for me so it made the story an interesting one to listen to) so she bides her time and finally convinces him to play for her. But while thanking him, they have an accident putting them in a compromising position and Frederick gallantly proposes. He soon wants to make their fake engagement real but will have to work to convince Stacey that she's nothing like her mother.
I was actually enjoying this story quite a bit. There was A Woman in Frederick's past and she doesn't (gasp!) actually come back to haunt him. But then there was a murderer thrown in? For Reasons. It wasn't a story woven throughout the whole book and made little sense to me since Laurens is such a good writer there could have a different way to convince Stacey she could love.

Three stars
This book came out July 18th, 2019
Follows The Pursuits of Lord Kit Cavanaugh
Followed by The Obsessions of Lord Godfrey Cavanuagh

Borrowed as an audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Mane Squeeze by Shelly Laurenston

We meet Gwen O'Neill and Lochlan "Lock" McRyrie in this book. She is a tigon shifter, a hybrid, never really accepted and sometimes outright despised by other shifters. Lock, a grizzly shifter doesn't care, he just thinks she's hot. The two will have to battle her brothers, deal with a long-time feud with a lion pride, and even take part in a roller derby battle, quite nearly to the death.
Blayne is not nearly as annoying in this book but she and Jessie together can be... over enthusiastic. And the annoyingness of that comes through in every interaction.

Three stars
This book came out November 1st, 2009

Follows The Mane Attraction
Followed by Big Bad Beast
Hard copy I own
Opinions are my own

Reread as borrowed audiobook from Audible January 2024

Mask of Silver by Rosemary Jones

Can the hubris of one man cause pain down through generations? Yes. Yes it can. And the book opens with just such a man who, even as his house is burning down around him, asks the maid to save his portrait rather than his children. It is a stunning opening to a book I had mixed thoughts about. During my reading, I was rather thrown off by abrupt changes in pacing. But It may be that Jones was using that to create an ambiance of reading. 

Three stars
This book comes out January 5th
ARC kindly provided by Aconyte Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

All the Colors of Night by Jayne Ann Krentz

Sierra Raines is making a living as a go-between. She helps find rare items for collectors and then delivers them. But the life of a go-between isn't always easy. Sometimes people don't want to pay for the objects that have been found as happens to her in the opening scene. But that is okay, she has her own means of protecting herself that aren't as obvious as something like a gun. It is her skills as a finder that have her being called in to help North Chastain find out what happened to his father. 

North is a monster-hunter. He finds the people with psychic powers that are using them to harm others. At least, he is at the moment. Unfortunately, there is something going wrong with his powers and he is slowly losing them. But that isn't as big a concern as the fact that his father was attacked and left in a psychic coma. 

The attack seems linked to an incident that happened in Fogg Lake in the '50s. Psychic research was occurring there and an explosion caused the lab to be shut down but left a lingering residue of psychical powers in the residents. Sierra's family is from Fogg Lake and North's grandfather was a researcher there so they both have ties.

A nice addition to the series with characters that are well drawn and a story that is new but fits in with the series.

Four stars

This book comes out January 7th

Follows The Vanishing

Followed by Lightning in a Mirror
ARC kindly provided by Berkley and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread November 2021 as hard copy from library; August 2022 and January 2024 as audiobook from libby

December 2020 Rereads

As always -- Opinions are my own

About a Dragon by G. A. Aiken

Dragon Kin #2 
Three stars
This book came out December 1st, 2008
Follows Dragon Actually
Followed by What a Dragon Should Know
Ebook from library

The Blacksmith Queen by G. A. Aiken

Scarred Earth Trilogy #1

This book came out August 27th, 2019

Followed by The Princes Knight

Audiobook from the CloudLibrary (even BETTER as an audiobook!)

My Kingdom for a Hearse by Craig Rice

 John J. Malone has been called in to a beauty company, Delora Deanne. He's not sure why, but when he finds out, he's not excited. First, he finds out that the Delora Deanne on the commercials is not exactly who she appears to be. The beautiful, dulcet-toned Delora who Malone adores is a mirage. While he's still wrestling with the disappointment, he finds out why he's been called in. Someone has sent an embalmed pair of hands to the owner of the company. And, with one of the employees missing, it seems that they might be hers. This sets up Malone on a case that will strain his mental processes to the breaking point. Especially since he's also trying to help his friend Jake Justus figure out a way to make his fledgling production company up and running. 
Malone is trying to solve the murder and he's getting help from both Helene and Jake but neither thinks the other is involved so he's having to keep that a secret as well while more and more body parts are showing up. 
A fun story. The end seemed to come a bit out of nowhere and was pretty convoluted but that is not unusual for a Malone story. 
Heard about this one on the Classic Mysteries podcast.

Three stars

Follows Knocked for a Loop

Followed by The Name is Malone

This book came out in 1957

Ebook borrowed from Hoopla

Opinions are my own